GREECE AND THE GREEK COLONIES.
§ 1. _The Eastern or Greek Peninsula._
♦Characteristics of the Eastern peninsula.♦
The Historical Geography of Europe, if looked at in chronological
order, must begin with the most eastern of the three peninsulas of
Southern Europe. Here the history of Europe, and the truest history of
the world, began. It was in the insular and peninsular lands between
the Ionian and Ægæan seas that the first steps towards European
civilization were taken; it is there that we see the first beginnings
of art, science, and political life. But Greece or _Hellas_, in the
strict sense of the name, forms only a part of the lands which must be
looked on as the great Eastern peninsula. It is however its leading
and characteristic portion. As the whole peninsular land gradually
tapers southwards from the great mass of central Europe, it becomes at
each stage more and more peninsular, and it also becomes at each stage
more and more Greek. Greece indeed and the neighbouring lands form,
as was long ago remarked by Strabo,[2] a series of peninsulas within
peninsulas. It is not easy to find a name for the whole region, as it
stretches far beyond any limits which can be given to Greece in any age
of the world or according to any use of the name. But the whole land
seems to have been occupied by nations more or less akin to the Greeks.
The history of those nations chiefly consists of their relations to the
Greeks, and all of them were brought more or less within the range of
Greek influences. We may therefore not improperly call the whole land,
as opposed to Italy and Spain, the _Greek_ peninsula. It has also been
called the _Byzantine peninsula_, as nearly answering to the European
part of the Eastern division of the Roman Empire, when its seat of
government was at Byzantion, Constantinople, or New Rome.
♦Its chief divisions.♦
Taking the great range of mountains which divides southern from central
Europe as the northern boundary of the eastern or Greek peninsula, it
may be said to take in the lands which are cut off from the central
mass by the _Dalmatian Alps_ and the range of _Haimos_ or _Balkan_.
It is washed to the east, west, or south, by various parts of the
Mediterranean and its great gulf the Euxine. But the northern part of
this region, all that lies north of the Ægæan Sea, taking in therefore
the whole of the Euxine coast, still keeps much of the character of the
great central mass of Europe, and forms a land intermediate between
that and the more strictly peninsular lands to the south. Still the
boundary is a real one, for all the lands south of this range have
come more or less within Greek influences, and have played their part
in Grecian history. But when we get beyond the mountains, into the
valley of the Danube, we find ourselves in lands which, excepting
a few colonies on the coast, have hardly at all come under Greek
influences till quite modern times. This region between Haimos and the
more strictly Greek lands takes in _Thrace_, _Paionia_, and _Illyria_.
Of these, Thrace and Illyria, having a sea coast, received many Greek
colonies, especially on the northern coast of the Ægæan and on the
_Propontis_ or Sea of Marmora. The Thracian part of this region, as
bordering on these more distinctly Grecian seas, became more truly
a part of the Grecian world than the other lands to the west of it.
♦Thrace and Illyria.♦ Yet geographically Thrace is more widely cut off
from Greece than Illyria is. For there is no such great break on the
western shore of the great peninsula as that which, on the eastern
side, marks the point where we must draw the line between Greece and
its immediate neighbours and the lands to the north of them. This is at
the point where a peninsula within a peninsula breaks off to the south,
comprising _Greece_, _Macedonia_, and _Epeiros_. There is here no very
special break on the Illyrian coast, but the Ægæan coast of Thrace is
fenced in as it were at its two ends, to the east by the long narrow
peninsula known specially as the _Chersonêsos_, and to the west by the
group of peninsulas called _Chalkidikê_. These have nothing answering
to them on the Illyrian side beyond the mere bend in the coast above
Epidamnos. This last point however marks the extent of the earlier
Greek colonization in those regions, and which has become a still more
important boundary in later times.
Beyond Chalkidikê to the west, the specially Greek peninsula projects
to the south, being itself again composed of peninsulas within
peninsulas. ♦Greece proper and its peninsulas.♦ The _Ambrakian Gulf_ on
the west and the _Pagasaian_ on the east again fence off a peninsula
to the south, by which the more purely Greek lands are fenced off
from _Macedonia_, _Epeiros_, and _Thessaly_. Within this peninsula
again another may be marked off by a line drawn from _Thermopylai_
to the _Corinthian_ gulf near Delphoi. This again shuts out to the
east _Akarnania_, _Aitolia_, and some other of the more backward
divisions of the Greek name. ♦Peloponnêsos.♦ Thus _Phôkis_, _Boiôtia_,
and _Attica_ form a great promontory, from which Attica projects as
a further promontory to the south-east, while the great peninsula of
_Peloponnêsos_—itself made up on its eastern and southern sides of
smaller peninsulas—is joined on by the narrow isthmus of Corinth.
In this way, from Haimos to _Tainaros_, the land is ever becoming
more and more broken up by greater or smaller inlets of the sea. And
in proportion as the land becomes more strictly peninsular, it also
becomes more strictly Greek, till in Peloponnêsos we reach the natural
citadel of the Greek nation.
