Ephesus
Ephesus, located on the south side at the mouth of the Cayster (=Kucuk Menderes) River, enjoyed similar advantages to those of Miletus just thirty miles (≈48 km) to the south, i.e. it was at the junction of major land trade routes of Asia Minor and important sea trade routes between the Black Sea, the Near East and mainland Greece. Through centuries of silting Ephesus is now located six miles (≈10 km) inland.
According to Strabo, the earliest inhabitants of Ephesus were Leleges and Carians. Sometime around the beginning of the first millennium BC a settlement was established at Ephesus by Ionian Greeks, said to be led by Androclus, son of the Athenian king Codrus. Ephesus adopted the worship of a local goddess identified with Artemis; her first temple was destroyed by the Cimmerians in the seventh century BC.
Around 600 BC the city’s oligarchic government gave way to a line of tyrants. In c.560 BC the Lydian king Croesus (c.48; r.c.560-546 BC) conquered the city, moved its inhabitants south to an area southwest of the hill Ayasoluk. A new temple was built for the worship of Artemis. In 547 BC the Ephesians came under Persian rule. They joined the Ionian revolt in 499 BC and gained their independence at the end of the Persian wars in 479 BC. Ephesus joined the Delian League in 478 BC but revolted in c.412 BC to side with Sparta.
Smyrna
The first ancient Greek settlement of Smyrna was founded about the tenth century BC on the northeastern shore of the Gulf of Smyrna, in what is now Bayrakli, a suburb of modern Izmir. Aeolian Greeks established themselves here on the site of an earlier Anatolian settlement, but were themselves soon replaced by Ionian Greeks. From this time, Smyrna was considered part of Ionia, though it was not incorporated into the Panionium, or organisation of the original twelve Ionian cities until the third century BC. After its capture by Alyattes II of Lydia (r.c.610-c.560 BC) in c.600 BC Smyrna ceased to exist as city until it was refounded on a new site by Alexander the Great (32; r.336-323 BC) or his successors Antigonus-I Monophthalmus (‘one-eyed’) (c.81; r.306-301 BC) and Lysimachus (79; r.305-281 BC).
Phocaea
Phocaea was the northernmost of the Ionian cities, positioned on a headland flanked by two natural harbours. With the soil insufficient for their needs the Phocaeans took to the sea. The colonisation of the French and Spanish coasts was mostly their doing: notably at Massilia (=Marseille, France) in c.600 BC, Emporion (=Empuries, Catalonia, Spain) in c.575 BC and Elea (=Velia, Campania, Italy) in c.535 BC, with lesser trading ports such as Alalia (=Aleria, on the central east coast of Corsica) in c.560 BC on the way. Herodotus tells us that the Phocaeans had close contacts with Arganthonius, king of Tartessus in southern Spain.
In 540 BC, when Phocaea was besieged by a Persian army under Harpagus, most of the citizens rejected submission and chose instead to emigrate. Some may have fled to Chios, others to their colonies on Corsica and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, with some returning to Phocaea.
The rulers of Caere, the leading maritime city of the Etruscans, and also the Carthaginians, felt that their interests in Corsica (and Sardinia) were threatened by the Phocaean settlers. In c.537 BC at the resulting naval Battle of Alalia, the Phocaeans were successful against a fleet twice their size, but suffered such heavy losses that the survivors had to leave Corsica. They first took refuge at Rhegium but subsequently moved on to found Elea in southern Italy.
In 499 BC the Phocaeans who had returned to their old town joined in the revolt against Persian rule. Phocaea, though, was much weakened and could only contribute three ships to the Ionian fleet at the Battle of Lade in 494 BC.
Leave a Reply