Greece lies at the base of the Balkan Peninsula in southern Europe. It juts out into the Mediterranean Sea between the Adriatic on its west and the Aegean on its east. Greece is a mountainous land, and the mountain ranges as a general
A History of Greece: 1300 to 30 BC, First Edition. Victor Parker.
© 2014 Victor Parker. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Rule run from northwest to southeast. They become progressively lower farther to the south and eventually dip below sea level. Their highest peaks, however, often still rise above sea level to form islands. Thus, the same geological formation which makes up Magnesia drops below sea level south of Cape Sepias before it again rises above the sea in the form of the island of Euboea. South of Carystus it drops again, but its highest peaks farther south appear as the islands of Andros and Tenos.
During unsettled times, the mountain ranges can direct the flow of migrations (see chap. 3) through the land: such migrations have tended to follow the ranges’ northwest-southeast orientation southwards until reaching either a west-east pass (at which point the migrating peoples could turn left and proceed farther in an easterly direction) or an inlet of the sea (which the migrating peoples could then cross on makeshift boats). In settled times, the mountains can help divide the country into sections for human habitation, sections which can be identical with communities’ territories: this is especially true for cities in mountain valleys (e. g., Tegea and Mantinea in Arcadia) or on small coastal plains (e. g., Troezen or Epidaurus in the Argolis). The mountainous nature of the country also means that fertile plains are few; but where such plains do exist, they tend to be intensely cultivated. The mountains also mark the coastline which, owing to the ruggedness and unevenness of the land, has thousands of inlets and gulfs. The largest of these is the Gulf of Corinth which, together with the Saronic Gulf, almost divides Greece in two; the land to the south of these two gulfs, the Peloponnese, is connected only by a narrow isthmus to the rest of Greece (see Figure 1.1). That isthmus - always known simply as “the Isthmus” - had importance both for land and sea traffic. All land travel between the Peloponnese and the rest of Greece had to pass across it. At the same time, it proved easier and quicker in antiquity for those transporting goods from west to east by sea to unload the goods at the Isthmus, to haul them across, and then to reload them on the other side (see also Box 1.1). The Isthmus, then, functioned as an important connecting point for sea travel as well.
Given the mountainous nature of the land, which tended to impede travel overland, much travel was in fact by sea; and the sea usually helped unite rather than divide Greece. This was especially true for the Aegean Sea. Islands dot the sea such that when sailing from mainland Greece to Asia Minor one never loses sight of land - from any one island the next is always visible. In effect, the islands function as stations on a road across the water.
As one moves farther east across the Aegean, one eventually reaches the mainland of Asia Minor. In this region Greeks settled in the eleventh to tenth centuries BC. (see chap. 3). They came from the West, moving across the water island by island. For this reason their settlements in Asia Minor tended to look westwards to the sea rather than farther inland. When the Persians in the early fifth century again took possession of those Greek cities which had risen up in the Ionian Revolt (see chap. 9), the Persians sent their fleet along the coast from city to city because the cities were far more easily accessible by sea than by land. Miletus, in the classical period the most important Greek settlement
Figure 1.1 Satellite image of the Isthmus. Source: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. “The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.” <Http://eol. jsc. nasa. gov/scripts/sseop/QuickView. pl? directory=ESC&ID=ISS023-E -5385>01/10/2013 10:52:32
On the mainland in Asia Minor, provides a spectacular example of this orientation towards the sea. Although the city is technically on the mainland, mountains to the south make it almost inaccessible by land (see Figure 1.2). The simplest way to travel from Miletus into the interior of Asia Minor was actually to embark on a ship, to sail across an inlet of the sea, and then to disembark in the plain of the Meander River. From here one could easily journey overland into the interior.
Greeks reached the northern coast of the Aegean by sea as well - though a little later this time, as late as the eighth century; and while expansion into the interior here did take place (especially on account of the silver and gold mines of Pangaeum), the same more or less held true here as for the settlements in Asia Minor - they looked towards mainland Greece with which they were connected by the Aegean Sea. In every respect the Aegean united Greeks; and the region around the Aegean always formed the core territory of Greek civilization.
Another basic fact about Greece requires a brief comment at the end of this section. Greece lies close to where the Eurasian and African tectonic plates meet, and there is much seismic activity. Earthquakes and tsunamis are common and occasionally devastating. Portions of the land, moreover, are of volcanic origin - the island of Thera, with its active volcano which during the Bronze
Figure 1.2 Position of Miletus on Gulf of Meander River in ancient times
Age (around the middle of the second millennium BC) erupted cataclysmically, is only the best known.
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