Colonies in antiquity: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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There were two similar kinds of colonies, '''''apoikiai''''' and '''''emporia'''''. The first were city-states on their own; the second were Greek trading-colonies.

The Greek [[city-state]]s began establishing colonies around [[800 BC]]. Among the earliest of the Greek trading emporia were Al Mina in northern Syria and the Greek emporium at Ischia in the Bay of Naples, both established about [[800 BCEBC]].

Two flushes of new colonists set out from Greece at the transition between the "[[Dark Ages]]" and the start of the [[Archaic Period]], in the early 8th century and a second burst of the colonizing spirit in the [[6th century BCEBC]]. Population growth and cramped spaces at home seem an insufficient explanation for the phenomena.

Several formulae were generally adhered to on the solemn and sacred occasions when a new colony set forth. If a Greek city was sending out a colony, an oracle (before all others that of [[Delphi]]) was almost invariably consulted beforehand. Sometimes certain classes of citizens were called upon to take part in the enterprises; sometimes one son was chosen by lot from every house where there were several sons; and strangers expressing a desire to join were admitted. A person of distinction was selected to guide the emigrants and make the necessary arrangements. It was usual to honor these founders of colonies, after their death, as heroes. Some of the sacred fire was taken from the public hearth in the [[Prytaneum]], from which the fire on the public hearth of the new city was kindled. And, just as each individual had his private shrines, so the new community maintained the worship of its chief domestic deities, the colony sending embassies and votive gifts to the mother-city's principal festivals for centuries afterwards.