§ 2. _Insular and Asiatic Greece._
♦Continuous Hellas.♦
Greece Proper then, what the ancient geographers called _Continuous
Hellas_ as distinguished from the Greek colonies planted on barbarian
shores, is, so far as it is part of the mainland, made up of a system
of peninsulas stretching south from the general mass of eastern Europe.
But the neighbouring islands equally form a part of continuous Greece;
and the other coasts of the Ægæan, Asiatic as well as Thracian, were
so thickly strewed with Greek colonies as to form, if not part of
continuous Greece, yet part of the immediate Greek world. The western
coast, as it is less peninsular, is also less insular, and the islands
on the western side of Greece did not reach the same importance as
those on the eastern side. Still they too, the Ionian islands of
modern geography, form in every sense a part of Greece. ♦The Islands.♦
To the north of _Korkyra_ or _Corfu_ there are only detached Greek
colonies, whether on the mainland or in the islands; but all the
islands of the Ægæan are, during historical times, as much part of
Greece as the mainland; and one island on each side, _Leukas_ on the
west and the greater island of _Euboia_ on the east, might almost be
counted as parts of the mainland, as peninsulas rather than islands.
To the south the long narrow island of _Crete_ forms a sort of barrier
between Greek and barbarian seas. It is the most southern of the purely
Greek lands. _Sicily_ to the east and _Cyprus_ to the west received
many Greek colonies, but they never became purely Greek in the same way
as Crete and the islands to the north of it.
♦Asiatic Greece.♦
But, besides the European peninsulas and the islands, part of Asia
must be looked on as forming part of the immediate Greek world, though
not strictly of continuous Greece. The peninsula known as _Asia Minor_
cannot be separated from Europe either in its geography or in its
history. With its central mass we have little or nothing to do; but
its coasts form a part of the Greek world, and its Ægæan coast was
only less thoroughly Greek than Greece itself and the Greek islands.
It would seem that the whole western coast of Asia Minor was inhabited
by nations which, like the European neighbours of Greece, were more
or less nearly akin to the Greeks. And the Ægæan coast of Asia is
almost as full of inlets of the sea, of peninsulas and promontories and
islands near to the shore, as European Greece itself. All these shores
therefore received Greek colonies. The islands and the most tempting
spots on the mainland were occupied by Greek settlers, and became
the sites of Greek cities. But Greek influence never spread very far
inland, and even the coast itself did not become so purely Greek as the
islands. When we pass from the Ægæan coast of Asia to the other two
sides of the peninsula, to its northern coast washed by the Euxine and
its southern coast washed by the Mediterranean, we have passed out of
the immediate Greek world. Greek colonies are found on favourable spots
here and there; but the land, even the coast as a whole, is barbarian.
§ 3. _Ethnology of the Eastern Peninsula._
♦The Greeks and the kindred races.♦
The immediate Greek world then as opposed to the outlying Greek
colonies, consists of the shores of the Ægæan sea and of the peninsulas
lying between it and the Ionian sea. Of this region a great part was
exclusively inhabited by the Greek nation, while Greek influences were
more or less dominant throughout the whole. But it would further seem
that the whole, or nearly the whole, of these lands were inhabited by
races more or less akin to the Greeks. They seem to have been races
which had a good deal in common with the Greeks, and of whom the Greeks
were simply the foremost and most fortunate, their higher developement
being doubtless greatly favoured by the geographical nature of the
country which they occupied. But a distinction must be drawn between
the nearer and the more remote neighbours of Greece. It is hardly
necessary for our present purpose to determine whether the Greeks had
or had not any connexion with Thracians, European or Asiatic, with
Phrygians and Lydians, and other neighbouring nations. ♦Nations more
remote, but probably kindred.♦ All these were in Greek eyes simply
Barbarians, but modern scholarship has seen in them signs of a kindred
with the Greek nation nearer than the share of both in the common
Aryan stock. We need not settle here whether all the inhabitants of
the geographical district which we have marked out were, or were not,
kinsmen in this sense; but with some among them the question assumes
a deeper interest and a nearer approach to certainty. ♦Illyrians.♦
The great Illyrian race, of whom the Albanians or _Skipetars_ are the
modern representatives, a race which has been so largely displaced by
Slaves at one end and assimilated by Greeks at the other, can hardly
fail to have had a nearer kindred with the Greeks than that which they
both share with Celts and Teutons. When we come to the lands which are
yet more closely connected with Greece, both in geographical position
and in their history, the case becomes clearer still. ♦Epeiros,
Macedonia, Sicily and Italy.♦ We can hardly doubt of the close
connexion between the Greeks and the nations which bordered on Greece
immediately to the north in Epeiros and Macedonia, as well as with some
at least of those which they found occupying the opposite coasts of the
