Topic 2. The Greek Diaspora: From

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Topic 2. The Greek Diaspora From a Balkan to
Mediterranean Culture
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• Beginning in the second half of the eighth
  century, Greeks began to migrate from their
  Balkan homeland and establish new settlements all
  around the Mediterranean Basin. This Greek
  diaspora transformed Greek culture. But the Greek
  diasporic movement was not part of a single
  process. The diaspora developed over centuries.
  As best we can calculate the rate of new
  foundations it looks like
• 10thc 5
• 9thc 6
• 8thc 12
• 7thc 57 Interactive Map
• 6thc 52

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Diaspora Trade The Early Colonies
The colonies founded during the 8thc appear to be
connected to the metals trade. Chief among the
Greeks involved were Eretria and Chalkis on
Evvoia. Earliest colonies were at Pithikoussai
Kymai.
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Pithikoussai
Pitikoussai is a relatively barren island off the
coast of Italy near Naples. The archaeological
evidence indicates that it was occupied by Greeks
from a number of communities other Eastern
traders. The settlement may have been as large as
10,000 people.
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Evidence from the site indicate that large parts
of it were dedicated to the production of metals
bronze and iron. The stone circles in the photo
are the bases of iron-smelting furnaces. The
source of the metals was area around Veii in
Italy.
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Another type of Greek settlement abroad was the
entrepots, or trading post. Al-Mina in Syria was
such a place. Another was Naukratis in Egypt.
King Amasis of Egypt gave Greeks from Chios, Teos
and 5 other places permission to build a
neighborhood in Naukratis for the purpose of
trade. Men moving here did not sever connections
with their home community. Temporary residence
abroad.
Ports of Trade
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Settler Colonies
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Korinth
Over a period of 150 years, men and women from
Korinth established 15 new communities located
all around the Mediterranean basin. Once these
people migrated they became attached to their new
community and lost their membership in their old
one.
Korinth is a good example of an earlier diaspora
group. Korinthians moved out first to unoccupied
areas of western Greece, like Kerkira and Lefkas,
and then others crossed over to southern Italy
and Sicily.
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Temples to Apollo Kerikra (left) and Syracuse
(below).
Tying the colony to its mother-community were
bonds of kinship between families and common
religious cults. At Korinths colonies, the
worship of Apollo was key.
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Black Sea- Asia Trade
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Causes of the Diaspora

1. Land Hunger as the population boom of the 8thc
   continued, there developed a relative shortage of
   land. The developing elite group consumed more
   and more of the available good land. The Greek
   practice of inheritance by equal division of
   property also accelerated the land shortage. The
   relatively scarce good arable land available in
   most areas of Greece meant that internal
   colonization was not really viable accept at
   Athens, as you will see. The solution send
   people abroad to live. Not surprisingly, then,
   the first thing that happened at the new
   settlement was the equal division of land among
   the settlers. REMEMBER possession of land was
   required to be a citizen of the community. If a
   family lost its land, it lost its citizenship.

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1. A Safety Valve in many communities, like
   Korinth, there were social tensions both between
   the aristocracy and the masses, and between
   members of the elite, especially between young
   aristocrats eager for power. The solution hive
   off the most troublesome of the young
   aristocrats. At Korinth, for example, almost
   every settlement expedition was headed by a
   younger member of the Bakkhiad clan (the clan
   that emerged as the dominant power among the
   Korinthian aristocracy).
2. Trauma Colonies some colonies were set up after
   a natural disaster, like a drought, in order to
   save the home community. The Theran settlement of
   Cyrene in Libya was this type of colony. See,
   Document 3.1 (page 92), in your text.
3. Copy-catting there developed a competition
   between communities over colonization.

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Consequences

1. At home, colonization helped to defuse, at least
   monetarily, the rising social tensions between
   the elite and the remainder of the community.
2. The spread of Greek agricultural communities into
   a number of widely diverse environments
   facilitated the exchange of foodstuffs that lower
   the risk of famine and disaster. Population could
   continue to grow. Greek trade and commerce
   flourished.
3. Colonization accelerated the development of
   distinctive Greek identity by juxtaposing Greeks
   from various regions with non-Greeks. Ties of
   language, culture religion became manifest.
4. Colonization transformed slavery. Non-Greeks came
   to supplant Greeks as slaves.
5. Greek culture became a Mediterranean culture.

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Greek colonization persisted during the fifth
century. The Athenian Empire in particular was
active founding colonies along the northern
Aegean and Black Sea. The older colonies in the
west sent out their own colonists and Greek
settlement spread N and W.
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Under the dynamic leadership of first Phillip II
and then his son Alexander the Great, Greek
settlements began to be founded in the interior
of the Balkans, especially in what are now the
states of Bulgaria, Albania, FYROM, Serbia and
Rumania.
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Alexander the Great
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