The way in which the mountains divide Greece up into small valleys and small coastal plains has tended to make Greek states comparatively small in size. Even in those periods when larger states developed they are dwarfed by contemporary states in the Near East. Thus the Hittite kingdom during the Bronze age in asia Minor was far larger than any Mycenaean kingdom such as pylos, Thebes, or Knosos in Greece; likewise the achaian and aetolian Leagues were minuscule next to the Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms in the Hellenistic age. for most of the archaic and classical periods, however, states in Greece were considerably smaller than, say, the Kingdom of Knosos or the achaian League of the second century bc.
A hypothetical walking tour of the argolic peninsula may help to give a concrete idea of the size of a Greek state in the classical period (fifth to fourth centuries bc). If one began an overland journey on foot - granted one would need a certain amount of vigor as the terrain is rugged and mountainous - at the tip of the Argolic Peninsula in Hermione; and if one carefully planned one's route, one might in the course of a vigorous two days' hike cross the territories of no fewer than five fully independent states: from Hermione to Troezen (on the Saronic Gulf on a narrow coastal plain just south of Methana, a rough peninsula of volcanic origin) to Argos to Epidaurus (on another coastal plain farther to the northwest) and on to Phleius to the west just south of Corinth. In fact, if one planned the trek in the year 480, one could manage to visit the territories of two additional states, Mycene and Tiryns, which for a few years in the early fifth century were independent of Argos (which shortly thereafter reconquered them). Two days' vigorous walking could lead one, then, through seven states.
For most of the classical period the vast majority of states were so small that one could walk the length and breadth of them in less than a day. This holds true not just for the islands of the Aegean, but also for the mountain valleys in Arcadia and the small plains along the coast. There were, of course, exceptions: Sparta and Athens were comparatively large as were some of the league or tribe states such as Thessaly.
To the north of Athens lies the island of Euboea, the largest island in the Aegean. The island’s eastern coast - raw, steep, and devoid of harbors - meets the Aegean storms head on, but the channel between the island and the mainland is sheltered and accordingly calm. All north-south navigation follows the course of the channel which has a wasp’s-waist at the mid-point, the Euripus, where a stone’s throw separates mainland from island (see Figure 1.7).
The Euripus was not just a major sea-route, but also a major land-route since all traffic between the mainland and Euboea went through this spot. Because of its propinquity to the mainland, Euboea’s history is closely bound up with the history of its neighbors, Athens and Boeotia. In the thirteenth century BC
Figure 1.7 The Euripus today (spanned by a retractable bridge). Source: Georgios Pazios, Http://commons. wikimedia. org/wiki/File:Evripos_moving_bridge_1.JPG (accessed 10 January 2012)
The Kingdom of Thebes in Boeotia controlled at least central and southern Euboea (see chap. 2); through much of the fifth and fourth centuries BC Athens controlled Euboea (see chaps. 11, 16. and 18). In the intervening period Euboea had been home to several independent states, the most important of which were Chalcis and Eretria, on the island’s western side, close to the Euripus, at opposite ends of the Lelantine Plain - the most fertile area on Euboea. Chalcis and Eretria exhausted themselves in the so-called Lelantine War over this plain in the late eighth and early seventh centuries (see chap. 5).
Northwest of Attica and across the Euripus from Euboea lies Boeotia. Since Boeotia borders both the Aegean and the Corinthian Gulf, some trade moved overland across it between the two bodies of water - though never so much as across the narrower Isthmus. Dominating Boeotia politically, in all periods, was the city of Thebes. Already in the thirteenth century BC a Mycenaean kingdom was based there. For most of the archaic and classical periods Boeotia was, like Achaia, a league - or tribe-state, albeit one with a large, powerful city, Thebes, at its center. Theban predominance, however, drove other cities to attempt to leave this league; Plataea, for example, in southeastern Boeotia, until its destruction in 427 BC (see chap. 13), constantly sought support from Athens against Thebes.
Figure 1.8 The temple of Apollo at Delphi, with the theater in the foreground and the Pleistos Valley in the background. Source: Adam Carr, Http://commons. wikimedia. org/wiki/ File:Ac. delphi1.jpg (accessed 10 January 2013) CC BY-SA 3.0
West of Boeotia one comes to Phocis and Locris. Phocis, another tribe-state, would have been very much on the periphery of the Greek world had it not been for the Temple of Apollo at Delphi (see Figure 1.8), the most important sanctuary in the Greek world and site of a much-frequented oracle.
