COLONIES.--It was during the era of the oligarchies and tyrannies that the colonizing spirit was most active among the Greeks. Most of the colonies were established between 800 and 550 B.C. Their names alone would make a very long catalogue. They were of two classes: first, _independent communities_, connected, however, with the parent city by close ties of friendship; and secondly, _kleruchies_, which were of the nature of garrisons, where the settlers retained their former rights as citizens, and the mother city its full authority over them. In _Sicily_, on the eastern side, were the Ionian communities,--Naxos, Catana, etc. _Syracuse_ (founded by Corinth 734 B.C.), _Gela_, and _Agrigentum_, which were among the chief Dorian settlements, lay on the south-eastern and south-western coasts. The oldest Greek town in _Italy_ was _Cumae_ (not far from Naples), said to have been founded in 1050 B.C. _Tarentum_ (Dorian), _Sybaris_, and _Croton_ (Aeolic) were settled in the latter part of the eighth century. _Locri_ (Aeolic) and _Rhegium_ (Ionic) were on the south. The south-western portion of Italy was termed _Magna Graecia_. _Massilia_ (Marseilles) was founded by the Phocaean Ionians (about 600 B.C.). In the western Mediterranean the Greeks were hindered from making their settlements as numerous as they would have done, by the fact that Carthage and her colonies stood in the way. _Cyrene_, on the coast of Africa, was a Dorian colony (630 B.C.), planted from _Thera_, an earlier Spartan settlement. _Cyrene_ founded _Barca_. _Corcyra_ was colonized by Corinth (about 700 B.C.). Along the coast of Epirus were other Corinthian and Corcyrasan settlements. Chalcis planted towns in the peninsula of Chalcidice, and from thence to _Selymbria_ (or Byzantium), which was founded by Megara (657 B.C.). The northern shores of the Ægean and the Propontis, and the whole coast of the Euxine were strewn with Greek settlements. The Greek towns, especially _Miletus_, on the western coast of Asia Minor, themselves sent out colonies,--as _Cyzicus_ and _Sinope_, south of the Propontis and the Euxine. The foregoing statements give only a general idea of the wide extent of Greek colonization. An exhaustive statement of the Greek colonies is given in Rawlinson's _Manual of Ancient History_, p. 148 _seq_. See also Abbott, _A History of Greece_, I. 333 _seq_. PERIOD II. THE FLOURISHING ERA OF GREECE. CHAPTER I. THE PERSIAN WARS.