Massalia maintained its links to the eastern Mediterranean, whose bronze foundries were hungry for tin. Large quantities of sixth-century Greek pottery have been found during excavations in Marseilles, from Euboia, Corinth, Athens, Sparta, Ionia and, closer at hand, Etruria. The wealthy merchants of Massalia endowed a treasury at Delphi.15 This was no colonial backwater. The culture of southern France became Hellenized. A late Roman writer, Justin, summarized the words of an earlier writer, Pompeius Trogus (whose Philippic Histories are now lost), as follows:
From the people of Massalia, therefore, the Gauls learned a more civilised way of life, their former barbarity being laid aside or softened; and by them they were taught to cultivate their lands and to enclose their towns with walls. Then too, they grew accustomed to live according to laws, and not by violence; then they learned to prune the vine and plant the olive; and such a radiance was shed over both men and things, that it was not Greece which seemed to have immigrated into Gaul, but Gaul that seemed to have been transplanted into Greece.16
Of course, this encomium was written many centuries later, and it is doubtful whether the Greeks really introduced the olive and the vine.17 Still, a good claim can be made that it was the Greeks and Etruscans who fostered the intensive exploitation of vineyards, and introduced a more advanced technology of olive-pressing and wine production. Sir John Boardman insisted that ‘the first wine drunk in Burgundy was Greek wine from Marseilles’, and the Athenian, Phoenician and Etruscan wine jars found on many sites in Languedoc and Provence support Boardman’s contention.18 Justin was right: it was not necessary to conduct a conquest in the style of the Roman legions to draw this region into the cultural orbit of Greece.
As elsewhere in the western Mediterranean, the years around 500 BC marked an important transition. Partly this was the result of the growing political tension between Greeks and Etruscans, which led to a decline in commercial contacts through the Tyrrhenian Sea. Meanwhile, the cultural centres in northern and eastern France (generally known as the Hallstatt culture) fell under a shadow, and it was Celtic lands further to the east that became the focus of a vibrant new continental culture, the so-called La Tène culture, which was heavily influenced by the Etruscans, by way of the passes over the eastern Alps. This meant that the trade routes linking the Mediterranean to northern Europe shifted eastwards, and demand for fine Mediterranean goods withered in the Rhône valley.19 Less Attic pottery arrived in Massalia, though by the end of the century this trade recovered. But, more importantly, the Greeks were no longer able to send wine and fine products inland from Marseilles, while in the far west, along the coast of Spain, it was the Carthaginians who dominated the conduct of commercial business. It has been seen that one response in the Greek world was to rely increasingly on a route up the Adriatic that linked them to the new town of Spina. Marseilles’ loss was Spina’s gain. Another response was for Massalia to become the mother-city to a new generation of colonies along the shores of Provence and Languedoc, including Agde, though its most famous offshoot, Nikaia (Nice), may have been founded only in the third century.20
III
One of the most remarkable cases of Hellenization can be observed in Spain. In early Greek literature, such as the works of Hesiod, the westernmost reaches of the Mediterranean were the home of fabulous creatures such as the three-headed monster Geryon; here lay the mysterious Garden of the Hesperides, and here at the Pillars of Hercules Atlas held up the sky.21 The Phoenicians had, as has been seen, reached this region first, and had established an important base beyond the Mediterranean at Cádiz. Among the Greeks, the Phokaians and their neighbours were once again the pioneers, starting with the sailor Kolaios of Samos in the mid-seventh century; the king of Tartessos was even said to have invited the Phokaians to settle his lands.22 Mistakenly, as events would prove, they went to Corsica instead. The Greek presence, as settlers and traders, in sixth- to fourth-century Spain was rather limited by comparison with the Carthaginians, and it is not clear that the Carthaginians were seen as competitors: the Greeks of Emporion traded in metals with them, and Emporion minted coins in the fourth century that combined Carthaginian motifs with those of Greek Sicily. The citizens of Emporion probably recruited mercenaries for the Carthaginian army fighting the Greeks in Sicily; nor did Emporion try to create a large territory under its direct control. Its wealth was based not on local resources but on its contact with the metal-rich lands of southern Spain, contacts that were mediated by Carthaginian merchants.23 And yet the cultural influence of the Greeks easily surpassed that of Carthage. Although some of the Greek centres in Catalonia continued to flower, those of Andalucía, such as Mainake near modern Málaga, soon withered, and the region reverted to the Phoenician sphere. Silver-rich Tartessos may have passed its peak by 500 BC, but there were other opportunities, and the Carthaginians capitalized on their victories in the western Mediterranean, signing a treaty with the emerging city of Rome in 509 which politely but firmly forbade the Romans and their allies from entering large tracts of the western Mediterranean.