Apart from Delphi, however, Phocis was an impoverished backwater of little relevance until 356 BC when the Phocian War broke out (see chap. 18). Locris was also of little importance, though its fragmentation requires some explanation. On either side of the Phocians lay the two chief groups of Locrians, the Ozolian or Western Locrians and the Opuntian or Eastern Locrians. These last are also called the Hypocnemidian Locrians, that is, the “Locrians at the foot of Cape Cnemis.” The Opuntian Locrians were physically divided into two territories by Cape Cnemis which itself remained under Phocian control. Both Opuntian and Ozolian Locris were tribe-states with close ancestral ties while existing independently of one another. In Ozolian Locris lay the strategically important port of Naupactus, just east of the wasp’s-waist of the Gulf of Corinth, between Rhium and Antirrhium. In 456 BC the Athenians appropriated Naupactus and held it for half a century (see chap. 12).
Figure 1.9 Satellite image of the Aegean Sea and surrounding land. Source: NASA, Http://en. wikipedia.0rg/wiki/File:Aegeansea. jpg (accessed 10 January 2013)
West of Phocis and Locris one comes to Aetolia, another league. Aetolia very much lay on the periphery of the Greek world during the classical period; its inhabitants were considered semi-barbarous at best. In the third century BC, however, the Aetolian League would become the largest and most powerful state in Greece north of the Peloponnese (see chap. 21). West and northwest of Aetolia one comes to regions and peoples (e. g., the Acarnanians) not quite Greek, even if they did slowly become Hellenized during the classical period. Farther to the west, along the Adriatic Sea, however, there were a number of colonies founded in the eighth and seventh centuries by Corinth: Leucas, Anac-torium, Ambracia, and, on an island off the coast, Corcyra.
North of Phocis and Locris, the pass of Thermopylae led to Thessaly, the chief state of northern Greece. Thessaly possessed the one large plain in Greece, the only place where the rearing of horses was practicable on a large scale. In the rest of Greece horses functioned chiefly as a status symbol since only the wealthy could afford to keep them, and the standard beast of burden remained the donkey. In Thessaly, however, the first true cavalry in Greece arose, and Thessalian breeds were much sought after when other states in Greece developed cavalries of their own. Thessaly was another tribe-state, traditionally under the leadership of an elective king called a tagos. Thessaly proper was limited to the plain, but by classical times the Thessalians had conquered a number of peoples living in the mountains about Thessaly, the so-called Thessalian Perio-eci (“dwellers-about”): clockwise from the southeast, the Phthiotic Achaians, the Perrhaebians, and the Magnesians. In the mountains to the north of the Thessalian plain, incidentally, lay Mt. Olympus, the home of the gods in Greek mythology.
A few words now, before leaving Thessaly, on the pass at Thermopylae. This long, narrow pass was the only good route from central Greece into Thessaly. As such it had both economic and military significance. With regard to the latter characteristic, those who held the pass attempted to keep it closed (e. g., during the Persian Wars when Greek troops vainly endeavored to prevent the Persians from entering central Greece - see chap. 10, and Figure 10.4), but with regard to the former and far more important characteristic, people strove to keep it open. To this end there grew up about the pass an association, the Pylaean Amphictiony, based at the sanctuary of Demeter of Anthela, which lay within the pass itself near the hot springs from which the pass got its name. (“Thermopylae” means “Hot Gates,” “gate” here being used, as often in Greek, in the sense of “pass.”) The association consisted of those who dwelt on either side of the pass - “amphi-ctiones” in Greek just means “those who live on either side (i. e., of a natural landmark)” - and was dedicated in the first instance to the maintenance of the pass. In course of time this association took on other responsibilities (for example, the maintenance of the sanctuary at Delphi - see chap. 18) and various political functions.
To the north of Thessaly lies Macedonia, which, owing to its importance for the history of Greece from the mid-fourth century onwards (see chap. 18), may usefully be discussed here - quite apart from the much-vexed question of whether or not the Macedonians were Greeks. The heartland of Macedonia, the Emathia or “Lower Macedonia,” lay in the plain between the River Axius to the northeast and the mountains of northern Thessaly to the south. Only in the fourth century did the Macedonians begin to expand eastwards of the Axius into Thrace. The coastal strip to the east of the Emathia was either marshy or held by Greek colonies such as Pydna and Methone, so in the early period the Macedonians lacked access to the Aegean. To the west of the plain lay mountain ranges which boxed highland regions such as Lyncestis and Orestis off from one another. These regions, collectively called “Upper Macedonia,” stood under the control of the stronger Macedonian kings, but tended to become independent under the weaker ones. Even in the time of Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, these highland areas were still imperfectly integrated into Macedonia as a whole.
During the eleventh and tenth centuries BC, Greeks migrated across the Aegean Sea to settle the islands in it as well as the western coast of Asia Minor. This migration will be discussed at greater length in Chapter 3, so here only the major regions affected need to be mentioned: Doris (southwestern Asia Minor), Ionia (the central portion of the western coast of Asia Minor), and Aeolis (the coastal region north of Ionia.
World History
