British Scholarship on Greek Colonisation in Context 1780-1990 Summary This thesis examines British scholarly perceptions of Greek colonisation from the eighteenth century to the present. Beginning with a study of the ancient sources for Greek colonisation and the key themes which preoccupied ancient authors, the thesis proceeds to argue that, modifying recent interpretations of work from this age of empire, British scholarship did not, as a whole, simplistically distort ancient evidence so as to create a version of Greek colonisation which mirrored, in a self-congratulatory way, contemporary British experiences. We should therefore position this scholarship within its appropriate historical context (with special attention to politics, empire, colonisation, and perceptions of antiquity). In addition to enabling us to trace the impact of the great events of the modern era upon classical scholarship, in doing so we can also gain insight into the complexities, hopes, and anxieties which characterised British thinking about such themes as empire, colonisation, political freedom, and the place of Western civilisation in historical perspective. British Scholarship on Greek Colonisation in Context 1780-1990 Structure Section I: Introduction, Current Debate, and the Ancient View Chapter 1: Introduction 2 Chapter 2: Current scholarship on Greek colonisation and its earlier historiography 4 Chapter 3: Ancient sources and ancient perceptions of Greek settlement overseas 29 Section II: The British View 1780-1990 Chapter 4: The Rise of Britain 1780-1870 80 Chapter 5: High Empire 1870-1914 121 Chapter 6: World War to Cold War 1914-1990 166 Section III: Conclusions Chapter 7: Conclusions 231 Bibliography 238 1 Section I: Introduction, Current Debate, and the Ancient View Chapter 1: Introduction This thesis originates from resurgence in the study of what has traditionally been known as Greek colonisation, and an increasing awareness of a relationship between antiquity and modern European imperialism, colonialism, and colonisation. The revival of interest in Greek colonisation has been a direct result of recent tendency to question the underpinning assumptions of the subject, in particular assumptions derived from what was the formative period of not only classical scholarship, but also modern European imperialism. From the late eighteenth century, but especially from the nineteenth century, classical scholarship emerged as a discipline of both significant prestige and explanatory power. In the eighteenth century antiquity was used to debate the pressing constitutional issues of the day, issues which often crossed the boundaries of domestic, international, and imperial or colonial politics. Come the nineteenth century, Greek history emerged as the most prescient way of framing arguments in favour of the reformist politics of the day, thus supplanting Rome as the dominant point of comparison for Britain in the domestic, if not imperial, sphere. The first studies of Greek colonisation were made in the later eighteenth century when Britain‟s empire, based on naval power, commerce, and colonies of European settlers required a different model to that offered by Rome, and a different field of past experiences to interrogate for useful lessons. From then on, chapters on Greek colonisation became standard practice in all the great histories of Greece, a practice which continued from the eighteenth century, throughout the nineteenth, and up to the present day. Those studies of Greek colonisation written during the late eighteenth century were inevitably influenced by the defining colonial and constitutional concerns of the day, such as the American and French Revolutions – indeed it was their very purpose to relate to and comment upon such events. Accounts of Greek colonisation written during the early to mid nineteenth century, when the American colonies had been lost, coincided with the gradual expansion of Britain‟s white settler colonies in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and displacement of indigenous peoples. Into the late nineteenth century, the example of Greek colonisation was actively invoked in debates about a „Greater Britain‟, or an „Imperial Federation‟: conceptions 2 designed to overcome Britain‟s perceived geopolitical weakness in the face of vast territorial empires. At all times after the loss of the American colonies, discussions of Greek colonisation took place within a context of two very different conceptions of what the British Empire was: the white settler colonies on the one hand – free, increasingly self-governing, and representing the extension of Anglo-Saxon freedoms abroad – and the empire of rule on the other – centred on India, despotic, militaristic, yet the basis of Britain‟s power in the world. Irrespective of the period in question, studies of Greek colonisation were conducted at a time when British colonisation played an important if changing role in British visions regarding empire and their place in the world, not even diminishing significantly in the period after the Second World War when European solutions offered themselves. The key question is the extent to which conceptions of Greek colonisation were influenced by this British colonial context – and if so, how? The dominant perspective among recent scholarship is that it most certainly was influenced by contemporary British experiences, and this is one of the key reasons why the subject has come under renewed scrutiny; the term colonisation itself has been brought into question, and earlier scholarship interrogated for contemporary „colonial‟ or „imperial‟ attitudes which distorted antiquity and created mentalities which still pervade and distort our perspectives of ancient Greece to this day. This study aims to examine more closely what British scholars wrote about Greek colonisation from the late eighteenth to late twentieth centuries, taking into account the particular political, imperial, and colonial context at work at the time of writing. It is only by a fuller contextual discussion such as this that we can truly judge the extent of „colonial‟ or „imperial‟ influences on the study of this aspect of Greek antiquity. The contextual discussion is intended to be a study in itself, tracing the way antiquity was a major means of expressing responses to contemporary political, imperial, and colonial debate. Thus while the primary aim of this thesis is to consider the extent contemporary ideas influenced the study of Greek colonisation, it is also the intention to be able to place that understanding within the wider context of British perceptions of antiquity and address the importance of the latter in shaping the British historical imagination – in other words the role of antiquity in forming British visions of the past, present, and future of Western civilisation. 3 Chapter 2: Current scholarship on Greek colonisation and its earlier historiography If the ancient sources for Greek colonisation are generally considered problematic, the interpretation of this evidence by British scholars in the modern age has been the subject of equal if not harsher scrutiny. The literary evidence is usually later and often anachronistic in its reading of events, in many cases giving events of the eighth century a very contemporary fifth century flavour.1 It is perhaps inevitable that much of the modern scholarship has come to be scrutinised in much the same way. This criticism has not come exclusively from British scholars, as debate about Greek colonisation, and thus its historiography, is international. However international the debate may be, much of it has been conducted in the English language and by scholars connected to British universities, or those of the English speaking world. As a result, a great deal of this discussion has been conducted within the intellectual sphere of Anglo-Saxon approaches to the imperial past, and has thus been influenced by post-colonial thought relating to the former imperial possessions of above all the British Empire. It is perhaps natural that an increased interest in the historiography of colonisation followed in the wake of important reinterpretations of both the scholarship and the ancient evidence. Such reinterpretations began to be published in earnest in the 1990s, and what follows is a thematic breakdown of some of the main issues raised. What scholars currently think about colonisation and what they think of earlier work is a subject necessarily intertwined. Much in the way of new approaches and new ideas about the nature of Greek colonisation stem from a renewed interest in the subject. This is itself a direct result of a more critical attitude towards traditional scholarship late to feel the impact of approaches long since felt in the field of modern history. First will be a discussion of two very important elements essential in understanding recent debate about Greek colonisation: terminology and methodology. Then there will follow a review of some of the key themes to emerge from modern debate about Greek colonisation and its historiography: colonisation as an act of state, colonial dependence, and colonists and natives. Current views on Greek colonisation are invariably linked to criticisms of earlier ones. These thematic subheadings are intended to reflect the manner in which current scholarship, in forming new interpretations of Greek colonisation, arguably do so in 1 J-P. Wilson, „Ideologies‟ of Greek colonization, in G. Bradley and J.-P. Wilson (eds.), Greek & Roman Colonization: Origins, Ideologies, and Interactions