Corsica, Eolie, Naucrati: tre nodi del Mediterraneo arcaico

This article traces the Mediterranean routes of the Phocaeans, on the one hand, and of the Rhodians and Cnidians, on the other, during the 6th century BC. They share common colonial interests in the Tyrrhenian sea and, in certain circumstances, experience significantly parallel developments. In particular, a common turning point emerges: in 545 BC or shortly thereafter we can situate both Phocaean raids for plunder against neighbouring populations and the new social order at Lipari, with a form of counter-piracy enacted there by the Greeks. Both events can be explained in connection with the Persian submission of Ionia. There were favourable conditions for closer relations between the two colonial communities; a role was probably played by Egyptian Naukratis, where in the second quarter of the 6th century Phocaeans, Cnidians and Rhodians, among other eastern Greeks, work side by side at the foundation of the Hellenion.