Greek colonisation

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Second Greek colonisation
)
Greek territories and colonies during the Archaic period (750–550 BC)

Greek colonisation refers to the expansion of Archaic Greeks, particularly during the 8th–6th centuries BC, across the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

The Archaic expansion differed from the Iron Age migrations of the Greek Dark Ages, in that it consisted of organised direction (see oikistes) away from the originating metropolis rather than the simplistic movement of tribes, which characterised the aforementioned earlier migrations. Many colonies, or apoikia (Greek: ἀποικία, transl. "home away from home"), that were founded during this period eventually evolved into strong Greek city-states, functioning independently of their metropolis.

Motives

Illustration of an Archaic Greek ship on pottery, c. 520 BC

The reasons for the Greeks to establish colonies were strong economic growth with the consequent overpopulation of the motherland,[1] and that the land of these Greek city states could not support a large city. The areas that the Greeks would try to colonise were hospitable and fertile.[2]

Characteristics

The Argonautica, the myth thought to pertain to the bold nautical expeditions of this period

The founding of the colonies was consistently an organised enterprise by the metropolis (mother city), although in many cases it collaborated with other cities. The place to be colonised was selected in advance with the goal of offering business advantages, but also security from raiders. In order to create a feeling of security and confidence in the new colony, the choice of place was decided according to its usefulness.[3] The mission always included a leader nominated by the colonists. In the new cities, the colonists parceled out the land, including farms. The system of governance usually took a form similar to that of the metropolis.

Greek colonies were often established along coastlines, especially during the period of colonisation between the 8th and 6th centuries BC. Many Greek colonies were strategically positioned near coastlines to facilitate trade, communication, and access to maritime resources. These colonies played a crucial role in expanding Greek culture, trade networks, and influence throughout the

Mediterranean and Black Sea
regions. While some colonies were established inland for various reasons, coastal locations were generally more common due to the Greeks' strong connection to the sea.

History

The Greeks started colonising around the beginning of the 8th century BC when the

Pithecusae in Southern Italy and Olynthus in Chalcidice, Greece. Subsequently, they founded the colonies of Cumae, Zancle, Rhegium and Naxos.[3]

At the end of the 8th century, Euboea fell into decline with the outbreak of the

Thera founded Cyrene and Andros, and Samos founded multiple colonies in the Northern Aegean.[4]

Locations

Macedonia and Thrace

Ruins of Abdera, a classical city of Thrace, in present-day Greece

Numerous colonies were founded in Northern Greece, chiefly in the region of Chalcidice but also in the region of Thrace.

Chalcidice was settled by Euboeans, chiefly from Chalcis, who lent their name to these colonies. The most important settlements of the Euboeans in Chalcidice were

Thasians with the help of the Athenian Callistratus of Aphidnae founded the city of Datus
. During the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians with the Hagnon, son of Nikias founded the city of Ennea Hodoi (Ἐννέα ὁδοὶ), meaning nine roads, at the current location of the "Hill 133" north of Amphipolis in Serres.[6]

Numerous other colonies were founded in the region of Thrace by the Ionians from the coast of

oecist and father of the poet Archilochus
, Telesicles.

In 340 BC, while Alexander the Great was regent of Macedon, he founded the city of Alexandropolis Maedica after defeating a local Thracian tribe.[7]

Magna Graecia: mainland Italy and Sicily

Ancient Greek colonies and their dialect groupings in Magna Graecia
The Temple of Concordia, Valle dei Templi, in present-day Italy
National Museum of Magna Graecia in Reggio Calabria
Apulian pottery exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Milan, 380-370 BC
A Syracusan tetradrachm (c. 415–405 BC), sporting Arethusa and a quadriga

Magna Graecia[8] was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily which were extensively settled by Greeks.[9]

Greeks began to settle in southern Italy in the 8th century BC.[10]

The first great migratory wave directed towards the western Mediterranean was that of the

Zancle in Sicily, and nearby on the opposite coast, Rhegium.[11]

The second wave was of the Achaeans who concentrated initially on the Ionian coast (Metapontion, Poseidonia, Sybaris, Kroton),[12][13] shortly before 720 BC.[14] At an unknown date between the 8th and 6th centuries BC the Athenians, of Ionian lineage, founded Scylletium (near today's Catanzaro).[15]

In Sicily the Euboeans later founded

Leontini, Tauromenion and Catania. They were accompanied by small numbers of Dorians and Ionians; the Athenians had notably refused to take part in the colonisation.[16] The strongest of the Sicilian colonies was Syracuse
, an 8th-century BC colony of the Corinthians.

Refugees from

Phocians
.

