A Brief History of Greek Colonisation

In our series, we are mainly focused on mainland Greece and much of their northern neighbours. However, the history of the Greeks goes beyond the shores of the Aegean. Greek influence stretched much further out to the eastern edges of the Mediterranean, past the Bosphorus Straits, and all the way to the western limits of the greater known world. In this episode, we'll look at the wider peripheries of the Greek world, her colonies across the Mediterranean, and the mother cities that sent them. Colonies in the Black Sea, Levant, and Magna Graecia all had profound effects on their neighbours and the lasting history of their regions. And this is what we will largely be focusing on today. But first, we need to understand the origin, in both nature and history, of the scattered outposts of Greek civilisation. Before the Greeks expanded their influence abroad to the edges of the Mediterranean, another, older civilisation had done the same, but in the area much closer to home in the Aegean Sea, the ancient Mycenaeans. We will quickly go over their role in brief. The Mycenaeans were the ancient proto-Greek empire of the 15th to the 12th centuries BCE. They stretched from the south of Crete to the western coast of the Ionian Islands and stretched north to Thessaly. Now, you may probably know Mycenaeans best from the fantastic tale of Homer's Iliad, the epic campaign of the Mycenaean king Agamemnon against the city of Troy to recapture the kidnapped wife of his brother Menelaus. Although the Trojan War is wrapped in both fact and fiction, the presence of a great Aegean confederation was very real. The Mycenaeans presence could be felt from the east in Sicily to the western shores of the Mediterranean. The Mycenaean civilisation, however, came to a sudden end with the Bronze Age Collapse, which, unsurprisingly, saw the end of the Bronze Age and the demise of the many great empires in the Mediterranean. How and why this occurred is up for debate, however, one hypothesis largely believed by the classical Greeks is that, in the wake of their doom, came the Doran invasion. Now, to tell if this was an invasion per se or migration of people is hard to say, but either way, the Dorians came while the Mycenaeans bowed down. According to ancient tradition, the Dorians were a rough collection of peoples who traversed through Greece and set up a chain of events of mass migrations of the other Greek tribes. The Dorians came from the general area of Macedonia, moving south through Thessaly and in doing so pushed the Aeolian tribesmen southwards into Boeotia. The Dorians then moved into the Peloponnese, evicting the native Achaeans from Laconia. This, in and of itself, caused the domino effect as the dispossessed Achaeans migrated north and subsequently evicted the natives there, the Ionians. These people, the Ionians, pursued to migrate east to Attica and Eboea, where two key city-states would eventually be settled, Eretria and Chalcis. In the wake of the preceding dark age, the Mycenaean outposts and colonies were largely abandoned, although by the beginning of the Archaic era in the 8th century BCE, it would be these four tribes that would resettle in these lands. The first point of expansion was across the Aegean archipelago. The Ionians colonised the bulk of the islands, claiming the Cyclades, Chios, and Samos. The Dorians circled around the southern islands of Crete and the Dodecanese. Lastly, the Aeolians settled the Sporades, Samothrace, and the island of Lesbos. These sorts of colonies were cities in their own right. In Greek, they were called apokia, which loosely translates to home away from home. Now, although they would form their own identities and cultures, they still had a deep connection with the mother cities on the mainland. The islands in the eastern Aegean would continue to expand by right of Perea, where an island would lay claims to the mainland coastline adjacent to them. Here, we see the formation of three ethnic leagues on the coast of Anatolia. Starting in the south, the Dorians of the Dodecanese created the Dorian Hexopolis, a federation of six cities, three on the island of Rhodes, one on Kos, and the resettled old Mycenaean cities of Halicarnassus and Knidos. The more central Aeolians banded together in the Panionic League, consisting of 12 polis, of note Meletos, Ephesus, Colophon, Phyrgia, Erythrae, and the islands of Chios and Samos. Lastly, in the north, the Aeolians largely expanded around the island of Lesbos, creating a similar Aeolian League of 12 cities. Further Greek colonization efforts at the turn of the 8th century was often not so much a pan-ethnic enterprise like in Anatolia, but rather the work of one or two