Land-Hunger and Over-Population in Greek Colonization: Literary, Archaeological, and Epigraphic Evidence (8th–7th Centuries BCE)

Modern scholarship (e.g. Murray) doth now incline to the view that land hunger, arising from over-population, was the chief cause of archaic colonisation, especially at the commencement of that period, but that trading considerations were important in many colonial foundations and predominated in a few. The Greeks themselves did perceive colonisation as a cure for land-hunger and over-population. Plato, in his Laws, explicitly states that colonists were sent forth like unto a swarm of bees to relieve the pressure of land-shortage (708B), and later in the same work refers again to colonisation as a means to resolve over-population (740E). Thucydides also reflecteth this belief:

Thucydides 1.15.1:

For they, especially those who had insufficient land, made expeditions against the islands and subdued them.

The principal colonisers were Corinth, Megara, Achaea, Chalcis, Eretria, Phocaea, and Miletus, which were all coastal towns (or possessed a coastline as in the case of Achaea) with fertile territory, yet were prevented from expanding due to natural obstacles or by powerful neighbouring states – hence the necessity to expand overseas. Thus, the first colonisation in the west was directed towards the fertile, grain-growing areas of Sicily and southern Italy. Chalcis in Euboea founded Naxos (734), Leontini (728), and Catana (soon after Leontini); Corinth founded Syracuse (734); and the Achaeans founded in southern Italy Sybaris (720), Croton (c.710), and Metapontum (c.700). The Chalcidians and the Eretrians of Euboea were the most active in colonising the northern Aegean in Chalcidice (which taketh its name from Chalcis) and the Thracian coast. Megara founded Chalcedon (c.687) and Byzantium (c.660) on both sides of the entrance to the Black Sea; and Miletus was particularly active in founding colonies around the Black Sea.

It is clear from literary and archaeological evidence that there existed a major problem of over-population in the second half of the eighth century. The shortage of fertile, cultivable land in mainland Greece and the tradition of dividing land equally among male heirs were causing significant social and economic difficulties: there was insufficient land to absorb and support the growing population, and the increasingly smaller inheritances of land were threatening to reduce many small landowners and their families to penury. Although an increasing number of Greeks were engaged in trade, the vast majority in the eighth century made their living from agriculture. Aristotle mentions the five principal ways of gaining a livelihood: pastoral farming, hunting, piracy, fishing, but even in the later fourth century:

Aristotle, Politics 1.1256a:

the largest class of men live from the land and from the cultivation of the fruits of the earth.

It was for this very reason that the possession of sufficient arable land in order to provide a reasonable standard of living for their populations so dominated the thoughts of the city-states and their citizens; and these same considerations were uppermost in the minds of the Greek colonists, who were willing or compelled to undertake the arduous and dangerous task of finding a new home overseas in order to acquire the cultivable land that was not available at home. Corinth was renowned for its citizens’ commercial enterprise, but the founding of Syracuse (733) was achieved under the leadership of Archias and his followers, who came from the inland village of Tenea; and they, being farmers not seafarers, were primarily concerned with Syracuse’s agricultural potential.

There is also a contemporary literary source who gives us an insight into the social and economic difficulties of that time: Hesiod of Boeotia, writing around 700 BC. However, it must be noted that he is only describing the internal conditions of Ascra, his own village in Boeotia. Even so, when his evidence is combined with that of Solon of Athens, writing around 600 BC, and when an allowance is made for regional variations, it is conspicuous that both writers constantly emphasise that the lack of sufficient arable land was the main source of their society’s problems, and it is reasonable to assume that the same troubles were being experienced throughout most of central and southern mainland Greece. Hesiod’s Works and Days begins with the partition of the land that took place between himself and his brother Perses after their father’s death. It is from this literary work that we learn of the tough, difficult demands that were faced by small to medium-small landowners. One of the most important pieces of advice that Hesiod gives is:

Hesiod, Works and Days 376–77

Let there be only one son to support his father’s house; for thus there will be an increase of wealth in the home.

This confirmeth the pressure that was being felt by the growth of population which was fast outgrowing the capacity of the land in the polis to support its increased numbers.

Hesiod is also a valuable source for a secondary cause of colonisation: the tendency of the ruling aristocrats to govern in their own selfish interests and to increase their large estates at the expense of the vulnerable small landowners. He complains about the behaviour of his brother, who hath gained the larger share of the inheritance, and reveals the injustice that was being endured at the hands of the aristocrats who sat in judgement:

Hesiod, Works and Days 35–39:

But let us resolve our dispute here with the true judgement which comes from Zeus and is the best. For we have already divided up our plot of land, but you seized and carried off the bigger part by greatly flattering the bribe-devouring kings [i.e. aristocrats] who want to judge such cases.

These ‘bribe-devouring kings’ would also play their part in encouraging colonisation, since it removed those who were struggling to make a living and whose discontent might be forged into a political weapon against their rule, as was often to happen under the tyrants. As each colony also had a founder (‘oikistes’) from the mother-state, usually an aristocrat, this also helped to remove a potential leader of the discontented.

