Crete was an island, which, from its position, should have dominated
over the whole of Greece, as it had for its neighbours the coasts of
the Peloponnesus and of Asia. The Cretans were remarkable amongst
the Hellenic nations for their institutions, which bore a singular
physiognomy. Diodorus describes all the legends relating to the Greek
divinities of whom Crete boasted to be the cradle; he then adds
that during the generations succeeding the birth of the gods, many
heroes lived in the island, the most illustrious of whom were Minos,
Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. These heroes are not truly historic, and an
exact place cannot be given to their genius and passions, but at any
rate they indicate deeds and customs which have left strong impressions
on the lives of men. Antiquity believed that Crete, even from the most
ancient period, had good laws which were imitated by many of the peoples
of Greece, and above all by the Lacedæmonians.
Before teaching Greece, Crete, for a short time, dominated over her.
The Cretans, who were an insular and warlike nation made up chiefly of
Pelasgians and Dorians, at an epoch made great by the name of Minos,
had a navy with which they were able to take possession of the greater
number of the islands belonging to Greece. They also reigned over part of
the coast of Asia Minor. They were the guardians of the sea, suppressed
the Athenian pirates and made them pay tribute. These pirates had their
revenge according to the fable of the Minotaur. The Cretans pushed on
as far as Sicily, and it was there, so goes the legend, that Minos was
killed by the daughters of King Cocalus, who suffocated their father’s
guest in a bath. A few generations later, Crete sent a fleet of eighty
vessels against Priam, a new proof of maritime greatness. About the time
when the _Odyssey_ was written, this is how Greece imagined the island
of Minos: “In the middle of the vast ocean is glorious Crete, a fertile
island, where countless men live; there are eighty-six towns,[14] which
have each a different language; they are inhabited by the Achæans, the
autochthonous Cretans, high-minded heroes, the Cydonians, the Dorians,
who are divided into three tribes, and the divine Pelasgi. In the midst
of all these people is the beautiful town of Knossos, where Minos
reigned, and every nine years had an audience with Jupiter.” Thus is the
divine or religious type of legislator formed in the mind of the Greeks
and with the double help of time and poetry the name of Minos becomes
great.
Crete was as little spared from the revolutions which Thucydides foretold
would be one of the results of the Trojan War, as the peculiar state of
her soil and customs warranted. The inhabitants, living in a mountainous
and divided country, were separated into many cantons, jealous of one
another’s independence. In Crete, as in Switzerland, nature prepared
republics. For a long time royal power succeeded in preventing the
germs of discord from bursting forth; this was in the time of Minos,
of Rhadamanthus, and of Sarpedon, when the Cretans were conquerors and
masters of the sea and possessed of a legislation inspired by the first
of all the gods. Later, everything which had helped to make a sovereign
authority gave way, the towns of Crete quarrelled internally and with
one another for individual government. This spirit of independence was
doubtless encouraged by the presence of the Greeks, who, on their return
from Troy, founded colonies on the island. Little by little, royal power,
weakened by the absence of the chiefs, who had joined the princes of the
Peloponnesus in order to attack Asia, disappeared.
Through what shocks, compromises or transitions, Crete passed from
government by kings, to an aristocratic federation, with Knossos,
Gortyna, Cydonia, and Lyctus at the head, we know not. All we know is
that several generations after the Trojan War the new government had
entirely taken the place of the old, though still invoked in the sacred
name of Minos. The Cretans thus began the great practice we so often
find in ancient days, that of placing the young generations under the
protection and genius of the ancients. Man, even with a long line of
centuries behind him, is a weak creature, and when he separates from the
ancients he adds to his nothingness.
In representing Crete with a federal and aristocratic government, these
words must not be taken in their full meaning. It was not the entire
establishment of a nation, but attempts at peace and order frequently
interrupted by revolutions. This point has often escaped modern writers,
especially Montesquieu.
Crete was a fertile chaos, from which Sparta took various principles. But
Crete itself could not benefit from them. The reason for the outbreaks
was the rivalry between the different towns. When one of them conquered
the other, the result was despotism; when they strove one against the
other without either getting a decisive advantage, the result was anarchy.
At the head of each town were ten magistrates called _cosmes_ (or
_cosmoi_), taking their name from order itself, and from the necessity of
seeing it carried out, for in every town there was always an incorrigible
inclination for plotting. The cosmes, who were the forerunners of the
Spartan _ephori_, were chosen, not from all the citizens, but from a
small number of families. As they succeeded royal authority they had its
powers, they commanded the troops, concluded treaties, and ruled over
people and things alike, with an arbitrary power. The Cretan customs
were a strange contrast to this despotism, which was the unmistakable
remains of sovereignty. When by their conduct the cosmes offended some
of their colleagues, they were driven away. When they chose they could
also abdicate. Law did not rule, but the will of man, which is not a sure
rule. The Cretans had the habit, when they reached the highest point
in their quarrels, of returning to a provisional monarchy, in order
to facilitate war between them. They lived in the midst of periodical
disputes which prevented them from ever forming a great nation.