Ægæan, as well as in Sicily and Italy. The Greeks and Italians, with
the nations immediately connected with them, clearly belong to one,
and that a well marked, division of the Aryan family. Their kindred
is shown alike by the evidence of language and by the remarkable ease
with which in all ages they received Greek civilization. Into more
minute inquiries as to these matters it is hardly our province to go
here. ♦Pelasgians.♦ It is perhaps enough to say that the _Pelasgian_
name, which has given rise to so much speculation, seems to have been
used by the Greeks themselves in a very vague way, much as the word
_Saxon_ is among ourselves. It is therefore dangerous to form any
theories about the matter. Sometimes the Pelasgians seem to be spoken
of simply as _Old-Hellênes_, sometimes as a people distinct from the
Hellênes. ♦The Greek nation.♦ Whether the Hellênes, on their entering
into Greece, found the land held by earlier inhabitants, whether Aryan
or non-Aryan, is a curious and interesting speculation, but one which
does not concern us. It is enough for our purpose that, as far back as
history or even legend can carry us, we find the land in the occupation
of a branch of the Aryan family, consisting, like all other nations, of
various kindred tribes. It is a nation which is as well defined as any
other nation, and yet it shades off, as it were, into the other nations
of the kindred stock. Clearly marked as Greek and Barbarian are from
the beginning, there still are frontier tribes in Epeiros and Macedonia
which must be looked on as forming an intermediate stage between the
two classes, and which are accordingly placed by different Greek
writers sometimes in one class and sometimes in the other.
§ 4. _The Earliest Geography of Greece and the Neighbouring Lands._
♦The Homeric map of Greece.♦
Our first picture of Greek geography comes from the Homeric catalogue.
Whatever may be the historic value of the Homeric poems in general,
it is clear that the catalogue in the second book of the Iliad
must represent a real state of things. It gives us a map of Greece
so different from the map of Greece at any later time that it is
inconceivable that it can have been invented at any later time. We have
in fact a map of Greece at a time earlier than any time to which we
can assign certain names and dates. Within the range of Greece itself
the various Greek races often changed their settlements, displacing
or conquering earlier Greek settlers; and the different states which
they formed often changed their boundaries by bringing other states
into subjection or depriving them of parts of their territory. The
Homeric catalogue gives us a wholly different arrangement of the
various branches of the nation from any that we find in the Greece of
historic times. The _Dorian_ and _Ionian_ names, which were afterwards
so famous, are hardly known; the name of _Hellênes_ itself belongs only
to a small district. ♦Tribal divisions of Homeric Greece.♦ The names
for the whole people are _Achaians_, _Argeians_ (_Argos_ seeming to
mean all Peloponnêsos), and _Danaoi_, the last a name which goes quite
out of use in historic times. The boundary of Greece to the west is
narrower than it was in later times. The land called _Akarnania_ has
not yet got that name, if indeed it was Greek at all. It is spoken of
vaguely as _Epeiros_ or the mainland,[3] and it appears as part of the
possessions of the king of the neighbouring islands, _Kephallênia_
and _Ithakê_. The islands to the north, _Leukas_ and _Korkyra_, were
not yet Greek. The _Thesprotians_ in Epeiros are spoken of as a
neighbouring and friendly people, but they form no part of the Greek
nation. The _Aitolians_ appear as a Greek people, and so do most
of the other divisions of the Greek nation, only their position and
relative importance is often different from what it was afterwards.
Thus, to mention a few examples out of many, the _Lokrians_, who, in
historic times, appear both on the sea of Euboia and on the Corinthian
gulf, appear in the catalogue in their northern seats only.
When we turn from tribes to cities, the difference is still greater.
♦Groupings of cities.♦ The cities which held the first place in
historic times are not always those which are greatest in the earlier
time, and their grouping in federations or principalities is wholly
unlike anything in later history. Thus in the historic _Boiotia_ we
find _Orchomenos_ as the second city of a confederation of which
_Thebes_ is the first. In the catalogue Orchomenos and the neighbouring
city _Aspledôn_ form a separate division, distinct from Boiôtia. Euboia
forms a whole; and, what is specially to be noticed, _Attica_, as a
land, is not mentioned, but only the single city of _Athens_, with
_Salamis_ as a kind of dependency. Peloponnêsos again is divided in a
manner quite different from anything in later times. The ruling city is
_Mykênê_, whose king holds also a general superiority over all Hellas,
while his immediate dominion takes in _Corinth_, _Kleônai_, _Sikyôn_,
and the whole south coast of the Corinthian Gulf, the _Achaia_ of later
times. The rest of the cities of the Argolic peninsula are grouped
round _Argos_. Northern Greece again is divided into groups of cities
which answer to nothing in later times. And its relative importance
in the Greek world is clearly far greater than it was in the historic
period.
