19. Early Archaic Period (c.750-546 BC)

Homer (c.750 BC)

Homer is by general consent the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He almost certainly belongs to the end of the Dark Age when Greek literature began to be written down. The prevalence of Ionic in the language of the poems suggests that he came from Ionia, perhaps Chios as maintained by Simonides of Ceos (c.556-c.468 BC).

The Iliad and the Odyssey have very different themes but they are episodes of a common story, an expedition overseas by the Greeks to the city of Troy in pursuit of Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, who had been carried off by Paris, a son of King Priam of Troy. After ten years of battle the city falls leaving the Greek heroes free to make their way homewards to their wives and families.

The Iliad begins with the anger of Achilles, one of the Greek warriors, who has been forced by Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, to surrender a girl won as a prize. Achilles, feeling he has been humiliated by a man he regards as less than supreme, refuses to fight. Eventually, the Trojans, under their war leader Hector, another son of Priam, drive the Greeks back to their ships. Achilles relents in as much as he lends his armour to his companion Patroclus. When Patroclus is killed, Achilles in revenge kills Hector and drags him behind his chariot. As Achilles broods on his victory he is disturbed by King Priam, coming to ransom his dead son. As he sits with the old man, the myth that violence and killing lead to glory is broken for Achilles. He has already been told that he himself will soon die and Priam's presence makes him realize the effect his own death will have on his aging father.

In the Odyssey, the war has been won and Odysseus, one of the Greek war leaders, begins his journey home. The poem begins with his wife Penelope in their palace at Ithaca besieged by suitors. Odysseus is still alive and unknown to her he has been entrapped by the nymph Calypso. Zeus finally persuades her to let him go but he is shipwrecked by the sea god Poseidon. Odysseus is washed up in the kingdom of the Phaeacians, where he is rescued by Nausicaa, the daughter of the king, Alcinous. Offered hospitality and entertained with games and poetry, Odysseus relates a series of fantastic adventures he has undergone since leaving Troy. They include the capture of himself and his men by the Cyclops, his temptation by the Sirens, and sailing between the monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Odysseus eventually leaves for Ithaca. He lands disguised as a beggar, but is eventually recognized by his old nurse and his faithful dog, Argus. After destroying the suitors he is finally reunited with Penelope.

Homer presents the Greek pantheon as a family living on Mount Olympus: Zeus and his wife Hera, their children Ares, the god of war, Hephaestus, god of fire and metal, and by Zeus' other liaisons, Apollo, god of the arts, and Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare. They seldom work in unity. In the Odyssey Athena acts as a protecting goddess while Poseidon, Zeus' brother, is out to upset him. In the Iliad the gods are even more partisan: Hera and Athena are violently against the Trojans, while Apollo takes their side. The gods can also act unscrupulously with each other to get their own way. Hera tires Zeus with her lovemaking so that she can put her own stratagems in hand while he is recovering in sleep.

Humans try to influence the gods by sacrifice, but the gods decide whether to listen or not and have the power to intervene in human affairs at will. They are, however, not all-powerful:  in the Iliad even Zeus is unable to save his own son Sarpendon, who is fighting for Troy. The Greeks did not assume that every unexplained event was the work of the Olympian gods. With the power of the gods less than absolute there was some room left for human beings to exercise free will and to take responsibility for their own actions.

Hesiod (c.700 BC)

Hesiod tells us that his father came from Cyme in Asia Minor and settled in Ascra, a village in Boeotia. Hesiod's poems, like Homer's, have an Ionian origin, though they are heavily influenced by their Boeotian context. He worked as a shepherd on Mount Helicon where he received his calling to write poetry. He comes over as a cynical and pessimistic figure with a prejudice against women.

The aim of Theogony, the earliest of his works to survive, is, in his own words, to 'tell how in the first place the gods and Earth came to be'. While Homer presents the gods of Mount Olympus as if they had always been in existence, Hesiod wants to go back to the act of creation itself. In this he draws not only on Greek traditions but on the creation myths of the East, with which his stories show many parallels.

He evokes primitive and tempestuous gods. The relationship between Uranus, god of heaven, and Gaia, goddess of Earth is a violent one. At one point their son, Cronus, cuts off his father's genitals. They fall into the sea and as they float in their own blood and semen the goddess of love, Aphrodite, is bornfrom the mixture. Cronus himself fathers the Olympian gods, who under the leadership of Zeus have to do battle with the Titans, children of Uranus and Gaia, before they can reign supreme. Woven into the Theogony are other myths such as that of Prometheus, the champion of humankind, who stolefire from heaven. Zeus' revenge on men included, according to Hesiod, the creation of women.

Hesiod is also the author of a very different poem Works and Days. Most of this work is concerned with life on the land and consists of advice on the cultivation of crops: what should be sown, when harvest should take place, and how to fill the slack times of the year. Another theme of Works and Days is the concept of history moving forward through phases from ages of gold, silver and bronze to one of heroes before reaching the unhappy present, the age of iron. This is an age, Hesiod argues, with references to his quarrel over land with his brother, in which ethical standards have broken down and the rich landowner lords it over the poor peasant, who is defenceless against his power. However, all is not without hope. There is the possibility of justice and Zeus is evoked by Hesiod as its protector. It is up to human beings to work hard so that good order can be achieved in unity with the gods.

Rise of the Polis (c.800-c.500 BC)

Early Greek kingdoms were ruled by chieftains or kings, who led groups of families to new settlements and organized them militarily to defend themselves from outsiders. According to Aristotle (384-322 BC) a king ruled with consent of the people and with limited powers acted as general, judge and the head of religious observances. In his role as judge, the king settled arguments between oikoi ('households' or 'families').

These kingdoms were not large and usually consisted of scattered aikoi relying on farming to survive. But as the disorder of the Dark Age ended, the population began to grow and the first towns grew up around the king's residence. The kings relied on the advice of the heads of the wealthiest aikoi to run the government. These advisors formed an elite class, the basilees, with the king being called a basileus. The basilees formed the nobility and its leaders called themselves aristoi ('the best'). These aristocrats looked down on what they called hoi polloi ('the many'), a term still used today to describe large masses of poor or powerless people.

The 'best' people belonged to families that arrived early enough in the area to possess good land on the plain that was the focus for the city's existence. As the population increased, the poorer families took up land farther away from the city. When such people formed outlying villages they became known as perioikoi ('dwellers around').

The beginning of the Archaic period saw the emergence of the polis ('city'), consisting of a principal city and its surrounding countryside which together formed an autonomous political unit, the 'city-state'. Homer's Greece was divided into regions, each of which was called a deme, a term used to describe both the territory and the people living in it. The process by which demes became unified into a single state is called synoecism ('joining together'). Synoecism happened in various ways: a group of villages could physically amalgamate to form a township, as happened at Sparta and Corinth; or the villages could agree to accept one of their number as their centre, which is what happened in Attica where the rise of Athens simply subordinated the villages.

Parts of the Peloponnese and Northern Greece were dotted with small villages that lacked a central town that could serve as a capital. The Greeks called these regions the ethne (the plural of ethnos, which means 'tribe' or 'nation'). In general, as time went on, it was only the more backward communities that persisted with this type of structure.

Colonial Expansion (c.750-c.550 BC)

Beginning in the eighth century BC the Greeks began a period of expansion that saw the establishment of settlements in various places on the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The reasons behind colonization are debated but it would appear that trade, draught, political problems, and land hunger brought about by an increase in population during the Geometric period were the primary factors that impelled the cities to send people out to find a new life elsewhere.

After colonization the ancient Greek world stretched from Libya and southern France to Cyprus, Asia Minor and the Crimean Peninsula. Sailing existing sea routes, the colonists captured land typically occupied by a vulnerable non-Greek people. Coasts defended by powerful kingdoms such as Egypt or Assyria were never colonized by the Greeks.

Greeks from Chalcis and Eretria on the island of Euboea founded the trading station of Pithecusae on the island of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples on the west coast of Italy (c.775 BC). Later, the Chalcidian element transferred to the mainland opposite and founded Cumae/Cyme (c.750 BC).

On the east coast of Sicily, Chalcis founded Naxus (c.734 BC) and Zancle (c.730 BC), and Corinth founded Syracuse (c.733 BC). On south coastal Italy, Chalcis founded Rhegium (c.730-c.720 BC), Achaea founded Sybaris (c.720 BC) and Croton (c.708 BC), and Sparta founded Taras (c.706 BC).

By the late 700s BC, Greeks mainly from Chalcis had ousted native Thracians from the Aegean coast of Thrace and occupied the region later known as Chalcidice. Thasos (Is) nearby, was occupied in c.650 BC by Greeks from the island of Paros. Later colonies on the Thracian coast included Abdera (c.654 BC), Aenus (c.600-c.575 BC) and Amphipolis (437 BC)

To the northeast the Black Sea and its approaches were colonized mainly by Miletus. Of perhaps two dozen Milesian colonies here the most important included Cyzicus (756 BC), Sinope (c.631 BC) and Panticapaeum (c.600 BC). Byzantium, the city with the greatest destiny, was founded c.660 BC by colonists from Megara.

In 733 or 706 BC the Corinthians established Corcyra (modern Corfu) off the northwestern coast of Greece, about eighty miles (≈130 km) east of the heel of Italy. Later, to compensate for a Corcyrean rebellion the Corinthians created new northwestern colonies that included Ambracia and Leucas (c.625 BC), and Apollonia Illyrica (c.600 BC). 

In North Africa the Greek city of Cyrene, destined for commercial greatness, was founded from the island of Thera in c.630 BC. To the northwest Massilia (modern Marseille, in southern France) and other far-western Greek cities were established by Phocaeans from Ionia c.600 BC.

Most of the Greek colonies had been established in the West by 650 BC and southern Italy and Sicily later became known as Magna Graecia because of the large number of settlements there. Colonization further west and in the East did not end until the middle of the sixth century BC.

Orientalizing Period (c.720-c.620 BC)

By the eighth century BC the Phoenicians had established themselves throughout the Mediterranean with trading posts and colonies along the north coast of Africa, on the coast of Spain, and on the islands of Cyprus, Sicily and Sardinia. The Phoenicians were responsible for facilitating contacts at this time between the Greeks and other civilizations around the Mediterranean, particularly those of Egypt and the Near East.

Increased contact with the East brought the Greeks new ideas regarding pottery, sculpture, architecture, mythology, religion, and the use of iron and bronze. Most important of all was the introduction of writing using an alphabet derived from that of the Phoenicians. One of the very earliest inscriptions in Greek is on a vase found at the Greek trading post at Pithecusae: it dates from c.720 BC and describes the vase as belonging to Nestor, a Homeric hero.

The Orientalizing period is characterized by a shift from the prevailing Geometric to a style of pottery with different motifs and ideas inspired by Greece's eastern neighbours. In Corinth the Orientalizing style is referred to as Protocorinthian, in Athens it is called Protoattic. By the later part of the seventh century BC Protocorinthian pottery was on the wane and Corinth's period of prosperity was soon eclipsed by Athens.