When the cosmes came to the end of their term of office, which lasted a
year, they took a place in the assembly or senate formed of the old men
of the city. This was always the custom in antiquity, as in all youthful
nations. Thus, experience in life is called in to help govern. The old
men who had been cosmes, or had been destined to be so, exercised an
irresponsible and life-long authority, deciding all things, not according
to written laws but according to their opinions. The decisions of the
cosmes and senators were presented to a general assembly where all the
citizens met; the assembly only confirmed by vote what was proposed.
There were no discussions, a mute acquiescence was alone allowed. The
senators and cosmes were the chiefs of that army which had warriors and
labourers as body and force. This division into soldiers and labourers
was common to the Egyptians and Cretans, according to Aristotle, who
traces it back, for the former, to Sesostris and for the latter to Minos,
and the ancient discipline, adds Alexander’s tutor, remained especially
strong amongst the peasants. Like all ancient nations, the Cretans had
slaves, those serving in the country were called _chrysonetes_ and those
in the towns _amphamiotes_. Their usual name was _clarotes_, because they
were divided equally by lot, as they were prisoners of war. At Cydonia,
one of the towns of Crete, the slaves had festivals during which they
were free and powerful, and could even fight the citizens. Servitude has
always provoked orgies.
All the instincts of civilisation began to develop in Crete with great
energy. The Cretans did not like inaction, they liked hunting, wrestling,
and every kind of exercise. They lived in common and divided the fruits
of the earth. These customs and habits were at the bottom of Cretan
institutions. The legislators confirmed these customs in certain cases
and in others trained or suppressed them. The laws, called the laws of
Minos, were never written down, and changed in the course of years.
Let us enter into Lyctus, a town of Crete, and see the everyday life
of the people. Each person gave up the tenth of his productions or
possessions to help support the society of which he was a member. These
contributions were divided amongst all the families of the city by the
magistrates. The citizens were divided into little societies; the care of
the meals being in the hands of one of the women who directed the work
of three or four of the public slaves, each of whom had a water-carrier.
In each city there were two public edifices; one devoted to the serving
of meals, the other to the shelter of foreigners and strangers. In the
building for the meals were two tables, called hospitable tables, where
strangers sat. The other tables were for the use of the citizens. An
equal portion was given to each, except to the young people, who had
only half a portion of meat and touched no other food. A pitcher of wine
and water was on each table, from which everybody drank; after the meal
another pitcher was placed on the table. The children had one pitcher in
which the wine was measured, the old people and men had unlimited wine.
The women who presided at the meals chose the choicest pieces for those
who had distinguished themselves by their valour or their prudence.
After the repast, public affairs were discussed, then great actions were
related and those who had been courageous were praised and set up as
models to the young.
Warfare was the object of all the institutions. On this point Plato
and Aristotle agree. Clinias the Cretan, one of Plato’s interrogators,
wished everything to be arranged for warfare; he took trouble to have it
understood that without supremacy in battle, riches and culture in art
will be of no use, since all the treasures of the defeated pass into the
hands of the conqueror. Aristotle remarked that in Crete as in Sparta,
and among the Scythians, Persians, Thracians, and Celts, everything led
up to warfare--education, laws, customs. In Crete, the men were soldiers
living under the same discipline, eating the same food, sharing perils
and pleasure, and always ready to march or to fight. They were respected
only when they were hardy, vigorous, agile, and quick. Prudence and
repose were for old age.
As soon as the children could read, they were taught poems in which the
laws were explained, and the elements of music. They were very strictly
treated, with a severity which was never changed, no matter what the
season. Clothed in rough clothes, they ate on the ground, helping one
another and waiting upon the men. When they became older, they formed
part of different companies, each one being presided over by a youth
chosen from the highest or most powerful families. These young chiefs
led the companies out hunting and racing; they had an almost parental
authority over their companions and punished the disobedient. On certain
days the companies fought against each other; to the sound of the flute
and lyre, they attacked each other with their hands or weapons. This
drilled them in the art of warfare. The Cretan towns, like other Grecian
cities, had public buildings and gymnasiums for corporal exercises,
gymnasiums for the mind were added later.
There was a time when the disputes between the different towns were
judged by a kind of federal arbitration, but it is doubtful whether
the decisions of this tribunal were respected. However, after some
civil wars between the towns, arrangements were made, and we find some
curious remains in the principal clauses of a treaty between two towns,
Hierapolis and Priansus. Each had rights of isopolity and of marriage, of
acquiring possessions in each other’s territory, and of having an equal
share in all things, divine and human. Those who wanted to reside in the
other town could do so and could buy and sell there, lend or borrow money
and make any kind of contract according to the laws of both.