The catalogue also helps us to our earliest picture of the northern
and eastern coasts of the Ægæan and of the Ægæan islands. ♦Extent
of Greek colonization.♦ We see the extent which Greek colonization
had already made. It had as yet taken in only the southern islands
of the Ægæan. _Crete_ was already Greek; so were _Rhodes_, _Kôs_,
and the neighbouring islands; but these last are distinctly marked
as new settlements. The coast of Asia and the northern islands are
still untouched, except through the events of the Trojan war itself,
in which the Greek conquest of _Lesbos_ is distinctly marked. ♦The
Asiatic Catalogue.♦ In Asia, besides _Trojans_ and _Dardanians_, we
find _Pelasgians_ as a distinct people, as also _Paphlagonians_,
_Mysians_, _Phrygians_, _Maionians_, _Karians_, and _Lykians_. We find
in short the nations which fringe the whole Ægæan coast of Asia and the
south-western coast of the Euxine. In Europe again we have Thracians
and Paionians, names familiar in historic times, and whose bearers
seemingly occupied nearly the same lands which they do in later times.
The presence of Thracians in Asia is implied rather than asserted. The
_Macedonian_ name is not found. The northern islands of the Ægæan are
mentioned only incidentally. Everything leaves us to believe that the
whole region, European and Asiatic, to which we are now concerned,
was, at this earliest time of which we have any glimpses, occupied by
various races more or less closely allied to each other. ♦Phœnician and
Greek settlements in the islands.♦ The islands were largely Karian, but
the _Phœnicians_, a Semitic people from the eastern coast, seem to have
planted colonies in several of the Mediterranean islands. But Karians
and Phœnicians had now begun to give way to Greek settlements. The same
rivalry in short between Greeks and Phœnicians must have gone on in the
earliest times in the islands of the Ægæan which went on in historical
times in the greater islands of Cyprus and Sicily.
§ 5. _Change from Homeric to Historic Greece._
The state of things which is set before us in the catalogue was
altogether broken up by later changes, but changes which still come
before the beginnings of contemporary history, and which we understand
chiefly by comparing the geography of the catalogue with the geography
of later times. ♦Changes in Peloponnêsos.♦ According to received
tradition, a number of _Dorian_ colonies from Northern Greece were
gradually planted in the chief cities of Peloponnêsos, and drove out
or reduced to subjection their older _Achaian_ inhabitants. Mykênê
from this time loses its importance; Argos, Sparta, Corinth, and
Sikyôn become Dorian cities; and Sparta gradually wins the dominion
over all the towns, whether Dorian or Achaian, within her immediate
dominion of Lakonia. To the west of Lakonia arises the Dorian state of
_Messênê_, which is the name only of a district, as there was as yet
no city so called. As part of the same movement, an Aitolian colony
is said to have occupied _Êlis_ on the west coast of Peloponnêsos.
Elis again was at this time the name of a district only; the cities
both of Messênê and Êlis are of much later date. First Argos, and then
Sparta, rises to a supremacy over their fellow-Dorians and over the
whole of Peloponnêsos. Historical Peloponnêsos thus consists (i) of the
cities, chiefly Dorian, of the Argolic _Aktê_ or peninsula, together
with _Corinth_ on the Isthmus and _Megara_, a Dorian outpost beyond
the Isthmus; (ii) of _Lakonikê_, the district immediately subject to
Sparta, with a boundary towards Argos which changed as Sparta advanced
and Argos went back; (iii) of _Messênê_, which was conquered by Sparta
before the age of contemporary history, and was again separated in
the fourth century B.C.; (iv) of _Elis_, with the border-districts
between it and Messênê; (v) of the _Achaian_ cities on the coast of
the Corinthian Gulf; (vi) of the inland country of _Arkadia_. The
relations among these districts and the several cities within them
often fluctuated, but the general aspect of the map of Peloponnêsos did
not greatly change from the beginning of the fifth century to the later
days of the third.
♦Changes in Northern Greece.♦
According to the received traditions, migrations of the same kind took
place in Northern Greece also between the time of the catalogue and
the beginning of contemporary history. Thus Thessaly, whose different
divisions form a most important part of the catalogue, is said to have
suffered an invasion at the hands of the half Hellenic _Thesprotians_.
They are said to have become the ruling people in Thessaly itself, and
to have held a supremacy over the neighbouring lands, including the
peninsula of Magnêsia and the Phthiôtic Achaia. It is certain that in
the historical period Thessaly lags in the back ground, and that the
true Hellenic spirit is much less developed there than in other parts
of Greece. There is less reason to accept the legend of a migration
out of Thessaly into Boiôtia; but in historic times Orchomenos no
longer appears as a separate state, but is the second city of the
Boiotian confederacy, yielding the first place to Thebes with great
unwillingness. The Lokrians also now appear on the Corinthian gulf as
well as on the sea of Euboia. And the land to the west of Aitôlia,
so vaguely spoken of in the catalogue, has become the seat of a
Greek people under the name of _Akarnania_. The Corinthian colonies
along this coast, the city of _Ambrakia_, the island or peninsula of
_Leukas_, the foundation of which is placed in the eighth century B.C.,
come almost within the time of trustworthy history. They are not Greek
in the catalogue; they are Greek when we first hear of them in history.