Evidence of frequent contact between the Greek settlers and the indigenous peoples comes from Timpone Della Motta which shows influence of Greek style in Oneotroian pottery.[17]

Many cities in the region became in turn metropoleis for new colonies such as the Syracusans, who founded the city of

Camarina in the south of Sicily; or the Zancleans, who led the founding of the colony of Himera. Likewise, Naxos, which founded many colonies while Sybaris founded the colony of Poseidonia. Gela founded its own colony, Acragas.[18]

With colonisation,

Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the Latin alphabet
, which became the most widely used alphabet in the world.

City Year (BC) of foundation - by author[19]
Thucydides Eusebius Jerome Others
Cumae - - 1050(?) -
Metapontum - 773(?) - -
Zancle - 757/756 - 756
Naxos 734 735 741 -
Syracuse 733 733 738/737 733
Lentini 728 - - -
Catania 728 733 737/736 -
Megara 727 - - -
Reggio - - - c. 730
Milazzo - 715(?) 716(?) -
Sybaris - 708-707 709-708 721/720
Crotone - 709 - 709/708
Taranto - - 706 -
Locri - 673 679 c. 700
Poseidonia - - - 700(?)
Gela 688 688 691/690 -
Caulonia - - - c. 675
Acre 663 - - -
Casmene 643 - - -
Selinunte 627 757(?) 650/649 650
Imera - - - 648
Lipari - 627(?) 629(?) 580/576
Camarina 598 598/597 601/600 598/596
Agrigento 580 - - 580/576

Ionian Sea, Adriatic Sea, and Illyria

Greek Colonies on the Adriatic coast

The region of the

Ancient Greek world. An ancient account describes Epidamnos as 'a great power and very populated' city.[20] Nymphaeum was another Greek colony in Illyria.[21] The Abantes of Euboea founded the city of Thronion at the Illyria.[22] The island of Paros founded the colony Pharos on the island of Hvar in the Adriatic.[4]

In 1877, archaeologists discovered in Lumbarda on the island of Korčula, in modern-day Croatia, a Greek inscription that writes about the founding of an Ancient Greek settlement on the island. The artifact is known as Lumbarda Psephisma.[23] Evidence of coinage on the Illyrian coast can be dated back to around the 4th cent. BCE. The locations of these coins were founded to minted in Adriatic colonies such as Issa and Pharos. These coins were used for trade between the Illyrians and the Greeks.[24]

Black Sea and Propontis

Greek colonies along the Black Sea, marked by their corresponding centuries

The Greeks had at one point called the Black Sea shore "inhospitable". According to ancient sources, they eventually created 70 to 90 colonies.

Chalcedonia and Byzantium in which they occupied a privileged position. Miletus founded Cyzicus and the Phocaeans Lampsacus.[26]

On the western shore of the Black Sea region the Megarans founded the cities of Selymbria and a little later, Nesebar. A little farther north in the region of today's Romania the Milesians founded the cities of Istria and Orgame. And Miletus also founded a city on the western shore of the Black Sea, Apollonia. In the south of the Black Sea the most important colony was Sinope which according to prevailing opinion was founded by Miletus. The precise chronology of its foundation is not known at present but it appears that it was founded some time around the middle of the 7th century B.C.[26] Sinope was founded with a series of other colonies in the Pontic region: Trebizond, Cerasus, Cytorus, Cotyora, Cromne, Pteria, Tium, et al. The most important colony founded on the southern shore of the Black Sea was likewise a Megaran foundation: Heraclea Pontica, which was founded in the 6th century B.C.[citation needed]

On the north shore of the Black Sea Miletus was the first to start. The colonies of Miletus in this region of the Black Sea were

Danube delta the Greeks colonised an islet, modern Berezan (probably then a peninsula). That location is found at the confluence of the Bug estuary (the River Hypanis to the Ancient Greeks) and the Dnieper (the Barysthenes to the Ancient Greeks) The islet or peninsula itself was called by the ancients Barythmenis; across from this, they found the site that would be settled later as Olbia. Next to Olbia was another Greek colony that had Istria as its mother city.[citation needed
]

On the Crimean peninsula (the Greeks then called it Tauric Chersonese or "Peninsula of the Bulls") they founded likewise the cities of Sympheropolis, and Nymphaeum and Hermonassa. On the Sea of Azov (Lake Maiotis to the ancients) they founded Tanais (in Rostov), Tyritace, Myrmeceum, Cecrine and Phanagoria—the last being a colony of the Teians. In 2018, archaeologists discovered a previously unknown ancient Greek settlement of the 4th-3rd centuries BC near the town of Baherove in Crimea. According to the researchers, the settlement was called Manitra.[27]

On the eastern shore, which was known in ancient times as Colchis and in which today for the greater part is in Georgia and the autonomous region of Abkhazia, the Greeks founded the cities of Phasis and Dioscouris. The latter was called Sebastopolis by the Romans and Byzantines and is known today as Sukhumi—the ruins of the ancient and Byzantine foundations are now found principally below the waterline.[citation needed]

Wider Mediterranean

Legendary Greek king Odysseus on the island of sirens; the Odyssey typifies the particulars of the age.