Panhellenism

An important aspect of colonization was the rise of the concept of a Greek national identity, or Panhellenism. Although each Greek state developed in widely different ways during the Archaic period, they had in common certain possessions and customs that were distinctly 'Greek' which set them apart from non-Greek peoples (barbaroi) and gave them a sense of belonging to the same race: (i) the Greek language, spoken in many dialects over a wide area; (ii) worship of the same gods; (iii) participation in three Panhellenic cult centres – Olympia (with its games), Delphi and Delos; (iv) the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Epic Cycle (a collection of ancient Greek poetry), giving the Greeks a glimpse of their heroic past; and (v) the veneration of Panhellenic heroes, especially Heracles.

Tyranny

Greeks used the term 'tyranny' to describe the individuals who had usurped the legal monarchy in many city-states during the seventh to fifth centuries BC, the 'age of tyrants'. It was not a special constitution or a reign of terror; the bad sense was attached to it later. Usurpers, though often of the aristocracy, or just outside it, exploited discontent with aristocratic exclusiveness and misbehaviour. A general increase in prosperity undermined the claims of birth, while the emergence of the hoplite army meant that aristocrats could no longer claim to be the city's only defenders. As several of the tyrants are said to have been successful military leaders the acquiescence of the new army may be assumed in most cases. Other usurpers appealed to an ethnic minority, or pursued populist policies, including public works. Tyrants intermarried and lent each other material and moral support, but when discontent lessened, their popularity tended to diminish and their sons, lacking in legitimacy, found power hard to retain without suppression; few tyrannies extended to the third generation.

The best known of the tyrants were Pheidon of Argos (seventh century BC), Cypselus (r.c.657-c.625 BC) and Periander (r.c.625-c.585 BC) of Corinth, Cleisthenes of Sicyon (r.c.600-570 BC), Pisistratus of Athens (r.c.561*527 BC), and Polycrates of Samos (r.c.538-c.522 BC). The last representatives of this early period of tyranny were the Sicilian tyrants Gelon (r.485-478 BC) and Hieron-I (r.478-467 BC) of Syracuse, and Theron of Acragas (r.c.488-473 BC).

Northern Greece

·Thrace (Seuthopolis)

Lying west of Istanbul ancient Thrace is now shared between Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), Greece (Western Thrace) and European Turkey (Eastern Thrace). The country originally extended as far west as the Adriatic but the Thracians had to retreat eastwards between the thirteenth and fifth centuries BC under pressure from the Illyrians and the Macedonians. 

From the seventh century BC many Greek colonies were founded on the Thracian shores. In 514 BC Darius-I of Persia (c.64; r.522-486 BC) crossed the Bosporus to pursue the Scythian armies. He soon had to return to Asia, but was able to leave a strong army behind with instructions to annex Thrace and Macedonia. Divided into many tribes, the unification of the Thracians was apparently prompted by the Greek repulsion of the invasion of the peninsula by the Persian army under Xerxes-I (c.54; r.486-465 BC). The Odrysae, the leading tribe of Thrace, under their king Teres-I (r.460-445 BC), founded the kingdom of Odrysia (460-00-46). Under the rule of Teres and his successors the Odrysian state remained the dominant alliance until the rise of the Macedonians.

The Thracians continued to live almost entirely in villages until the Roman era. Seuthes III (r.c.331-c.300 BC) built Seuthopolis near modern Kazanlak in central Bulgaria, which seems to have been the only significant town in Thrace not built by the Greeks, though the Thracians did build forts as places of refuge. 

· Macedonia (Aegae, Pella)

The ancient kingdom of Macedonia was centred in the northeastern part of the Greek Peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, Thrace to the northeast, and Thessaly to the south. It consisted of two distinct regions: Lower Macedonia comprising the great alluvial coastal plain created by the Haliacmon and Axios rivers during their course to the Thermaic Gulf; and Upper Macedonia with rugged uplands and mountains stretching westwards to Epirus and Illyria.

In antiquity Macedonia was occupied by people of various origins. Perhaps in the seventh century BC one of these, the 'Macedones', occupied the ancient capital Aegae (=Vergina) on the foothills of Mount Olympus, and expanded into the coastal plain of Lower Macedonia. Their descendents were the Macedonians of the classical period.

It seems that the first Macedonian state emerged under the Argead Dynasty (c.808-310 BC). According to later traditions its first king was Caranus (r.c.808-c.778 BC), but according to Herodotus it was Perdiccas-I (r.c.700-c.678 BC). The Argeads claimed descent from the Temenidae of the city of Argos in the Peloponnese (hence the name 'Argead'), whose legendary ancestor was Temenus, the great-great-grandson of Heracles.

Late in the sixth century BC Macedonia was occupied by the Persians. After the Persian defeat at Plataea in 479 BC, Macedonia regained its independence, but pressure from Thracian and Illyrian tribes kept it relatively weak. The situation worsened when the Athenians founded a colony at Amphipolis on the east bank of the Strymon in 437 BC. Archelaus-I (r.413-399 BC) transferred his capital north to Pella in Bottiaea.

·Thessaly (Larissa)

The region of Thessaly lies on the northeast coast of Greece, south of Macedonia. It comprises two large plains divided by hills and is enclosed by mountains: Pindus to the west, Othrys and Pelion to the south, and Olympus to the north. Thessaly's major river, the Peneus, rises in the Pindus Mountains and flows through the plains of Thessaly. It then thrusts through the Vale of Tempe between Mount Olympus and Mount Ossa before emptying into the Thermaic Gulf. Because of its fertile plains, Thessaly became richer in grain, horses and cattle than other parts of Greece.

The only usable harbour in Thessaly was located on the Gulf of Pagasae (=Gulf of Velos). Two seaports emerged there in different phases of history.  First was Iolcus (=Velos), a major Mycenaean city, fabled as the home of Aeson and his son the hero Jason, the leader of the Argonauts. Later came nearby Pagasae, which flourished in the 400s and 300s BC.

The inhabitants of these plains were known as Thessaloi, and from them the region took its name, Thessaly. The semi-legendary Aleuas the Red is associated with the division during the sixth-century BC of the Thessalian plains into four historical administrative units or tetrads, 'quarters', known as Hestiaeotis, Pelasgiotis Phthiotis and Thessaliotis.

Within this regional structure there were a number of independent city-states that were free to administer their own affairs. The chief township of Pelasgiotis which, despite rivalry from Pharsalus in Phthiotis, subsequently became the mostimportant centre in all Thessaly, Larissa, the seat of the Aleuadae, dominating a large productive plain and profiting from its position near to the Peneus River. The Aleudae submitted to Persia in the 430s BC.

·Epirus (Ambracia)

Ancient Epirus was a region of northwest Greece between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea that included the area north of the Ambracian Gulf and part of modern Albania. By the early first millennium BC three main clusters of Greek-speaking tribes had emerged in Epirus: the Chaonians in the northwest, the Molossians in the centre, and the Thesprotians in the south. Epirus received Hellenic influence from the Elean colonies in Cassopaea and from the Corinthian colonies at Corcyra (Is) and Ambracia; and the oracle at Dodona drew pilgrims from northern and central Greece. A strong Molossian state existed under Neoptolemus-I (r.c.370-357 BC).

Central Greece

·Acarnania (Stratus)

Acarnania is a region of west Central Greece bounded by the Ionian Sea to the west, the Gulf of Ambracia to the north, and by Aetolia beyond the Achelous River to the east. Its most populous region was the plain of Achelous, commanded by the town of Stratus. There was a settlement at Oeniadae before Corinthian settlers in the seventh century BC occupied the best sites on the seaboard. Although Acarnania generally did not play an active part in Greek events, at least until the fourth century BC, it was involved in many wars because of its strategic position along the sailing route to Italy. The Acarnanians formed a confederacy in the fifth century BC (if not earlier), fortified their cities, and asked the Athenians for help against the Corinthian colonists, and later against the Ambracians and the Peloponnesians in 429-426 BC.

·Aetolia (Thermum)

Aetolia is a region in west Central Greece east of Acarnania, north of the Corinthian Gulf and bordered on the east by Mount Parnassus. A country of rugged mountains and remote villages, it remained a tribal state until the fourth century BC. It was, however, sufficiently united to repel the invasion by Demosthenes (c.450-413 BC) in 426 BC. In 370 BC Macedonian intrigues prompted the alliance of Thebes and Aetolia, which was formalized as the Aetolian League in 367 BC, with its centre at Thermum in central Aetolia.

·Doris

To the east of Aetolis is the small mountainous district of Doris, enclosing the headwaters of the Cephissus River. It lies between Mount Oeta and Mount Parnassus. Its small plain, containing the tetrapolis Boium, Cytinium, Erineus and Pindus, is traversed by the route from Malis to Phocis which turns the defences of Thermopylae. The Dorians of the Pelo-ponnese claimed Doris as their metropolis: possibly during the invasion period the Dorians halted there. In the fourth century it fell into the power of Onomarchus of Phocis (d.352 BC) and later of Philip II of Macedon (46; r.359-336 BC).

· Malis (Lamia)

To the north of Doris but on the opposite side of the range of Oeta was Malis in the valley of the Spercheus River. Lamia, the principal city of Malis became increasingly important towards the end of the fifth century BC. During the Lamian War (323-322 BC) - the Greek rebellion following the death of Alexander III of Macedon (32; r.336-323 BC) - Lamia's strong fortifications helped Antipater (397-319 BC) resist the Greeks throughout the winter of 323/2 BC.

·Locris

The territory of the Locrians was a divided region, probably due to an early invasion of an early Locrian state. This separation, combined with the region's infertility, meant that the Locrians tended to be dominated by their stronger neighbours and played little part in Greek history. Ozolian (west) Locris was on the north shore of the Corinthian Gulf, between Naupactus and Crisa; Opuntian (east) Locris (divided into Opuntian and Epicnemedian (northeast) Locris, though Opuntian is sometimes used to include both), named after its main city, Opus, was on the west shore of the Euboean coast. Between the two regions lay Doris and Phocis. 

·Phocis (Delphi)

Lying between west Locris and Boeotia, Phocis occupied the fertile valleys of Crisa and the Cephissus River, which are linked loosely by passes over southern spurs of Mount Parnassus. In the sixth century BC Phocis had a strong federation that enabled her to resist the aggression of her neighbours, who coveted the control of Delphi, and of Elateia commanding the route to Northern Greece.

Delphi is situated on the lower southern slopes of Parnassus, overlooking the Corinthian Gulf about 2000 feet below. Legend asserted that Delphi marked the centre of Earth and that this spot was determined by Zeus, who had released two eagles to fly from opposite sides of Earth and that they had met exactly over this place. The place derived its fame from Apollo, who is said to have destroyed the resident deity Python, giving rise to Pythian Apollo in whose name the Pythian Games were celebrated. Apollo pronounced his oracles through a priestess, the Pythia. Those who wished to consult the oracle gave their questions to a male functionary, who passed them to the Pythia. Her responses, which were not necessarily coherent, were interpreted by attendant priests.

On religion Delphi gave answers that fostered the worship of Olympian and local deities impartially. In politics Delphi came to the fore during the great period of colonization, its advice regularly being sought on the choice of site and patron deity. When the tyrants of Corinth, Cypselus (r.c.657-c.625 BC) and his son Periander (r.c.625-c.585 BC) offered dedications to Delphic Apollo, they were showing their appreciation of the oracle's support of their western colonies.