polis, particularly Eretria and Chalcis. The Aeolians had developed a heavy maritime culture in that they became pirates. Piracy was a lucrative enterprise to expand and explore to new shores further along the Aegean Sea in search of richer, more vulnerable lands beyond it. This would be the incentive to pursue the northern coast of the Aegean in the areas of Thrace and Macedonia. This area would henceforth get its name from its mother polis of Chalcis, the Chalcidice. The objective was mainly the conquest of land and safe harbours to pirate from, and the largely unsettled people of this region made it ripe for colonization. However, to the northeast, expansion into the Black Sea was less straightforward at this time. The Hellespont, or what we call the Dardanelles today, was the narrow passage separating Europe from Asia Minor and was the gate between the Aegean and the Black Sea. For the Greeks, the Black Sea was largely known as the inhospitable sea, since the wind and current flowed away from it and into the Aegean, making entrance to the sea difficult for their ships at the time. A boeing piracy was not just bound to the Aegean and would extend to the eastern coast of Mediterranean. The near east in the 8th century was ruled by the successors of the Bronze Age Empires, most notably the Assyrians, Egyptians, and the Phoenicians. Early contact likely came with the migration of the Achaeans, refugees of the Mycenaeans, to the island of Cyprus. The Phoenicians had partially settled the western coast, while the Achaeans in the east settled the major polis of Salamis. However, this early contact did not expand much beyond the island and would only be into the Oboeans that a stronger Greek presence would be known. Piracy, of course, had been the motivator to explore this region, but trade was foremost for the Oboeans here. Unlike Anthrax and Macedonia, the peoples in the near east were very much settled, so conquest was not an option. Instead, Oboean traders had largely attached themselves to pre-existing towns in northern Syria and Silesia, of most importance the site of Armina and Tarsus, respectively. This sort of foundation was called an emporium, where Greek merchants would set up shop in their own quarters to import local goods and sell them back home. The foundations of these emporiums opened up a new trade route of eastern goods through Cyprus and Crete and to the heartland of the Greek world. But in the west, Oboean interests were a mix of expansion, trade, and piracy. The first points of colonization were that of the Ionian Islands and the Adriatic Sea. Control of this area opened up the option for further opportunities in the west to Italy and to the north further in the Adriatic, as well as control of these trade routes. Oboean explorers circumnavigated the boot of Italy and found their way to the island of Pethicussei, settling the adjoining coastline at Kymae on the Campanian plain, near where Neapolis would later be founded. Again, it should be noted that these explorers were, in typical Ionian fashion, largely raiders. So to capitalize on trade, secure free passage to their colony, and establish a safe haven for their piracy, Kymae sent colonists to obtain the important ports by the strait. The first Greek foundation, Naxos, was thus established in 735 by Mount Etna, followed by Xenkil on the Sicilian side and Regium on the Toa. Xenkil would eventually be encompassed by the more famous city of Messina. It's important to mention that many of these cities held great harbours and strategic locations, but lacked sufficient land to cultivate, meaning they had to found agricultural sister colonies, furthering their expansion along the coast. Nearing the turn of the 7th century, two events would greatly change the political landscape and expand colonization efforts. The long-standing cooperation between the rich cities of Eretria and Chalcis had devolved into competition, mostly over local resources at home. Famine had struck a buoy around this time, and the Lelantine plan that laid between the two was heavily coveted, leading to war. The fine details of this aptly named Lelantine War are not important, but the long and destructive conflict was unique at the time as it involved parties both on the mainland and the colonies across the Aegean. Although Chalcis would come out the winner, both entered a steady decline, leaving them as the backwaters of Greece. The second major event was the invasion of Cimmerian raiders from the Pontic Steppe that poured into Anatolia, bringing an end to the Phrygian kingdom and the rise of the Lydians in its wake. The Greeks had a long-standing neutrality and cultural exchange with the Phrygians as they had not been encroaching on