Thus without unity and always at war with one another, the Cretans never
left their island and took no part in the general affairs of Greece. They
refused to enter into the league formed against Darius, giving the excuse
that their assisting Menelaus had cost them misfortune, and recalling
the conduct of the Greeks who had not hastened to avenge the death of
Minos. These were pretexts, but the real cause was the feebleness of the
Cretans, too weak and too few to take part in any great enterprise, a
weakness which kept Crete always isolated, obscure and selfish. Polybius
was indignant at Crete being compared to Lacedæmonia; he compared the
equality of wealth and contempt of riches which reigned at Sparta to the
avarice of the Cretans who were quite unscrupulous as to their means of
becoming rich.
With the exception of the fact that the cosmes were elected yearly, we
believe Polybius is wrong in esteeming Crete a democratic state. Power
was in the hands of the senate, which was a regular oligarchy. As for the
natural faults of the Cretans, which their government rather encouraged
than corrected, time succeeded only in making them increase, and it is
not astonishing that, at the time that Polybius wrote, they deserved the
severe opinion of the historian. It would be unjust not to state with
what disfavour the Greeks looked upon them. This insular race that helped
no one and was ready to accept the pay of any nation, was hated by the
Greeks. The Cretans were called treacherous liars, and it was proverbial
that it was permitted to “cretise” with a Cretan.
Crete was renowned for two causes; it was looked upon first as the cradle
of the gods, then as the nest of sea-robbers and mercenaries. After
having shone at the beginning of Greek civilisation, its development was
interrupted before its time. Anarchy unnerved it. The bad reputation of
the Cretans at Athens was also due to the jealousy of the Athenians who
could never forgive Crete a short supremacy on the sea. When the poets
wished to please the Athenians they abused Minos and the Cretans. Nothing
is more dangerous to good fame with posterity than to have for enemy a
witty nation.[b]
BELOCH’S ACCOUNT OF GREEK COLONISATION
The scene of Grecian primitive history is practically limited to the
countries bordering the Ægean Sea. But in the period which gave rise
to the great epic poems the geographical horizon had already begun to
expand. In one of the later songs of the _Iliad_, Egyptian Thebes is
mentioned; the songs relating the wanderings of Ulysses speak of the
Cimmerians, the original inhabitants of the north coast of the Pontus,
and the clear summer nights of the north, of which the Greeks could learn
only on this coast. The _Telemachus_ speaks of Libya, beside Egypt, and
the latest songs of the _Odyssey_ show an acquaintance with the Siculi
and the land of the Sicani. No tradition has preserved the names of the
bold explorers who first ventured out into the open sea which phantasy
had peopled with all kinds of monsters and fabulous beings, and which,
in reality, concealed countless terrors and dangers. Their deeds however
lived on in the songs relating the expedition of the Argo and the
home-coming of the heroes from Troy.
The settler soon followed the explorer. The need of land had once in a
dim antiquity led the Hellenes to the islands of the Ægean Sea and to
the western coast of Asia Minor; these regions were now occupied, and
whoever found his home too narrow was obliged to seek out more distant
lands. Commercial interests played no part in these migrations at first,
because there was no industry in Greece to furnish articles for export.
People were in search of fertile districts; whether or not good harbours
were close at hand was wholly a question of secondary importance. The
division of farm lands was consequently the first business of the new
settlers; at the beginning of the fifth century the ancient citizens of
Syracuse already style themselves “land owners” (γαμόροι). Herein lies
the fundamental difference between Grecian and Phœnician colonisation.
Every Phœnician settlement was primarily a commercial establishment,
which under favourable circumstances might develop into an agricultural
colony; the Grecian settlements were originally agricultural colonies out
of which, however, in the course of time extensive commercial centres
were developed.
The oldest colonial foundations of this time were like those unorganised
expeditions which once poured out upon the islands and the shores of Asia
Minor. Such were the settlements of the Achæans and Locrians in southern
Italy. As the Greeks, however, were continually being forced out to more
distant coasts, their colonisation had to take on a different character.
The navigation of the islandless sea in the west, or even the journey
to Libya and the stormy Pontus, necessitated a degree of seamanship
greater than that possessed by the inhabitants of the agricultural coast
districts of the Grecian peninsula, from among whom the settlers of the
lands across the sea had until then gone forth. Hence Africa, Bœotia,
and Argolis ceased to take an independent part in the colonisation
movement. In their place arose cities, hardly or not at all mentioned
by Homer, which by their advantageous location had come to be centres
of navigation; Chalcis and Eretria on the Euripus, the strait which
furnishes the most convenient connection between southern Greece and
Thessaly; Megara and Corinth on the isthmus, where the two seas which
wash the shores of Greece come within a few miles of each other; Rhodes,
Lesbos, and other islands of the Ægean Sea; finally the Ionian coast
towns, especially Miletus. Not that all the colonists, who went out from
here to seek new homes on distant shores were actually at home in these
cities. On the contrary, these cities were only gathering places whither
streamed the emigrants from the surrounding regions--all those who found
no chance to advance in their old homes or who were driven abroad by
love of adventure or by dissatisfaction with political conditions. But
the cities, from which the colonising expeditions went out, organised
the undertaking; they provided leaders and ships and their institutions
served as models for the colonies.
