Colonies in antiquity

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(Redirected from
Phoenician colonies
)
The Mediterranean c. 6th century BC: Phoenician settlements in red, Greek areas in blue, and other territories as marked.

Colonies in antiquity were post-

Hellenistic, Roman, Carthaginian, and Han Chinese colonies were used for trade, expansion and empire-building
.

Sabean Colonization of Africa

One of the oldest colonisation process in history occurred around 1000 BC, the Sabeans of southern Arabia, with a civilization based on agriculture, began to colonize the highlands of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.[2][3][4][5] The indigenous peoples with whom the Sabaeans came into contact were the ancestors of the contemporary Agaw people. The fusion of southern Arabian culture and Agaw culture resulted in a third culture which are today known as the Habesha people.[6]

Egyptian colonies

Egyptian settlement and colonisation is attested from about 3200 BC onward, all over the area of southern

En Besor, Rafiah, and Tel Erani.[9] Recently, a contemporary brewery belonging to a Bronze Age Egyptian settlement has been found in Tel Aviv.[10] Shipbuilding was known to the ancient Egyptians as early as 3000 BC, and perhaps earlier. The Archaeological Institute of America reports[11] that the earliest dated ship — dating to 3000 BC[12] – may have possibly belonged to the Pharaoh Aha.[12]

Phoenician and Carthaginian colonies

See also: Phoenicia § Important cities and colonies

The

power in the Mediterranean in the early part of the first millennium BC. They had trading contacts in Egypt and Greece, and established colonies as far west as modern Spain, at Gadir (modern Cádiz), and modern Morocco, at Tingis and Mogador. From Spain and Morocco, the Phoenicians controlled access to the Atlantic Ocean and the trade routes to Britain and Senegal
.

The most famous and successful of Phoenician colonies was founded by settlers from

conquered by their enemy, Rome
.

According to María Eugenia Aubet, Professor of Archaeology at the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona:

The earliest presence of Phoenician material in the West is documented within the precinct of the ancient city of Huelva, Spain... The high proportion of Phoenician pottery among the new material found in 1997 in the Plaza de las Monjas in Huelva argues in favour, not of a few first sporadic contacts in the zone, but of a regular presence of Phoenician people from the start of the ninth century BC. The recent radiocarbon dates from the earliest levels in Carthage situate the founding of this Tyrian colony in the years 835–800 cal BC, which coincides with the dates handed down by Flavius Josephus and Timeus for the founding of the city.[15]

Ancient Greek colonies

Main articles: Iron Age Greek migrations and Greek colonisation
See also:
Greeks in pre-Roman Crimea, and Pontic Greeks
Ruins of a peristyle home from the Greek period of Empúries, Catalonia, Spain

In Ancient Greece, a defeated people would sometimes found a colony, leaving their homes to escape the subjugation of a foreign enemy. Sometimes colonies formed as a result of civil disorder, where the losers in internecine battles left to form a new city elsewhere; sometimes they would form to relieve population pressure and thereby to avoid internal unrest; and also, as a result of ostracism. In most cases, however, colony founders aimed to establish trade relations with foreign countries and to further the wealth of the metropolis. Colonies were established in Ionia and Thrace as early as the 8th century BC.[16]

More than thirty Greek city-states had multiple colonies, dotted all across the Mediterranean world. From the late 9th to the 5th century BC, the most active colony-founding city, Miletus of the Ionian League, spawned more than 60 colonies[17] encompassing the shores of the Black Sea in the east, the Iberian Peninsula in the west, Magna Graecia (southern Italy) and several colonies on the Libyan coast of northern Africa.[18]

Greeks founded two similar types of colony, the apoikía (ἀποικία from ἀπό apó “away from” + οἶκος oîkos “home”, pl. ἀποικίαι apoikiai), an independent city-state, and the emporion (ἐμπόριov, pl. ἐμπόρια emporia), a trading colony.

Greek city-states began to establish colonies between 900

Pithecusae at Ischia in the Bay of Naples, both established about 800 BC by Euboeans.[20]

Ancient Greek colonies of the Black Sea, 8th-3rd century BC

Two new waves of colonists set out from Greece between the Dark Ages and the start of the Archaic Period – the first in the early 8th century BC and the second in the 6th century. Population growth and cramped conditions at home seem an insufficient explanation, while the economic and political dynamics produced by the competition between the frequently leaderless Greek city-states – newly introduced as a concept and striving to expand their spheres of economic influence – better fits as their true incentive. By means of this Greek expansion, the use of coins flourished throughout the Mediterranean Basin.

Influential Greek colonies in the western Mediterranean – many in present-day southern Italy — included Cyme; Rhegion by Chalcis and Zancle (c. 8th century); Syracuse by Corinth and Tenea (c. 734 BC); Naxos by Chalcis (c. 734 BC); Massalia (Marseille, c. 598 BC) and Agathe, shortly after Massalia, by Phocaea; Hyele in Italy and Emporion in Spain by Phocaea and Massalia (c. 540 BC and early 6th century); Antipolis in France by Achaea; Alalia in Corsica by Phocaea and Massalia (c. 545 BC) and Cyrene (Cyrenaica, Libya) by Thera (762/61 and 632/31 BC).[21]

The Greeks also

Chersonesos (modern Sevastopol).[22] Another area with significant Greek colonies was the coast of ancient Illyria on the Adriatic Sea (e.g. Aspalathos, modern Split, Croatia
).