their mainland territory around Gordium. Greek culture was largely embraced by the Phrygians, for the Asiatic Greeks had introduced a hot new Greek alphabet that the Phrygians had used for their own language. In fact, the last Phrygian king, King Midas, was the first eastern monarch to donate to the treasury at Delphi. A new kingdom came a new policy towards the Greeks in the coastline, and the new Lydians centered around Sardis had a vested interest. However, their efforts to conquer the cities directly were not fruitful. The reason for interests were that they occupied valuable land and the Ionians would frequently pirate shipping routes in the area. It would be this marauding that would expand their influence to the further parts of the Near East. For in the 7th century, the Bay of Silesia had become a hotbed for Ionian piracy, with raids up and down the eastern coasts from the Levant to the Nile Delta. Proto-Greek hoplites were particularly successful against Egyptian and Assyrian garrisons. These men in bronze would soon be curtailed as Samotikas I of the Saite dynasty in Egypt came to the idea of hiring these men as auxiliaries for the liberation of his kingdom. This, it would seem, was a bright idea, and would set the precedence for widespread use of Ionian mercenaries across the Near East. However, I cover this topic much more in depth in my other video here on mercenaries in the Greek world. Samotikas would eventually retire as mercenaries but wanted to keep them close by should he need to raise them on demand. Hence, the Greeks were encouraged to settle in Stratopeda, military camps. He would settle them by the delta at Daphne, which would later become a major hub of Greek culture. This was also beneficial to the Greeks as it allowed merchants to set up emporiums and bring Egyptian goods back to Greece. Later on, most of these camps would be consolidated into one city, Naucratis, by a later Saite dynasty pharaoh, Aprius I. It should be noted that although the pharaohs and nobles endorsed the Greeks, the local Egyptians were not hospitable to them. There was an active rejection of Greek culture and goods as Egyptians were particularly resilient to those that they thought of as invaders. Back to the Aegean, the influx of goods and wealth brought to the Aboeans from the colonies inspired many of these states across Greece to think about investing in this whole colonization venture. The decline of Eretria and Chalcis due to the Levantine War stopped their active colonization and opened up the way for these new states to enter the colonization game. Hence, 7th century Greece is marked by an explosion of new colonies in every direction of the Mediterranean. This can best be seen in the diversity of people who would soon follow the Aboean example and colonize the entire coast of Sicily and southern Italy. Naturally, the first to mention would be the Corinthians, who were just unified under a single state and founded the famous polis of Syracuse just a year after the Aboeans founded Naxos in 734. Syracuse was destined to become the richest and most prominent polis in Sicily. Syracuse had a great natural harbour, quickly steering trade away from Naxos, and it was easily defensible from sea due to the small island of Atygia. Six years later, another Dorian people, the Megarians, settled slightly further north at Margara Heblaia, although taking a much worse position than Syracuse. The 7th century saw the expansion of these major polis to consolidate their section of Sicily. Syracuse founded more cities in the southeast, confirming her dominion of the area. Margara Heblaia struck westward, and the largely independent Zincol continued to stretch along the northern coast. As we can see then, Sicily was claimed quite quickly, leaving most of southern Italy for the ambitious colonizers, who would look at these colonies clockwise from the hill. Tarentum, founded in 706 by the Spartans, was rather unique as Greek colonies go, since it was largely settled as a penal colony. For after the Mycenaean wars, for which Sparta subdued Mycenaea, there was a high population of bastard illegitimate children in Sparta. According to Spartan law, these children stood somewhere between a helot and a citizen, with the liberty of freedom, but not much in the way of typical Spartan rights. Naturally then, they rebelled, but were soon crushed, although not executed, as under Delphic guidance they were told to be sent to Tarentum. Much of the southern arch of Italy was claimed by the Achaeans of the northern Peloponnese. The cities of Sebraeus and Croton would command the Calabrian plain, the former later becoming a major Hellenistic centre of the area. Between the Achaeans and Spartans would