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The Ionian Confederacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

M. O. B. Caspari
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Extract

The federal union of the Ionian cities established on the coast of Asia Minor and on the adjacent islands has not yet been the subject of any comprehensive study. In the standard books on Greek federations it has received no more than passing mention. Freeman has made some instructive comments on it, but has not followed its fortunes beyond the earlier years of its existence; Swoboda has not found room for a description of it in his recent and up-to-date manual.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 35 , November 1915 , pp. 173 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1915

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References

1 History of Federal Government (ed. 1893), vol. i. pp. 145–9.

2 In Hermann's, Lehrbuch der griechischen Staatsaltertümer (6th ed.), vol. i. Pt. III.Google Scholar

3 The belief that the Ionians had their original home in Achaea is first found in Herodotus (i. 145). In the fourth century B.C. it was shared by the Ionians themselves (Timotheus l. 247; Diodorus xv. 49). This tradition does not seem to rest on any other foundation than the similarity of name between Poseidon of Helice in Achaea and the Poseidon Heliconius of the Ionians. The real origin of the latter is certainly to be sought in Mt. Helicon in Boeotia, as was pointed out long ago by Aristarchus (Schol. in Il. xx. 404). The importation of a Boeotian god into Ionia can be readily explained by the presence of Boeotian settlers in a good number of the Ionian towns (Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, , Sitzungsber. Berl. Ak. 1906, pp. 63–73).Google Scholar

4 The importance of the traditions of the individual Ionian cities has been clearly brought out by Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (loc. cit.).

5 It is sometimes argued that the Ionians were a widely diffused people in prehistoric Greece, and that the colonists who migrated to Asia Minor from Attica, Argolis, Cynuria, and Euboea belonged to this nationality. If this were the case, the preponderance of the Ionian element among the settlers would have been Sufficient to justify our speaking of a national Ionian consciousness among them. But except in Attica and the town of Troezen, the presence of an Ionic element in the prehistoric population of the colonising districts is very badly attested. In the rest of Argolis there are no sure traces of a primitive Ionian population. Herodotus' surmise that the Cynurians had once been Ionians (viii. 73) is plainly no better than a guess: in his own time the Cynurians were admittedly indistinguishable from Dorians. The tradition that Euboea was originally an Ionian island is of late date and conflicts with earlier and more trustworthy accounts (Busolt, , Griechische Geschichte, i. 2 pp. 288–9).Google ScholarA priori, too, it is unlikely that the term ‘Ionian’ should from the first have denoted a widely diffused group of peoples, for generic names of this sort are not likely to be in use among primitive peoples. Historic analogy tends to confirm the conjecture of Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, that the Ionians, like the Hellenes, were originally a small tribe whose name was applied, faute de mieux, to larger aggregates when the need for collective names came to be felt.

6 I.G. xii. 5, No. 444, epoch 27: ἀφ᾿ οὖ Νη[λ]εὺς ὠίκισ[ε Μίλη]τ[ον καὶ τὴν] ἄλ[λ]η[ν] ἄ[πα]σ[αν ᾿Ιωνί]αν . . . . . . . . . καὶ] τὰ (or ).

7 According as is read.

8 The earliest pottery discovered on the site is of late Mycenaean style (v. Salis, , Neue Jahrbücher, 1910, p. 129).Google Scholar

9 It probably means ‘four generations from the fall of Troy.’—See Jacoby, , Marmor Parium, p. 151.Google Scholar

10 Inschriften von Priene, No. 37 ( = Collitz-Bechtel, Dialektinschriften, No. 3758).

11 Ll. 54–59: Κάριον καὶ Δρυοῦ[σσαν, καὶ ἐπε]δείκν[υον ἐν ταῖς Μαιανδρ] ίου τοῦ Μιλησίου ίστο[ρίαις κατακε]χωρισμ[ένον, δίοτι καὶ ἁ]λοιπὰ ἐδόθη[μ]ετὰ τὸμ πόλεμον τὸμ Με[λιακόν ἐφ᾿ ᾦ νέμε]σθαι αὐτᾷ[ς . . . . . . . . . καθὼ[ς καὶ τὸ ᾿Ιώνων κοιν]ὸν ὑπὲρ αὐ[τῶν ἔκρινε] Πανιωνίοις

12 iv. 1: Melite (i.e. Melia) propter civium adrogantiam ab his civitatibus (i.e. 12 other Ionian towns) bello indicto communi Consilio est sublata.