Delphi entered upon a new phase when it came under the control of the Amphictyony ('dwellers around'), a league primarily concerned with religious ritual but occasionally acting for a political purpose. A dispute between the Phocian states of Delphi and Crisa developed into the First Sacred War (c.595-c.586 BC). A dispute between the Phocian states of Delphi and Crisa developed into the First Sacred War (c.595-c.586 BC). Delphi appealed to the Amphictyony and under the command of a Thessalian, Eurylochus, Amphictyonic forces overran Phocis, captured Delphi and celebrated their victory by holding a Pythian Games in 582 BC.

Delphi's importance was above all that it provided a meeting-place for the otherwise isolated city-states of Greece. In 548 BC the temple of Apollo and the edifices around it were destroyed by fire. During the final decade of the same century, a great new temple was erected with the aid of the Alcmaeonidae clan then living at Delphi in exile from the Pisistratid Dynasty at their native Athens. A new temple was built by subscriptions. This building survived until Roman times and was repaired by Domitian (44; r.81-96 BC).

·Boeotia (Thebes)

Boeotia is a region in Central Greece west of Phocis and east of Attica, with sea coasts on both the Corinthian Gulf and the Euripus Strait. Its hinterland was divided into two plains by Lake Copias (drained 1867-87), with the northwest being dominated by Orchomenus and the southeast by Thebes. The southeast frontier is formed by Mount Cithaeron and Mount Parnes. The town of Plataea lay just north of Cithaeron. Further northwest is Boeotia's tallest mountain, Helicon, with an elevation of 1749 metres (5738 ft).

In myth, Cadmus (son of Agenor, king of Tyre) was told by the Delphic Oracle to follow a cow into Boeotia and build a city where she rested. When she stopped on a low plateau overlooking Lake Copias, Cadmus killed the resident dragon and sowed its teeth. They promptly became armed men (Spartoi, 'sown men') who killed each other except for five who fathered the Theban race on the acropolis hill named Cadmeia after Cadmus. Thebes also claimed Heracles as its own in competition with Argos and Tiryns. In addition, the place enshrined the sagas of Oedipus and the Seven against Thebes recounted in the Thebaid and the Epigoni.

The Cadmeia, inhabited in the Neolithic, became a large Mycenaean city with a palace that burned down c.1350 BC. A new palace suffered the same fate in c.1250 BC. It was during this disturbed period that the Boiotoi are said to have arrived in the territory, coming from Arne in Thessaly. Thebes quickly outstripped the other Boeotian towns, but was never strong enough to combine them into a unitary state. 

The Theban oligarchy was friendly with the Pisistratids of Athens until in c.519 BC the city of Plataea near Boeotia's border with Attica when threatened by its powerful neigh-bour Thebes, asked and received Athenian protection. Similarities in coinage suggest that some progress towards Boeotian unity was made in the sixth century BC, but it was not until 446 BC that the Boeotian League was formed.

·Attica (Athens)

Attica is the easternmost part of Central Greece. It is bounded to the east by the Aegean Sea and to the south by the Saronic Gulf. To the northwest is Boeotia, and to the southwest is Megaris on the Isthmus. Its capital Athens, located at the centre of the largest plain, was about seven kilometres (≈4 miles) from the sea but had easy access to the harbours at Piraeus and Phalerum and good communications with the rest of the region. Within the city the citadel, known as the Acropolis ('upper city'), was a large fortified flat-topped rock rising forty-five metres (≈150 ft) above the level of the plain.

During the reign of Cecrops, the first mythical king of Athens, Athena (from whom the place took its name) fought a successful struggle with Poseidon over the patronage of Attica. Theseus, son of Poseidon, unified Attica, a synoecism later celebrated at a festival called the Synoikia. When Ion, son of Apollo, became king of Athens, his four sons established the four Ionian phylai ('tribes') of Attica. Legend tells how the last Athenian king, Codrus, gave his life to save Athens from capture by the Dorians.

Under the kingship the people were organized into hierarchical kinship groups consisting of the oikos ('family'), genos ('clan'), phratry ('brotherhood') and phyle ('tribe'). Clan members were related, at least in theory, by blood. Phratries were the link between clan and state: every child within a clan was admitted into a phratry and thus became a future citizen.

After the death of Codrus he was replaced by three archons: the Archon Basileus, who replaced the king in his capacity as high-priest; the Archon Eponymous, whose name was given to the year; and the Archon Polemarch, who was the Commander-in-Chief of the troops. The Medontid Dynasty (Codrus' son was named Medon) continued to hold a hereditary life-office (probably Basileus); the two other offices were presumably elective. Later (750 BC?) the duration of the three archons was limited to ten years; and in c.683 BC the archonship was made annual and all the rights of the Mendontidae had disappeared. Shortly after this the number of archons was increased to nine by the election of six Thesmothetae as the Chief Magistrates of the state. 

In Athens there was a council called the Areopagus ('Hill of Ares'). During the monarchy and much of the aristocratic period the council consisted of the Eupatridae (nobles). After some time, ex-archons and archons in office were also admitted. It is likely that the council began as a body advising first the king and later the archons. At Athens the people's Assembly was known as the Ecclesia. It was open to all male citizens but as yet had little share in the decision-making.

·· Cylon (632 BC)

Cylon, an Athenian noble and a winner at Olympia (640 BC?), married the daughter of Theogenes, tyrant of Megara. In an Olympic year (632 BC), Cylon intending a tyranny seized the Acropolis but the people did not support him. He escaped the citadel with his brother but the remaining conspirators were forced to seek shelter in the temple of Athena. In exchange for their surrender these conspirators were promised that their lives would be spared. For unknown reasons Megacles (1) the archon betrayed the promises and ordered the conspirators killed. In line with beliefs surrounding the act of murder and in the tradition of blood feuds the Athenians deemed this act to be a great pollution of their city. Megacles and his family, the Alcmaeonidae, were cursed and banished from Attica.

··Draco (fl.c.621 BC)

It appears that the people of Athens became increasingly unwilling to accept the arbitrary court rulings by the Eupatridae, and asked for the laws to be written down. In c.621 BC Draco codified Athenian law for the first time. A conviction of many of the crimes enumerated in his written code meant death for the accused. So severe were the penalties for crimes ranging from murder to the theft of vegetables that the word 'draconian' is still used to denote harsh laws or regimes. When asked why he specified death for so many offences, he replied that small offences deserved death and he knew of no severer penalty for great ones. The saying that 'Draco wrote his laws in blood not ink' is attributed to Demades (c.380-318 BC).

·· Solon (archon 594/3 BC)

Solon (c.638-c.558 BC) was an Athenian statesman of noble descent but moderate means. He was prominent in Athens' war with Megara for the possession of Salamis, urging his countrymen to renewed efforts when they despaired of success (c.600 BC?). At some stage, during his archonship (594/3 BC) or more probably about twenty years later, he was asked to revise the law-code. After his reforms he is said to have spent ten years in overseas travel. It may be true that he returned at the time of the troubles and tried to warn the Athenians against Pisistratus (r.c.561*527 BC).

Primogeniture not being recognised in Athens, there was a tendency for ancestral plots of land to be progressively subdivided, with the result that some properties were hardly large enough to support a family. In difficult times some small-holders had to borrow corn from wealthier neighbours. On default of payment they became hectemoroi ('sixth-part men'), they had to give their creditors one sixth of the produce of the land on penalty of enslavement for themselves and their families. Solon's Seisachtheia ('shaking off of burdens') cancelled all debts for which land or liberty was the security and so released the peasants from serfdom, restored their farms, redeemed all those who had been sold into slavery and forbade all borrowing on the security of person in future.

Solon replaced distinctions of birth with four economically defined classes: pentacosiomedimni ('500-bushel-men'), the highest property class; hippeis ('cavalry', 'knights'); zeugitae ('yoke-men'); and thetes, hired labourers, the lowest class of free men. The major offices and the Areopagus were reserved for the two highest classes; the zeugitae were eligible for the minor offices; the thetes could not hold office but could attend the Ecclesia and also the Heliaia, an assembly of citizens that met to hear appeals against magistrates' verdicts. Solon created a new elective council (boule) of four hundred to perform the task of probouleusis ('advance deliberation') before the Ecclesia's meetings.

To counter the pauperization that made borrowing necessary, Solon began the task of moving Athens from a purely agricultural to a primarily trading economy by offering grants of citizenship to immigrant craftsmen and prohibiting the export of agricultural products other than olive oil, encouraging the growth of olives. Athens at the time was using the coinage associated with the great trading state of Aegina, the Pheidonian standard. Solon switched to the Attic (Euboic) standard, equivalent in weight to that minted in Corinth, opening the way for increased contact with the rich Corinthian trade with the Greek settlements in the west. Some see this is a kind of currency inflation.

· Pisistratus and his Sons (c.546-c.510 BC)

Solon's political changes provoked new problems. His removal of the blood criterion set the battleground for a new struggle. Because of aristocratic rivalries the Areopagus was unable to agree on an archon in 590 and 586 BC. The eponymous archon chosen for 582 BC, Damasias, illegally remained in office for two years and two months after which he was forcibly removed and ten archons elected.

Three main factions had arisen in the Assembly: the pedieis, the wealthy Eupatrid inhabitants of the plains; the diacrii, the poor inhabitants of the hilly districts in the north and east of Attica; and the parali, the mercantile inhabitants of the coasts, intermediate between the other two. These factions later became known as the Plain, Hill and Coast respectively.

The Plainsmen were led by the Eupatrids, who disliked Solon's reforms. The Coastmen were led by Alcmaeonids, returning from their expulsion, who associated themselves with Solon's progressive views. The Hillsmen, for the most part shepherds and agricultural workers, had not succeeded in relieving their impoverishment.

Pisistratus (r.c.561*527 BC) first came to prominence when as polemarch (c.565 BC) in the war against Megara he captured the port of Nisaea. He was the leader of Hillsmen and made himself tyrant with the bodyguard granted to him by the Athenians (c.561 BC). After five years he was ousted by the Plain and Coastal factions led by Lycurgus (perhaps, like his namesake in the 4th century BC, a member of the noble clan Eteobutadae) and Megacles (2), leader of the Alcmaeonids, but then an understanding with Megacles led to a peaceful restoration. However, the agreement broke down. Pisistratus withdrew to Macedonia and the Mount Pangaeus mining district where he made money, hired mercenaries and fostered alliances with Thessaly, Thebes, Argos and Naxos. In 546 BC he landed near Marathon, defeated his opponents at Pallene (an area in the northeast part of Attica), and established his tyranny for the third time.

Pisistratus finally established the rule of the Athenians over Salamis, following Spartan arbitration in the Athenians favour against Megara. Black Sea trade, particularly the import of grain and corn, was strengthened by his capture of Sigeum on the Troad and Rhaecelus on the Thermaic Gulf. Revenues were swelled by flourishing Athenian trade, by seizure of lands from the Alcmaeonids who had fled once again, and by the earliest known taxation of citizens. He remained in power until his death in 527 BC.

Pisistratus was succeeded by his son Hippias (r.527-510; d.490 BC), who gained Eupatrid support by appointing the Alcmaeonid Cleisthenes (c.570-c.507 BC) eponymous archon 525/4 BC, and the Philaid Miltiades the Younger (c.550-489 BC) eponymous archon 524/3 BC. The latter was sent to maintain his uncle Miltiades the Elder's Athenian regime in the Thracian Chersonese (c.516 BC). Hippias' brother Hipparchus (c.555-514 BC) patronized the arts. The regime ran into difficulties. This was largely due to the loss of the outpost at Rhaecelus and the Pangaean mines to the Persian advance. When Hipparchus was murdered by Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the regime became more oppressive.