Ambrakia forms the last outpost of continuous Hellas towards the
north-west; beyond that are only outlying settlements on the Illyrian
coasts and islands.
These changes in the geography of continental Greece, both within and
without Peloponnêsos, make the main differences between the Greece of
the Homeric catalogue and the Greece of the Persian and Peloponnesian
wars. ♦Changes in later times.♦ During the sixth, fifth, and fourth
centuries before Christ there were constant changes in political
relations of the Greek states to one another; but there were not many
changes which greatly affected the geography. Cities were constantly
brought in subjection to one another, and were again relieved from
the yoke. ♦B.C. 370-369.♦ In the course of the fourth century two
new Peloponnesian cities, _Messênê_ and _Megalopolis_, were founded.
In Boiotia again, _Plataia_ and _Orchomenos_ were destroyed by the
Thebans, and Thebes itself was destroyed by Alexander, but these were
afterwards rebuilt. ♦B.C. 468.♦ In Peloponnêsos Mykênê was destroyed
by the Argeians, and never rebuilt. But most of these changes do not
affect geography, as they did not involve any change in the seats of
the great divisions of the Greek name. The only exception is that of
the foundation of _Messênê_, which was accompanied by the separation
of the old Messenian territory from Sparta, and the consequent
establishment of a new or restored division of the Greek nation.
§ 6. _The Greek Colonies._
♦The Ægæan colonies.♦
It must have been in the time between the days represented by the
catalogue and the beginnings of contemporary history, that most of the
islands of the Ægæan became Greek, and that the Greek colonies were
planted on the Ægæan coast of Asia. We have seen that the southern
islands were already Greek at the time of the catalogue, while some of
the northern ones, _Thasos_, _Lêmnos_, and others, did not become Greek
till times to which we can give approximate dates, from the eighth to
the fifth centuries. ♦Colonies in Asia.♦ During this period, at some
time before the eighth century, the whole Ægæan coast of Asia had
become fringed with Greek cities, _Dorian_ to the south, _Aiolian_ to
the north, _Ionian_ between the two. The story of the Trojan war itself
in the land is most likely a legendary account of the beginning of
these settlements, which may make us think that the Greek colonization
of this coast began in the north, in the lands bordering on the
Hellespont. At all events, by the eighth century these settlements had
made the Asiatic coast and the islands adjoining it a part, and a most
important part, not only of the Greek world, but we may almost say of
Greece itself. ♦Their early greatness.♦ The Ionian cities, above all,
_Smyrna_, _Ephesos_, _Milêtos_, and the islands of _Chios_ and _Samos_,
were among the greatest of Greek cities, more flourishing certainly
than any in European Greece. Milêtos, above all, was famous for the
number of colonies which it sent forth in its own turn. But, if their
day of greatness came before that of the European Greeks, they were
also the first to come under the power of the Barbarians. ♦Lydian and
Persian conquests.♦ In the course of the fifth century the Greek cities
on the continent of Asia came under the power, first of the _Lydian_
kings and then of their _Persian_ conquerors, who subdued several of
the islands also. It was this subjection of the Asiatic Greeks to the
Barbarians which led to the Persian war, with which the most brilliant
time in the history of European Greece begins. We thus know the Asiatic
cities only in the days of their decline. ♦Colonies in Thrace.♦ The
coasts of Thrace and Macedonia were also sprinkled with Greek cities,
but they did not lie so thick together as those on the Asiatic coast,
except only in the three-fingered peninsula of _Chalkidikê_, which
became a thoroughly Greek land. Some of these colonies in Thrace, as
_Olynthos_ and _Potidaia_, play an important part in Greek history,
and two among them fill a place in the history of the world. _Thermê_,
under its later name of _Thessalonikê_, has kept on its importance
under all changes down to our own time. And _Byzantion_, on the
Thracian Bosporos, rose higher still, becoming, under the form of
_Constantinople_, the transplanted seat of the Empire of Rome.
The settlements which have been thus far spoken of may be all counted
as coming within the immediate Greek world. They were planted in lands
so near to the mother-country, and they lay so near to one another,
that the whole country round the Ægæan may be looked on as more or less
thoroughly Greek. Some parts were wholly Greek, and everywhere Greek
influences were predominant. ♦More distant colonies.♦ But, during this
same period of distant enterprise, between the time of the Homeric
catalogue and the time of the Persian War, many Greek settlements were
made in countries much further off from continuous Greece. All of
course came within the range of the Mediterranean world; no Greek ever
passed through the Straits of Hêraklês to found settlements on the
Ocean. But a large part of the coast both of the Mediterranean itself
and of the Euxine was gradually dotted with Greek colonies. These
outposts of Greece, unless they were actually conquered by barbarians,
almost always remained Greek; they kept their Greek language and
manners, and they often spread them to some extent among their
barbarian neighbours. But it was not often that any large tract of
country in these more distant lands became so thoroughly Greek as the
Ægæan coast of Asia became. We may say however that such was the case
with the coast of Sicily and Southern Italy, where many Greek colonies
were planted, which will be spoken of more fully in another chapter.