13 C.I.G. 2254; Hicks, 152; Michel, 36; Dittenberger, Or. Graec. Inscr. No. 13; Inschriften v. Priene, No. 500.

14 Sitzungsber. Berl. Ak. 1906, p. 38 sqq.

15 L. 11 sqq.: οἱ μὲν οὖν Πριηνεῖς . . . . . . . αυνωμολόγουν Λυγδάμεως ἐπελθόντος ἐπὶ [τὴν] ᾿Ιω[νίαν μετὰ δυ]νάμεως τούς τε λοιποὺς ἐγλιπεῖν τὴν χώραν [καὶ Σ]αμί[ους εἰς τήν ν]ῆσον ἀποχωρῆσαι, τὸν δὲ Λύγδαμιν κατασχόντα[. . . . . . . . π]άλιν ἀποδιδόναι τὰς αὐτὰς κτήσεις τοὺς [δὲ Πριηνέας ὑπο στρέψ]αι

16 Busolt, , Griechische Geschichte, ii. 2 p. 463.Google Scholar

17 vii. 4. 9–10.

18 Op. cit. pp. 52–3.

19 Christ, , Geschichte der griechischen Literatur, i. 6 pp. 102–3.Google Scholar Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (loc. cit. p. 71) fixes the date of the Hymn at a period not much later than that of Iliad bk. xv.

20 L. 146: ἔνθα τοι ἐλκεχίτωνες ᾿Ιάονες ἠγερέθονται L. 152: ὄτ᾿ ῾Ιάονες ἀθρόοι εἶεν

21 Ll. 29–44 of the Hymn recount a variety of places in the Aegean basin where Apollo was ‘king.’ It seems a fair inference that the Delian πανηγύρις was attended by representatives from these districts.

22 i. 143.

23 Similarly the name Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς must have been assumed by the Achaean cities of South Italy before Ἑλλάς had become a generic term for Greece.

24 Witness ‘Ἕλληνες,’ ‘Itali,’ ‘Franks,’ ‘Britons.’

25 i. 143.

26 Loc. cit. pp. 46, 78.

27 iv. 1.

28 E.g. Miletus.

29 The conversion of Smyrna from an Aeolian into an Ionian town is well attested (Herodotus i. 150). For the case of Phocaea, Clazomenae, Chios and Erythrac, see Sitzungsber. Berl. Ak. 1906, p. 62.

30 Similarly the philo-Dorian and anti-Ionian bias of Herodotus seems to have been induced in him by the rivalry between the Dorians of his native city of Halicarnassus and the neighbouring Ionians, especially the Milesians.

31 Herodotus i. 150.

32 This follows from the passage of Vitruvius and the inscriptions quoted on pp. 2 and 3 above.

33 Magnesia-on-Maeander.

34 The Artemisium at Ephesus.

35 The ἀνδραγαθία for which the Ionian League honoured Hector of Chios (Pausanias vii. 4. 10) may have been displayed in the Cimmerian wars.

36 Herodotus i. 145.

37 Vitruvius iv. 1.

38 Vitruvius iv. 1.

39 Pausanias vii. 4. 9.

40 Pausanias vii. 2. 4; 3. 10.

41 Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, loc. cit. p. 62.

42 See p. 186 below.

43 Vitruvius iv. 1; C.I.G. 2254; Inschr. v. Priene, No. 37.

44 Herodotus i. 170. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (loc. cit. p. 47) has thrown doubts on the tradition which makes Bias the author of the plan in question, because Bias, as one of the Seven Sages, was a convenient peg on which to hang an anecdote. But there is nothing improbable in Bias having really put forward the plan. He certainly was a contemporary of Croesus (Herodotus i. 27), and therefore of Cyrus; and as a citizen of Priene, which had recently been enslaved by the Persians (Herodotus i. 161), he would be particularly likely to propose some desperate measure of self-defence.

45 Wilamowitz-Moellendorff's (loc. cit.) suspicions about the part here ascribed to Thales appear well founded. It is doubtful whether Thales was still alive in 545–540 B.C., the time of the events under discussion. He had predicted an eclipse of the sun in 585 B.C., and the scientific attainments necessary for such a prediction can hardly have been obtained by him in his earliest youth. Hence he must have been born a very long time before 545–540 B.C. Furthermore, his native city of Miletus kept aloof from the other Ionian towns and made separate terms with Cyrus (Herodotus i. 169). It is therefore unlikely that any any Milesian took part in the congress in question.