The Alcmaeonids, including Cleisthenes, were exiled. After several failed attempts to return and the loss of the fortified post they had set up at Leipsydrium in northern Attica, they gained the contract to complete the temple at Delphi and thereby won the favour of priests who began to urge any Spartans that consulted the oracle to depose the Pisistratids. In 511/10 BC the Spartans landed on the beach at Phalerum but the Pisistratids beat the Spartans with the aid of Thessalian cavalry. In 510 BC, however, a Spartan expedition under Cleomenes-I (Agiad; r.c.520-c.489 BC) ejected Hippias and he fled with his family to the Persian court. He accompanied the Persian fleet to Marathon in 490 BC and died shortly after.

·· Cleisthenes (archon 525/4 BC)

The Spartans intended to restore the old aristocracy and allow the Alcmaeonids to return to Athens and possibly rule. When Cleomenes withdrew from Athens, the nobles formed a government. Cleisthenes (c.570-c.507 BC), son of Megacles (2) and grandson of Cleisthenes of Sicyon (r.c.600-c.570 BC), headed one of the two noble factions but his rival Isagoras, with the help of the aristocratic clubs, gained the mastery and was elected chief archon in 508 BC.

Cleisthenes responded by making an alliance with the people with a promise to reform the political system through a people-supported dictatorship. Isagoras appealed to Cleomenes who sent a herald to Athens to invoke  the hereditary curse of the Alcmaeonids. Cleisthenes and his supporters prudently withdrew; but when Cleomenes arrived with a small force, expelled seven hundred powerful families, disbanded the Council of Four Hundred and attempted to establish an oligarchy under Isagoras, he met with strong resistance and was forced to retire in turn. Cleisthenes returned to Athens and began a program to make a stronger democracy.

To disrupt the political channels that previously had led to tyranny he replaced the four original tribes of Attica with ten new tribes organized originally on nothing more than their area of residence. First he divided Attica's one hundred and thirty or so demesinto three regions: the city, the coast and the interior; these regions did not coincide with the old groupings; the relationship between the city and the interior replaced that of the plain and the hill. He then grouped the demes within each region into ten trittyes ('thirtieths'), i.e. there were thus thirty trittyes in total. One trittye was taken from each group to make three in each of the ten tribes.

The citizenship and military organization of Attica was to be based on these units. Solon's Council of Four Hundred became a Council of Five Hundred, with fifty members from each tribe and individual demes acting as constituencies. The Athenians, fearing a war with Sparta, sought an alliance with Persia, but the act of submission (symbolic gifts of earth and water) by the envoys was rejected by Athens. The institution of ostracism is almost certainly to be attributed to Cleisthenes. 

During the Pisistratid period the small states of Eleutherae, Plataea and Hysiae between Athens and Thebes, when pressured to join the Boeotian League they chose instead to put themselves under the protection of Athens. Thebes and her federated towns objected to these defections; and Chalcis was in alliance with Thebes. In 506 BC Cleomenes organized a three-pronged attack on Athens. A Peloponnesian force ravaged southwest Attica, the Boeotian League seized parts of northwest Attica, and Chalcis attacked in the northeast. When the Peloponnesian force withdrew, the Athenians turned to defeat the Boeotian army, and on the same day defeated the Chalcidian army in Euboea. Athens annexed part of Chalcis' territory and thus threatened Boeotia on two sides. Thebes countered by allying with Aegina. Athens now faced the enmity of Boeotia, Aegina and Sparta.

·Aegina (Capital: Aegina)

The island of Aegina lies centrally in the Saronic Gulf and its closeness to Attica meant that it had a great involvement with events of mainland Greece. Colonized in the third millennium BC, by the second millennium BC Aegina had already become an important trading post. Having undergone Mycenaean occupation, the island (according to Herodotus) was colonized during the tenth century BC by Dorians from Epidaurus. After 800 BC Aegina joined the Calaurian Amphictyony, a league of maritime cities on the Saronic and Argolic gulfs. It is possible that for a time Pheidon of Argos (seventh century BC?) controlled the island. Thereafter, however, Aegina avoided the tyranny that occurred in other cities, and developed an oligarchic, mercantile regime. Around 595 BC the island became the first Greek state to mint coins (Aeginetan Standard).

In 506 BC the Thebans took a Delphic oracle to mean that they should ally with Aegina against Athens. During these hostilities the Oracle advised Athens to hold off any war with Aegina for thirty years. The Athenians nevertheless made some attempts on Aegina - the 'Heraldless War', i.e. a conflict in which discussions with heralds coming from the enemy in order to negotiate truces were not entertained - but soon turned their attention to the Spartans and Persians.

· Euboea (Chalcis, Eretria)

Euboea is the second largest Greek island (3670 km2) after Crete and runs nearly a hundred miles (≈160 km) parallel to the east coast of Central Greece, alongside the regions of east Locris, Boeotia and Attica. The narrowest section of the channel separating Euboea from the mainland is the Euripus Strait, near to the island's capital Chalcis. 

In antiquity Chalcis and Eretria (to the south) were the chief cities. By 800 BC the two cities had founded the trading post at Al Mina at the mouth of the Orontes River in southern Turkey. They established colonies on the northwest shores of the Aegean, and in Italy and Sicily, and at some time between c.710 and c.650 BC they fought the Lelantine War for the possession of Euboea's most fertile plain that lay between them.

In 506 BC Chalcis was totally defeated by the Athenians, who established 4000 Attic men on the Chalcidians' richest lands. These settlers retained full Athenian citizenship and the community remained a political dependency of Athens. Athens thus created the cleruchy, a special kind of colony that was an extension of its home state and not a separate entity.

Southern Greece (=Peloponnese)

Heracles (Roman: Hercules), the greatest of the Greek heroes, was the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene. Zeus boasted that his next-born descendant would be a king believing that it would be Heracles. Zeus' wife Hera, who conspired against her husband's mortal offspring as revenge for his infidelities, delayed the birth of Heracles and accelerated that of his cousin, Eurystheus, who thus became king of Tiryns.

Many years later Heracles killed his wife and children in a fit of Hera-induced madness. After recovering his sanity he travelled to Delphi to enquire as to how he could atone for his actions. The oracle advised him to go to Tiryns and complete ten (later increased to twelve) labours to be devised by Eurystheus. As a reward for finishing these tasks Heracles was given immortality by Zeus. 

According to tradition the Dorians led by Aegimius conquered the region of Doris, expelling the Dryopes. Because Heracles helped to fight off invading Lapithes, Aegimius adopted Heracles' son Hyllus, as his own.

The Dorians of the Peloponnese grouped themselves into three clans: Hylleis, Dymanes and Pamphyli, named after Hyllus and from Aegimius' other two sons, Dymas and Pamphylus. The adoption of Hyllus was an attempt to present the Dorian invasion as 'the return of the Heraclids' to recover the Peloponnese from Eurystheus. This myth served to legitimize the Dorians (especially Sparta) as the rightful rulers of the Peloponnese; and also to offer an explanation of the existence of Doris in Central Greece, no longer inhabited by Dorians.

·Megaris (Megara)

Megaris (Megarid) was a small state in the northern and wider part of the Isthmus, north of Corinthia, west of Attica and northwest of the island of Salamis. Its geographical position made it of some importance as a land passage between the Peloponnese and Central Greece. Tradition records that it was occupied by the Dorians and that it was originally settled in five villages: Heraea, Piraea, Megara, Cynosura and Tripodiscus. It is probable that tensions with Corinth precipitated the synoecism of the villages into the polis of Megara, the combined populations being organized into the usual three tribes of Dymanes, Hylleis and Pamphyli.

Megara possessed two harbours: Pegae to the west on the Corinthian Gulf; and Nisaea to the east on the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. Utilizing these two assets, Megara became a useful trading link between Greece and the west and east. The Megarians made their city a mercantile centre, specializing in woollen cloaks. During the mid-eighth century BC the Corinthians advanced into Megaris and seized the southwestern sector, including the two westernmost villages, Heraea and Piraea, and also the cult site of Perachora. The Megarians under the leadership of Orsippus (who won a race at Olympia) regained some border territory, but by the late eighth century BC Corinth had recaptured the area. To Megara, whose economy depended on sheep-raising and woollen manufacture, the loss of this territory was serious, and Corinth was threatening Megara's western trade as well. As there was little hope that the Megarians, whose territory had been small to begin with, could regain the land they had lost, they were among the first of the Greeks to turn to colonization. 

Megarian colonies and sub-colonies include Megara Hyblaea (c.728 BC) in western Sicily and its colony Selinus(c.628 BC) in western Sicily; Chalcedon (c.676 BC) and Astacos (c.712 BC) on the Asian side of the Bosporus, Byzantium (c.660 BC) and Selymbria (7th century BC) on the European side; Heraclea Pontica (c.560 BC) and its colonies Mesembria (6th century BC), Callatis (late 6th century BC) and the Touric Chersonese (5th century BC) on the Black Sea coast.

The Thracian Bosporus was a rich fishing region in which tunny could be trapped as it migrated from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. It was also the strategic channel through which Black Sea grain had to pass on its way to Greece. As a result of their settlements the Megarians came to regard the Bosporus and the eastern end of the Propontis as their special reserve, but were unsuccessful when they tried to prevent the Samians from establishing a rival colony at Perinthus on the northern shore of the Propontis in c.601 BC.

Megarian demes drove out their aristocratic government and handed power to the tyrant Theogenes (r.c.640-c.620 BC), who had obtained a bodyguard and gained the trust of the poor 'by slaughtering the livestock of the rich'. He endeared himself to the people by building a tunnelled water-conduit and a fountain house. In 632 BC he supported his son-in-law Cylon in his unsuccessful attempt to make himself tyrant of Athens. The Magarian aristocracy eventually succeeded in driving out Theogenes, 'but after a short time', according to Plutarch (c.46-c.120), was itself driven out by the demes.

The island of Salamis was the key to controlling the sea lanes in the Saronic Gulf around the Megarian and Athenian ports; and it seems that the occupation of the island meant the dominance of one state over the other. In historical times Salamis first belonged to Megara. During the time of Solon the island was much fought over by Megara and Athens. It finally passed to Athenian control with its capture by Pisistratus in the second half of the sixth century BC.

·Corinthia (Corinth)

Corinthia occupies the corner in the northeast Peloponnese. It borders Achaea to the west, the Corinthian Gulf to the north, the Saronic Gulf to the east, Argolis to the south and Arcadia to the southwest. In the northeast of the city of Corinth was perfectly placed at the southern and narrowest part of the Isthmus to control the north-south land route between the Peloponnese and Central Greece, as well as the short east-west overland crossing (≈6 km) between the gulfs through the ports of Lechaeum (west) and Cenchreae (east).

The Acrocorinth, the citadel, although it could provide a place of refuge and was later heavily fortified as a military stronghold, it is too high to be a normal acropolis and so the city lay by the springs at its northern foot, some two to three miles from the sea. The area was occupied continuously from the Late Neolithic but during the Late Bronze Age seems to have been eclipsed by Korakou on the coast. As the Mycenaean civilization gradually collapsed the Dorians under the leadership according to tradition Aletes (a descendant of Heracles), migrated into the area in about the eleventh century BC and occupied Corinth.