Once founded, however, the colonies were, as a rule, wholly independent
of the mother-city. The relation between them was like that between a
father and his grown son in Grecian law. The citizen of the mother-city
was always respected in the colony; and the colony, on the other hand,
could always count on finding support with the mother-city in case of
a difficult crisis. That the colony, moreover, remained in especially
active intercourse with its mother-city lay in the nature of this
colonial relationship; and in the course of time the colonies became the
surest supports for the commerce of the mother-city and the best markets
for the productions of its industrial activity.
In consequence the recollection of this relationship was kept alive for
a long time. But the circumstances which gave rise to the foundation of
all the colonies earlier than the sixth century, remain veiled in the
darkness of tradition. Historical records were as yet far removed from
this period, and the dates of foundations which have been handed down to
us are based wholly upon calculations according to generations or upon
suppositions of even less value. Such accounts can at the most give us
only approximate clews and must in each single instance be compared with
other traditions. Only so much is certain that in the first half of the
seventh century the settlement of the southern coast of Thrace was in
full progress and the Hellenes had already established themselves upon
the gulf of Tarentum.
No other field offered the Grecian colonists such favourable conditions
as the coasts of Italy and Sicily, beyond the Ionic Sea. Situated in the
same latitude as the mother-land, these countries have a climate very
similar to that of Greece.
Intercourse between the two shores existed at an early date. Fragments
of vases in the Mycenæan style have been found in Messapia, and the
pre-Hellenic necropolis in eastern Sicily shows traces of a civilisation
which is partially under Mycenæan influence. It even appears that in
pre-historic times immigrations from the Balkan peninsula into Italy
already took place by way of Otranto. At least it is related that the
Chones once dwelt on the western coast of the gulf of Tarentum; and the
similarity of names between these people and the Epirot Chaones, the
inhabitants of the region about the Acroceraunian promontory, can hardly
be accidental. Perhaps this is connected with the fact that the Italici
designate the Hellenes as Græci, since the Græci are said to have been an
Epirot tribe, which in historic times had wholly disappeared.
Be that as it may, the Hellenes had at all events taken possession of the
eastern coast of the present Calabria, during the course of the eighth,
or at latest at the beginning of the seventh century. The new settlers
called themselves Achæans and thought they were descended from the
Achæans in the Peloponnesus. As a matter of fact their dialect is closely
related to the Argolian. The Chones of Italy have since disappeared from
history, and have probably been merged into one people with the Achæans.
The new home was called Italia, after a branch of the original population
which disappeared at an early date, and this name was gradually extended
over the whole peninsula clear to the Alps. The land offered a boundless
field for Hellenic activity, and the realisation of that fact found
expression in the name Greater Hellas, which arose in the colonial
territory across the Ionian Sea in about the sixth century, in contrast
to the crowded condition of the too thickly populated mother-land. This
may have been hyperbole, but it was in a sense justified by the brilliant
development of the Achæan settlements. The coasts of the gulf of Tarentum
became covered with a circle of flourishing cities. In the north at
the mouth of the Bradanus was Metapontum, which bore on its armour the
speaking device of an ear of corn; then came Siris in the fruitful
plain at the mouth of the river of the same name, which, to the poet
Archilochus appeared an ideal place for a colony; further south where
Crathis empties into the sea, was Sybaris, whose wealth and luxury soon
became proverbial. In close rivalry with Sybaris stood Croton, situated
near the promontory of Lacinium, on the top of which the new settlers
founded the temple of Hera, the queen of heaven, which became the chief
sanctuary for the Greeks of Italy. One column of the building is still
standing, a signal for ships, and can be seen from afar over the blue
waters of the Ionian Sea. Finally, far to the south at Cape Stilo was
Caulonia, the last of the Achæan settlements.
The Achæans soon penetrated also into the interior and through the
narrow peninsula to the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Sybaris founded
here the colonies of Scidrus and Laos, and, further north, on the lower
Silarus, Posidonia [afterwards Pæstum], whose temple to-day arises in
solemn majesty from out its desolate surroundings, the most beautiful
monument of Grecian architecture which has been preserved on the western
side of the Ionian Sea. Pyxus [afterwards Buxentum], between Posidonia
and Laos, is probably a colony from Siris, which was directly opposite
it on the Ionian Sea, and was later closely associated with it. Croton
founded Pandosia in the upper valley of the Crathis, and Terina and
Scylletium (Scylacium) on the isthmus of Catanzaro where the Ionian and
Tyrrhenian seas approach to within a few miles of each other. The Achæans
now controlled the whole region from the Bradanus and Silarus southward
to the gulf of Terina and the gulf of Scylletium, an area of fifteen
thousand square kilometres.
The Achæans were soon followed by the Locrians, who lived opposite them
on the gulf of Corinth. They founded a new Locri, south of the Achæan
settlements not far from the Zephyrian promontory. This city also soon
became rich and powerful, so that its territory was extended to the west
coast of the peninsula, where it established the colonies Hipponium and
Medma.
