Week 3 - Colonization

Colonization and the Expanding Greek World

Causes of colonization

Land Shortages - overpopulation and division of kleroi

Political discontent

Trade and trade routes

Colonization as Polis Formation

Phoenician foundation of Carthage - 814 BCE

Earliest Greek Settlement in the West - 775 BCE - Pithecusa in the Bay of Naples

Greek Western Colonies – Magna Graecia

Naxos on Sicily - 735 BCE (Chalcis)

Foundations of Corcyra and Syracuse - 734BCE (Corinth)

Foundations of Katane (Chalcis), Leontini (Naxos), Megara Hyblaea (Megara), Sybaris (Achaea), Zancle (Chalcis), Taras/Tarentum (Sparta), Kroton (Achaea) - 728-700 BCE

Foundations of Metapontum (Achaea) 650 BCE, Poseideion (Sybaris) 620 BCE, Selinus (Megara Hyblaea) 600 BCE

Northern Aegean

Thasos (Paros) – 682 BCE

Potidaea (Corinth) – 600 BCE

Abdera (Teos) – 545 BCE

Hellespont and Black Sea

Chalkedon (Megara) – 687 BCE

Cyzicus (Miletus) – 676 BCE

Byzantium (Megara) – 660 BCE

Olbia (Miletus) – 646 BCE

Heraclea Pontica (Megara) – 560 BCE

Colonization and Trade

- important trade routes and trading partners

- emporia: Al Mina in Syria and Naukratis in Egypt

Know on the map:

Abdera, Acragas, Al Mina, Byzantium, Camarina, Chalkedon, Corcyra, Corinth, Cumae, Cyrene, Elea, Euboea, Gela, Heraclea Pontica, Himera, Katane, Kroton, Leontini, Locri Epizephyri, Megara Hyblaea, Metapontum, Naukratis, Olbia (in Black Sea), Poseideion, Rhegion, Selinus, Sybaris, Syracuse, Taras, Thasos, Zancle

Colonization Narratives

- pattern of crisis, oracle, foundation

- Founder (Oikist) As Transgressive Hero

- prefoundation myths to justify conquest

- examples of Syracuse, Cyrene, and Tarentum

Organization of Colonies

- land distribution – kleros

- lawgivers and founding heroes

Zaleukos of Locri Epizephyri and Charondas of Rhegium

- nonurban sanctuaries

- boundaries with the barbarians – men and women in the colonies

Early Greek Lyric

Archilochus (680-640 BCE) - colonizer of Thasos

"I am two things: a fighter who follows the Master of Battles, and one who understands the gift of the Muses' love."

"Some barbarian is waving my shield, since I was obliged to leave that perfectly good piece of equipment behind under a bush. But I got away, so what does it matter? Let the shield go; I can buy another equally good."

Alcman - late 7th century in Sparta - Partheneia

Stesichorus - born in the 37th Olympiad (632-629) and died in the 56th Olympiad (556-553)

born in Mataurus in Southern Italy, but went with his father and brothers to the colony of Himera in Sicily

The name Stesichorus means 'he who establishes the chorus' and he is credited with being one of the first choral lyric poets, perhaps the first to set dances for the chorus - his original name is said to have been Teisias.

Ibycus of Rhegium - floruit 61st Olympiad (536-3 BCE) - choral lyric and erotic poetry

Sappho - (c. 620-550 BCE) on the island of Lesbos - lyric monody, erotic poetry, wedding songs

Non-Hesiodic Theogonies

Orphic Theogonies

Derveni Papyrus (5th century BCE??)

Eudemus (5th century BCE??)

Aristophanes' Birds (5th century BCE)

Hieronymus/Hellanicus (3rd or 2nd century BCE)??

Rhapsodies (2nd century CE??)

Alcman - Poros (Way) and Tekmor (sign); Thetis (maker? or sea nymph?)

Pherekydes - mid-sixth century BCE - Zas and Chthonie, Kronos

"Pre-Socratic" Philosophy

Thales fl. 585 in Miletus

Anaximander fl. 560 in Miletus

Anaximenes fl. 546 in Miletus

Heraclitus (floruit 69th Olympiad - 504-501 BCE) from Ephesus in Ionia,

Parmenides - fl. 475 in Elea - pupils were Zeno and Melissus

Anaxagoras - fl. 460 in Clazomenae in Ionia

Empedokles - (circa 495-435 BCE) in Southern Italy - Akragas and Thurii,

4 Elements at the root of things: Zeus, Hera, Hades, Nestis

Zeus = air, Hera = earth, Hades = fire, Nestis = water

2 ruling principles: Philotes (love) and Neikos (strife)

Pythagoras - fl. 530 from Samos to Croton in S. Italy

Xenophanes (c. 570 - c. 475 BCE) from Colophon in Ionia to Elea in Italy

Causes for Colonization

Plato Laws 707e-708d

ATHENIAN: Well, it is not such an easy matter for a state to deal with a settlement when it is not formed, like a swarm of bees, by the emigration of a single stock from a single territory, with friendly feeling on both sides, under the stress of insufficient territory, or the pressure of some similar necessity. Sometimes, again, one section of a community may be driven to expatriate itself by the violence of party strife, and there has been the case of a whole society going into exile because it had been utterly crushed by an overwhelming attack. Now in one way the work of settlement and legislation is the easier in all these cases, but in another the harder. The unity of descent, speech, and institutions certainly promotes friendly feeling, since it involves the community in religious ceremonies and the like, but is not readily tolerant of novel laws or a constitution different from that of the homeland, while a group which has, perhaps, been driven into faction by the badness of the laws, yet still clings, from force of habit, to the very practices which had already led to its undoing, proves recalcitrant to the founder and his legislation, and refuses obedience. On the other side, a stock due to a confluence of various elements may perhaps be more willing to submit to novel laws, but it is a difficult business, and takes a long time for it to 'breathe and blow in unison,' as the proverbial phrase has it of a pair of horses. No, in very truth to make a legislation or found a society is the perfect consummation of manly excellence.

For Next Week:

Know on the map:

Readings:

Buckley ch. 3

Herodotus Book I, III, V.67-68, 92-96, VI.121-140

Fornara # 8 (the word tyrant), 4 (Pheidon), 10 (Orthagoras), 16 (1^st Sacred War), 28 (Kroisos), 32 (Polykrates)

Greek Lyrics: Tyrtaeus and Theognis (pp. 13-16, 26-31); Bacchylides #4 (pp. 75-78)

Why were tyrants able to take power? What were the conditions that facilitated their coups?

Who were the tyrants and what was their relation to the previous power structure?

What do Herodotus’ tales of Croesus, Cyrus, and Polykrates show about the way the Greeks thought about the figure of a tyrant, both positively and negatively? How does the story of Deioces provide a contrast?

What modern figures might fit the Greek definition of a tyrant? How do military, ethnic, or economic factors create the opportunity for these figures to gain power?

Compare Herodotus with Hesiod and Homer: how do these authors recount the past? Why? How do they treat their sources?

How does Herodotus explain the start of the conflict between Persia and Greece?

Why does Herodotus tell the strange stories he tells about far-off peoples?