The sixth king of the Aletes Dynasty was named Bacchis and his descendants were the Bacchiadae, under whom Corinth founded Corcyra (c.733 BC) off the northwest coast of Greece, and Syracuse (also c.733 BC) on the east coast of Sicily; led the way in shipbuilding and naval warfare; and developed a great pottery industry. With trade augmented by taxes and transit tolls on freight crossing their Isthmus, Corinth became one of the wealthiest city-states in all of Greece.  It was also around this time that Corinth annexed part of the northern Isthmus from Megara.

Corcyra became a hostile competitor and heavily defeated its mother city in a naval Battle at Sybota in c.664 BC. About 657 BC the Bacchiad Dynasty was overthrown by tyrant Cypselus (r.c.657-c.625 BC), whose most lasting and valuable political legacy was the western expansion achieved by the founding of colonies at Leucas, Ambracia and Anactorium on the route to Italy and Sicily.

Cypselus' son Periander (r.c.625-c.585 BC) laid a dragway (diolkos) across the Isthmus to allow ships to be dragged from one gulf to the other, and levied dues for its use. Corcyra was brought under control, while new Corinthian colonies were founded c.600 BC at Apollonia Illyrica in Illyria and Potidaea in Chalcidice. He established links with Thrasybulus of Miletus (fl.c.590 BC) and married the daughter of Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, whom he later deposed. Periander was predeceased by his sons and was succeeded by his nephew Psammetichus (named after Periander's Egyptian ally Psammetichus II (r.595-589 BC)), who was soon deposed and replaced by a narrow oligarchy.

· Sicyon

Sicyon was a town on the Corinthian Gulf, about twelve miles (≈19 km) to the northwest of Corinth. The city and the main area of occupation were located in a triangular coastal plain bounded by the rivers Asopus and Helisson. In 303 BC the city was destroyed by the Macedonian Demetrius-I (53; r.294-283 BC). He rebuilt the city immediately but in a better defensive position.

The city is connected with important myths. Adrastus, ultimately the only survivor of the Seven against Thebes, was expelled from Argos. He joined his mother's father Polybus at Sicyon, married his daughter and succeeded him as king before returning to Argos. The Sicyonians maintained a cult of Adrastus. After the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, Phalces, son of Temenus, the king of Dorian Argos, took possession of Sicyon, which then became subordinate to Argos.

In c.650 BC the Dorian aristocracy at Sicyon gave way to a century of tyranny under the Orthagorids: Orthagoras, Myron-I, Aristonymos, Myron II, Isodemos, Cleisthenes and Aes-chenes. Orthagoras made his reputation as a soldier, gained control of the Sicyonian frontier guards and used them to seize power. Orthagoras' brother Myron-I built the Treasury at Delphi to commemorate his Olympic victory in 648 BC.

The reign of Cleisthenes (r.c.600-c.570 BC) was marked by a strong anti-Argive Dorian movement. The three traditional Dorian tribes were given derogatory names; Argive religious entertainment was replaced by a new festival of the popular deity Dionysus, and the cult of Adrastus was spoilt by importation of relics of the rival Theban hero, Melanippus. In the First Sacred War (c.595-c.586 BC) he played a leading part in Crisa's destruction and for a while seems to have controlled the sea approach to Delphi. His daughter Agariste married Megacles (2) after her suitors had spent a year in the tyrant's palace; their son was the Athenian Cleisthenes (c.570-c.507 BC), and their granddaughter was Agariste, mother of Pericles (c.495-429 BC). In c.555 BC Aeschines was deposed by Spartan intervention, and Sicyon became Sparta's ally.

·Achaea (Patras)

Achaea is a region on the central northern coast of the Peloponnese (in ancient times it was also a place in southern Thessaly). Here it borders Corinthia to the southeast, Elis to the southwest and Arcadia to the south. Twelve small towns, including Patras, formed a state dividing this territory. Achaea sent colonists to Sybaris (c.720 BC), Croton (c.708 BC), Caulonia (c.650 BC) and Metapontum (c.650 BC) in south Italy alongside other Greeks; but remained largely isolated from the rest of the Greeks and the conflicts of the time.

·Elis (Olympia)

Elis is a region in northwest Peloponnese; bounded on the northeast by Achaea, east by Arcadia, south by Messenia and west by the Ionian Sea. Altis, the sacred enclosure of Olympia, lies at the foot of the low hill of Cronus, where rivers Alpheus and Cladius meet before they break out into a fertile bordering on the Ionian Sea. 

Olympia was the main sanctuary of Zeus in Greece. According to Pindar (c.522-c.438 BC) the Olympic festival was established by Hercules, but local belief says that the mythical Pelops (from whom the Peloponnese acquired its name; 'island of Pelops') founded it after his victory over Oenomaus, king of Pisa. The games are said to have started in the ninth century BC, but the first Olympiad was dated 776 BC.

The Altis was a walled, sacred area. The chief shrine was the altar of Zeus. The most ancient architectural remains are those of a temple to Hera built c.590 BC which was apparently constructed by Pisatians since they seem to have gained control of the sanctuary during the seventh century BC as a result of intervention by Pheidon of Argos. If so, they appear to have lost this role in c.572 BC to the larger community of Elis.

The Olympic Games were one of the four major athletic fes-tivals, the others being the Pythian (at Delphi), Isthmian (near Corinth) and Nemean (at Nemea in Corinthia). The Games at Olympia were regarded as the greatest of the four and gained their Panhellenic status two hundred years before the others. 

·Arcadia (Megalopolis)

Arcadia occupies the highlands at the centre of the Peloponnese. It borders on Achaea to the north, Elis to the northwest, Messenia to the southeast, Laconia to the south, Argolis to the east and Corinthia to the northeast. Landlocked and mountainous, ancient Arcadia was a land of villages. It therefore played little part in Greek politics, but through Mantinea and Tegea to the east it exercised considerable influence on the activities of Sparta, especially in the fifth century BC. Megalopolis was founded after the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC.

·Argolis (Argos)

The Argolis (Argolid) Peninsula lies between the Saronic and Argolic gulfs in northeast Peloponnese; bounded by Laconia in the southwest, Arcadia to the west and Corinthia to the northwest. The name 'Argolis' comes from the region's principal city during the Archaic and Classical periods, Argos.

Argos is located three miles (≈5 km) inland on the western rim of the Argive Plain on the neck of the peninsula. With its farmland and twin citadels upon the Aspis and Larissa hills Argos was a fortress and a cult centre by the Early Bronze Age. During the Mycenaean period it shared pre-eminence with the overlord city of Mycenae, just across the plain, and with nearby Tiryns.

After the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, Argos was believed to have fallen to the legendary Temenus, the eldest of the Heraclids. Early in the seventh century BC Pheidon unified the Argive Plain and occupied the island of Aegina. It was probably he that then led the Argives to a decisive victory over the Spartans at Hysiae (c.669 BC). With this success he extended Argive influence over the western regions of the Peloponnese where he presided over the Olympic Games. His successes were probably in large part due to his use of hoplite troops, the possession of which by many Greek states revolutionized their early history. His power died with him.

Towards the end of the century kingship was replaced by an aristocratic or oligarchic junta that proved to be incapable of uniting the Argolid, much less the Peloponnese. Cleisthenes of Sicyon challenged Argos' claim to regional supremacy by erasing all veneration of its hero Adrastus. Argos' only response seems to have been to elevate the Neamean Games, held at the scene of Heracles' First Labour (the killing of the Nemean Lion), at which Adrastus was especially honoured.

When in c.560 BC Argos expelled the people of the town of Nauplia the Spartans declared that they would protect other Peloponnesian states against such encroachments. In c.546 BC the Spartans invaded the Thyreatis Plain, which at that time was occupied by the Argives. When the two forces met it was agreed that three hundred men from each army would fight it out. When this limited engagement - the Battle of the Champions - proved inconclusive, a pitched battle ensued from which the Spartans emerged victorious.

In 494 BC Cleomenes-I (r.c.520-c.489 BC) landed a large army on the coast of the Argolid near Tiryns and in the ensuing Battle of Sepeia the Argive army was utterly destroyed. This victory confirmed Sparta's supremacy in Southern Greece, and the Argives were never again a major power.

·Laconia (Sparta)

Laconia (also known as Lacedaemon) in southeast Peloponnese was bounded to the north by Argolis and Arcadia, to the west by Messenia, and to the south and east by the Aegean Sea. The territory includes two mountain ranges running generally from northwest to southeast with Taygetus on the west and Parnon on the east terminating in the south at capes Tai-naron (=Matapan) and Malea respectively. The two ranges are separated by a valley that contains the Eurotas River and its tributaries forming a large and fertile piece of land. 

In the twelfth century BC a Mycenaean kingdom was destroyed. During the tenth century BC the land was resettled by the Dorians. Beginning in the ninth century BC a group of villages united to become the town of Sparta on the west bank of the Eurotas, about halfway down the valley.

During the eighth century BC the Spartans began to spread their influence further south, and by the middle of the century they had control of the whole of the Eurotas Valley. The population, pre-Dorian and Dorian alike, were reduced either to perioikoi, who retained partial independence subject to having to serve Sparta in a war, or to helots, who were bound to the soil which they cultivated for their Spartan masters.

In a great war c.743 to c.724 BC neighbouring Messenia was conquered and much of its population helotized. This conquest seems to have caused a dispute with the Partheniae (sons of Spartan women that had been allowed to marry perioikoi), who departed to found Taras (=Tarentum) in southern Italy in c.706 BC.

Sparta having committed herself to an agricultural future was forced to fight to retain her gains. She was successful against a Messenian revolt (c.685-c.668 BC) under their semi-legendary leader Aristomenes; but suffered a defeat by Argos at Hysiae in c.669 BC, and by Tegea in southeast Arcadia in the Battle of the Fetters (the name reflects Sparta's intention to reduce the Tegeans to helots) in c.560 BC.

Central to Sparta's history was the legendary lawgiver Lycurgus (c.800-c.730 BC?), who supposedly established both the 'Great Rhetra' and the military system which was the basis of Spartan power. The Greek poet Tyrtaeus who composed verses during the Second Messenian War does not mention Lycurgus but it is usual to date the Lycurgan reforms to shortly after the war.

In the seventh century BC Sparta, unlike other Greek states, did not institute a tyranny but retained a hereditary kingship that had two kings from separate families, the Agiads (c.930-215 BC) and Eurypontids (c.930-221 BC), ruling jointly. After the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, Sparta was supposedly given to Eurysthenes and Procles, the twin sons of Aristodemus, brother of Temenus of Argos and great-great-grandson of Hercules. The Agiads traced their descent to Eurysthenes' son Agis, while the Eurypontids traced their descent to Procles' grandson Eurypon. The Agiad line was regarded as being senior of the two, but neither could act against the veto of his colleague.

Each year ephors ('overseers'), civil magistrates, eventually five in number, were elected from the whole citizen body, probably by acclamation. They had far-reaching executive, administrative and judicial powers. In particular, they served to put a check on the kings and to limit the powers of the gerousia ('Council of Elders'). 