In the meantime the inhabitants of eastern Greece had begun to direct
their gaze to the newly discovered lands in the west--first of all the
Chalcidians, the bravest men in Hellas, as they are called in an old
proverb. Since the coast of the gulf of Tarentum was already occupied,
they sailed further, to Sicily the land famed in fable as the home of
the Cyclops and Læstrygones. These were no longer to be found there,
but instead a people of Italic race, the Siceli, or the Sicani, as they
were called in the western part of the island, a brave and warlike
people, but with no national unity so that they were unable successfully
to oppose the invaders. Here, at the foot of the lofty snow pyramid of
Ætna, the Chalcidians founded Naxos, their first settlement and the
first Hellenic town on Sicilian soil. In gratitude to the god, Apollo
Archegetes, who had brought them over the sea in safety, the settlers
erected an altar. Later on, when Sicily had become an Hellenic land, all
those who were setting sail to attend the festivals in the mother-land
used to sacrifice at this place.
From Naxos the Chalcidians soon took possession of the surrounding
region. In the south they founded Catane, Leontini, Callipolis, Eubœa; in
the north, on the strait which separates Sicily from Italy, they built
Zancle, the later Messana, or Messina, and opposite this on the mainland
Rhegium was established. Here the wide Tyrrhenian Sea was open to the
Hellenes. The precipitous western coast of the Calabria of to-day and the
waterless Liparæan Islands were not indeed attractive to settlers, but on
the small island Pithecusa (Ischia), off the coast of the Osci, was the
most favourable spot a colonist could wish--the soil being luxuriantly
fertile and at the same time secure from hostile attacks. Thus the
Calcidians established themselves here at an early date, perhaps in the
eighth century. Soon they ventured over to the near-lying continent, and
on the steep trachyte cliff, upon the flat, wave-beaten shore of the gulf
of Gæta, they founded Cumæ, so called from a place [Cyme] in the old
Eubœan home-land.
Neapolis, the “new city” was colonised from here in about the year 600,
while Samian fugitives settled at Dicæarchia [afterwards Puteoli],
in close proximity to Cumæ (in 527). The second large island of the
Neapolitan Bay, Capreæ must also have been settled by Chalcidians, since
we find a Hellenic population there even in the period of the empire.
Cumæ is the most extreme westerly point of Italy which the Chalcidians,
and indeed the Hellenes as a whole, ever possessed. It has always
remained, as it was first established, the most advanced frontier post,
and the continuous territory of Grecian colonisation in Italy ends at the
Silarus. A similar position was occupied on the southern shore of the
Tyrrhenian Sea by Himera, which was colonised from Messana in about the
year 650, and was the only Grecian city on the northern coast of Sicily.
Chalcidian colonisation in the west came to an end with this settlement.
The example given by Chalcis was soon imitated. The Corinthians in the
eighth century still occupied the rich island of Corcyra and likewise
turned their steps to Sicily. Since the region around Ætna and the
strait was already occupied by Chalcidians, they went further south and
established the colony of Syracuse upon the small island of Ortygia, in
the most beautiful harbour on the eastern coast of Sicily. This colony
was destined to become the metropolis of the Grecian west. The real
colonising activity of Corinth, however, was directed chiefly towards the
northwestern part of the Grecian peninsula. In the course of the eighth
century a dense circle of Corinthian and Corintho-Corcyræan settlements
grew up here: among them Chalcis and Molycrium in Ætolia at the entrance
to the bay of Corinth.
Like Corinth, its neighbour city Megara began at an early date to take
part in the colonisation of Sicily. A new Megara arose here, between
Syracuse and the Chalcidian Leontini, professedly in the eighth century,
at any rate before Syracuse had acquired much importance and had begun
to found colonies of its own. Its powerful neighbours made it impossible
for the city to expand towards the interior and thus the Megarians were
obliged to go further west, when their territory became too cramped for
them at home. They founded Selinus, not far from the most western point
of the island on the coast of the Libyan Sea, at about the same time that
the Chalcidians laid out Himera on the opposite coast (about 650). On
account of the fertility of the district the new colony soon reached a
high grade of prosperity and established on its own account a number of
settlements, such as Minoa, near the mouth of the Halycus (Platani) so
called from the little island of like name in the old Grecian home.
Of the other states of the Grecian mother-land only Sparta took part in
the settlement of the west. Inner disturbances which broke out after the
conquest of Messenia are said to have caused a portion of the conquered
party to leave their home. The emigrants set sail for Iapygia and
established there, upon the only good harbour on the southeast coast of
Italy, the colony of Tarentum (700 B.C.). Two centuries later, shortly
before the Persian wars, the Spartans made an attempt to establish
themselves in the west.
