Summary: In this episode, we discuss the causes of colonization (shortage of land and trade); the Greek emigration westward into Italy, Sicily, France, Spain, Corsica, and Sardinia during the 8th, 7th, and 6th centuries BC; the development of the trireme; and their growing tensions with the Etruscans and Phoenicians (Carthaginians) until around 550 BC ca. 775-750 BC - a group of colonists from Chalcis and Eretria in Euboea and from Cyme in Aeolus, together with the Phoenicians, established a colony at Pithekoussai on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples ca. 740 BC - the Euboeans established a colony at Cumae, directly adjacent of Ischia on the Italian mainland, making it the oldest Greek-only colony in the west and giving them access to the Etruscans 734 BC - the Chalcidians founded the first Greek Sicilian colony, Naxos, on the northeastern coast of the island 733 BC - the Corinthians founded Syracuse and Corcyra 728 BC - the Chalcidians founded Leontini and Catana 726 BC - the Megarians founded Megara Hyblea ca. 725-700 BC - the trireme was developed at Corinth 725 BC - the Chalcidians founded Zancle 720 BC - the Chalcidians founded Rhegium; the Achaeans founded Sybaris 710 BC - the Achaeans founded Kroton 706 BC - the Spartans founded Taras ca. 700 BC - the Achaeans founded Metapontion 688 BC - the Rhodians and Cretans founded Gela ca. 680 BC - the Locrians founded Locri ca. 630 BC - the Greeks began to move away from the eastern side of the island, as Zancle founded Himera in north central Sicily and Megara Hyblea founded Selinus in southwestern Sicily, bringing the Greeks into contact with the Elymians and Phoenician colonies in west Sicily ca. 600 BC - the Sybarites founded Poseidonia; the Phocaeans founded Massalia--the first Greek settlement in France, but in order to do so they had to defeat the Carthaginians in a naval battle south of France ca. 580 BC - the Greeks first engaged in hostilities with the Elymians of Segesta and the Phoenician colonists on Sicily, who in turn formed a military alliance with the powerful Etruscans of central Italy; as a result, the Greeks founded Lipara, the largest of the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northern coast of Sicily, to keep a watch against the Etruscan pirates; Gela founded Akragas on south central Sicily ca. 575 BC - the Phocaeans founded Emporion on northeastern coast of Spain, further encroaching on Carthaginian-owned territory in Spain 570-554 BC - the tyrant Phalaris quickly turned Akragas into a regional power ca. 560 BC - the Phocaeans founded Olbia on the northeastern coast of Sardinia and at Alalia on the eastern coast of Corsica 546 BC - Cyrus the Great of Persia sacked Phocaea, forcing the Phocaeans to flee westward to their colonies; some founded Elea on the Tyrrhenian coastline, making it the last of the Greek settlements in Italy during this great period of Greek colonization
