Wandering Greeks (39 page)

546 BCE

When he came to power, the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus expelled the powerful
genos
known as the Alcmeonids. The Alcmeonids returned to Athens in 510 when Peisistratus's son Hippias, who succeeded his father as tyrant, was driven into exile, largely as a result of the machinations of the Alcmeonids (Hdt. 5.62.2; 6.123.1).

496

Citing an oracle, the Athenian general Miltiades the Younger expelled the so-called Pelasgian (that is, non-Greek) inhabitants of Lemnos (Hdt. 6.140; D.S. 10.19.6). The Athenians probably also expelled the inhabitants of Imbros around this date (Hdt. 5.26). No numbers are given.

494

When the Persians captured Miletus after its unsuccessful attempt to revolt, their king Darius, having enslaved the women and children, “did the men no further harm but settled them in the sea called the Erythraean [that is, the Persian Gulf] in the city of Ampe” (Hdt. 6.19.3–20). Since the majority of the Milesian population had been slaughtered by the Persians, those unharmed probably amounted to only a privileged few, viz Persian sympathizers.

491

The
dêmos
and the slaves of Syracuse exiled the
gamoroi
(land-owners) to Casmenae. A few years later Gelon defeated the
dêmos
and made himself tyrant of Syracuse, whereupon he invited the
gamoroi
to return (Hdt. 7.155.2).

ca. 490

After destroying Eretria for assisting the Ionians in their revolt, Darius ordered the survivors to be brought before him in chains since he bore a bitter grudge against them. Thereafter, however, he “did them no further harm” and settled them at Arderikka, about 20 miles from Susa (Hdt. 6.119.1–2). Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, “exiled the inhabitants of Zancle, and settled it with a mixed population and renamed it Messana, after his old homeland” (Thuc. 6.4.6)

ca. 485

To increase the size of Syracuse's population, Gelon, its tyrant, deported thither all the inhabitants of Camarina, half the population of Gela, and the well-to-do of Megara Hyblaea, granting them all citizenship. He also deported the common people of Megara Hyblaea to Syracuse, but these he enslaved and sold abroad (Hdt. 7.156.2; see
chapter 5
).

480

After the battle of Thermopylae and as a mark of their enslavement, Xerxes branded “the majority of the Thebans” whom he had taken prisoner, before deporting them to Persia (Hdt. 7.233.2).

476

Hieron I, tyrant of Syracuse, deported the entire populations of Naxos and Catania to Leontini. Though Naxos was not resettled, Catania received 10,000 settlers from the Peloponnese and Syracuse. It was renamed Aetna (D.S. 11.49.1; see
chapter 5
).

464

Following the great earthquake, Sparta's helots revolted and took refuge on Mount Ithome. They eventually surrendered and were permitted to depart from Messenia under a truce. The Athenians invited them to settle in Naupactus (Thuc. 1.103.1–3; see
chapter 11
).

457

After defeating the Boeotians at Oenophyta, the Athenians deported some of their prisoners, along with (possibly) the people of Phocis. A decade later in 447 the deportees inflicted a heavy defeat upon the Athenians at Coronea. They then returned to their homeland (Thuc. 1.108.3 and 1.113).

446

After putting down a revolt, the Athenians deported the in habitants of Histiaea in revenge for their massacre of some Athenian prisoners. A local people called the Ellopioi, however, were permitted to remain because, being subject to the Histiaeans, they had not been responsible for the massacre.
The Athenians sent out their own settlers to occupy Histiaea (Thuc. 1.114.3;
IG
I
³
41).

441–40

Possibly after installing a democracy on Samos, the Athenians seized fifty men and fifty boys as hostages and sent them to Lemnos, an Athenian cleruchy. However, a group of Samian fugitives undertook a daring night raid to rescue the hostages and returned with them to Samos (Thuc. 1.115.3–5). The Athenians blockaded Samos and after eight months took the island. They imposed terms that included the seizing of an unknown number of hostages, whom they presumably deported to Athens (1.117.3).

mid-430s?

Some Athenians settled in Amisus and renamed it Piraeus, perhaps expelling the former inhabitants (Theopompus
FGrH
F 389 = Str.
Geog
. 12.3.14 C547).