lay the only Ionian city in the area, Syrris in Leucania. These were the refugees from the Polisikolophon, who fled after the Lydians managed to besiege their city. Lastly, the areas around the toe of the boot that was unclaimed by the earlier Boeian settlements, were settled by the Locrians of central Greece, who quite creatively named their colony Locri. With the sheer diversity of Greek cultures and people, it is no wonder that the nature of settlements of Italy soon evolved to form political webs just as convoluted as that of the mainland. Later historians would name this part of the Greek world Magna Graecia, Greater Greece, aptly named as this land was not wholly independent of the mainland Greek world. Many times these daughter colonies would call for the support of their mother cities back on the mainland. It was largely just a greater extension of Greece. Greek colonization however, knew greater bounds than just Magna Graecia in the evolving 7th century. Back around Egypt, a drought on the island of Thera and the Hyklades in the 630s, led them to establish themselves in modern Libya with the Cyrenaica Pentapolis. This consisted predominantly of Cyrene, a major hub of Hellenistic culture and intellectual studies in the region. Their Hellenizing effect on the people can best be seen with the adaption of the famous Oracle of Amun and the Siwa Oasis into a Greek-Egyptian mix of the Amun and Zeus deities. This Oracle would be well regarded across the Greek world on the same level as that of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. Up in the north, the once inhospitable sea appeared a bit less so in the 7th century. The Propontis, the sea leading from the Black Sea, was quickly colonized and settled by numerous cities at this time. Largely due to the lack of really anywhere else to expand, the Aeolians were the first to command the Hellespont with Sardis, seeing as it was not too much of an extension from their base in Lesbos. Of course, the most strategic location was that of the Bosphorus, yet it would be the Megarians who would clumsily settle this pass. First with and based on the Oracle that they would settle near the Blind, the legendary Byzantium. Thought to them, the Chalconians must have been blind to have missed such a strategic position. This apparent lack of premeditation would help to explain for the shyness in expanding into the Black Sea. It would mostly be the Milesians that chose to seize the opportunity and colonize the Black Sea. They had originally been introduced to the area where the Lydians settled Milesian mercenaries opposite Sardis and Abydos, akin to the camps in Egypt. Milesian ventures would colonize Sisychus as an agricultural colony and into the Black Sea with Cenope and Trapezus. The latter two held dominating positions on the coastline and their fertile land was ripe for cereal and wine harvests. Timber too was a major export, for mainland Greece was largely becoming deforested to meet shipbuilding demands. The Milesians more or less had a monopoly at this time on the Black Sea coast and proceeded to ring the curse with their colonies. The Milesians and by extension much of the Asiatic Greek's prosperity were not destined to last. For in the 6th century, the Lydian King Chorysos succeeded where all his predecessors had failed. He would finally subjugate the Greeks on the Anatolian coastline. As Herodotus would put it, before Chorysos, all Greeks were free. This was the first time that Greeks were forced to swear allegiance to a native king. The reign of Chorysos however would not be long as the shifting political landscape of the Near East saw a new ambitious conqueror enter the ring, Cyrus II of Persia. In a short 12 years, the upside king of kings would establish the Achaemenid Empire and sweep right across Assyria, Lydia and Egypt. Hence controlling all the lands for which the Greeks had settled. Although Persian subjugation was famously tolerant and left a lot of autonomy for the Greeks, it had mainly ended the major archaic Greek age of discovery and expansion. This brings us to the end of the 4th episode of the Odysseus Collaboration. I hope you guys have enjoyed this video. If you did, feel free to subscribe. I have a couple videos that will be coming out soon. Now if you want to keep following through to the next episode, Overly Sarcastic Productions is covering the Venetians. The republic that would go about its own expansion not unlike the ancient Abovians. But if you missed out on the previous videos, I strongly recommend my friend Stephen Milo's video answering just how long have humans been sailing? And a Prometheus's prequel to this video on the Sea People and the Bronze Age Collapse. Thanks for watching.