page_title: Greek colonisation
section_title: Colonies in the rest of the Mediterranean
hierarchical_section_title: Greek colonisation / Locations / Colonies in the rest of the Mediterranean
caption_attribution_description: English: Odysseus and the Sirens. Detail from an Attic red-figured stamnos, ca. 480-470 BC. From Vulci. Français&#160;: Ulysse et les Sirènes. Détail d'un stamnos attique à figures rouges du Peintre de la Sirène (vase éponyme), vers 480-470 av. J.-C. Provenance&#160;: Vulci.
context_page_description: Greek colonization was an organised colonial expansion by the Archaic Greeks into the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea in the period of the 8th–6th centuries BC.
  This colonization differed from the migrations of the Greek Dark Ages in that it consisted of organised direction by the originating metropolis instead of the simple movement of tribes which characterized the earlier migrations. Many colonies that were founded in this period evolved into strong city-states and became independent of their metropolis.
context_section_description: The Greek colonies expanded as far as the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. In North Africa, on the peninsula of Cyrenaica, colonists from Thera founded Cyrene, which evolved into a very powerful city in the region. Other colonies in Cyrenaica later included Barca, Euesperides (modern Benghazi), Taucheira, and Apollonia.
  On the north side of the Mediterranean the Phocaeans founded Massalia on the coast of Gaul. Massalia became the base for a series of further foundations farther away in the region of Spain. Phocaea also founded Alalia in Corsica and Olbia in Sardinia. The Phocaeans arrived next on the coast of the Iberian peninsula. As related by Herodotus, a local king summoned the Phocaeans to found a colony in the region and rendered meaningful aid in the fortification of the city. The Phocaeans founded Empuries in this region and later the even more distant Hemeroscopeum.
  By the middle of the 7th century the lone Greek colony in Egypt had been founded, Naucratis. The pharaoh Psammitecus I gave a trade concession to Milesian merchants for one establishment on the banks of the Nile, founding a trading post which evolved into a prosperous city by the time of the Persian expedition to Egypt in 525 B.C.
caption: Odysseus on the island of the Sirens. The Odyssey typifies the particulars of the age.
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