All Sicily indeed did in the end really become a Greek country, though
not till after its conquest by the Romans. But in Northern and Central
Italy, the Latins, Etruscans, and other Italian nations were too strong
for any Greek colonies to be made in those parts. ♦Colonies in the
Hadriatic.♦ On the other side of the Hadriatic, Greek colonies had
spread before the Peloponnesian war as far north as _Epidamnos_. The
more northern colonies on the coast and among the islands of Dalmatia,
the Illyrian _Epidauros_, _Pharos_, _Black Korkyra_, and others, were
among the latest efforts of Greek colonization in the strict sense.
In other parts of the Mediterranean coasts the Greek settlements
lay further apart from each other. But we may say that they were
spread here and there over the whole coast, except where there was
some special hindrance to keep the Greeks from settling. ♦Phœnician
colonies.♦ Thus, in a great part of the Mediterranean the Phœnicians
had got the start of the Greeks, both in their own country on the coast
of Syria, and in the colonies sent forth by their great cities of Tyre
and Sidon. The Phœnician colonists occupied a large part of the western
half of the southern coast of the Mediterranean, where lay the great
Phœnician cities of _Carthage_, _Utica_, and others. They had also
settlements in Southern Spain, and one at least outside the straits
on the Ocean. This is _Gades_ or _Cadiz_, which has kept its name
and its unbroken position as a great city from an earlier time than
any other city in Europe. The Greeks therefore could not colonize in
these parts. In the great islands of Sicily and Cyprus there were both
Phœnician and Greek colonies, and there was a long struggle between the
settlers of the two nations. In Egypt again, though there were some
Greek settlers, yet there were no Greek colonies in the strict sense.
That is, there were no independent Greek commonwealths. Thus the only
part of the southern coast of the Mediterranean which was open to Greek
colonization was the land between Egypt and the dominions of Carthage.
♦Greek colonies in Africa, Gaul, and Spain.♦ In that land accordingly
several Greek cities were planted, of which the chief was the famous
_Kyrênê_. On the southern coast of Gaul arose the great Ionian city of
_Massalia_ or _Marseilles_, which also, like the Phœnician Gades, has
kept its name and its prosperity down to our own time. Massalia became
the centre of a group of Greek cities on the south coast of Gaul and
the east coast of Spain, which were the means of spreading a certain
amount of Greek civilization in those parts.
♦Colonies on the Euxine.♦
Besides these settlements in the Mediterranean itself, there were
also a good many Greek colonies on the western, northern, and
southern coasts of the Euxine, of which those best worth remembering
are the city of _Chersonêsos_ in the peninsula called the _Tauric
Chersonêsos_, now Crimea, and _Trapezous_ on the southern coast.
These two deserve notice as being two most abiding seats of Greek
influence. Chersonêsos, under the name of _Cherson_, remained an
independent Greek commonwealth longer than any other, and Trapezous or
_Trebizond_ became the seat of Greek-speaking Emperors, who outlived
those of Constantinople. Speaking generally then, we may say that, in
the most famous times of European Greece, in the time of the Persian
and Peloponnesian wars, the whole coast of the Ægæan was part of the
immediate Greek world, while in Sicily and Cyprus Greek colonies were
contending with the Phœnicians, and in Italy with the native Italians.
Massalia was the centre of a group of Greek states in the north-west,
and Kyrênê in the south, while the greater part of the coast of the
Euxine was also dotted with Greek cities here and there. In most of
these colonies the Greeks mixed to some extent with the natives, and
the natives to some extent learned the Greek language and manners.
♦Beginning of the artificial Greek nation.♦ We thus get the beginning
of what we call an artificial Greek nation, a nation Greek in speech
and manners, but not purely Greek in blood, which has gone on ever
since.
§ 7. _Growth of Macedonia and Epeiros._
♦Growth of Macedonia.♦
But while the spread of the Greek language and civilization, and
therewith the growth of the artificial Greek nation, was brought about
in a great degree by the planting of independent Greek colonies, it was
brought about still more fully by events which went far to destroy the
political independence of Greece itself. This came of the growth of
the kindred nations to the north of Greece, in Macedonia and Epeiros.
