Greek settlement spread to Asia Minor’s northern and southern coasts during the great age of colonization. Until the Cimmerian invasion of Asia Minor c.690 BC, Ionians attempts to expand inland via the river valleys were blocked by Gyges’ consolidation of Lydia.
In the north, Cyzicus (f.c.675 BC), on the south coast of the Propontis (=Sea of Marmara), Sinope (f.c.700 BC), midway along the Black Sea coast, and Panticapaeum (=Kerch; founded late 600s BC) on the western side of the Cimmerian Bosporus (=Kerch Strait), were among the colonies founded by Miletus in an attempt to control the Black Sea trade route.
Sinope shared its commercial advantage with its satellite colony Trapezus (=Trabzon; refounded c.631 BC after being destroyed by the Cimmerians) to the east, until the length of the dangerous sea route to the Bosporus was reduced by the foundation of the Megarian/Boeotian colony Heraclea Pontica (=Eregli; f.c.560 BC) to the west. The Dorians of Megara also founded Chalcedon (f.c.676 BC), Byzantium (f.c.660 BC) and Selymbria (=Silivri; founded ‘before Byzantium’), on the north coast of the Propontis.
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