46 i. 170.

47 Note ad loc.

48 Federal Government, i. p. 147.

49 Note ad loc.

50 Vol. iii. p. 82 (1904 edition).

51 Note ad loc.

52 Blakesley's words ‘into the notion of a πόλις always entered that of self-government in foreign relations as well as in domestic’ are flatly untrue. Greek history has plenty of instances in which cities entered leagues and subordinated their foreign policy to a higher authority, yet did not cease to be πόλεις.

53 Herodotus i. 168.

54 No further conclusion can be drawn from the use of the word δῆμοι in a federal inscription of the 3rd century B.C. (Michel, No. 486, ll. 24, 42). Here δῆμοι simply means the inhabitants of a city.

55 Herodotus vi. 7.

56 Ibid. v. 109.

56a Ibid. v. 98–99.

57 Ibid. vi. 11–12.

58 Ibid. vi. 42.

59 [Xenophon, ], Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία, ii. 2.Google Scholar

60 Thucydides, iii. 104.

61 Busolt, , Griechische Staatsaltertümer, p. 211.Google Scholar

62 C.I.G. 2909 (Michel 484; Collitz-Bechtel 5588; Inschriften v. Priene 139): ἐπὶ πρυτάνεως ᾿Αμύντορος ἔδοξεν ᾿Ιώνων τῆ βουλῆ τῶν Λεβεδίων ἀξιόντων ἀναγράπψαι εἰς στήλην τέλεσι τοῖς ἐαυτῶν καὶ στῆσαι εἰς Πανιώνιον περὶ τῆς δίκης . . . . . . . . . , δοῦναι αὐτοῖς κάταπερ καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀξιοῦσι The πρύτανις here mentioned is probably a federal officer; and not an πώνυμος of Priene (Lenschau, , Leipziger Studien xii. p. 183).Google Scholar Hence we cannot accept the argument of Hiller, (Inschriften v. Priene 139Google Scholar, note ad loc.) that the inscription is previous to 335–4 B.C., the year in which Priene adopted the system of dating by στεφανηφόροι instead of πρυτάνεις Nevertheless the form of the letters proves that the inscription is previous to 350 B.C.

63 xv. 49.

64 Xenophon, , Hellenica, iv. 8. 17–19; Diodorus xiv. 99.Google Scholar

65 Ll. 249–253: ἀλλ᾿ ἑκαταβόλε Πύθἰ, ἁγνᾶν ἔλθοις τάνδε πόλιν συν ὄλβωι πέμπων ἀπήμονι λαῶι τῶιδ᾿ εἰρήναν θάλλουσαν εὐνομίαι Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, (Timotheos von Milet, p. 63Google Scholar) makes it extremely probable that the λαός here here referred to is the λαὸς δυωδεκατείχης of l. 247; the objections of Croiset (Rev. Ét. grecques, 1903, pp. 325–7) to this explanation carry no weight.

66 The poem was being quoted among the Asiatic Greeks on the occasion of Agesilaus' campaigns in 396–5 B.C. (Plutarch, , Agesilaus, 14).Google Scholar

67 Xenophon, , Hellenica iii. l. 3Google Scholar; Diodorus xiv. 35. Compare the alliance formed after the battle of Cnidus by Rhodes, , Iasus, , Samos, , Ephesus, , and Byzantium.—Hill, , Historical Greek Coins, pp. 60–62.Google Scholar

68 Xenophon, loc. cit.

69 Diodorus xv. 49. Timotheus (l. 247) speaks of a δυωδεκατείχης λαός But this proves nothing, as his expression was conventional.

70 Xenophon, , Anabasis i. 1. 8.Google Scholar

71 Isocrates, , Panegyricus §§ 123, 137, 190.Google Scholar

72 Inschriften v. Priene, No. 458; Collitz-Bechtel, No. 5, 493; Tod, International Arbitration, No. LXX.; Raeder, L'arbitrage, No. XVII.

