The distribution of the Hellenic tribes which we have just indicated is not that which continued throughout the main period of Greek history. It was entirely altered by an event called the Dorian migration, or sometimes the return of the Heracleids, which is placed by Thucydides about 80 years after the fall of Troy and thus about the year 1104 a.c., according to the ordinary system of chronology. Before the great migration several smaller ones had taken place. One tribe, finding its territory too cir cumscribed, would move to another, expelling the inhabitants already settled there, who thus found themselves compelled to remove to some other district, where they treated the original inhabitants in the same way that they had been treated themselves. In this way there arose a general disturbance, till at last the hardy Dorian inhabitants of the mountainous region about Mount (Eta began a migration on a greater scale than had hitherto been attempted, and thus brought about a series of changes which resulted in an entirely new settlement of the Greek territory. They first conquered a large part of northern Greece and then entered and subdued the greater part of the Pelopon nesus, driving out or subjugating the Achmans, as the Achmans had driven out or subjugated the Pelasgians. The Dorians are also said to have invaded Attica, where, however, they were baffled, according to the legend, by the self devotion of Codrus, the king of that territory. It is said that an oracle had pronounced that in this war whichever side lost its king would be victorious, on which account strict orders were given to the Dorian soldiers to spare the life of the king of enemy. But Codrus disguised himself in the dress of a common herdsman, and going into the enemy's camp provoked a quarrel in which he met his death, on learning which the Dorians despaired of success and withdrew. In the legend in which this series of events has come down to us the Dorians are represented as having entered the Peloponnesus under Temenus, Cresphontes and Aristode mus, three descendants of Heracles, who had come to recover the territory of which their ancestors had been unjustly deprived by Eurys theus. Hence the name of the Return of Hera cleids, sometimes given to this event.
The Achaan inhabitants of the Peloponnesus whom the Dorians found there had a three fold fate. One part of them sought for new homes and turned their steps toward the part of the Peloponnesus occupied by the Ionians, whom they expelled, keeping for themselves their territory, which hence received the name of Achaia. Another part voluntarily submitted to the invaders, who imposed tribute upon them and excluded them from all share in the gov ernment; while a third part resisted to the last and were in the end reduced to the condition of slavery. In Laconia the former received the name •Periceci (dwellers round) and the latter were called Helots.
The Ionians who were driven out of the Peloponnesus found at first a refuge among their kindred in Attica, but when this district did not suffice for all the inhabitants, old and new, large numbers of them left it and founded Ionic colonies on several of the islands of the "Egean Sea and on the middle part of the coast of Asia Minor, where they built 12 cities, which formed an Ionic Confederacy. The principal of these were Ephesus and Miletus. About the same time as the Ionians are said to have col onized the middle part of the seaboard of Asia Minor, another body of Greeks, proceeding from Thessaly and Bceotia, are said to have founded the 2Eolian colonies on some of the northern island of the )Egean, and on the north ern part of the western coast of Asia Minor.
The 2Eolic colonies of Asia Minor also formed a confederacy of 12 cities, but the number was afterward reduced to 11 by the accession of Smyrna to the Ionic Confederacy. While Ionians and 1Eolians thus colonized the middle and northern islands of the lEgean and coasts of Asia, the southern islands and the southern part of the west coast of Asia Minor were in like manner colonized by the Dorian settlers. The six Doric towns in Asia Minor, along with the island of Rhodes, formed a confederacy similar to the Ionic and i€olic ones.
In considering the subject of Greek coloniza tion we are brought face to face with the fact that in settling in foreign lands, the Greek races kept distinct from each other. One of the great keys to an understanding of Greek his tory is a right understanding of the relation between the two great races of the Greek name, the Dorians and Ionians. The Dorians were inland mountaineers, the Ionians were of the seacoast. The former, as represented in the institutions of Sparta, were a practical and con servative race, living a simple and unimagi native life. Their poetry was the public ode, accompanied with the dance in the market-place, often carried on under arms. The Ionians were versatile, imaginative, impressible. They were devoted to the maritime life, were travelers and fond of welcoming strangers to their cities. They were traders. Moreover, they were keenly intellectual and reached the summit of excel lence in art, literature and philosophy. Their poetry was the epic narrative; and they in vented the drama, in which the Ionian tale of personal adventure was united with the Doric ode. These two contrasted races between them swayed the fate of Greece. Their relations were complicated by the different colonies which they established at different points on the Medi terranean and Euxine coasts. In the course of time new Greek settlements were made on the coasts of the Hellespont, the Propontis (Sea of Marmora), and the Black Sea by both Dorians and Ionians. The most important of these were Byzantium (Constantinople) (Dorian), Sinope (Ionian), Cerasus (Ionian) and Trapezus (Trebizonde) (Ionian). Further, there were flourishing Greek colonies on the coasts of Thrace and Macedonia; for example, Abdera, Amphipolis, Olynthus, Potidzea, etc., which were all Ionian; and the Greek colonies in Lower Italy were so numerous that the inhabitants of the interior spoke Greek, and the whole region received the name of Greater Greece. The most famous of the Greek colonies in this quarter were Tarentum, Sybaris, Croton, Cut= and Naples. The island of Sicily also came to a great extent into the hands of the Greeks, who founded on it or enlarged many towns. By far the largest, most powerful and most highly cultured of the Greek colonies was the Dorian colony of Syracuse, founded in the 8th century B.C. On the north coast of Africa the Dorian colony of Cyrene rivaled in wealth and com merce the city of Carthage; and on the south coast of Gaul Ionian Massilia (Marseilles) presented a model of civilized government to the inhabitants of the surrounding districts. All these towns kept up a commerce in the products of the land in which they were planted. They exerted a most important and beneficent influence on the manners of the neighboring inhabitants. They the customs and institutions of their mother city, which they regarded with filial reverence; but otherwise they were perfectly free and independent.