man; respectable Greeks grew things rather than sold them; on the land, not in the market-place, were found Greeks who formed governments. But the Greek who grew things had to sell them or persuade
traders to sell them for him. The element cannot be ignored, but we do not need to start talking of 'a powerful merchant class'. For instance, the founding fathers of Syracuse were farmers from an inland village
near Corinth, scarcely entrepreneurial material. But they were led by a member of Corinth's ruling family-was he sent on a government-inspired mission or was he merely unpopular with his kinsmen? They
settled at Syracuse, rich land, but with the finest harbour in eastern Sicily. Did they settle to survive or to sell? Whatever it was, there is no sign of any very significant relationship with the folks back home.
Contrast contemporary Corcyra, surely strategic in intent and to acquire even more strategic importance when it found itself astride the route to Adriatic silver as well as western grain. There the story is one of
repeated conflict between the 'maternal' interests of Corinth and the legitimate Corcyrean feeling that they had come of age. Contrast again Cyrene, established with no maternal guidance from drought-stricken
Thera about 630 B.C. The settlers were conscripted and warned clearly that their return would not be welcome.
Map 2. Greek colonization. The earliest colonies were led by trade-to Ischia and Cumae in central Italy, close to Etruna. Consolidation soon followed in the agriculturally more promising areas of South Italy
and Sicily. The Adriatic approaches were also explored, and the north coast of the Aegean (neighbouring the Thracians) from the later eighth century on. Early exploration of the Black Sea took Greeks to its
farther shores, first (Olbia) where there was river-access to the hinterland, with later consolidation which gave access to the Caucasus (Phasis) and the corn-rich lands of the Danube valley (Istrus). The
approach to the Black Sea was at the same time secured with cities on the Hellespont and Bosporus. On the east and south shores of the Mediterranean expansion was contained by the strengths of local
kingdoms, but the south coast of Asia Minor was explored and Al Mina in Syria had served as a trading port for Greeks, apparently with Greek residents, from before 800 B.C. Naucratis in Egypt served a
similar function from the later seventh century on. Cyprus admitted substantial Phoenician (ninth-century) and Greek (eighth- to sixth-century) settlements, the latter becoming mainly Greek cities in later