Ancient Colonisation. Classical and Hellenistic Colonisation in a Comparative Perspective (500-200 BCE)

It is well known that colonisation was a crucial and formative component of the ancient world. From the Early Iron Age onwards, a period of unprecedented intensity in colonial migrations began that drastically reshaped the geopolitical and ethnic organisation of the Mediterranean. The influence of this development on Classical culture in general, and political theory specifically, is well-known and these topics have a long history of study. Understandably, research has primarily focused on the early phases of this phenomenon, particularly on Greek colonial settlements founded during the late 9th to 6th centuries BCE. Certainly, this formative period in ancient colonial history, which is closely linked to the debate on the rise of the polis, deserves our fullest attention. However, this preoccupation with early Greek colonisation has also resulted in a marginalisation of the later phases of ancient colonial history in the Mediterranean, and of the other, non-Greek colonial polities that were active in the area. As a result, the evolution of ancient colonial practices, as well as the diverse colonial strategies that were adopted in the region by different colonising polities, are only poorly understood.

This is of course not to deny that recent decades have seen important progress in the study of colonial ideology and practices of the different imperial powers that dominated the Classical and Hellenistic world. New interpretive models deriving from a variety of social and philosophical disciplines have offered refreshing new insights into the impact and structure of colonial rule in the ancient Mediterranean, and alongside epigraphy and archaeology have greatly enriched our understanding of the field. These exciting new developments, however, have remained largely contained within specific disciplinary fields. As a result, one rarely encounters studies that deal with Roman, Athenian, Macedonian, Syracusan, Carthaginian, or Achaemenid colonialism in a comparative perspective, or scholars working on both Classical and Hellenistic forms of colonisation.

This digital platform aims to fill this lacuna by combining and showcasing data and expertise on colonial polities in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. The first objective of creating a systematic inventory of colonial settlements was taken up together with a group of MA-students from the history department of the University of Groningen. Our methodology and preliminary results are presented in the various pages of this ArcGIS StoryMap. It is important to emphasise that our inventory is set up as a dynamic data source that can be adapted and/or completed according to new insights and discoveries. It is an interactive, work-in-progress project that will also develop and improve through the input and feedback provided by those who visit the website. A second aim will be to create a network of specialists that work on the topic at hand to facilitate exchange of knowledge and expertise. Interaction is enabled in the form of regularly organised workshops and an expert blog function, which will be added to this platform in the near future. The programmes of past workshops, as well as future events, will also be published here.