TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO GREEK HAD GONE BEFORE!
The term ‘colony’ is not always appropriate, as it implies a formal, state-sponsored programme resulting in a settlement dependent on the mother city; the Greek term apoikia (‘home away from home’) is more neutral and can describe both such ‘true’ colonies and also those that grew from private initiatives.
We shouldn’t imagine Greek (settlers) arriving in an untouched wilderness. In many cases, the earliest Greeks that we can see archeologically arrived at existing non-Greek settlements, or at least in already-inhabited territories. Negotiation was necessary, and there are accounts of treaties and of local kings inviting Greeks to settle in their lands. The traditions on the founding of Massalia (modern Marseilles) in the early sixth century BC claim that the leader of the Greek arrivals was chosen as husband by the daughter of the local king, and that he received land for the (dress-pins) found in early female graves at Pithekoussai. There could be generations of such coexistence with local populations, who in some cases became part of growing ‘Greek’ cities, either through acculturation/cultural hybridization or by becoming enslaved. There are also examples of separate but proximate and connected Greek and local settlements, as at Emporion in Spain. In other cases, Greek settlers were eventually expelled by non-Greeks (or even by other Greeks), or vice versa; and we shouldn’t forget that some Greeks, particularly artisans and traders, just continued on living in settlements that remained non-Greek. Periods of coexistence are implied by the adoption and adaptation of non-Greek religious rites and sites by Greek settlers – possibly attested, for instance, at Thasos, Epizephyrian Locris, and Selinous.