Attempts to close seas are often counterproductive; they invite piracy and are expensive to implement. It was probably before the Carthaginians established their Spanish monopoly that a Greek sailor compiled a sailing manual, or Periplus, that described the coasts of Spain from Galicia through the Straits of Gibraltar along the coast all the way to Marseilles, which was presumably his home base. No doubt his aim was to record the route that gave access to supplies of Galician tin. He was a precursor of the famous Greek sailor from Marseilles, Pytheas, who discovered the sea route to Britain in the fourth century.24 This work of the sixth century BC, or possibly a little later, survived and was incorporated into a clumsily composed poem in Latin by a pagan writer of the late fourth century AD named Avienus.25 Again and again Avienus indicates that his ancient text describes a place along the coast of Spain that has subsequently fallen into ruin, so there is a mixing of ancient material with observations by later travellers whom Avienus had also read. The omission of some places such as the Greek colony of Rhode suggests that they had not yet been founded by the time the Greek sailor wrote his Periplus, confirming its great antiquity. Avienus speaks at length about Tartessos, which had passed its peak by the fifth century BC, and confidently identifies it with Cádiz, while insisting that ‘now it is small, now it is abandoned, now a heap of ruins’;26 he describes how the Tartessians traded with their neighbours, and how the Carthaginians reached these waters; he points out a glittering mountain rich in tin which would have greatly interested early traders.27 The text also refers to decayed Phoenician cities in southern Spain, suggesting that Avienus’ precursor travelled past these settlements in the late sixth century; and he mentions how some Phoenician settlements were now occupied by Carthaginian settlers.28 In turning a Greek text into Latin verse and adding material from later sources, Avienus created a sort of palimpsest, but it is very hard to disentangle the layers.29 Avienus does describe important native centres of settlement at Tarragona and Valencia, known to him as Tyris (a name that survives in the river Turia, which until recently flowed through the centre of Valencia), but in mentioning Barcelona, whose name is of Carthaginian origin, he refers to a relatively late foundation. He talks of fierce peoples along the Spanish coast who lived off milk and cheese ‘like wild beasts’, conjuring up an image of the great variety of peoples who fell under the Iberian label, and this is confirmed by archaeological evidence that there was no single Iberian ‘nation’ but many tribes and statelets.30
The Greeks and Carthaginians interacted closely with the Iberian peoples. The result was the emergence of a civilization that achieved a high level in the fine arts, built towns of reasonable size and adopted writing. Iberian civilization has received little attention outside Spain, yet the Iberians reached a level of sophistication surpassed among native peoples of the western Mediterranean only by the Etruscans.31 They provide a second example of the penetration of Greek and Phoenician culture into the west, across l
engthy routes of trade and migration, and of the melding of those cultural influences with native talent in stone sculpture and metalworking. But the Iberians are harder to identify than the Etruscans, who developed a sense of solidarity as a single people who called themselves Rasna. There were distinct cultural differences between the Iberians of Andalucía, the Valencian seaboard and Catalonia. There were many tribes and no political unity. It is not even clear that they all spoke the same or related languages, though the best candidates for surviving languages related to the ancient Iberian tongues are Basque and Berber. Inland, they merged with other populations, usually classed not just by modern scholars but by Avienus as Celtic (a very vague term, but one that emphasizes continental rather than Mediterranean cultural traditions).32 The term ‘Iberian’ is thus something of a generalization, referring to various peoples between the seventh and second centuries BC, in a politically unstable world which Carthaginians, Greeks and finally Romans penetrated as traders and conquerors.
As in Sicily and southern Italy, Greek settlements such as Emporion sometimes stood apart from the native population, but with time, following intermarriage and other contacts, the towns probably became quite mixed in population. Not far from Emporion, at Ullastret, stood an important Iberian town, which was well planned with four gateways and an area, in the fourth century, of 40,000 square metres. But the relationship between Iberians and colonists should not be seen as one of inherent hostility. A few examples will illustrate how the Iberians combined lessons learned from the Greeks and others with their own expressions of individuality. Although there were variations in the south-west of Spain, there was rough uniformity in the scripts used by the Iberians, and the Greek derivation of many of the characters is not in doubt – Greek, not Phoenician. Oddly, having acquired an alphabet, the Iberians then added to it a number of syllabic symbols, ba, be, bi, bo, bu and similarly for the letters ‘c’ and ‘d’, after which, even more oddly, the inventiveness of the creators of this script evaporated. Two fundamental features of modern Spain came into existence as a result of Greek influence on the Iberians: both the vine and the olive became increasingly popular, though Catalan wines were decried by the Roman poet Martial for their poor quality; in any case, the Iberians had traditionally preferred beer, and often imported better wines from Etruria.33
