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Patterns in Early Greek Colonisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

A. J. Graham
A. J. Graham
Affiliation:
The University of Manchester
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Extract

The centuries before the Greeks began to write history are of the greatest interest and significance, but they are also for the historian full of uncertainty, obscurity and dispute. The reason is mainly the simple inadequacy of the information with which the historian has to work, and it is partly because of that inadequacy that the colonising movement is uniquely valuable. Part of this value lies in the revealing nature of colonial activity in itself. Think what it tells us about geographical knowledge, seafaring, if not seapower, military achievements, state organisation, economic conditions—to mention only a few broad and obvious categories. But in a period so inadequately known the colonising movement is also extremely important to the historian as a source of a relatively large amount of clear and unequivocal facts. In the context of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. the fact that such and such a city sent a colony to such and such a place constitutes a rare piece of definite and valuable knowledge. Since it is also possible to assign dates to large numbers of colonial expeditions, we can say that the colonising movement provides a large amount of extremely significant historical information, which is in general terms clear and definite and relatively well dated.

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Research Article
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The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 91 , November 1971, pp. 35 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1971

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References

1 This is substantially the text of a lecture delivered to the Hellenic Society on March 18, 1971. I am most grateful for helpful suggestions made by some of my auditors on that occasion.

In this paper I refer to the following works by the author's name alone (or as indicated):

Bérard, J., L'expansion et la colonisation grecques jusqu'aux guerres médiques (Paris 1960)Google Scholar.

Boardman, J., The Greeks Overseas (London 1964)Google Scholar.

Buchner, G. in Metropoli e colonie di Magna Grecia (Atti III Convegno di studi sulla Magna Grecia, Naples 1964) 263–74Google Scholar (Buchner, Convegno).

Buchner, G., ‘Pithekoussai, oldest Greek colony in the West’ in Expedition viii no. 4 (1966) 4–12Google Scholar (Buchner, Expedition).

Coldstream, J. N., Greek geometric pottery (London 1968)Google Scholar.

Cook, R. M., ‘Ionia and Greece in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.’ in JHS lxvi (1946) 67–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Dunbabin, T. J., The western Greeks (Oxford 1948)Google Scholar.

Mellink, M. J. (ed.), Dark ages and nomads (Istanbul 1964)Google Scholar (Dark ages and nomads).

Meyer, E., Geschichte des Altertums (2nd ed.Stuttgart 1937) iii 388–438.Google Scholar

Roebuck, C., Ionian trade and colonization (New York 1959)Google Scholar.

2 There are no recent, complete and fully documented histories of the great Greek colonising movement of the archaic period. The nearest approach to such a work is Bérard's, but it is most unfortunately incomplete (see my review, JHS lxxxi [1961] 201). Boardman's book is extremely useful as a comprehensive account of the archaeological evidence.

3 Cook, J. M., BSA liii–liv (1958–1959) 1–34Google Scholar; The Greeks in Ionia and the East (London 1962) chs. 2 and 3; CAH ii2 ch. 38.

4 Dunbabin, T. J., The Greeks and their eastern neighbours (London 1957)Google Scholar chs. 2–5, especially 25–9; Boardman ch. 3, especially 61–74; Coldstream 310–16, 345, 384–5, 423.

5 See the valuable general accounts of his excavations by Buchner cited in n. 1 above.

6 Adamesteanu, , Rev. Arch. 1967 3–38Google Scholar, especially 25–7. Cf. Giuliano, A., Urbanistica delle città greche (Milan 1966) 44–5Google Scholar, 48, whose arguments for the highest possible date are not completely convincing.

7 On this topic see Asheri, D., Distribuzioni di terre nell' antica Grecia (Mem. Accad. Sci. Torino, Classe Sci. Mor. Stor. Fil., ser. 4a no. 10, Turin 1966) chs. 1 and 5Google Scholar.

8 Chamoux, F., Cyrène sous la monarchie des Battiades (Paris 1953) ch. 3Google Scholar; Boardman 169–73.

9 Boardman 198–9; Dunbabin 305–12.

10 Boardman 238; cf. Pouilloux, J., Recherches sur l'histoire et les cultes de Thasos (Paris 1954) 22–3Google Scholar.

11 Cf. my remarks and references in Colony and mother city in ancient Greece (Manchester 1964) 13–14.

12 Buchner, , Convegno 267Google Scholar.

13 See the very good discussion by Austin, M. M., Greece and Egypt in the archaic age (Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. Suppl. 2, 1970) 22–33Google Scholar.

14 Austin op. cit. 15–22, especially 18.

15 Cf. Boardman 223–30; Bérard 129–33.

16 Boardman 255–67; Bérard 100–7; Roebuck ch. 8. The active archaeological work on the Greek colonies in the Pontus is mostly published in Slavonic languages. There are useful accounts of that work by Boardman, , AR for 1962–1963Google Scholar, in English, and Belin de Ballu, E., L'histoire des colonies grecques du littoral nord de la Mer Noire (Leiden 1965)Google Scholar, in French. It is to be hoped that the results of the recent work on the archaeological evidence for Greeks in the Pontus by Dr J. G. F. Hind of the University of Otago will become generally available through publication.