The gerousia consisted of twenty-eight Spartan males over sixty years of age drawn from a restricted circle of aristocratic families, together with the two kings, elected in a similar way to the ephors. It prepared the business for and presented motions to the apella ('Assembly'), with a right to a subsequent veto. It had a wide judicial competence and heard cases involving death and exile, and could even try the kings. The apella was open to all citizens and was the supreme decision-making body for matters of policy, but was limited to accepting or rejecting proposals formulated by the gerousia. 

Having reduced the inhabitants of Messenia to helots, the Spartans were faced with the difficult task of controlling a group of people who outnumbered them. This, together with the constant threat from Argos, induced the Spartans to devote their full attention to military training. From the age of seven all Spartiates (freeborn Spartan males) underwent an austere public upbringing (the agoge) followed by a lifestyle of participation in messes and in military training and service in the army. These young men did no work, except training, athletics and fighting. This one-track, cohesive system made them, for a long time, by far the best soldiers in Greece. State-owned helots worked the Spartiates' private land-holdings.

Like all other Greek city-states Sparta only gave citizen status to a limited part of the population. Women and slaves were excluded, as were the perioikoi and helots. After Lycurgus, the Spartiates were referred to as homoioi ('Equals' or 'Like Ones'). This equality referred to their equal position in the hoplite phalanx and their equal vote in the apella. As the aristocracy had not been very successful in their wars against Messenia and Argos, the hoplites had very early been able to get their own way in Sparta.

As part of their initiation young Spartiates could be selected for the krypteia, the Spartan secret police. Every autumn, according to Plutarch, the ephors would declare war on the helot population. The kryptes were sent out into the countryside with only a knife to survive on their skills and cunning with the instructions to kill any helot they encountered at night and to take any food they needed.

The Spartan ephor Chilon (556/5 BC) was the first to 'yoke the ephors alongside the kings'; presumably to increase their powers in some unrecorded way. He may have helped overthrow the tyranny at Sicyon, and it seems that he also had a part in the decision to switch Spartan strategy from the pursuit of conquest and helotization to that of extending Spartan influence by gaining alliances. 

Following their defeat by Tegea in c.560 BC the Spartans, according to Herodotus, received an oracle that foretold that they could not defeat the Tegeans until they moved the bones of the legendary Orestes to Sparta. Secretly digging in Tegea they discovered bones of a very large man, which they proclaimed to have been Orestes, son of Agamemnon and master of his day of the Peloponnese. Thereafter, claiming to lead not only Dorians but also non-Dorians, the Spartans defeated Tegea in c.550 BC. 

Instead of seizing territory the Spartans chose to form a defensive alliance. This marked the inauguration of the new policy of which the main aim was the liberation of other city-states from dictators. It was also the prototype for the future treaties that Sparta was to sign with all the city-states of the Peloponnese and it led to the coalition known today as the 'Peloponnesian League' or 'Spartan Alliance'. Since, however, the league was administered by the Spartan Assembly and a congress of their allies, the ancients described it as the 'Lacedaemonians and their Allies'. 

Spartan attacks on the dictators of other cities resulted in the installation of a network of friendly oligarchies. Confident of their support, the Spartans were ready in c.546 BC to invade Argolis. The hoplite engagement that followed the inconclusive Battle of the Champions resulted in a victory for the Spartans. This success secured Sparta's borders for a generation and gained Sparta recognition as the leading power in Greece, far beyond what the size of its population warranted.

The Agiad king Cleomenes-I (Agiad; r.c.520-c.489 BC) followed a policy designed to extend Spartan suzerainty beyond the Isthmus and to crush Argos. When the Plataeans asked for help against Thebes in c.519 BC he referred their request to Athens, hoping to embroil them with Thebes. He attempted to attach Athens to the League by expelling the tyrant Hippias (r.527-510 BC; d.490 BC) in 510 BC; interfering on behalf of Isagoras against Cleisthenes in 508 BC; and by two full-scale expeditions, the first to restore Isagoras (506 BC) and the second to restore Hippias (504 BC). These attempts were frustrated by the obstruction of his colleague Demaratus    (r.c.515-c.491 BC) and the Corinthians. Argos attempted a recovery but the Argive army was ruthlessly crushed at Sepeia near Tiryns in 494 BC. When he attempted to punish Aegina for pro-Persian sympathy, he was again frustrated by Demaratus. He persuaded the Delphic Oracle to declare Demaratus illegitimate, had him deposed, and went with his new colleague Leotychidas (1) (c.76; r.491-476; d.469 BC) to arrest the Aeginetan leaders. But the intrigue went wrong and Cleomenes fled to stir up revolt among the Arcadians. Recalled to Sparta, he was imprisoned and soon met a violent end.

·Messenia (Messene)

Messenia lies in the southwest region of the Peloponnese, bounded to the west and south by the sea, to the north by Elis along the Neda River, to the northeast by Arcadia, and to the southeast by the Taygetus range with Laconia beyond. The province includes the fertile central and eastern plain watered by the Pamisus River, and a narrow coastal plain to the west.

The earliest inhabitants of Messenia were thought by the Greeks of the Classical period to have been 'Pelasgians', as with other regions of Greece. When the Hellenic tribes moved into Greece, Messenia was settled by Aeolian Greeks. The Homeric poems suggest that during the Mycenaean period, eastern Messenia was subject to Menelaus of Sparta, while the western coast was ruled by the Neleids of Pylos. Later Greeks associate Pylos with the mythical king Nestor. After the death of Menelaus, according to Strabo (c.64-00-c.24), the Neleids obtained the whole of the country. When the Dorians conquered the Peloponnese, Messenia was taken by Cresphontes, who fixed his capital at Stenyclerus.

During the Archaic period the relative wealth of Messenia due its fertile soil and favourable climate attracted the attention of the neighbouring Spartans. The First Messenian War (c.743-c.724 BC) ended with the subjugation of Messenia by Sparta. When a Messenian uprising (c.685-c.668 BC) two generations later failed, the Messenians were reduced to helots. The Third Messenian War (464-455 BC), after the great earthquake of 464 BC, terminated in the surrender of the stronghold of Mount Ithome after a long siege. It was only after the defeat of the Spartans at Leuctra in 371 BC by the Theban general Epaminondas (c.418-362 BC) that Messenia was liberated and established its capital at Messene.

Cyclades

· Naxos

Naxos is the largest island (430 km2) in the Cyclades. It colonized Amorgos c.900 BC and joined Chalcis in founding Sicilian Naxus in 734 BC. Naxos was governed by nobles and then by oligarchs until disputes about their increasing wealth incited one of their number, Lygdamis (r.c.545-c.524 BC), to seize power as tyrant with the help of his ally Pisistratus of Athens (r.c.561*527 BC). At the peak of its power, following the overthrow of Lygdamis by a Spartan army, Naxos dominated the Cyclades, including its enemy Paros, allegedly with 8000 hoplite infantry and a formidable fleet.

In c.502 BC aristocrats exiled from Naxos by a rising of the people, persuaded Aristagoras (r.c.505-496 BC), the deputy tyrant of Miletus, to promote an expedition, with Persian support, against Naxos. In 499 BC the Naxians withstood the Persian siege. Fear of the consequences of his failure led Aristagoras to raise the Ionian revolt (499-494 BC).

In 490 BC the Persians sacked Naxos for its part in the Ionian revolt. In 480 BC Naxian triremes defected to the Greek fleet at the Battle of Salamis. In c.467 BC Naxos was the first to revolt from the Delian League (478-454 BC), but was subsequently reduced to tributary status. Later, in 450 BC, an Athenian cleruchy was imposed.

· Paros

Paros is the second largest island (195 km2) in the Cyclades. It lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about five miles (≈eight km) wide. It was settled by Ionians in the tenth century BC. In the seventh century BC it colonized Thasos. Frequently at odds with Naxos, in 490 BC Paros provided the Persians with a trireme, and when the Athenian general Miltiades (c.550-489 BC) led a retaliatory expedition the island resisted successfully. After the Battle of Salamis the islanders were subjected to a heavy indemnity.

· Delos

Delos is a small island (3.43 km2) in the Cyclades. Its pre-Hellenic inhabitants were displaced by colonists from continental Greece before c.1000 BC. Traditionally the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, Delos eventually became the second greatest sanctuary of Apollo, after Delphi. In an attempt to assert Athenian leadership over the Ionians, Pisistratus purified the sanctuary in 543 BC by removing the surrounding tombs, and Polycrates of Samos (c.546-522 BC) held public ceremonies there. After the Persian wars (499-449 BC) it was the natural place for placing the treasury of the Delian League (478-454 BC), until it was removed by Athens in 454 BC. 

Eastern Aegean

·Ionia

Ionia was a narrow strip of land on the central part of coastal western Asia Minor, from Phocaea in the north near the mouth of the Hermus River, to Miletus in the south near the mouth of the Meander River, and included the islands of Chios and Samos. It was bounded by Aeolis to the north, Lydia to the east and Doris to the south.

··Chios

Chios is the fifth largest Greek island (842 km2), some five miles (7 km) off the west coast of Asia Minor and separated from the mainland by the Chios Strait. Little is known about its prehistoric population. It was colonized by Ionians from Euboea in the ninth century BC. In archaic times Chios controlled the neighbouring islets of Oinousses and Psara. Chios fought against Erythrae on the Asiatic mainland (where the Chians had land) and against Samos (Is) to the south. On the fall of Lydia in 546 BC Chios was not incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC), as the Persians had no navy, but apparently came to terms. Chios joined the Ionian revolt in 499 BC, contributing a hundred ships to the naval Battle at Lade in 494 BC, for which it was punished with destruction and enslavement. After the Persian wars, Chios encouraged the Athenians to set up the Delian League.

··Samos

Samos is the ninth largest Greek island (477 km2) and is separated from the west coast of Asia Minor by the Samos/Mycale Strait, which at its narrowest is about one mile (≈1.6 km) wide opposite Mount Mycale on the mainland. Samos' relief is dominated by two large mountains: Mount Kerkis (1434 metres) in the west; and Mount Ampelos (1095 metres), occupying the centre of the island. Excavations have revealed that people, some of whom were probably Mycenaean, were living on Samos before Ionian Greeks arrived from Epidauria in Argolis about 1100 to 1000 BC. The capital city, also called Samos (later Tigani; now Pythagoreio), was located in the southeast lowlands, opposite the coast of Asia Minor. Outside the ancient city was the important temple of Hera. Profiting from the island's fertile soil and exploiting its position at the junction of the great trade sea-routes between the Black Sea, Asia Minor, and Egypt, by the eighth century BC Samos was one of the leading commercial centres of Greece.

Samos played an important part in the Greek expansion through seaborne trade and colonization during the 800s to 500s BC. Samian colonies included Nagidos and Celenderis (both 6th century BC) in Cilicia; Perinthos, Bisanthe and Heraion Teichos (all 6th century BC?) on the north shore of the Propontis; Samothrace (7th century BC) in the northeast Aegean; and Amorgos (c.630 BC) in the eastern Cyclades.

Samos developed into a very potent sea power, challenging the Milesian thalassocracy. During the Lelantine War (c.710-c.650 BC), a war that started with a conflict between the two Euboean cities of Eretria and Chalcis, Miletus and its colonies, along with Chios, sided with Eretria, whereas Samos sided with Chalcis. Samian forces also assisted the Spartans in a war, presumably the second, against Messenia.