Cicero remarks on the extensive Greek colonization, noting that "Indeed it seems as if the lands of the barbarians had been bordered round with a Greek sea-coast."[23] Several formulae generally shaped the solemn and sacred occasions when a new colony set forth. If a Greek city decided to send out a colony, the citizenry almost invariably consulted an oracle, such as the Oracle of Delphi, beforehand. Sometimes certain classes of citizens were called upon to take part in the enterprises; sometimes one son was chosen by lot from every house where there were several sons; and strangers expressing a desire to join were admitted. A person of distinction was selected to guide the emigrants and to make the necessary arrangements. It was usual to honor these founders as heroes after their death. Some of the sacred fire was taken from the public hearth in the Prytaneum, from which the fire on the public hearth of the new city was kindled. Just as each individual had his private shrines, so the new community maintained the worship of its chief domestic deities, the colony sending embassies and votive gifts to the mother-city's principal festivals for centuries afterwards.

After the conquests of Macedonia and Alexander the Great, a further number of Hellenistic colonies were founded, ranging from Egypt to India.

Greek colonies in Anatolia

By the 15th century BC, the

Mycenaeans had reached Rhodes, Crete and Cyprus ( where Teucer is said to have founded the first colony) and the shores of Anatolia.[24][25] In addition, Greeks were settled in Ionia and Pontus. Miletus in Ionia was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Meander River. In the late Bronze Age (13th century BC), Miletus saw the arrival of the Carians, Luwian speakers from south central Anatolia. Later in that century, other Greeks arrived. The city at that time rebelled against the Hittite Empire
. After the fall of that empire, the city was destroyed in the 12th century BC and starting about 1000 BC was resettled extensively by Ionians.

Before the invasion from

Clazomenae, a member of the Ionian League. All the Ancient Greek dialects were spoken in Anatolia in the various city states and the list of ancient Greek theatres
in Anatolia is one of the longest among all places the Greeks settled.

Milesian traders (756 BC) as well as Samsun, Rize and Amasra. Greek was the lingua franca of Anatolia from the conquests of Alexander the Great up to the invasion of the Seljuk Turks
in the eleventh century AD.

Relations of colony and metropolis

The relation between colony and mother-city (metropolis) was viewed[by whom?] as one of mutual affection. Differences were resolved peacefully whenever possible, war being seen as a last resort. (Note though that the Peloponnesian War of 431–404 BC broke out partly due to a dispute between Corinth and her colony Corcyra.)

The charter of foundation contained general provisions for the arrangement of the affairs of the colony, and also some special enactments. A colony would usually adopt the constitution of the mother-city, but the new city remained politically independent. The "holy fire" of the metropolis was preserved in a special place to remind people of the common ties. If the colony sent out a fresh colony on its own account, the mother-city was generally consulted, or was at least asked to furnish a leader. Frequently the colonies, declaring their commitment to the various metropolitic alliances formed in the Greek mainland and for religious reasons, would pay tribute in religious centres such as Delphi, Olympia, or Delos.[31]

The cleruchs (κληροῦχοι, klêrouchoi) formed a special class of Greek colonists, each being assigned an individual plot of land (κλῆρος, klêros). The trade factories set up in foreign countries, such as Naucratis in Egypt, were somewhat different from ordinary colonies, with the members retaining the right of domicile in their own homeland and confining themselves to their own quarter in the foreign city.

Roman colonies

Main article: Colonia (Roman)
Map showing Roman colonies as of the mid-2nd century AD. Augustus' "Roman coloniae" in north Africa are depicted in red.

It was an old custom in

ancient Italy to send out colonies for the purpose of securing new conquests. The Romans, having no standing army, used to plant bodies of their own citizens in conquered towns as a kind of garrison. These bodies would consist partly of Roman citizens, usually to the number of three hundred and partly of members of the Latin League
in larger numbers. One third of the conquered territory was taken for the settlers. The coloniae civium Romanorum (colonies of Roman citizens) were specially intended to secure the two coasts of Italy, and were hence called coloniae maritimae. The far more numerous coloniae Latinae served the same purpose for the mainland, but they were also inhabited by Latins and much more populated.

The duty of leading the colonists and founding the settlement was entrusted to a commission usually consisting of three members. These men continued to stand in the relation of

ius Latinum
or Latinitas. This secured to them the right of acquiring property, the concept of commercium, and the right of settlement in Rome, and under certain conditions the power of becoming Roman citizens; though in course of time these rights underwent many limitations.

