The Age of Settlement
It is the era of the establishment of colonies or Greek settlements in the Mediterranean basin. The settlement movement, which lasted for a long time within the society of Greece, is a safety valve for them.
The meaning of the colony in the Greek language (Apoikia), which means migration, and one of the most important reasons for the settlement movement is the increase in the population of the original Greek countries and the scarcity of arable land compared to the number of inhabitants and the spread and prosperity of the trade.
This settlement movement is an organized movement, and it differs from the movement of migrations and the formation of Greek settlements in the ages of darkness in Asia Minor.
Although the old stories and narratives about the settlement era did not provide important information about social life more than they focus on the conflict between leaders and how the colony and settlement were established.
How is a colony established?
The geographical historian (Strabon) explains it to us, explaining an example of one of the Greek settlements in the west, which is Syracuse, which was founded on the island of Sicily, even though the historian lived seven centuries after the settlement era.
It is mentioned that (Archias) sailed from (Corinth) to (Syracuse)
At the same time that (Naxos) and Megara were founded in Sicily, where the leader Musicleus and Archias went to Delphi to consult the prophecy and asked whether they preferred health or wealth, then (Archias) chose wealth and (Musicalius) health, so he established and (Archias) (Syracuse) and founded (Musicalius) (Corton) is in Italy and settled there. It is reported that during the trip, (Archias) arrived on the island of Corquera (now Corfu) and left part of his men there, who expelled the original inhabitants of the island known as (the Liberians), and established a settlement there. Then he completed (Erechias) some of the league that separated from Megara and took them and founded (Syracuse).
Conditions for the exit of the settlement movement and the formation of the settlement
Choosing the founder - consulting the prophecy in Delphi - the city that determines the exit to establish a settlement such as Corinth - the existence of a surplus of wealth as well as the population - the existence of a political organization that ensures the regulation of immigration - meaning the deaths of ships and weapons - the leaders' knowledge of the lands in which the settlement is established - the departure of many merchants and skilled workers And the sailor craftsmen, because they know the way to sail and can be known about those lands - the willingness of the migrants to fight and expel the natives from the settlement or their enslavement. And better, kindle a holy flame from the mother city, in order to be kindled with the first fire inside the new earth.
Stages of the settlement movement
The first stage is divided into two stages:
In the year 750 BC, it headed to the west, crossing the Ionian Sea until it reached Sicily, southern Italy, Libya, and southern France. The foundation of Greek colonies was known as the Greater Greece (Magna Gray), a name given by the Romans to Greek settlements in the south of the Italian peninsula and Sicily and from the Greek cities in the country Greece that carried out this stage (Corinth), (Chalcis), (Achaia), (Lukares) and (Sparta), which established the city of (Tarentum) and the island of (Thera) and it is now called San Torrini.
The second stage: 650 BC
I headed to the east, crossing the coast of Thrace and the Sea of Marmara, until I reached Asia Minor, as I reached the Red Sea, the foundation of Greek societies around the coast, and from the Greek cities in Greece that carried out this stage (Megara) and (Miletus) in Asia Minor. This stage is considered the foundation of some commercial centers. In the east, such as Mina, which is a trading center on the Orontes River in southern Syria. This movement also established the city of Naqratis in Egypt on the coast of the Nile River, specifically the Canopy branch during the reign of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty (Queen Basmatsk I) of the Sawy era.
The relationship of the mother city to the settlement
These relationships appear only in times of crisis - that the settlement had the same law as the mother city, and the Greek society in the settlement was autonomous, and the majority of the colonies were little agricultural societies, of which were commercial settlements such as the port (Prodizium) on the eastern coast of the Italian peninsula, and this prompted the emergence of an aristocracy New and very wealthy, such as (Jamoroy) in Serra Koza, which means the owners of the land, thus the settlement became a microcosm of the mother city in terms of societal division and class struggle between aristocrats and commoners.
One of the things that must be taken into account in the relationship between the mother city and the settlement was not exploitative or commercial in the first place, and the evidence for this is that Corinth was a source for pottery and was exported to its settlements in Italy when Athens controlled the pottery trade in the middle of the sixth century. Corinth’s relationship with its settlements was not affected. This makes us say that The relationship of the settler with the mother city continued as a strong friendship for many years, away from commercial disputes and conflicts.