The Greek colonies expanded as far as the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.

Africa

In North Africa, on the peninsula of

Apollonia
.

By the middle of the 7th century, the lone Greek colony in

Persian expedition to Egypt in 525 B.C.

2023 archaeological findings in Thonis-Heracleion at Egypt, suggested that Greeks, who were already allowed to trade in the city, "had started to take root" there as early as during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt and that likely Greek mercenaries were employed to defend the city.[29]

Similar to the emporion established in the Nile Delta it is possible there was a Greek trading colony established by the Euboians along the Syrian coast on the mouth of the

Posideion on the promontory Ras al-Bassit was colonised just to the south of the Orontes estuary later in the 7th century BC.[30]

Diodorus Siculus mentions Meschela (Μεσχέλα), a city on the northern coast of Africa, founded by the Greeks after the Trojan War.[31][32]

Rest of the Mediterranean

On the north side of the Mediterranean, the Phokaians founded

Empuries in this region and later the even more distant Hemeroskopeion
.

List of Greek colonies before Alexander the Great (pre-336 BC)

Modern Albania

AL1.

Bouthroton AL7. Oricum AL8. Thronion

Modern Bulgaria

* Pseudo-Scymnus writes that some say that the city of Bizone belongs to the barbarians, while others to be a Greek colony of Mesembria.

BUL1. Mesembria BUL2. Odessos BUL3. Apollonia / Antheia BUL4. Agathopolis BUL5. Kavarna BUL6. Pomorie BUL7. Naulochos BUL8. Krounoi BUL9. Pistiros BUL10. Anchialos BUL11. Bizone * BUL12. Develtos BUL13. Heraclea Sintica BUL14. Beroe

Modern Croatia

C1. Salona C2. Tragyrion C3. Aspálathos C4. Epidaurus C5. Issa C6. Dimos C7. Pharos C8. Kórkyra Mélaina C9. Epidaurum C10. Narona C11. Lumbarda

Modern Cyprus

CY1. Chytri CY2. Kyrenia CY3.Golgi[33][34]

Modern Egypt

E1. Naucratis

Modern France

F1. Agde F2. Massalia F3. Tauroentium/Tauroeis[35] F4. Olbia F5. Nicaea F6. Monoikos F7. Antipolis F8. Alalia F9. Rhodanousia F10. Athenopolis F11. Pergantium[36][37]

Modern Georgia/ Abkhazia

* Abkhazia is recognised only by Russia and a small number of other countries.

G1. Bathys G2. Triglite G3. Pityus G4. Dioscurias G5. Phasis G6. Gyenos

Modern Greece

GR1.

Thera GR44. Myrcinus GR45. Tarphe GR46. Sollium[38]

Modern Italy

I1.

Mactorium[43][44] I77. Helorus[45]

Modern Libya

L1. Barce L2. Cyrene L3. Balagrae L4. Taucheira L5. Ptolemais L6. Euesperides L7. Antipyrgus L8. Apollonia L9. Cinyps L10. Menelai Portus

Modern Montenegro

M1. Bouthoe

Modern North Macedonia

* Some historians believe that it was near the modern Resen (North Macedonia) while others believe that it was near the modern Vranje (Serbia).

MA1. Damastion * MA2. Heraclea Lyncestis

Modern Palestine (Gaza Strip)

Modern Romania

RO1. Tomis RO2. Histria/Istros RO3. Aegyssus RO4. Stratonis RO5. Axiopolis RO6. Kallatis

Modern Russia

RU1. Tanais RU2. Kepoi RU3. Phanagoria RU4. Bata RU5. Gorgippia RU6. Hermonassa RU7. Korokondame RU8. Taganrog RU9. Tyramba RU10. Patraeus RU11. Toricos

Modern Serbia

* Some historians believe that it was near the modern Resen (North Macedonia) while others believe that it was near the modern Vranje (Serbia).

SE1. Damastion *

Modern Spain

S1.

Mainake S11. Menestheus's Limin S12. Kypsela S13. Helike

Modern Syria

SY1. Posidium

Modern Turkey

TR1.