Another example of cultural borrowing can be observed in their tombs; their consistent preference was for cremation. At Tutugi in Andalucía tombs from the fifth century onwards have been unearthed, varying from simple deposits of urns to sumptuous tumuli containing chambers with passages, and traces of painting on the walls. Architectonic motifs include supporting columns decorated in the Ionian style. These massive tombs, which evidently housed the remains of the elite, recall those of Etruria, suggesting influence from Italy. The practice of burying the rich and famous with impressive grave goods was followed, as in Italy and parts of the eastern Mediterranean: a triple-chambered tomb at Toya contained bronze buckets, gems and a chariot.34 A third example of the mixing of native and external influences can be found in sculpture. Working with limestone, Iberian artists produced impressive near-lifesize representations of bulls, horses and deer, with the main features of the animal boldly expressed; their preference was for high relief, and many of the surviving sculptures must have been fitted as external decorations to temples and other cult centres.35The influence of Greek styles was felt gradually and resulted in a style that never appears wholly Greek. This is true even in the fourth century BC, the probable date of the most famous Iberian sculpture, the ‘Dama de Elche’, a bust of a priestess or goddess wearing elaborate jewellery. Although her face owes a great deal to classical Greek models, the rest of the figure bears close relation to other lifesize figures of women that have come to light in Spain.36 Her jewellery may also owe something to Carthaginian models.37 But the treatment of drapery in the Elche bust and other similar sculptures reflects Iberian canons. The Iberians did not share the Greek and Etruscan delight in portraying the naked body: only one Iberian vase painting shows naked men, and it was found at Emporion, where the Greeks predominated.38
Pottery reveals commercial connections and, in the case of painted vases, it exposes cultural influences, whether expressed through iconography or through the interest native peoples might show in Greek gods and heroes. Unlike the peoples of Italy, the Iberians were not overwhelmed by Greek or Phoenician religious ideas, though along the coast there is some evidence of shared cults dedicated to Demeter, Astarte and other foreign gods; an alabaster statuette from a tomb at Tutugi clearly represents a Phoenician goddess.39 In the field of vase painting the Iberians showed particular originality, not simply trying to copy Greek models, as the Etruscans frequently did. Black-figured vases from Liria near Valencia portray scenes of dancing and war; human figures are outlined in a fluid semi-abstract style that readily conveys a sense of movement, and empty spaces are anxiously filled with curlicues, roundels, floral designs and anything else that would prevent a vacuum from being created.40 In Andalucía, geometric designs with a sixth-century Greek paternity lingered as late as the fourth century, much adapted to meet the demands of Iberian buyers – a love of birds and animals, as also of foliage. Thus there was no single ‘Iberian style’, but the Iberians owed fundamental ideas to the Greeks, adapting what arrived on Greek and Phoenician ships from the eastern Mediterranean.
Finally, the Iberians made themselves known beyond the boundaries of Spain not as traders, but as formidable soldiers. They were recruited by the tyrant of Himera in Sicily, in 480 BC, but they also fought at the end of the fifth century in Carthaginian armies which were attacking the Greek cities in Sicily; after Carthage was defeated by the Greek tyrant of Syracuse in 395 many entered his service. They were even mentioned in one of the comedies of Aristophanes around this time, raising a laugh because they were said to be covered in body hair. Their famous sabres were adapted from Greek and Etruscan models which they learned to handle while serving as mercenaries.41 Payment and loot from foreign wars must have made many fortunes in Iberia, and helps to account for the wealth of some of the Iberian tombs. On the other hand, it was the natural resources of Spain, particularly its metals, which were the real source of Iberian prosperity. The Iberians were ideally placed to benefit from the traffic that passed from the Spanish interior down to the coast, or that was carried on ships bound from Gadir and other Atlantic ports through Gibraltar and along the route described by Avienus. The entire Mediterranean was now being navigated by Greek, Etruscan or Carthaginian vessels; peoples from the far west were the subject of jokes in the Athens of Aristophanes; and the peoples of the west looked to Greece, first Corinth and later Athens, as the centre of style and fashion.
5
Thalassocracies, 550 BC–400 BC
I
The Mediterranean coasts might be expected to serve as the natural limit to imperial expansion by the great powers of the Middle East – the Hittites, Assyria, even Pharaonic Egypt. The Assyrians did occasionally try to browbeat Cyprus into submission, as did the Egyptians, for its resources in timber and metal were too precious to ignore. But no attempt to gain mastery over the eastern Mediterranean matched the Persian conquests in Anatolia and the Levant during the sixth century BC, and the Persian attempt to invade Greece; the defeat of Persia would be celebrated as the greatest Greek victory since the fall of Troy. The achievement was not just military but political, since a great many cities in Greece proper and the Aegean islands collaborated in the struggle against the Persians, and even Syracuse was asked to help (though it fought off a threat from Carthage, possibly instigated by Persia). The Greeks commemorated their triumph by erecting victory monuments such as the bronze serpent from Delphi, now in the Hippodrome at Istanbul; there, they inscribed the names of thirty-one cities that had helped resist the Persians at the great battle of Plataia in 479 BC, and even that list was not complete.1 A ‘Congress of the Hellenes’ came into existence, and the name of Hellene, originally assigned by Ho
mer to the followers of Achilles, was increasingly understood to refer to a common identity expressed through language, the cult of the gods and style of life.2 The story that emerged, most resoundingly in the spirited account of these events by Herodotos, was that of the defence of Greek liberty against Persian tyranny. In his play The Persians, performed in Athens in 472, Aeschylus assumed that the future of Hellas directly depended on the fate of his home city:
The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean Page 17