Sicily and Italy were too far out of the way for the Asiatic Greeks,
and they consequently held almost entirely aloof from any colonising
expeditions thither. Rhodes was an exception. At the beginning of the
seventh century its citizens, together with the Cretans, established the
colony of Gela, on the fertile depression at the mouth of the Gela, which
was the first Grecian city on the south coast of Sicily. About a century
later (in 580) this city colonised Agrigentum, which is situated farther
to the west on a steep height commanding a broad outlook, not far from
the sea. This filled the gap which had been left in the row of Grecian
cities between Gela and Selinus. At about the same time Rhodians and
Cnidians under the leadership of the Heraclid Pentathlus, tried to find
a footing on the most extreme west point of Sicily, on the promontory of
Lilybæum. But the Hellenes were here successfully opposed by the Elymi,
the original inhabitants of this part of the island, and by the citizens
of the neighbouring Phœnician colony of Motya. The new settlers and
their Selinuntine allies were beaten; Pentathlus himself fell, and the
remainder of his people were forced to take refuge on the barren Liparæan
Islands, which were thus won for the Grecians.
The distant west had been opened up to Grecian commerce even before
this. It is said to have been a Samian sailor, Colœus by name, who, on a
journey to Egypt, being carried out of his way by a storm off the Libyan
coast, was the first to reach Tartessus, the rich silver-land, lying near
the Pillars of Hercules (600 B.C.) At about the same time Ionic Phocæans
founded the colony of Massalia not far from the mouth of the Rhodanus.
This soon became a centre for the commerce of these regions and extended
its influence far into the Celtic interior. From here the Phocæans
advanced along the Iberian coast to Tartessus, where they entered into
friendly relations with the natives and established the colony of Mænaca,
which was the most westerly point the Hellenes ever held. The Phocæans
settled also on Cyrnus (Corsica). In 565 they founded Alalia on the east
coast of the island. When Ionia was forced to succumb to the Persians
after the fall of Sardis (545) a large portion of the citizens of Phocæa
left their homes and turned to their tribal kinsmen in Alalia, which thus
grew from a mere mercantile settlement into a powerful city.
These results, however, were for the most part of short duration. The
Phœnicians reached the western Mediterranean at the same time with the
Hellenes, perhaps somewhat earlier even. The northern coast of Libya
from Syrtis Major to the Pillars of Hercules was covered with a line of
their settlements, among which Carthage attained the first place in the
course of time, owing to the advantage of its incomparable location. It
was not long before they crossed over to the islands lying opposite
Africa. They occupied Melita (Malta) and Gaulos (Gozzo), and founded
Motya, Panormus, and Solus in west Sicily, probably during the seventh
century. Here the Greeks formed a barrier preventing their further
expansion. The Phœnicians, however, could spread themselves upon Sardinia
without hindrance, since the Greeks, although they may have planned to
settle there, never went seriously about it. In this way a succession
of Phœnician settlements grew up along the south and west coast of the
island--Caralis, Nora, Sulci, Tharrus and others. The Pityusæ are said to
have been colonised from Carthage in the year 654-653 B.C. The Phœnicians
had already reached the silver-land of Tartessus in the eighth century.
Their chief point of support in this region was Gades, situated on a
small island beyond the Pillars of Hercules on the edge of the ocean.
A hostile encounter with the Hellenes could now no longer be avoided
and it seems to have been the danger which threatened the Phœnicians
from this side which led their scattered settlements to unite into a
single state with Carthage as its centre, or at any rate materially
assisted Carthage in her work of unification. Above all it was necessary
to drive out the Phœnicians from their newly won position on Corsica.
The Phœnicians were aided in their attempt by the Etruscans, who, as
bold pirates, had long beforehand made themselves feared by the Greeks,
and regarded the Phocæan settlements so near their coasts with no less
anxiety than the Phœnicians themselves. The Phocæans could not withstand
the attack of the two peoples, who were the most skilful navigators in
the western Mediterranean. They were indeed victorious in an open sea
fight, but they endured such severe losses that they were obliged to give
up Alalia. They next turned to south Italy and established there the
colony of Hyele, between Pyxus and Posidonia. Massalia was now isolated
and thrown upon its own resources. The distant Mænaca could consequently
be maintained no longer, and Carthage won undisputed possession of
Tartessus. But within its narrow range of power Massalia victoriously
resisted all attacks of the Phœnicians, and the final result was that a
sort of dividing line was established between the two cities. Massaliot
influence was preponderant north of the promontory of Artemisium (cape of
Nao); Carthaginian, south of it, on the east coast of Iberia.
Cyrnus came under Etruscan influence after the withdrawal of the
Phocæans. The Etruscans, it appears, had already taken possession of the
fertile plain on the lower Vulturnus and had established there a number
of settlements, whose centre was at Capua. They now proceeded to attack
Hellenic Cumæ (presumably in 524). Here, however, the superior military
skill of the Greeks won the victory, and the latter were able to defend
the Latin cities, which were friendly to them, from being brought into
subjection by the Etruscans. The strength of Cumæ, however, was not
sufficient to keep up the unequal fight for long and it was due only to
the intervention of the Syracusans that Hellenism maintained itself here
until the end of the fifth century.
