The rise of poleis such as the ones mentioned in the preceding subsection can be seen against the background of a population growth that after its beginnings in the 9th century BC accelerated in the 8th century. That population growth stimulated both emigration of Greeks away from the motherland and expansion over adjacent lightly populated areas or weaker communities—thereby contributing to armed conflict between neighboring poleis. Thus, Sparta subjugated the whole region of Laconia and in the late 8th century BC started the wars that would lead to the annexation of neighboring Messenia. Argos extended its power over the area of the Argolid, while Athens unified the peninsula of Attica into one polis. The emigration to regions outside Greece inaugurated the so-called Archaic Colonization movement. A “colony” in this context means an overseas but independent settlement, not a subdued region held in subordination to a “motherland.” From the second half of the 8th century until well into the 6th century BC, Greek colonies were founded on various shores of the Mediterranean and Black seas. The best known of these were Syracuse and Akragas, already mentioned, as well as Katane, the oldest colony in Sicily; in South Italy, Tarentum and Neapolis; in present-day South France, Massalia; on the north coast of Africa in modern Libya, Cyrene; and on the Bosporus, Byzantium.
These colonies as a rule adopted various institutions and cults, as well as their dialect and their alphabet, from their mother cities, but politically they were, as stated in the preceding text, independent poleis from the start. The oldest colonies had primarily been trading posts, but soon agrarian settlements dominated, and many colonies were founded at locations that had excellent soil for grain or viticulture in the vicinity. Thus, this Greek colonization movement can also be seen as part of a broader movement of migration of peoples and crops from east to west in the course of the 1st millennium BC. Greeks consciously contributed to the spread of improved grains (wheat), the cultivated olive, and the vine to the western basin of the Mediterranean. The emergence of these daughter cities no doubt stimulated commerce as well. Soon, grains from Sicily and the south of Russia were exported to Greece proper, while bronze vessels, luxury ceramics, and wine went from the motherland to the colonies. There, the Greeks often passed these products on to chieftains and princes in the hinterland, Scythians, Celts, and others, who in this way developed a taste for Greek products. Ceramics, especially, can be of relevance in this respect for modern archeologists in their efforts to reconstruct contacts between Greeks and non-Greeks by way of migration and trade.
World History