17 See n. 1 bove.

18 Pp. 70–80 (see n. 1 above).

19 70 with n. 28.

20 Coldstream 316–17, 322–7.

21 viii 22.5–6.

22 Coldstream ibid.; Dunbabin Appendix I; my Colony and Mother City 221 n. 2.

23 See, for instance, the good accounts of Bérard, , La colonisation grecque de l'Italie méridionale et de la Sicile dans l'antiquité (2nd editionParis 1957) chs. 2, 3, 6Google Scholar; Dunbabin chs. 1, 3; Woodhead, A. G., The Greeks in the West (London 1962) ch. 3Google Scholar.

24 See above p. 37.

25 BICS v (1958) 25–42.

26 For recent useful accounts and discussions see Bérard 95–100; Boardman 245–55; Coldstream 376–80; Roebuck 110–15.

27 See, for instance, already Meyer 418.

28 As Thasos, see Pouilloux, , Recherches sur l'histoire et les cultes de Thasos 22–3Google Scholar; Abdera, see Hdt. i 168; and, later, Amphipolis, see Thuc. iv 102.2–3.

29 Hdt. iv 144.1–2.

30 Examples of such sites: Croton, see Dunbabin 85 opp.; Bérard, , Colonisation…l'Italie…et…Sicile 157Google Scholar; Elea, see Bérard op. cit. 270–1; Hermann, W., AA 1966, 360–4Google Scholar; Istrus, see BCH lxxxii (1958) 337–8 figs. 2 and 3.

31 R. M. Cook usefully set out the literary dates of colonial foundations (77).

32 As Cook 77; cf. 71 n. 42.

33 Akurgal, , Anatolia i (1956) 15 ff.Google Scholar; cf. Coldstream 377; Boardman 249, 254.

34 CAH iii 658.

35 The Cimmerians were not the only nomadic people in the regions under discussion at this time; see CAH iii 187–9, 511; but since we cannot distinguish them convincingly I shall use the term Cimmerians to embrace all the nomads active in Asia Minor in the eighth and seventh centuries.

36 73.

37 Cf. Dark ages and nomads 63.

38 See CAH ibid.; Barnett, , CAH ii2 ch. 30, 11–12Google Scholar; Cozzoli, U., I Cimmeri (Rome 1968)Google Scholar ch. 8.

39 Sinope: Hdt. iv 12.2, Ps-Scymnus 941–53; Antandrus: Aristotle, see Steph. Byz. s.v.

40 BICS v (1958) 33–4 with n. 15, where I discussed modern rejections of Ps-Scymnus' information, 941–53.

41 E.g. Hammond, N. G. L., History of Greece to 322 B.C. 115Google Scholar.

42 Young, Proc. Amer. Philos. Assoc. cvii (1963) 351.

43 Cf. Cook 79 n. 108: ‘possibly that field was not then ripe for colonisation’.

44 For references and discussion see Dunbabin 34–5; Bérard, , Colonisation…l'Italie…et…Sicile 187–98Google Scholar; cf. Boardman 195; Cook ibid.

45 Cf. Young, Dark Ages and Nomads 55.

46 See RE s.v. ‘Phrygia’ 787–8.

47 It is rejected by Meyer 419 n. Cf. Bérard 96–7; Hanell, K., Megarische Studien (Lund 1934) 119–22Google Scholar.

48 FGH 262 fr. 6.

49 Cf. Hanell's views about the various foundation legends, op. cit. 120.

50 Bérard 97; Bilabel, F., Die ionische Kolonisation (Philologus Suppl. xiv) 49Google Scholar.

51 423.

52 Young, Proc. Amer. Philos. Assoc. cvii (1963) 362–4; cf. Dark ages and nomads 55.

53 Cf. the useful discussion by Coldstream 379–80.

54 Roebuck 43–7; cf. Boardman 104–9.

55 See BICS v (1958) 25–6.

56 Hasluck, F. W., Cyzicus (Cambridge 1910) 2–5Google Scholar. I now regard his arguments as convincing; contrast my statement on p. 39 of the article cited in the previous note, though the main argument is not affected.

57 Strabo xiii 590.

58 Cook thought (71 n. 41) that the connection with Gyges might have been invented at a later date because a promontory near Abydus was called Gygas (Strabo ibid.), but it seems just as easy to accept the more straightforward interpretation implied by Strabo.

59 Cf. CAH iii 508.

60 See Roebuck 112 for the original suggestion, accepted and developed by Boardman 249, 254.

61 RE s.v. ‘Daskyleion’ 2219 (Ruge); Sundwall, , Klio Beiheft xi (1913) 63, 194Google Scholar; Bilabel, , Die ionische Kolonisation 45Google Scholar.

62 As Cook, J. M., The Greeks in Ionia and the East 51Google Scholar; also Coldstream 377.

63 See above p. 40.

64 Cf. Boardman 101–2, 248; Coldstream 376–7.

65 Well emphasised and illustrated by Coldstream 335, 357–9.

66 439.