Nearly contemporaneously with the beginnings of colonisation in the
west the Hellenes began to spread toward the north and southeast. The
Chalcidians again took the first place. Opposite Eubœa a long peninsula
projects from the north into the Ægean Sea, which, on account of the
numerous indentations of its coast, as well as the fertility of its soil,
invited settlement. A long succession of Grecian colonial towns grew
up here, the most of which were founded from Chalcis; hence the name
Chalcidice, which the peninsula bore in later times. The Corinthians
followed the Chalcidians here, just as they had done in the west. On the
narrow isthmus joining the peninsula of Pallene with the main body of
Chalcidice they founded the colony of Potidæa (in 600) which remained the
most important city of this region until the time of the Peloponnesian
War. The original Thracian population maintained itself only on the
rugged slopes of Athos.
Further east, in the first half of the seventh century, the Parians
took possession of the mountainous island of Thasos, which at that time
was still covered with a thick primeval forest. The new settlers soon
crossed over to the near-lying mainland, where they established a number
of commercial stations, as Œsyma and Galepsus, which had to maintain
themselves through long struggles with the warlike Thracian tribes.
Opposite Thasos, on the fruitful plain between Nestus and Lake Bistonis,
the Clazomenæans founded Abdera in 651, but they could not long maintain
themselves against the attacks of the Thracians. Colonists from Teos,
who emigrated after the conquest of Ionia by the Persians (545) and took
possession of the deserted place, were more successful; Abdera now became
the most important city on this whole coast and also took an active part
in the intellectual life of the nation.
Lesbos and Tenedos were for a long time the most advanced posts of the
Hellenic world toward the northeast. Not until the eighth century do
the inhabitants of these islands appear to have succeeded in taking
possession of the south of Troas, from the wooded slopes of Ida to the
entrance to the Hellespont. None of the numerous settlements founded
here, however, became very important. The Lesbians then went further
and crossed over to the European shore of the Hellespont, where they
built Sestus at the narrowest point of the strait and Alopeconnesus on
the northern coast of the Thracian Chersonesus. Ænus, at the mouth of
the mighty Hebrus, the principal river of Thrace, was also colonised
by Mytileneans. The further expansion of the Greeks on this coast was
arrested by the warlike tribes of Thrace.
The Lesbians were soon followed by the Milesians. In 670 they established
Abydos, opposite Sestus, and at about the same time (675) founded Cyzicus
on the isthmus connecting the mountainous peninsula of Arcotonnesus
with the Asiatic mainland. Other Ionian cities also took part in the
colonisation of these regions. Lampsacus was colonised from Phocæa (651);
Elæus from Teos; Myrlea from Colophon; Perinthus from Samos (600).
The Milesians also advanced into the Pontus at an early date. It was due
to them that this sea, which, with its inhospitable shores peopled by
wild barbarians, had been the terror of Grecian mariners, became known
as “the hospitable sea” (Pontos Euxinos), with which few other regions
could compare in importance for Grecian commerce. Miletus is said to
have founded in all no less than ninety colonies on the coasts of the
Hellespont and Pontus. In 630 Milesians built Sinope not far from the
mouth of the Halys, which soon grew to be the most important emporium in
this region, and founded in its turn a number of colonies, as Cotyora,
Trapezus, and Cerasus. The Milesians, however, turned their attention
especially to the northwest and north coasts of the Pontus, which were to
become the principal granaries of Greece. After the middle of the seventh
century a large number of Milesian colonies grew up here. The first was
Istrus south of the mouth of the Danube, said to have been founded in
656; a few years later (644) Olbia, at the mouth of the Borysthenes near
its junction with the Hypanis (Bug); then in the first half of the sixth
century on the east coast of Thrace, Apollonia, Odessus, and Tomis;
further on Tyras at the mouth of the river of like name (Dniester) and
Theodosia on the south coast of the Crimea. The Hellenic settlements
were especially frequent in the Cimmerian Bosporus, the highway uniting
the Pontus with the sea of Mæotis. Nymphæum and the Milesian colony of
Panticapæum, the later capital of the Bosporian kingdom, arose here
on the western shore; opposite, on the Asiatic shore, was Phanagorea,
founded from Teos. Finally, Tanais was founded at the mouth of the Don,
the most northerly point ever occupied by the Greeks.
The Megarians had begun to establish themselves on the Propontis at about
the same time with the Milesians. In 675 they founded Chalcedon at the
entrance to the Thracian Bosporus, and seventeen years later, Byzantium,
on the opposite European shore. Selymbria, neighbouring Byzantium on
the west, and Astacus, at the most easterly point of the Propontis, not
far from the site of the later Nicomedia, were Megarian colonies. The
Megarians, however, penetrated into the Pontus itself, at a comparatively
late date. Their first colony here was Heraclea, founded in association
with Bœotian settlers in the year 550, in the land of the Mariandyni,
about two hundred kilometres from the outlet of the Bosporus. From there
Mesembria and Callatis were colonised on the east coast of Thrace, and
Chersonesus, on the southern point of the Tauric peninsula, near the
present Sebastopol.