The Macedonians were for a long time hemmed in by the barbarians to
the north and west of them and by the Greek cities on the coast, and
they were also weakened by divisions among themselves. ♦Reign of
Philip, B.C. 360-336.♦ But when the whole nation was united under its
great King Philip, Macedonia soon became the chief power in Greece
and the neighbouring lands. Philip greatly increased his dominions at
the expense of both Greeks and barbarians, especially by adding the
peninsulas of Chalkidikê to his kingdom. But in Greece itself, though
he took to himself the chief power, he did not actually annex any of
the Greek states to Macedonia, so that his victories there do not
affect the map. ♦Conquests of Alexander, 336-323.♦ His yet more famous
son Alexander, and the Macedonian kings after him, in like manner held
garrisons in particular Greek cities, and brought some parts of Greece,
as Thessaly and Euboia, under a degree of Macedonian influence which
hardly differed from dominion; but they did not formally annex them.
The conquests of Alexander in Asia brought most of the Greek cities
and islands under Macedonian dominion, but some, as Crete, Rhodes,
Byzantion, and _Hêrakleia_ on the Euxine, kept their independence.
♦Epeiros under Pyrrhos, B.C. 295-272.♦ Meanwhile Epeiros became united
under the Greek kings of _Molossis_, and under Pyrrhos, who made
Ambrakia his capital, it became a powerful state. And a little kingdom
called _Athamania_, thrust in between Epeiros, Macedonia, and Thessaly,
now begins to be heard of.
♦The Macedonian kingdoms in Asia.♦
The conquests of Alexander in Asia concern us only so far as they
called into being a class of states in Western Asia, all of which
received a greater or less share of Hellenic culture, and some of
which may claim a place in the actual Greek world. By the division
of the empire of Alexander after the battle of Ipsos, _Egypt_ became
the kingdom of Ptolemy, with whose descendants it remained down to
the Roman conquest. ♦B.C. 301.♦ The civilization of the Egyptian
court was Greek, and Alexandria became one of the greatest of Greek
cities. ♦Egypt under the Ptolemies.♦ Moreover the earlier kings of the
Ptolemaic dynasty held various islands in the Ægæan, and points on the
coast of Asia and even of Thrace, which made them almost entitled to
rank as a power in Greece itself. ♦The Seleukid dynasty.♦ The great
Asiatic power of Alexander passed to _Seleukos_ and his descendants.
The early kings of his house ruled from the Ægæan to the Hyphasis,
though this great dominion was at all times fringed and broken in upon
by the dominions of native princes, by independent Greek cities, and
by the dominions of other Macedonian kings. ♦Circa B.C. 256.♦ But in
the third century their dominion was altogether cut short in the East
by the revolt of the Parthians in northern Persia, by whom the eastern
provinces of the Seleukid kingdom were lopped away. ♦B.C. 191-181.♦ And
when Antiochos the Great provoked a war with Rome, his dominion was cut
short to the West also. The Seleukid power now shrank up into a local
kingdom of _Syria_, with Tauros for its north-western frontier.
♦Cities of independent state in Asia Minor. B.C. 283.♦
By the cutting short of the Seleukid kingdom, room was given for the
growth of the independent states which had already sprung up in Asia
Minor. ♦Pergamos.♦ The kingdom of _Pergamos_ had already begun, and
the dominions of its kings were largely increased by the Romans at
the expense of Antiochos. Pergamos might count as a Hellenic state,
alongside of Macedonia and Epeiros. But the other kingdoms of Asia
Minor, _Bithynia_, _Kappadokia_, _Paphlagonia_, and _Pontos_, the
kingdom of the famous Mithridates, must be counted as Asiatic. ♦Spread
of Hellenic culture.♦ The Hellenic influence indeed spread itself
far to the East. Even the Parthian kings affected a certain amount
of Greek culture, and in all the more western kingdoms there was a
greater or less Greek element, and in several of them the kings fixed
their capitals in Greek cities. Still in all of them the Asiatic
element prevailed in a way in which it did not prevail at Pergamos.
Meanwhile other states, either originally Greek or largely Hellenized,
still remained East of the Ægæan. Thus, at the south-western corner of
Asia Minor, _Lykia_, though seemingly less thoroughly Hellenized than
some of its neighbours, became a federal state after the Greek model.
♦Seleukeia.♦ Far to the East, _Seleukeia_ on the Tigris, whether under
Syrian or Parthian overlordship, kept its character as a Greek colony,
and its position as what may be called a free imperial city. Further
to the West other more purely Greek states survived. ♦Hêrakleia. |
B.C. 188.♦ The Pontic _Hêrakleia_ long remained an independent Greek
city, sometimes a commonwealth, sometimes under tyrants; and _Sinôpê_
remained a Greek city till it became the capital of the kings of
Pontos. On the north of the Euxine, _Bosporos_ still remained a Greek
kingdom.