73 Hicks, 149 (= Dittenberger, Sylloge 2, No. 177; Lebas-Waddington, 86), ll. 1–3: ὄστις δ᾿ ἄν ἐσ] τὸ Πανιώνιον ἀποστέ[λληται οἰό]μεθα δεῖν [πρᾶξαι τὰ κο] ινὰ τὸν ἴσον χρόνον

74 Michel, 585 (= Dittenberger, Sylloge 2, No. 189); on the date, see Fredrich, in Athenische Mitteilungen, 1900, p. 102.Google Scholar

75 Michel, No. 486. The date has been fixed by Lenschau, , Leipziger Studien, xii. p. 195.Google Scholar

76 Dittenberger, Or. Graec. Inscr. No. 763.

77 Leipziger Studien, xii. p. 182.

78 Isyllos von Epidauros, p. 31.

79 Inschriften von Priene, p. xiii.

80 Wilhelm, , Attische Urkunden, i p. 19.Google Scholar

81 Michel, No. 486, l. 24.

82 Michel, No. 486, ll. 14–17: [παρακαλείτω] σαν δὲ οἱ πρέσβεις τὸμ βασι[λέα ᾿Αντίοχον πᾶσαν ἐπιμ]έλειαν ποιεῖσθαι τῶμ πολέ[ων τῶν ᾿Ιάδων ὄπως ἄν τὸ λοιπὸ]ν ἐλευθεραὶ οὐσαι καὶ δημο[κρατούμεναι βεβάιως ἤδη πολι]τεύωνται κατὰ τοὺς πατρ[ίους νόμους]

83 Tarn, , Antigonos Gonatas, pp. 432–6.Google Scholar

84 Hicks, 149.

85 Strabo xiv. i. 21.

86 Michel, 485, ll. 2–4: ῾Ιππόστρατος ῾Ιππο δήμου Μιλήσιος, φιλος ὠν τοῦ βασιλέω[ς Λυσι] μάχου καὶ στρατηγὸς ἐπὶ τῶν πόλε[ων] τῶν ᾿Ιάδων κατασταθείς

87 Cardinali, , Regno di Pergamo, pp. 88–95.Google Scholar

88 Dittenberger, , Or. Graec. Inscr. 761, ll. 51–5Google Scholar: ὄπως δὲ καὶ εἰς τὸ λοιπὸν ἐν τῆι πανη γύρει τῶν Πανιωνίων ἠμέραν ἐπώνυμον ἄγοντες ἠμῖν ἐπιφανεστέραν τὴν ὄλην ἐορτὴν συντελῆτε προσόδους ὐμῖν τὰς ἱκανὰς ἀνα[τιθημι]

89 Josephus, , Ant. Jud. 12. § 125 (ed. Naber)Google Scholar: τῶν ᾿Ιώνων κινηθέντων ἐπ᾿ αὐτοὺς (τοὺς ᾿Ιουδαίους) καὶ δεμένων τοῦ ᾿Αγρίππα ι να τῆς πολιτείας ἠν αὐτοῖς ἔδωκεν ᾿Αντίοχος ὁ Σελεύκου υίωνός ὁ παρὰ τοῖς ῾Ελληει Θεὸς λεγόμενος μόνοι μετέχωσιν

90 Michel, 485 and 486.

91 Michel, 485, ll. 13–14: στῆσα[ι δὲ αὐ]τοῦ καὶ εἰκόνα χαλκῆν ἐφ᾿ ἴππου ἐμ Πανιω[νιω] Dittenb, . Or. Graec. Inscr. 763, l. 26Google Scholar: στῆσαι δὲ εἰκόνα χρυσῆν ἐν ἀμ βούλωμαι τόπῳ τῆς ᾿Ιωνίας

92 ᾿Αλεξάβδρεια Strabo xiv. 1. 31 and Michel 486, ll. 24–5: τὴμ πόλιν [ἐν ἦι ἄν συντελέσωμεν τὴν θυ]σίαν τῶν ᾿Αλεξανδρείων Anniversary of Eumenes: see n. 88.

93 Tod, International Arbitration, No. LXI.

94 Ibid. No. LXII.

95 Ibid. Nos. LXIII.–LXIV.

96 Ibid. No. LXXIII.

97 See Beloch, , Griechische Geschichte, iii. Pt. 2, pp. 271–9Google Scholar, and the maps at the end of the volume.

98 Head, , Historia Numorum 2, p. 566.Google Scholar Michel, 485, l. 1: ἔδοξεν ᾿Ιώνων τωι κοινῶι τῶν τρε[ισκαὶ]δεκα πόλεων

99 Michel, 486, l. 8: [έλέσθαι μέν ἐκ τῶν συνέδρ]ων δύο ἀφ᾿ ἑκάστης πόλε[ως πρές βεις]

100 Michel, 486 (in honour of Antiochus Soter).

101 Michel, 485 (in honour of an officer of king Lysimachus).

102 This may be inferred from the words of Dittenb., Or. Graec. Inscr. 763, quoted in n. 88Google Scholar: if king Eumenes offered to the League to pay part of the expenses of the festival, it follows that the League had charge of the festival.

