A Greek colony was not simply a trading post; it was a
center of Greek life. The colonists continued to be Greeks in customs,
language, and religion. Though quite independent of the parent state, they
always regarded it with reverence and affection: they called themselves
"men away from home." Mother city and daughter colony traded with
each other and in time of danger helped each other. A symbol of this unity was
the sacred fire carried from the public hearth of the old community to the new
settlement.
COLONIZATION IN THE NORTH AND EAST
The Greeks planted many colonies on the coast of the
northern Aegean and on both sides of the long passage between the Mediterranean
and the Black Sea. Their most important colony was Byzantium, upon the site
where Constantinople now stands. They also made settlements along the shores of
the Black Sea. The cities founded here were centers from which the Greeks drew
their supplies of fish, wood, wool, grain, metals, and slaves. The immense
profits to be gained by trade made the Greeks willing to live in a cold country
so unlike their own and among barbarous peoples.