The early political history of Samos is somewhat obscure: Phoibias is said to have been elected dictator, and Demoteles to have become sole ruler. When Demoteles was assassinated by a group called the geomoroi ('landowners') took over. Plutarch tells that following a successful war against the Megarians, the victorious generals used Megarian prisoners to overthrow the geomoroi.

In c.538 BC Polycrates (r.c.538-c.522 BC) with his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson seized Samos, but he soon killed Pantagnotos, exiled Syloson and made himself tyrant. Setting himself to acquire power and wealth he collected a large fleet containing a hundred penteconters and occupied several neighbouring islands and some towns on the mainland; waged war against Miletus; and after making an alliance with Ahmose II of Egypt (r.570-526 BC) for a time rendered Samos one of the most powerful Greek states.

Shortly after the accession of the next Egyptian king Psammetichus III (r.526-525 BC), Polycrates switched his allegiance and sent forty triremes to help the Persian king Cambyses II (r.530-522 BC) in his expedition against Egypt. This cost him little because he manned the ships with disgruntled opponents. The crews saw through his plan and turned round before they reached Egypt. They made their way to Greece where they persuaded Sparta and Corinth to send an expedition against him. In c.525 BC, the expedition landed in Samos, but it had to withdraw after besieging the city for forty days.

Oroetes, who had been satrap of Sardis since the time of Cyrus II (c.46; r.559-530 BC), planned to kill Polycrates either because he had been unable to add Samos to Persia's territory or because he had supposedly snubbed a Persian ambassador. When Oroetes pretended to be plotting against Darius-I (c.64; r.522-486 BC), Polycrates, believing that Oroetes would help him establish a naval empire, allowed himself to be lured to the satrap's court. But once there he was murdered and his body hung on a cross.

Following the death of Polycrates, his deputy Maeandrius denounced tyranny and offered the Samians isonomie ('political equality'), later a widespread democratic slogan, in return for comparatively moderate reward for himself. Telesarchus, representing the aristocrats, confronted Maeandrius, asserting that he was not fit to rule. Maeandrius, fearing an opposition movement, arrested a number of aristocrats, and his brother later put them to death. 

Five or six years after Polycrates' death a Persian expedition was sent to Samos with the intent to install Polycrates' exiled brother Syloson as a puppet ruler. The Samians initially agreed to come to terms but when they resisted the Persian commander Otanes allegedly killed the entire population and handed over 'an empty island' to Syloson, but Otanes repopulated the island soon afterwards. 

In 499 BC Samos joined the revolt against Persia but at the decisive naval Battle at Lade in 494 BC part of its contingent of sixty ships deserted to the Persians. In 480 BC Samian crews fought on the Persian side in Xerxes' invasion of Greece. In 479 BC the Samians helped Athens at the Battle of Plataea and remained a faithful ally until 440 BC when they seceded from the Athenian Empire (454-404 BC).

··Miletus

Miletus was the southernmost of the mainland cities of Ionia, lying close to its border with Caria, and in ancient times situated at the mouth of the Meander River. Its four harbours and strategic position on the west coast of Asia Minor made the city a vital port in both peace and war. However, due to silting by the river, the ruins of the city are now about eight kilometres (≈5 miles) from the sea; and the island of Lade once off the west coast of Asia Minor, is now merely a hill four miles (≈6 km) west of Miletus.

The Milesians said they were of partly Cretan origin and successive strata of Minoan and Mycenaean settlement supports their claim. According to Homer, the Milesians were Carians and fought against the Achaeans at Troy. Neleus, son of Codrus, is said to have founded the Ionian settlement.

Milesians founded colonies on the Bosporus and all around the Black Sea and its approaches, including Cyzicus (756 BC), Trapezus (756 BC), Abydos (675 BC), Istrus (656 BC),Sinope (631 BC), Pontic Olbia (647 BC), Panticapaeum (600 BC), Amisos (564 BC), Phasis and Tomis (both 6th century BC). Milesians also took a leading part in the establishment of the Greek trading settlement at Naucratis in Egypt c.630 BC.

Miletus was an attractive target for nearby Lydia, whose king Gyges (r.680-644 BC) attacked Miletus and Smyrna, presumably unsuccessfully, and captured Colophon. He seems to have reached an agreement with Miletus, because he is said to have allowed Miletus to colonize Abydos on the Troad. His son Ardys II (r.c.652-c.624 BC) attacked Miletus and seized nearby Priene. Argys' son Sadyattes (r.c.624-c.610 BC) invaded Miletus regularly. Sadyattes' son Alyattes II (r.c.610-c.560 BC) invaded Milesian territory every year, plundering the trees and crops before retiring.

Miletus, however, was well fortified and its control of the seas allowed the importation of grain from Egypt and elsewhere. After successfully resisting a number of annual assaults the Milesian tyrant Thrasybulus (fl.c.590 BC) made a treaty of friendship and alliance with Alyattes.

Plutarch says that Thrasybulus was followed by two more tyrants, Thoas and Damasenor, and then two opposing parties held the city: Ploutis ('rich'), also known as Aeinautai ('perpetual sailors'), and Cheiromacha ('labour'). Herodotus reports that after a long period of stasis ('civil strife') between the two factions the Parians were invited to adjudicate the situation and enforced a moderate government. But in c.550 BC Miletus and most of Ionia was subjugated by the Lydian king Croesus (c.48; r.c.560-546 BC).

Following the overthrow of Croesus by Cyrus II (c.46; r.559-530 BC), Miletus came under the control of the Persians, whose general Harpagus treated the city with favour. Histiaeus (d.494 BC), the tyrant of Miletus, made himself useful to the Persians during their Scythian campaign (c.513/2 BC). He was subsequently awarded with the fortress of Myrcinus on the coastal road of western Thrace, near to the mouth of the Strymon River. But Darius-I (r.522-486 BC) became suspicious of Histiaeus' loyalty and summoned him to Susa.

Aristagoras (r.c.505-496 BC), Histiaeus' son-in-law, was left in control of Miletus. He had recently lost favour with the Persians though his sponsoring an unsuccessful expedition to Naxos. Fearing the consequences he resigned the dictatorship and restored freedom to Miletus in a bid to gain popular support. He then crossed to the Greek mainland to get help for the rebellion that he and Histiaeus now planned to launch against the Persians. Sparta declined to assist at all. Athens sent twenty ships and Eretria sent five.

The revolt initially met with success but it could not be sustained against Darius' massive forces. Before the final failure of the revolt, Aristagoras went to Myrcinus where he was killed in a battle against the Thracians. In 494 BC the Persian fleet won a resounding victory at Lade. Hisiaeus was captured and executed. Miletus fell to the Persians and the city was sacked amid enormous casualties followed by deportations. 

·· Ephesus

Ephesus, located on the south side at the mouth of the Cayster (=Kucuk Menderes) River, enjoyed similar advantages to those of Miletus just thirty miles (≈48 km) to the south, i.e. it was at the junction of major land-trade routes of Asia Minor and important sea-trade routes between the Black Sea, the Near East and mainland Greece. Through centuries of silting Ephesus is now located six miles (≈10 km) inland.

According to Strabo, the earliest inhabitants of Ephesus were Leleges and Carians. Sometime around the beginning of the first millennium BC a settlement was established at Ephesus by Ionian Greeks, said to be led by Androclus, son of the Athenian king Codrus. Ephesus adopted the worship of a local goddess identified with Artemis; her first temple was destroyed by the Cimmerians in the seventh century BC.

Around 600 BC the city's oligarchic government gave way to a line of tyrants. In c.560 BC the Lydian king Croesus (c.48; r.c.560-546 BC) conquered the city, moved its inhabitants south to an area southwest of the hill Ayasoluk. A new temple was built for the worship of Artemis. In 547 BC the Ephesians came under Persian rule. They joined the Ionian revolt in 499 BC and gained their independence at the end of the Persian wars in 479 BC. Ephesus joined the Delian League in 478 BC but revolted in c.412 BC to side with Sparta.

··Smyrna

The first ancient Greek settlement of Smyrna was founded about the tenth century BC on the northeastern shore of the Gulf of Smyrna, in what is now Bayrakli, a suburb of modern Izmir. Aeolian Greeks established themselves here on the site of an earlier Anatolian settlement, but were themselves soon replaced by Ionian Greeks. From this time in Smyrna was considered part of Ionia, though it was not incorporated into the Panionium, or organization of the original twelve Ionian cities until the third century BC. After its capture by Alyattes II of Lydia (r.c.610-c.560 BC) in c.600 BC Smyrna ceased to exist as city until it was refounded on a new site by Alexander the Great (32; r.336-323 BC) or his successors Antigonus-I Monophthalmus ('one-eyed') (c.81; r.306-301 BC) and Lysimachus (79; r.305-281 BC).

··Phocaea

Phocaea was the northernmost of the Ionian cities, positioned on a headland flanked by two natural harbours. With the soil insufficient for their needs the Phocaeans took to the sea. The colonization of the French and Spanish coasts was mostly their doing: notably at Massilia (=Marseille, France) in c.600 BC, Emporion (=Empuries, Catalonia, Spain) in c.575 BC and Elea (=Velia, Campania, Italy) in c.535 BC, with lesser trading ports such as Alalia (=Aleria, on the central east coast of Corsica) in c.560 BC on the way. Herodotus tells us that the Phocaeans had close contacts with Arganthonius, king of Tartessus in southern Spain.

In 540 BC, when Phocaea was besieged by a Persian army under Harpagus, most of the citizens rejected submission and chose instead to emigrate. Some may have fled to Chios, others to their colonies on Corsica and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, with some returning to Phocaea. 

The rulers of Caere, the leading maritime city of the Etruscans, and also the Carthaginians, felt that their interests in Corsica (and Sardinia) were threatened by the Phocaean settlers. In c.537 BC at the resulting naval Battle of Alalia, the Phocaeans were successful against a fleet twice their size, but suffered such heavy losses that the survivors had to leave Corsica. They first took refuge at Rhegium but subsequently moved on to found Elea in southern Italy.

In 499 BC the Phocaeans who had returned to their old town joined in the revolt against Persian rule. Phocaea, though, was much weakened and could only contribute three ships to the Ionian fleet at the Battle of Lade in 494 BC.

·Aeolis

Extending from the entrance of the Hellespont to the mouth of the Hermus, Aeolis was the northernmost region of the western coast of Asia Minor to be colonized by migrant Greeks. Around the 900s BC the island of Lesbos was colonized by Aeolians from Thessaly and Boeotia. In the following centuries Aeolian expeditions colonized the northwest Asia Minor coast. The major city of mainland Aeolis was Cyme.

··Lesbos (Mytilene)

Lesbos is the third largest Greek island (1633 km2), separated from mainland Turkey by the Mytilini Strait which at its narrowest is about six miles (≈10 km) wide. The five original Lesbian cities ('pentapolis') comprised Eresus (west), Antissa (northwest), Methymna (north), Mytilene (southeast), and the previously Mycenaean township of Pyrrha (central).

Mytilene was the strongest city-state, though it never completely dominated the others. The poet Alcaeus (c.620-6th century BC), an alleged lover of Sappho (c.630-6th century BC), provides us with a contemporary glimpse of the political events in his city during his lifetime. 