103 Michel, 486, l. 8 (see n. 99); Dittenb., Or. Graec. Inscr. 763, l. 31Google Scholar.

104 Catalogue of Greek Coins in British Museum: Ionia, p. 16. Head, Historia Numorum 2, p. 566.

105 Michel, 485, ll. 21–5: ἀνενεγ]κεῖν δὲ ἐκάστους τῶν βουλευτῶν τὰ ἐλ[νωσμέ]να ᾿Ιώσι εἰς τὰς ίδίας πόλεις ὄπως ὑπά[ρχηι ἐν] τοῖς δημοσίοις ἀναγεγραμμένα τὰ ἐ[γνωσ] μένα ὑπὸ ᾿Ιώνων

106 Michel, 485, ll. 20–25: ἐλέσθαι δὲ πό λεις δύο ἤδη, αἴτινες ἐ[πιμελή]σονται ὄπως ἄν ἠ εἰκὠν ἠ ῾ ιπποστρατο[ῦ στα] θῆι κατὰ τάχος

107 Michel, 485, ll. 11–12: εἰναι αὐτὸν ἀτελῆ πάντων ἐ[ν ταῖσ] πόλεσι ταῖς τῶν ᾿Ιώνων Inscrs. in Brit. Mus. 426, l. 8: ἀτελὴς δ᾿ ἔσται π[άν τω]ν, κάθαπε[ρ καὶ ἐν τ]ῆι στήληι ἀναγέγραπραι Ibid. No. 427, l. 3.

108 See above, p. 185.

109 Inschriften von Priene, Nos. 4, ll. 35, 6; 8, l. 39; 18, l. 5; 34, l. 4; 103, l. 11; 108, ll. 6, 322; 109, ll. 8, 9; 110, ll. 3, 4; 113, ll. 6, 7, 109; 174, ll. 7, 8.

110 Strabo xiv. 1. 20.

111 Michel, 486, ll. 24–6: τὴμ πόλιν[ἐν ᾖ ἄν συντελέσωμεν τὴν θυ]αίαν τῶν ᾿Αλεξαν δρείων[παρακαλεῖν πάντας τούς δήμο]υς

112 See the cases quoted in nn. 93–96.

113 Inschr. v. Priene, Nos. 108–110, which belong to the period 129–88 B.C.

114 Inschr. v. Priene, No. 113, is dated by Hiller as subsequent to 84 B.C. But the chronological indications in the inscription are hardly sufficient to establish this point.

115 Josephus, , Ant. Jud. 12. § 125Google Scholar (referring to Agrippa's sojourn in Asia Minor 23–21 and 17–13 B.C.); Strabo viii. 1, 2; xiv. 1. 31.

116 Life of Apollonius of Tyana, iv. 5.

117 British Museum Catalogue of Coins: Ionia, p. 16.

118 Philostratus, , Vitae Sophistarum, ii. 25.Google Scholar

119 Head, pp. 566, 571.

120 Josephus, , Ant. Jud. 12. § 125 (see n. 89 above).Google Scholar When the Ionians petitioned Agrippa to ‘exclude the Jews from the constitution’ they were no doubt thinking of various immunities enjoyed by the members of the League.

121 ‘Πανιώνια’ on coins of Ephesus: Head, p. 577; do. on coins of Smyrna: Head, p. 594. ‘Πανιώνια Πύθια’ on coins of Miletus: Head, p. 586. A still more impudent claim was made by the city of Colophon, which not only dubbed the Ciarian Apollo Πανιώνιος Πύθιος (I.G. iii. 175), but issued coins with figures of the thirteen federating cities engaged in sacrifice before the temple of Apollo Clarius and the legend ΤΟ ΚΟΙΝΟΝ ΤΩΝ ΙΩΝΩΝ (B. M. Catalogue, Pl. VIII. 16).