Athymbra TR125. Carussa[53] TR126. Termera[54]

Modern Ukraine

* According to

Geloni were originally Greeks who settle away from the coastal emporia among the Budini and their language evolved into half Greek and half Scythian.[55][56] Pavel Jozef Šafárik wrote that they might be Greeks among the Slavs and Fins (Μιξέλληνες - half Greeks half barbarians).[57]

U1.

*

Greek colonies of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea and their metropolitan cities depicted with red labels, while Phoenician colonies are depicted with yellow labels

Notes

References

  1. ^ "Magna Grecia" (in Italian). Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  2. ^ .
  3. ^ a b c d Nikolaos Papahatzis; et al. (1971). Ιστορία του ελληνικού έθνους [History of the Greek Nation]. Vol. 2. Ekdotike Athenon.
  4. ^
    ISSN 0951-8967
    .
  5. ^ Eleni Triakoupoulou-Salakidou (June 1997). "Ακάνθος-Εριίσσος-Ιερίσσος" [Acanthus-Erissus-Hierissus] (PDF). Αρχαιολογία και Τέχνες (Archaeology & Art) (in Greek). Vol. 63.
  6. ^ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, 4.102
  7. ^ Plutarch, Alexander, 9
  8. romanized: Megálē Hellás, IPA: [meɡálɛː hellás], with the same meaning; Italian: Magna Grecia, IPA: [ˈmaɲɲa ˈɡrɛːtʃa]
    .
  9. .
  10. .
  11. ^ STEFANIA DE VIDO 'Capitani coraggiosi'. Gli Eubei nel Mediterraneo C. Bearzot, F. Landucci, in Tra il mare e il continente: l'isola d'Eubea (2013) ISBN 978-88-343-2634-3
  12. ^ Strabo 6.1.12
  13. ^ Herodotus 8.47
  14. ^ "MAGNA GRECIA" (in Italian). Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  15. ^ Strabo, Geographica, 6.1.10
  16. Perseus Project 6.2
  17. .
  18. ^ LA COLONIZZAZIONE E LE ORIGINI DEI COLONI https://www.locriantica.it/storia/per_greco1.htm
  19. .
  20. ^ Cabanes 2008, p. 175.
  21. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.22.4
  22. JSTOR 3246311
    .
  23. .
  24. ^ "Ancient Europe 8000 B.C-A.D 1000" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 January 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  25. ^ a b c *Demetriadou, Daphne (9 May 2003). "Αποικισμός του Εύξεινου Πόντου" [The Colonisation of the Black Sea]. Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor. Translated by Kalogeropoulou, Georgia.
  26. ^ a b "Russian archaeologists said they discovered an ancient Greek settlement in Crimea". Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  27. ^ Strabo, Geographia 17.1.18, cited in "The Archaic Period:Economy:Trade Station". Hellenic History on the Web. The Foundation for the Hellenic World.
  28. ^ "Sunken ancient temples were found in a mysterious underwater city, with Egyptian and Greek treasures". businessinsider. 20 September 2023. Archived from the original on 20 September 2023.
  29. .
  30. ^ The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus
  31. ^ "Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Meschela". Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  32. ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Golgi
  33. ^ Brill, Golgi
  34. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Tauroeis
  35. ^ Marins de Provence et du Languedoc, p.43
  36. ^ Géographie historique et administrative de la Gaule romaine, p.734
  37. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Palaerus
  38. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Tauromenium
  39. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Leontini
  40. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Hydruntum
  41. ^ John Bagnell Bury (2015). A History of Greece. Cambridge University Press. p. 105.
  42. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, 429.7
  43. ^ Brill, Mactorium
  44. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Helorum
  45. ^ The editorial team (24 January 2009). "Gaza at the Crossroad of Civilisations: Two Contemporary Views". The Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation UK (FSTC UK). Retrieved 10 January 2024. Article references a book and an exhibition: Gerald Butt (1995), Life at the Crossroads: A History of Gaza, and "Gaza at the Crossroads of Civilizations" (2007) at the Musée d'art et d'histoire in Geneva.
  46. ^ Les Villes Philistines, Gaza, Ascalon (in French), at antikforever.com.[dead link]
  47. ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Myrlēa
  48. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Paesus
  49. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Lamponeia
  50. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Hydrela
  51. ^ The British museum, Hydrela
  52. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Carusa
  53. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Termera
  54. ^ Herodotus, The Histories, 4.108
  55. ^ Perseus Encyclopedia, Geloni
  56. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Geloni
  57. ^ Perseus Encyclopedia, Borysthenes
  58. ^ The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister, Stillwell, Richard, MacDonald, William L., McAlister, Marian Holland, Ed., Nikonion
  59. .

Further reading

External links