The Greeks have long had a tradition and spirit of exploration, traveling far from their homes, developing Hellenic civilization across wine seas and mountains of myth and danger.
From the Mycenaean Greeks, between 1400 and 1000 BC. Around 500 BC, the Greeks began to look beyond their rocky homeland and established themselves throughout the region. Soon, Mycenaean “wanakes” dotted the Aegean Sea, and Greek palace culture and gods abounded.
The collapse of Mycenaean civilization, as part of the broader "Bronze Age Collapse" and the so-called "Dark Ages" that followed, did not stopped Greek expansion, but accelerated it. From the 8th century BC, the Greek “apoikiai” or “homes away from home” were entrenched all around the Mediterranean Sea, and beyond!
It was during this early period of colonization from Greece and areas like Cyprus, the Balkans and Asia Minor, to Spain and France, south to Libya and Egypt, the Levant and the Black Sea, Italy and the Adriatic, Sardinia and Corsica, and even as far as Bactria, that the small number of Greeks had come to envelop the "known world".
It is best not to describe these /"apoikiai/" as colonies in English, as the connotations of modern colonization are not appropriate. These apoikiai maintained links with their mother city, from which most of their population would have come, as well as with their founder or "oikists".
The apoikiai are to be distinguished from /"cleruchies/" and /"emporia/" (military garrisons and trading posts). The Apoikiai were independent communities, often in alliance and treaties with their mother cities, but sometimes hostile to the point of war. Often these apoikiai, now city-states in their own right, became much larger and more powerful than their parent cities, as was the case in Corinth and Syracuse.
As Greek fortunes rose and fell and non-Greek regional powers rose and fell, Greek apoikiai often fell under foreign influence or even direct control. However, in the Hellenistic era, the conquests of Alexander the Great had broken the hold of one of these foreign superpowers, the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
During Alexander's lifetime and after his death in 323 BC, there was a resurgence of Greek migration and settlement. Alexander himself founded more than 50 colonies during his foreign conquests, which awakened the Hellenic spirit of exploration and expansion.
Alexander's successors, or Diadochi, continued and consolidated this spirit. Greece's successor states, such as Bactria (roughly present-day Afghanistan) and the Greco-Indian kingdoms pushed the boundaries of Greek civilization into Central Asia, with their commercial, linguistic, cultural and religious influence which still resonates in the region today.
With over 1,000 city-states in Greece and over 500 colonies founded abroad, this video of /"ἀποικισμός/" and the creation of a Greek home away from home is as important today as it was for our ancestors.
Music: Don't Stop Running – Let Em Riot 2018
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Source: Miscellaneous (contact PRAXIS for credits)
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