433

For strategic reasons Perdiccas II, king of Macedon, persuaded the Chalcidians to destroy the cities that they occupied along the coast and to settle inland at Olynthus, making it a strong foundation (Thuc. 1.58.2; see
chapter 4
).

ca. 431

The popular faction in Epidamnus expelled the
dunatoi
(powerful), viz the oligarchs. The latter joined forces with the barbarians (viz those living in the surrounding territory) and proceeded to plunder their home city. We do not know when the exiled oligarchs returned (Thuc. 1.24–29; see
chapter 5
).

ca. 431?

The popular faction in Megara expelled the oligarchs (Thuc. 4.66.1; see
chapter 5
).

431

In response to the Theban attack on Plataea, the Athenians seized all the Boeotians resident in Attica (Thuc. 2.6.2). Their fate is unknown, but it is likely that they were deported. Shortly after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War the Athenians expelled the Aeginetans, some of whom fled to Thyrea, a city and region on the east coast of the Peloponnese, where they settled, while others “scattered throughout the length and breadth of Greece” (Thuc. 2.27.1–2; see
chapter 5
).

430/29

Following the surrender of Potidaea after a two-year siege, the Athenian generals decided to deport the entire population either to Chalcidice (that is, to the region around Potidaea)
or “to where each of them could go.” The Athenian
dêmos
was severely displeased with its generals for this decision, “since it believed that it could have taken the city on its own terms,” viz without striking a deal (Thuc. 2.70.4). We hear no more about the Potidaeans and have no way of knowing what percentage of them survived as refugees. It was a banal occurrence in a bloody war that generated many similar incidents. The Potidaeans were lucky to be deported. It was only because the Athenian army was experiencing hardship as a result of the protracted siege that their generals had accepted the offer of surrender, though the condition of the besieged had been so dire that they had even resorted to cannibalism. Had the Athenians taken Potidaea by siege, they would probably have slaughtered the men and enslaved the wives and children, which is perhaps what the
dêmos
had desired.

429/8

The Athenian general Phormion conducted an operation that was aimed at securing the political allegiance of Acarnania by “expelling persons judged not to be trustworthy from Stratus, Coronta [of unknown location], and other places” (Thuc. 2.102.1). We are not told where the refugees, who presumably included women and children, headed, nor what numbers were involved.

427

After capturing Plataea, the Spartans and their allies massacred some 200 of its citizens and enslaved about 110 women. They then permitted political refugees from Megara who were friendly to Thebes to inhabit the vacant city for about a year and afterwards destroyed its walls (Thuc. 3.68; see
chapter 5
). In recognition of their alliance with Plataea, the Athenians granted citizenship to the refugees.

424

Phugades
from Mytilene and other cities on Lesbos, who had presumably fled from the island when Athens imposed a severe settlement on it after putting down the revolt in 427, sought to restore themselves to power “by seeking to subdue the Aeolian cities on the mainland.” They were eventually defeated by the Athenians when attempting to fortify Antandrus (Thuc. 3.50, 4.52.2, 4.75.1). We never hear of them again.
The Athenians destroyed Thyrea and deported all the Aeginetans living there to Athens. They then slew them “on account of their previous long-standing hatred” (Thuc. 4.56.2–57; see
chapter 5
). The Athenians removed “a few” of the inhabitants of Cythera whom they considered untrustworthy and settled them “in the islands” (Thuc. 4.57.4). The
dunatoi
of Leontini, with the aid of the Syracusans, expelled the
dêmos
(Thuc. 5.4.2–4; see
chapter 5
).

424/3

The Spartan general Brasidas, having taken Amphipolis, proclaimed that those Athenians and Amphipolitans who did not wish to remain in the
polis
had five days to depart and could take their property with them (Thuc. 4.105.2). We are not told how many took up the offer nor where they went.