All of these Grecian towns, however, remained with few exceptions
isolated points in the midst of the original population of barbarians. An
actual hellenising of the country as in Sicily and lower Italy was never
accomplished. This was largely due to the configuration of the Pontine
coast, which with the exception of the Crimea has no indentations, so
that the Grecian colonies had no way to protect themselves against the
attacks of the tribes from the interior. Besides, the winter climate of
the regions north of the Pontus was very raw. The Greeks could not feel
happy in a land where the vine and olive tree grew only in sheltered
places, and only the bitterest necessity or the prospect of great
commercial gain could cause them to leave their sunny home-land for
such a country. Thus the Grecian cities on the Pontus never became very
populous; there was not one among them to compare with Sybaris, Taras,
Acragas, to say nothing of Syracuse. Condemned to a continual struggle
for existence, the Greeks here had no leisure for the cultivation of
higher interests. It is remarkable how poor the Pontine colonies have
been in intellectual greatness. Their rôle in history has practically
been confined to providing the mother-land with grain, salted fish, and
other such raw products. Only once, when the rest of the nation had
already fallen under foreign dominion, did they take an active part in
great political events. The last battle for Grecian liberty was fought
with their forces, but he who led the fight was a hellenised barbarian
king.
Although the Hellenes had been able to expand on the Italian, Sicilian,
and Pontine coasts with almost no hindrance, Grecian colonisation met an
insurmountable obstacle in the old civilised lands on the southeastern
shores of the Mediterranean, with their dense populations. In Syria the
Hellenes did not attempt a settlement; they were not even able to drive
the Phœnicians out of Cyprus. Indeed, when the Assyrian king Sargon
conquered Syria at the end of the eighth century, the Greeks on Cyprus
thought it advisable to recognise his supremacy, at least nominally, and
this relation continued under his successors until Asshurbanapal. Later,
after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the island came under Egyptian
rule. Sargon’s son Sennacherib (705-681) repulsed an attempt of the
Greeks to settle on the Cilician plain. The warlike tribes of rough
Cilicia and Lycia also succeeded in keeping the Greeks at a distance from
their coasts, or at least prevented their further expansion. Phaselis,
founded by the Rhodians on the western shore of the gulf of Pamphylia in
700, remained the last Grecian colony in the south of Asia Minor.
The rich valley of the Nile attracted Grecian pirates at an early period,
the more so as the political divisions of the country in the eighth
and first half of the seventh century rendered an effective resistance
impossible. The superior military ability of these pirates finally caused
Psamthek, the ruler of Saïs, to hire them as mercenaries. With their aid
he got the upper hand over the other sectional princes and freed Egypt
from the Assyrian yoke (about 660-645). From that time forward, Greeks
formed the kernel of the Egyptian army, and although the Nile valley was
now closed to piracy, it was, on the other hand, open to Greek commerce.
The Milesians founded a colony on the Bolbitinic mouth of the Nile, below
Saïs; somewhat later a number of Greek mercantile settlements grew up
at Naucratis, not far from the Canopic mouth of the Nile, to which King
Aahmes granted rights of corporation. The city soon grew to be the chief
commercial emporium of Egypt and in the sixth century occupied, on a
small scale, a position like that of the later Alexandria. In the course
of time the Greeks would without doubt have become rulers of the country,
but the Persian conquest retarded their development for fully a century
and put a limit to the further expansion of Hellenism.
The route from Greece to Egypt was usually by way of Crete in a southerly
direction to the coast of Libya. This is the narrowest part of the
eastern Mediterranean, and the stretch of open sea to be crossed measures
hardly three hundred kilometers, about the same as the width of the Ægean
Sea. The need soon began to be felt of having a station at the place
where land was first touched again. Thus in 630 Greeks from Thera settled
upon the small island of Platea, which is situated off the Libyan shore
at precisely this point. After a few years the colonists felt strong
enough to cross over to the mainland. At a short distance from the coast,
where the high tableland of the interior slopes down to the sea, they
founded the city of Cyrene. The fertility of the soil and the trade in
the aromatic plant _silphion_, which is here indigenous and was highly
prized by the Greeks, assured prosperity to the newcomers. The Libyan
tribes living in the neighbourhood were subdued and an attack of the
Egyptian king Apries [Uah-ab-Ra] was successfully repulsed (570). A short
time later Barca was founded (550) on the heights of the plateau west
of Cyrene, and Teuchira and Hesperides on the coast. Carthage prevented
a further extension toward the west, and Egypt toward the east, and
consequently Cerenaica remained the only district on the south coast of
the Mediterranean, which was colonised by Hellenes.
Thus in the course of two centuries the Ionian Sea, the Propontis, and
the Pontus had become Grecian seas, and Grecian colonies had arisen in
Egypt as well as in Libya, on the west coast of Italy, and in the land
of the Celts as far as distant Iberia. The nation had grown out of the
narrow limits in which till then its history had been enacted. Greek
influence was henceforth predominant within the entire circumference of
the Mediterranean. The reaction of this on Grecian life was manifest in
all its phases.[c]
FOOTNOTES
[14] [Recent excavations have tended to confirm the existence of Crete’s
boasted hundred cities.]
[Illustration]