Mytilene was ruled by the Penthilidae, who claimed descent from Penthilus, a son of Orestes. Sometime during the late seventh century BC the Penthilids were overthrown and rival factions of the aristocracy contended with each other for supreme power. To put an end to this strife, Melanchrus, a noble himself, was set up to rule in 612 BC and became the first tyrant of Mytilene. Melanchrus was deposed by Pittacus (c.640-568 BC) and the older brothers of Alcaeus. 

The people of Mytilene then put Pittacus in charge of their army in a struggle against the Athenians in a territorial dispute over Sigeum on the Hellespont and subsequently Pitticus gained renown for killing the Athenian commander Phrynon (c.607 BC) in single combat. Pittacus, though the hero, still did not seize absolute power. A nobleman Myrsilus was appointed the second tyrant instead.

When Myrsilus died c.597 BC Pittacus was awarded, perhaps in c.590 BC, an appointment as aesymnetes ('arbitrator' or 'umpire'). After ten years of reforms he retired to private life, his wisdom causing him to be numbered among the Seven Sages of Greece (c.620-550 BC).

In c.546 BC Pisistratus of Athens (r.c.561*527 BC) seized Sigeum from Mytilene. Periander of Corinth (r.c.625-c.585 BC) later arbitrated the possession of Sigeum in favour of Athens. In c.522 BC Mytilene and the rest of the island fell to the advancing Persians. The Mytileneans participated in the doomed Ionian revolt and after the Persian wars they became members of the Delian League.

Black Sea

The Black (=Euxine) Sea connects through to the Mediterranean via the Bosporus (=Istanbul Strait), the Sea of Marmara (=Propontis) and the Dardanelles (=Hellespont). These waters separate eastern Europe and western Asia. The Black Sea is bordered by Bulgaria and Romania on the west, Ukraine on the north, Russia and Georgia on the east, and Turkey on the south. Crimea to the north is a peninsula and separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov (=Lake Maeotis), which are connected by the Kerch Strait (=Cimmerian Bosporus).

·Sinope

Sinope, founded by the city of Miletus in the seventh century BC, is situated at almost the midpoint of the south shore of the Black Sea. Located on an easily defended peninsula with two good harbours and close to the shortest crossing of the Black Sea, Sinope developed as a prosperous port of the caravan route between the Euphrates and the Black Sea. Sinope was destroyed by the Cimmerians and rebuilt before 600 BC. In c.436 BC it was freed from its tyrant Timesileos by Pericles (c.495-429 BC) and received a contingent of six hundred men to consolidate Athenian influence in 436 BC.

·Trapezus

Trapezus (=Trabzon) on the southeast corner of the Black Sea is generally assumed to have been founded by Milesian colonists from Sinope, traditionally in 756 BC. It was founded as an emporium to give access to the mineral wealth of eastern Pontus and the east Anatolian kingdom of Urartu. The Cimmerians captured it and used it as a base until they were defeated by the neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (r.668-631 BC). Cyrus II (c.46; r.559-530 BC) captured the city c.546 BC.

· Olbia

Olbia was founded in 647 BC by the Milesians on the northwest corner of the Black Sea on the right (west) bank and near the mouth of the Hypanis (=Southern Bug) River in Ukraine. It gained early prosperity from the export of wheat and was the terminus for a major trade route into central Europe. Olbia soon extended its influence and founded numerous small settlements on the lower reaches of the Bug. Particularly important was the island of Berezan. 

Southern Italy

·Ischia (Pithecusae)

The island of Ischia lies about thirty kilometres from the city of Naples. Greek colonization of Sicily and southern Italy began during the eighth century BC. In c.775 BC the first such settlement was established at Pithecusae on Ischia by Chalcidians and Eretrians. Throughout the second half of the eighth century BC it served as a vital staging post for trade with Etruria and access to the metal-rich region of northwest Tuscany. By the late 700s BC Pithecusae had been largely abandoned; one cause may have been the Lelantine War. 

·Cumae

In c.740 BC Euboeans founded Cumae on the mainland opposite Pithecusae. It was the earliest colony on the Italian mainland and dominated coastal Campania from c.700 to 474 BC, founding in turn Zancle (=Messana; c.730 BC), Neapolis (=Naples; c.600 BC) and Dicaearchia (=Puteoli; c.531 BC).

In 524 BC a Cumaean aristocrat Aristodemus (c.60; r.504-c.490 BC) checked Etruscan advance into Campania. In c.505 BC he combined forces with the Latins and defeated an Etruscan army led by Arruns, the son of Lars Porsenna, at Aricia. Aristodemus returned to Cumae and succeeded in making himself tyrant. To gain popularity he abolished the oligarchy. Later he harboured Tarquinius Superbus (r.535-509; d.495 BC) after the Battle of Lake Regillus (c.496 BC). Aristodemus was eventually overthrown by a new generation of aristocrats who reinstated aristocratic rule.

· Sybaris and Croton

In antiquity Calabria, the long narrow peninsula that forms the 'toe' of southern Italy, was known as Bruttium: Chalcis founded Rhegium on the southern tip of the peninsula (c.730-c.720 BC; and Achaea founded Sybaris (c.720 BC) on the 'instep', Croton (c.708 BC) on the 'sole' and Metapontum (c.650 BC) on the 'arch' of the southern coast.

Around 570 BC, together with Croton and Metapontum, Sybaris destroyed Siris (a colony founded by Colophon c.680 BC). In the final years of the sixth century BC civil strife in Sybaris gave the Crotoniates the opportunity to strike against their powerful neighbour. In 510 BC Sybaris suffered an irremediable defeat. The Crotoniates plundered the city and laid it to waste. One source says that the site was then obliterated by diverting the Crathis River over it.

Sicily

Sicily, separated from mainland Italy by the Messina Strait, is the largest island (25,700 km2) in the Mediterranean. At 3320 metres (≈10,890 ft) high, Mount Etna on the east coast is the tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world. Ancient writers distinguished three indigenous peoples - Siculi (who gave their name to Sicily) in the east, Sicani (from whom Sicania, Sicily's name in the Odyssey, was derived) in the centre, and Elymi (believed to be of Trojan origin) in the west of Sicily. 

During the Late Bronze Age (later second millennium BC) Mycenaean traders visited Sicily and the Lipari Islands to the northeast. From the eighth century BC onwards the Phoenicians and Greeks established trading settlements along the coast of the island. According to tradition the earliest Greek colony was Naxus beneath Mount Etna, said to be established by settlers from Chalcis and Naxos in c.734 BC. Within a few years Naxus was strong enough to found Catana and Leontini on the east of the island (c.729 BC).

The first wave of Greek colonization of Sicily continued with the founding of Syracuse by Corinth in c.733 BC, Zancle (=Messana) by Cumae/Chalcis in c.730 BC, Megara Hyblaea by Megara in c.728 BC, and Gela by Rhodes/Crete in c.688 BC. These in turn planted their own colonies - Himera by Syracuse in c.649 BC, Selinus by Megara Hyblaea in c.628 BC, and Acragas by Gela in c.580 BC.

· Syracuse

Syracuse is located on the southeast coast of the island. The founders of the city were led by the quasi-mythological oecist (founder) Archias. The original foundation was established on the offshore island of Ortygia, but almost immediately the settlement spread to the mainland opposite; the two being joined by an artificial causeway.

The original Greek settlers of the city formed the gamoroi, the ruling group of large landholders, while the native Siculi worked the land as an oppressed class. In 492 BC after Hippocrates (r.498-491 BC), tyrant of Gela, defeated the Syracusans in a battle at the Helorus River, the gamoroi were expelled in a democratic revolution.

In 485 BC Gelon (r.491-485 BC), tyrant of Gela, gained control of Syracuse (r.485-478 BC) by supporting the exiled gamoroi and made the city his capital. Syracuse under the tyranny of Gelon and his brother Hieron-I (r.478-467 BC) became a major military power, which won victories over the Carthaginians at Himera (480 BC) and the Etruscans at Cumae (474 BC). Soon after the death of Hieron the tyranny was replaced by a democracy, but Syracuse lost her empire.

·Gela

Gela is located on the southwest coast of the island. The founders were led by the oecists Antiphemus of Rhodes and Entimus of Crete. Pantares, a leading citizen of Gela, was the first Sicilian to win at Olympia, probably the chariot race of 508 BC. In 505 BC the oligarchy of Gela was overthrown by Pantares' son Cleander (r.505-498 BC). When Cleander was assassinated his brother Hippocrates (r.498-481 BC) assumed power. The two brothers had defensive walls constructed on the northern side of the town and built up the army, particularly its cavalry. Within seven years Hippocrates had conquered most of eastern Sicily. After defeating the Syracusans at the Heloris River (492 BC) he was restrained by Corinthian and Corcyraean intervention from occupying Syracuse itself. 

 Hippocrates died fighting against the Siceli near Hybla Heraea (Ragusa). His cavalry commander Gelon (62; r.491-485 BC) dispossessed Hippocrates' sons and seized the tyranny of Gela for himself. In 485 BC by supporting exiled land-owners he gained control of Syracuse (r.485-478 BC) and founded the Deinomenid Dynasty (485-465 BC), named after his father Deinomenes. Gela's pre-eminence ended when Gelon transferred his capital to Syracuse and forced many Geloans to go with him; his brother Hieron-I (r.478-467 BC) exiled many others. After 466 BC the Geloans were allowed to go home and the city began to prosper once more.

North Africa

North Africa describes the strip of land between the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean, stretching from the Moroccan Atlantic coast to Egypt. The Phoenicians developed a large presence in North Africa with colonies between Tripoli and the Atlantic, including the one at Carthage.

·Cyrene

Cyrene in northeast Libya was founded in c.630 BC by Dorian Greeks from Thera, led by Aristoteles. Cyrene gave its name the surrounding territory (modern Cyrenaica), and soon surpassed Thera in wealth and power to become an important early outpost of the Greek world.

Aristoteles became Cyrene's first king as Battus-I (r.c.630-c.600 BC) and founded the Battiad Dynasty (c.630-c.440 BC). The early kings of Cyrene were alternately called Battus and Arcesilaus. Of Battus' son Arcesilaus-I (r.c.600-c.683 BC) little is known. Under Battus II (r.c.583-c.560 BC) an oracle delivered at Delphi encouraged people from various parts of Greece to settle in Cyrene. But the influx of new settlers dispossessed many Libyans of their land. War broke out and a native force sent by Apries of Egypt (r.589-570 BC) to help the Libyans was defeated at Irasa in c.570 BC).

Arcesilaus II (r.c.560-c.550 BC) quarrelled so seriously with his brothers that they left Cyrene to found Barca. The dissident brothers persuaded local Libyans to declare on Arcesilaus, who was defeated in battle and later murdered by his brother Learchus. Following unrest under Battus III (r.c.550-c.530 BC) the king's power was limited by the constitutional changes set out by Demonax of Mantinea (c.550 BC).

Arcesilaus III (r.c.530-c.515 BC) failed in an attempt to reverse the reforms of Demonax and had to flee abroad. He tried to return by force but was later murdered at Barca. During his time he had submitted to Cambyses II (r.530-522 BC), after the latter's conquest of Egypt. Arcesilaus' son Battus IV (r.c.515-c.465 BC) apparently had a peaceful reign and Cyrene became a wealthy town. Battus' son Arcesilaus IV (r.c.465-c.440 BC) was deposed by a democratic revolution.

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