Ancient Greece

==Geography==
===Regions===
{{Main|Regions of ancient Greece}}
[[File:Ancient Regions Mainland Greece.png|thumb|upright=1.25|right|Map showing the major regions of mainland ancient Greece and adjacent "barbarian" lands.]]

The territory of Greece is mountainous, and as a result, ancient Greece consisted of many smaller regions, each with its own dialect, cultural peculiarities, and identity. Regionalism and regional conflicts were prominent features of ancient Greece. Cities tended to be located in valleys between mountains, or on coastal plains, and dominated a certain area around them.

In the south lay the [[Peloponnese]], consisting of the regions of Laconia (southeast), Messenia (southwest), Elis (west), Achaia (north), Korinthia (northeast), Argolis (east), and Arcadia (center). These names survive to the present day as [[regional units of Greece|regional units of modern Greece]], though with somewhat different boundaries. Mainland Greece to the north, nowadays known as [[Central Greece]], consisted of [[Aetolia]] and [[Acarnania]] in the west, [[Locris]], [[Doris (Greece)|Doris]], and [[Phocis (ancient region)|Phocis]] in the center, while in the east lay [[Boeotia]], [[Attica]], and [[Megaris]]. Northeast lay [[Thessaly]], while [[Epirus]] lay to the northwest. Epirus stretched from the [[Ambracian Gulf]] in the south to the [[Ceraunian Mountains]] and the [[Aoos]] river in the north, and consisted of [[Chaonia]] (north), [[Molossia]] (center), and Thesprotia (south). In the northeast corner was [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]],<ref name=britannica>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/354266/Macedonia|title=Macedonia|year=2008|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|access-date=3 November 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081208092317/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/354266/Macedonia| archive-date= 8 December 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> originally consisting [[Lower Macedonia]] and its regions, such as [[Elimeia]], [[Pieria (regional unit)|Pieria]], and [[Orestis (region)|Orestis]]. Around the time of [[Alexander I of Macedon]], the [[Argead dynasty|Argead kings of Macedon]] started to expand into [[Upper Macedonia]], lands inhabited by independent [[Ancient macedonians|Macedonian]] tribes like the [[Lynkestis|Lyncestae]], [[Orestae]] and the [[Elimiotis|Elimiotae]] and to the west, beyond the [[Axius river]], into [[Eordaia]], [[Bottiaea]], [[Mygdonia]], and [[Almopia]], regions settled by Thracian tribes.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=vx251bK988gC&pg=RA6-PA750 ''The Cambridge Ancient History: The fourth century B.C.''] edited by D.M. Lewis et al. I E S Edwards, Cambridge University Press, D.M. Lewis, John Boardman, [[Cyril John Gadd]], Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, 2000, {{ISBN|0-521-23348-8}}, pp.&nbsp;723–24.</ref> To the north of Macedonia lay various non-Greek peoples such as the [[Paeonians]] due north, the [[Thracians]] to the northeast, and the [[Illyrians]], with whom the [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonians]] were frequently in conflict, to the northwest. [[Chalcidice]] was settled early on by southern Greek colonists and was considered part of the Greek world, while from the late 2nd millennium BC substantial Greek settlement also occurred on the eastern shores of the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]], in [[Anatolia]].

===Colonies===
{{main|Greek colonisation}}
{{further|Magna Graecia|Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul|List of ancient cities in Thrace and Dacia#Greek}}
[[File:Greek Colonization Archaic Period.svg|thumb|upright=1.75|[[Greek colonisation|Ancient Greek colonies]] in the [[Archaic Greece|archaic period]].]]
[[File:Agrigento-Tempio della Concordia01.JPG|thumb|The [[Temple of Concordia, Agrigento|Temple of Concordia]], [[Valle dei Templi]], [[Magna Graecia]], in present-day [[Italy]]]]

During the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic period]], the Greek [[Classical demography#Ancient Greece and Greek colonies|population]] grew beyond the capacity of the limited [[arable land]] of Greece proper, [[Greek colonisation|resulting in the large-scale establishment of colonies]] elsewhere: according to one estimate, the population of the widening area of Greek settlement increased roughly tenfold from 800 BC to 400 BC, from 800,000 to as many as {{frac|7|1|2}}-10&nbsp;million.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.umsystem.edu/upress/fall2006/hansen.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070305112612/http://www.umsystem.edu/upress/fall2006/hansen.htm|title=Population of the Greek city-states|archivedate=5 March 2007}}</ref> This was not simply for trade, but also to found settlements.  These [[Greek colonies]] were not, as Roman colonies were, dependent on their mother-city, but were independent city-states in their own right.<ref name=BoardmanHammond-xiii>{{harvnb|Boardman|Hammond|1982|p=xiii}}</ref>

Greeks settled outside of Greece in two distinct ways.  The first was in permanent settlements founded by Greeks, which formed as independent poleis.  The second form was in what historians refer to as ''[[emporium (antiquity)|emporia]]''; trading posts which were occupied by both Greeks and non-Greeks and which were primarily concerned with the manufacture and sale of goods.  Examples of this latter type of settlement are found at [[Al Mina]] in the east and [[Pithekoussai]] in the west.<ref>{{harvnb|Antonaccio|2007|p=203}}</ref> From about 750 BC the Greeks began 250 years of expansion, settling colonies in all directions. To the east, the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] coast of [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]] was colonized first, followed by [[Ancient history of Cyprus|Cyprus]] and the coasts of [[Thrace]], the [[Sea of Marmara]] and south coast of the [[Black Sea]].

Eventually, Greek colonization reached as far northeast as present-day [[Ukraine]] and Russia ([[Taganrog]]). To the west the coasts of [[Illyria]], [[Southern Italy]] (called "[[Magna Graecia]]") were settled, followed by [[Southern France]], [[Corsica]], and even eastern [[Spain]]. Greek colonies were also founded in [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]] and [[Ancient Libya|Libya]]. Modern [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]], [[Naples]], [[Marseille]] and [[Istanbul]] had their beginnings as the Greek colonies Syracusae ({{lang|grc|Συράκουσαι}}), Neapolis ({{lang|grc|Νεάπολις}}), Massalia ({{lang|grc|Μασσαλία}}) and [[Byzantium|Byzantion]] ({{lang|grc|Βυζάντιον}}). These colonies played an important role in the spread of Greek influence throughout Europe and also aided in the establishment of long-distance trading networks between the Greek city-states, boosting the [[economy of ancient Greece]].