From the time of the

Roman emperors during the Principate, who used it mainly in the provinces for the exclusive purpose of establishing military settlements, partly with the old idea of securing conquered territory. It was only in exceptional cases that the provincial colonies enjoyed the immunity from taxation which was granted to those in Italy.[32]

Chinese colonies

Han dynasty in 87 BC, showing the Protectorate of the Western Regions to the west in the Tarim Basin
China at the end of the Han dynasty from 189-220 AD

Korean peoples who in turn became heavily influenced by Chinese culture.[36]

In 37 AD the

Jing Province in 43 AD, seizing their sacred bronze drums as rival symbols of royal power, and reinstating Han authority and laws over Jiaozhi.[38] Historian Rafe de Crespigny remarks that this was a "brief but effective campaign of colonisation and control", before the general returned north in 44 AD.[38]

Cao Song, an Eastern Han administrator of

Turfan, but by the 150s AD the Han presence in the Western Regions began to wane.[40] Towards the end of the Han dynasty, chancellor Cao Cao established agricultural military colonies for settling wartime refugees.[41] Cao Cao also established military colonies in Anhui province in 209 AD as a means to clearly demarcate a border between his realm and that of his political rival Sun Quan.[42]

See also

Notes

  1. ISBN 978-0-300-08493-1
    . Retrieved 24 February 2013. ...at their new location, colonists were expected to retain ties with their metropolis. A colony that sided with its metropolis's enemy in a war, for example was regarded as disloyal...
  2. ^ The Babylonian and Oriental Record. D. Nutt. 1894. p. 107.
  3. JSTOR 41622129
    .
  4. ^ Aethiopica: International Journal of Ethiopian Studies. Harrassowitz Verlag. 2006. p. 283.
  5. ISBN 978-0-85255-065-6
    .
  6. S2CID 143872194
    .
  7. ^ Branislav Anđelković, Southern Canaan as an Egyptian Protodynastic Colony
  8. ^ Branislav Anđelković, Hegemony for Beginners: Egyptian Activity in the Southern Levant during the Second Half of the Fourth Millennium B.C.
  9. ^ a b Naomi Porat, "Local Industry of Egyptian Pottery in Southern Palestine During the Early Bronze I Period," in Bulletin of the Egyptological, Seminar 8 (1986/1987), pp. 109-129. See also University College London web post, 2000.
  10. ^ Ancient Egyptian brewery found in downtown Tel Aviv
  11. ^ Ward, Cheryl. "World's Oldest Planked Boats", in Archaeology (Volume 54, Number 3, May/June 2001). Archaeological Institute of America.
  12. ^ a b Schuster, Angela M.H. "This Old Boat", Dec. 11, 2000. Archaeological Institute of America.
  13. ^ Martín Lillo Carpio (1992). Historia de Cartagena: De Qart-Ḥadašt a Carthago Nova / colaboradores: Martín Lillo Carpio ... Ed. Mediterráneo. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
  14. ISBN 978-1-85043-533-4
    . Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  15. ^ Maria Eugenia Aubet (2008). "Political and Economic Implications of the New Phoenician Chronologies" (PDF). Universidad Pompeu Fabra. p. 179. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  16. ISBN 978-0-19-956738-6
    . Retrieved 24 February 2013. From the 8th century BC the coast of Thrace was colonised by Greeks.
  17. ^ "Miletus | Ancient Greek City, Turkey, & Map | Britannica".
  18. ISBN 978-0-19-814260-7
    . Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  19. ^ Ancient Greek Colonization and Trade and their Influence on Greek Art | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  20. ISBN 978-0-679-76386-4
    . Retrieved 24 February 2013. Robin Lane Fox examines the cultural connections made by Euboean adventurers in the 8th century
  21. ^ A list of Greek colonies with individual articles.
  22. ^ "About Chersonesos, Sevastopol". National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  23. ^ Cicero, De republica, ii, 9
  24. ^ "The Greeks". Encyclopædia Britannica. US: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2008. Online Edition.
  25. ISBN 0-521-83307-8
    .
  26. ^ A Short History of Greek Philosophy By John Marshall page 11 “For several centuries prior to the great Persian inversion of Greece, perhaps the very greatest and wealthiest city of the Greek world was Miletus”
  27. ^ Ancient Greek civilization By David Sansone page 79 “In the seventh and sixth centuries BC the city of Miletus was among the most prosperous and powerful of Greek Poleis.”
  28. ^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, 1984.
  29. ISBN 978-0-19-517072-6
    . "Historical Overview A Greek city-state on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, at the mouth of Cayster River (Küçük Menderes), Ephesus ..."
  30. ISBN 978-81-269-0775-5
    .
  31. ^ "Ancient Greek colonies | 5.97 | Maria Daniels". Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  32. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities
    (1898)
  33. ISBN 978-0-472-11534-1
    .
  34. ISBN 978-0-521-77064-4
    .
  35. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8
    .
  36. ^ Pai, Hyung Il. "Culture Contact and Culture Change: The Korean Peninsula and Its Relations with the Han Dynasty Commandery of Lelang," in World Archaeology, Vol. 23, No. 3, Archaeology of Empires (February 1992): 306-319 [pp. 310–315].
  37. ISBN 9004156054
    .
  38. ^
    ISBN 9004156054
    .
  39. ISBN 9004156054
    .
  40. ISBN 9004156054
    .
  41. ISBN 9004156054
    .
  42. ISBN 9004156054
    .

Further reading

External links

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