422

The Athenians expelled the Delians from their island, maintaining that “when they had been consecrated as a sacred people they had been impure because of an ancient offence” (Thuc. 5.1). The Persian satrap Pharnaces permitted the deportees to settle in Adramyttium (modern Adramyti) in the region called Mysia on the coast of Turkey. (For possible motives behind Pharnaces' action, see Hornblower [2004, 423–24].) The following year the Athenians restored the Delians to their island, “stirred to do so by their reverses and by an oracle of the god at Delphi” (5.32.1). Not all the refugees returned, however, for in 411 “the chief men among them,” who were still living in Persia, were enticed out of Adramyttium by Arsaces, lieutenant of Tissaphernes, Pharnaces' successor. Tissaphernes laid an ambush for them while they were at dinner and had them all slaughtered (8.108.4). It is with this incident that Thucydides' history breaks off. The
dunatoi
in Leontini, with the assistance of the Syracusans, expelled the
dêmos
, laid waste their city, and migrated to Syracuse. Later, not finding conditions in Syracuse to their liking, they withdrew from the city, came to terms with “the majority of the exiled people,” and established themselves between a part of Leontini called Phocaeae and a neighboring settlement called Bricinniae (Thuc. 5.4.2–4).

417

The
dêmos
of Argos overthrew the
oligoi
by “slaughtering some of their opponents and exiling others.” The oligarchic
phugades
were received by the people of Phlius, a
polis
in the northwest Argolid, whose territory the Argives plundered shortly afterward “because they had received their exiles.” The following year the exiles, now allied to the Phliasians, ambushed the Argives when they invaded Phlius. In the winter of 416/5 the Spartans settled the Argive exiles at Orneae by appropriating some of the territory that was owned by the Orneatae. They then made the Orneatae and the Argive exiles undertake a truce not to harm each other's territory. Soon afterward, however, the Athenians and the Argives began besieging Orneae. The exiles managed to escape by night, and we never hear of them again (Thuc. 5.82.2, 5.83.3, 5.115.1, 6.7.1).

416/5

Alcibiades seized 300 pro-Spartan Argives and deported them “to nearby islands under Athenian control” (Thuc. 5.84.1). The deportees were massacred by the Argives the following year with the connivance of the Athenians (6.61.3). The Athenians sailed with some Macedonian
phugades
who had been residing in Athens to Methone and plundered the coastline of Macedonia (Thuc. 6.7.3). It is unclear why the refugees were residing in Athens.

415

The inhabitants of Thurii expelled those who were hostile to the Athenians in advance of the arrival of the Athenian expedition in Sicily (Thuc. 7.33.5).

412

The
dêmos
of Samos executed about 200 of the
dunatôtatoi
and banished 400 others. They appropriated their land and houses (Thuc. 8.21; cf.
IG
I
³
96).

407

The Athenian commander Thrasybulus expelled Spartan sympathizers from Thasos and partly resettled the island with Athenian citizens (Xen.
Hell
. 1.1.32; 1.4.9).

405

As a reward for their loyalty, the Athenians granted citizenship to “all the Samians who stood by the
demos
of the Athenians” (
ML
94 = Fornara 166). We do not know how many Samians accepted the offer and migrated to Athens.

404/3

At the end of the Peloponnesian War the Spartans decreed that all Athenian exiles should immediately return to Athens and be subject to the Thirty Tyrants (Xen.
Hell
. 2.2.23; see chapters 5 and 11). Following Athens's defeat the Samians capitulated to the Spartan navarch Lysander on condition that “every free person should depart with only a single cloak” (Xen.
Hell
. 2.3.6). An Athenian decree dated 403/2 commends the people of Ephesus and Notus “for having welcomed warmly [those of the] Samians who were in exile” (Tod 97.8 = Harding 5). Probably some of the deportees migrated to Athens (see Shipley 1978, endnote I, for evidence of Samians resident in Attica at this time). Rather than a mass expulsion from Samos, we should perhaps be thinking of “a lopping-off of the highest ears of corn” (Shipley 1978, 132–33). “More than half of Athens' population” fled from Athens to the Piraeus to escape the violence of the Thirty Tyrants (D.S.14.5.7). The Thirty Tyrants compelled “more than 5,000 Athenian citizens to take refuge in the Piraeus” (Isoc. 7.67).