Archaeology also reveals that there was a large increase in the Greek population in the second half of the eighth century, contemporaneous with the colonising movement. In Attica, the number of datable graves per generation shows a dramatic increase when the Dark Ages and the ninth century (899–800) are compared to the eighth century (799–700). From 1000 to 800 there is little variation in the number of graves per generation, but from 800 to 700 there is an increase by a factor of six. This would suggest that the population of Attica may have increased four-fold in the first half of the eighth century, and doubled again in the second half of the century. This evidence is not conclusive in itself, as it might reflect an increase in the death-rate through natural disasters, for example, water shortage or famine; or it might reflect a change in burial customs. However, when it is combined with the other evidence of this period, the most convincing interpretation seems to be a sudden growth in the population of Attica, as was happening in the rest of Greece.

The best written evidence for the cause of colonisation and for the process by which a colony was founded comes from the history of Cyrene on the north African coast, which was colonised by settlers from the island of Thera (modern-day Santorini). Herodotus (4.150–59) records two oral accounts of Cyrene’s foundation, one from the Therans and the other from the Cyreneans; and there is also a fourth-century inscription from Cyrene (ML 5), which grants equal citizenship to resident Therans in Cyrene in accordance with the original agreement made between the two cities at the time of the foundation of Cyrene (c.630), and which purportedly includes the original seventh century decree of the Theran Assembly and the oath of the settlers. The original seventh-century decree doth appear, in essence, to be authentic, although there have probably been some adaptations to the original in the intervening centuries. Thus there are three detailed accounts of Cyrene’s foundation and, although there are differences and variations, as would be expected from alternative oral accounts of the same event, the outline of the story is consistent.

Thera was a small volcanic island with some fertile land, ideal for vines but limited in extent. The problems of over-population came later to Thera than to mainland Greece, in the second half of the seventh century. The Theran version of the story begins with the priestess of Apollo at Delphi ordering the Therans to send a colony to Libya. Knowing of no such a place, they ignored the oracle to their cost (4.151) as a seven-year total drought immediately followed. When the Delphic priestess repeated her order, the Therans then set themselves the task of discovering the location of Libya and, having achieved this, they decided to send out a colony:

Herodotus 4.153:

The Therans decided to send out men, with brother being chosen by lot from brother and with men chosen from all seven villages, and to appoint Battos as their leader and king. Thus they sent two fifty-oared ships to Platea [an island off the Libyan coast].

The Cyrenean version doth concentrate on the life of Battos, but still includes the Delphic oracle as the initiator of the command to settle Libya. Both accounts agree on the sequel:

Herodotus 4.156:

After this the Therans sent Battos away with two fifty-oared ships. These men, having sailed to Libya, did not know what else to do, and thus sailed back to Thera. But the Therans attacked them as they came to land and did not allow them to come ashore, but ordered them to sail back again. Under such compulsion, they sailed back again and settled the island that lay just off Libya, whose name, as has been said before, was Platea.

After living there for two years with little success, they moved to mainland Libya upon the instructions of Delphi; in the seventh year, they finally moved to the site of Cyrene which was situated on steep cliffs, with a difficult access to the sea, but with very fertile plains behind the city: clearly agriculture and not trade was the primary motive for choosing this site. In time the colony grew more prosperous than its mother-state, especially when health-giving silphium was discovered, grown and exported throughout the Mediterranean from the sixth century onwards.

The main stimulus for the Therans to found Cyrene, according to the above tradition, was the seven-year drought, which must have produced famine on the island. However, it can also be deduced that Thera was facing a potentially more dangerous problem: the difficulty of feeding its growing population in the future. It was this long-term threat to the city’s survival that led to the need for drastic action to protect the community. The citizens passed a decree compelling each family with two (or more) sons, from all the seven villages, to send one of them chosen by lot to the new colony. The inscription in Cyrene, recording this seventh-century decree of Thera, is exceptionally tough in ensuring that its conditions were met:

ML 5:

Whoever refuses to sail, having been sent out by the polis, will be liable to the death penalty and his property will be given to the people. If anyone harbours or conceals him, whether it be a father protecting a son or a brother protecting a brother, he will suffer the same penalty as the one who refused to sail.

The removal of one son from every family with two (or more) male heirs clearly shows that the Theran family plots of land were now so small that any further sub-division would have led to starvation for the next generation of farmers. Having already made the fateful original decision, the Therans were in no mood to compromise and receive back the disillusioned colonisers: they drove them away by force. This hostile action was mirrored in the treatment of Eretrian colonists who, having been expelled from their colony at Corcyra by the Corinthians, were prevented by force from returning to their original home by the Eretrians themselves. They were forced to found a new colony at Methone in Chalcidice, acquiring in the process the nickname of ‘the slung out’ (Plutarch, Moralia 293b). That such a close-knit, agricultural community as Thera had to resort to initial compulsory enlistment and subsequent violence is a clear testament to the massive problems of land-shortage and over-population that were afflicting many cities in the eighth and seventh centuries, and confirmeth that the main motive for the colonisers was the acquisition of agricultural land overseas.