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Saturday, July 9, 2016

014 - Colonization and the West



In this episode, we discuss the causes of colonization (shortage of land, trade, and civil strife); the Greek emigration westward into southern Italy and Sicily, the coasts of southern France and eastern Spain, and on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia during the 8th, 7th, and 6th centuries BC; the development of the trireme by the Phoenicians/the Corinthians in order to protect their maritime trade networks from roving bands of pirates looking for ships laden with exotic goods; and their growing tensions in the central and western Mediterranean Sea with the Etruscans and the Phoenicians (specifically the Carthaginians) until around 550 BC

ca. 775-750 BC - a group of colonists from the Euboean cities of Chalcis and Eretria and from Cyme in Aeolus, together with the Phoenicians, established a colony/emporion at Pithekoussai on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples
ca. 740 BC - the Euboeans alone established a colony/apoikia at Cumae, directly adjacent to Ischia on the Italian mainland, making it the oldest Greek-only colony in the west and gave them access to trade with the Etruscans of central Italy
734 BC - the Chalcidians founded the first Greek colony in Sicily at Naxos
733 BC - the Corinthians founded Syracuse and Corcyra
728 BC - the Chalcidians founded Leontini and Catana
726 BC - the Megarians founded Megara Hyblea
ca. 725-700 BC - the trireme was developed at Corinth
725 BC - the Chalcidians founded Zancle
720 BC - the Chalcidians founded Rhegium; the Achaeans founded Sybaris
710 BC - the Achaeans founded Kroton
706 BC - the Spartans founded Taras
ca. 700 BC - the Achaeans founded Metapontion
688 BC - the Rhodians and Cretans founded Gela
ca. 680 BC - the Locrians founded Locri (legal code drew up by Zaleucus)
ca. 630 BC - the Greeks began to move away from eastern Sicily, as Zancle founded Himera in north-central Sicily and Megara Hyblea founded Selinus in southwestern Sicily, bringing the Greeks into contact with the Elymians and Phoenician colonies in west Sicily
ca. 600 BC - the Sybarites founded Poseidonia; the Phocaeans founded Massalia--the first Greek settlement in France, but in order to do so they had to defeat the Carthaginians in a naval battle in the waters just south of France
ca. 580 BC - the Greeks first engaged in hostilities with the Elymians of Segesta and the Phoenician colonists on Sicily, who in turn formed a military alliance with the powerful Etruscans of central Italy; as a result, the Greeks founded Lipara, the largest of the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northern coast of Sicily, to keep a watch against the Etruscan pirates; Gela founded Akragas on south-central Sicily
ca. 575 BC - the Phocaeans founded Emporion on the northeastern coast of Spain, further encroaching on Carthaginian-owned territory in Spain
570-554 BC - the tyrant Phalaris quickly turned Akragas into a regional power
ca. 560 BC - the Phocaeans gained a foothold in the Etruscan "network", by founding Olbia on the northeastern coast of Sardinia and Alalia on the eastern coast of Corsica
546 BC - Cyrus the Great of Persia sacked Phocaea, forcing the Phocaeans to flee westward to their colonies; some founded Elea on the Tyrrhenian coastline, making it the last of the Greek settlements in Italy during this great period of Greek colonization





Supplementary Resources (Videos, Photos, Other Podcasts)





Video/A Brief History of Greek Colonization (Archaia Istoria)



 

File:Greek Colonization Archaic Period.svg




 













 














Recommended Podcast Episodes:
***Maritime History - How to Build, Sail, and Ram a Trireme


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