§ 8. _The later Geography of Independent Greece._
♦Later political divisions of Greece.♦
The political divisions of independent Greece, in the days when it
gradually came under the power of Rome, differ almost as much from
those to which we are used during the Persian and Peloponnesian
wars, as these last differ from the earlier divisions in the Homeric
catalogue. The chief feature of these times was the power which
was held, as we have before seen, by the Macedonian kings, and the
alliances made by the different Greek states in order to escape or to
throw off their yoke. The result was that the greater part of Greece
was gradually mapped out among large confederations, much larger at
least than Greece had ever seen before. ♦The Achaian League, B.C. 280.♦
The most famous of these, the League of _Achaia_, began among the old
Achaian cities on the south of the Corinthian Gulf. ♦B.C. 191.♦ It
gradually spread, till it took in the whole of Peloponnêsos, together
with Megara and one or two outlying cities. Thus Corinth, Argos, Elis,
and even Sparta, instead of being distinct states as of old, with a
greater or less dominion over other cities, were now simply members of
one federal body. ♦The Aitolian League.♦ In Northern Greece the League
of _Aitolia_ now became very powerful, and extended itself far beyond
its old borders. Akarnania, Phôkis, Lokris, and Boiôtia formed Federal
states of less power, and so did _Epeiros_, where the kings had been
got rid of, and which was now reckoned as a thoroughly Greek state.
The Macedonian kings held different points at different times: Corinth
itself for a good while, and Thessaly and Euboia for longer periods,
might be almost counted as parts of their kingdom.
♦Roman interference in Greece.♦
This was the state of things in Greece at the time when the Romans
began to meddle in Greek and Macedonian affairs, and gradually to
bring all these countries, like the rest of the Mediterranean world,
under their power. But it should be remarked that this was done,
as the conquests of the Romans always were done, very gradually.
♦B.C. 229.♦ First the island of Korkyra and the cities of Epidamnos
and Apollônia on the Illyrian coast became Roman allies, which was
always a step to becoming Roman subjects. ♦B.C. 205.♦ The Romans
first appeared in Greece itself, as allies of the Aitolians, but by
the Peace of Epeiros Rome obtained no dominion in Greece, and merely
some increase of her Illyrian territory. ♦B.C. 200-197. | Progress of
Roman conquests. | B.C. 196.♦ The second Macedonian War made Macedonia
dependent on Rome, and all those parts of Greece which had been under
the Macedonian power were declared free at its close. ♦B.C. 189.♦ As
the Aitolians had joined Antiochos of Syria against Rome, they were
made a Roman dependency. From that time Rome was always meddling in
the affairs of the Greek states, and they may be counted as really,
though not formally, dependent on Rome. ♦B.C. 169. | B.C. 149.♦ After
the third Macedonian war, Macedonia was cut up into four separate
commonwealths; and at last, after the fourth, it became a Roman
province. ♦B.C. 146. | Remaining free states incorporated by
Vespasian.♦ About the same time the Leagues of Epeiros and Boiôtia
were dissolved; the Achaian League also became formally dependent on
Rome, and was dissolved for a time also. It is not certain when Achaia
became formally a Roman province; but, from this time, all Greece was
practically subject to Rome. Athens remained nominally independent, as
did Rhodes, Byzantion, and several other islands and outlying cities,
some of which were not formally incorporated with the Roman dominion
till the time of the Emperor Vespasian.
As we go on with the geography of other countries which came under
the Roman dominion, we shall learn more of the way in which Rome thus
enlarged her territories bit by bit. But it seemed right to begin with
the geography of Greece, and this could not be carried down to the
time when Greece became a Roman dominion without saying something of
the Roman conquest. From B.C. 146 we must look upon Greece and the
neighbouring lands as being, some of them formally and all of them
practically, part of the Roman dominion. And we shall not have to speak
of them again as separate states or countries till many ages later,
when the Roman dominion began to fall in pieces. Having thus traced the
geography of the most eastern of the three great European peninsulas
down to the time when it became part of the dominion which took in all
the lands around the Mediterranean, we will now go on to speak of the
middle peninsula, which became the centre of that dominion, namely
that of Italy. ♦Special character of Greek history.♦ Greece and the
neighbouring lands are the only parts of Europe which can be said to
have a history quite independent of Rome, and beginning earlier than
the Roman history. Of the other countries therefore which became part
of the Roman Empire it will be best to speak in their relation to
Italy, and, as nearly as possible, in the order in which they came
under the Roman power.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] See the first chapter of his eighth book (vol. ii. p. 139 of
the Tauchnitz edition). He makes four peninsulas within peninsulas,
beginning from the south with Peloponnêsos, and he enlarges on the
general character of the country as made up of gulfs and promontories.
[3] Ἤπειρος is simply the mainland, and came only gradually to mean a
particular country. We may compare the use of ‘terra firma’ in South
America. In the catalogue (_Iliad_, ii. 620-635), after the island
subjects of Odysseus have been reckoned up, we read: οἵ τ᾽ Ἤπειρον
ἔχον, ἠδ᾽ ἀντιπέραι᾽ ἐνέμοντο. This must mean the land afterwards
called Akarnania. It was remarked at a later time that the Akarnanians
were the only people of Greece who did not appear in the catalogue.