67 Dunbabin 3, 7–8; for a different view, see Cook, R. M., Historia ix (1962) 113–14Google Scholar.

68 For Buchner's general accounts of his results see n. 1 above.

69 Buchner, , Expedition 12Google Scholar; AR for 1966–7 30; Ridgway, , Studi Etruschi xxxv (1968) 318–19Google Scholar. I am also indebted to Dr Ridgway for valuable verbal information on this topic.

70 See the discussions by Buchner and Ridgway cited above (nn. 1 and 69).

71 On the subject in general see Pleiner, R., Ironworking in ancient Greece (Prague 1969)Google Scholar; Forbes, R. J., Metallurgy in Antiquity (Leiden 1950)Google Scholar ch. 11; Coghlan, H. H., Notes on prehistoric and early iron in the old world (Oxford 1956)Google Scholar. I would express here my gratitude to Professor F. C. Thompson, Emeritus Professor of Metallurgy, University of Manchester, for his kindness in discussing this topic with me and for valuable advice.

72 Forbes 380; Coghlan 13. Forbes' map, fig. 80, showing only the most important deposits of the Near East, illustrates the point graphically.

73 For deposits in Greece see Pleiner 23–4; RE Suppl. iv 117–18; Neumann, C. and Partsch, J., Physikalische Geographie von Griechenland (1885) 229–35Google Scholar.

74 In addition to the works in the preceding note see BSA lxi (1966) 109–10.

75 Pleiner 11–12, 19–20, 23–4; Forbes 457–8; Neumann and Partsch 236. It is not always easy to tell whether Greeks smelted their own iron or imported iron in semi-finished condition; so much so that Forbes actually states that they mostly imported it and on the same page (458) discusses local smelting in Greece. No doubt economic considerations decided the matter differently in different times and different places.

76 Pleiner 11–12; Snodgrass, , AFA lxvi (1962) 408–10Google Scholar.

77 See Pleiner ibid.

78 Ibid.

79 Some have thought that Strabo in the passage v 223 states that in his day the ore was shipped from Elba to the adjacent mainland for smelting, but that does not seem to be the right interpretation; see the Loeb edition p. 354 n. 3. It was already smelted iron from Elba which was shipped at about the same period to the famous iron workings at Puteoli; see Diod. v 13.1–2. But I doubt if these references to the practices of a far later age are really significant for the period that we are discussing.

80 See n. 69 above. I am grateful to Professor W. S. MacKenzie, Professor of Petrology, University of Manchester, for kindly discussing these geological questions with me and giving me the benefit of his personal knowledge of Ischia.

81 Ridgway, , Dialoghi di Archeologia i–ii (1969) 27–30Google Scholar.

82 Ibid.

83 It has been suggested to me that the Greeks at Pithecusa might have had the metallurgical skill to manufacture iron when it was still unknown to the Etruscans. This seems to be just conceivably possible, since it is thought that the knowledge how to produce iron reached Tuscany ‘possibly by 800 B.C.’ (Coghlan 71), but I should be hesitant to advance the paradoxical hypothesis that the Greek colonists brought their knowledge of iron-working to the West in order to sell iron to the peoples who were later so famous for their riches in metals.

84 As, for example, at the recently discovered site of Francavilla; see AR for 1969–70 45 and below, next paragraph. Trading in iron is attested by Homer; see, e.g., Od. i 184.

85 Cf. Dunbabin 43–7 on the use of force by Greek colonists against Sicels in Sicily and southern Italy.

88 AR for 1969–70 45. The site is discussed by Bicknell, P., Klearchos xxxv (1967) 131–43Google Scholar, where an interesting argument is put forward in favour of its identification as Aminaia.

87 Wilamowitz, , Phil. Untersuch. vii (1884) 171–2Google Scholar; on Ithaca see Coldstream 366–7.

88 QG xi.

89 Cf. my discussion, Colony and mother city 219–20; Coldstream 367.

90 See Cook 71.

91 For accounts of the colonisation of this area see Bérard 66–8, 92–5; Boardman 236–40. There is also a useful discussion in Bradeen, 's paper, AFP lxxiii (1952) 356–80Google Scholar.

92 Erotikos fr. 3 (OCT, Ross=fr. 98 Teubner, Rose).

93 For my views on this matter see Colony and mother city 222 n. 3.

94 For brief accounts of the recent excavations at Eretria see AR for 1966–7 12–13; 1968–9 8; 1969–70 7–8. Apart from the preliminary reports in Antike Kunst, some volumes of the final publication have already appeared (most recently Eretria iii. L'heroon à la porte de l'ouest, by C. Bérard [Berne 1970]).

95 Schefold, , A Delt xxii (1967)Google ScholarChr. i, 271; cf. AR for 1968–9 8.

96 Schefold, , Antike Kunst ix (1966) 106Google Scholar ff., especially 108; xii (1969) 72–4; Bérard, C., Eretria iii 68Google Scholar.

97 71.

98 See above n. 28.

99 As, for example, in the fundamental paper of Gwynn, A., FHS xxxviii (1918) 88–123Google Scholar.