Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/122

The People. ioi ancestors had formerly left, following the sun's course across the Archipelago. History, — for the term may fairly be applied to the events with which we are concerned — in the maritime emigration which then took place, specifies three main groups, differentiated from each other both by their composition, the route which they followed, and the date of their appearance on the world's stage. The first to launch its boats on the main would appear to have been the ^Eolian group, which we have also called Boeotian, because the several detachments constituting it started from ports held by Boeotia on the Euripus.^ The Achaeans driven out of Thessaly and Peloponnesus formed part of the colonizing expedition ; the main body however was made up of Pelasgi and iEolians. The ships weighed anchor in the north of the Euboean Channel. They skirted the coast of Thessaly, and moved along the shores of Thrace to the mouth of the Hebrus, where the planting of ^Enus indicates the first stage of the voyage. iEoleum and Sestus on the European coast of Hellespont, Sigeum and Rhaetae on the Asiatic side of the strait, may be regarded as the next stations of the migratory bands. The Idaean peninsula was conquered slowly, and step by step ; for its old inhabitants, the Dardani, fought for every foot of ground in the plain ere they fell back on the mountain of Ida, where they were cut off from the sea. The strong position which the iEolians took up in the islands of Tenedos and Lesbos, facing the mainland, enabled them to renew at pleasure their attacks until final success crowned their efforts. Lesbos above all was of great service, lying as it does under the most genial of skies, with deep-cut harbours, fronted by the richest tracts, which soon became thickly populated and throve exceedingly. On the Asiatic continent, the emigrants spread along the whole extent of coast and penetrated some distance inland ; founding cities on their route, such as Assos, Antandros, JFAiz, and Cymae ; they advanced to the head of the bay ^ A10X11C17 atroiKta (Strabo). With regard to the relative date and peculiar characteristics of the ^olian colonization, and the chiefs conducting it, every one of whom claimed descent from Agamemnon, Strabo will be found particularly helpful. Herodotus gives the list of the twelve .'Eolian towns of Mysia; in Thucydides, though he refrains from enumerating all the towns one by one, will be found a much clearer notion as to the extension of the ifDolian element in the northern part of the ^gean which washes the coasts of Thrace and the islands.