Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Commerce with Italy, Sicily and France in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C.

The date of the first contact of the Greeks with the Western Mediterranean is very difficult to determine from literary sources. It is as old as the Theogony and probably as old as the Odyssey ; but there is, as yet, no general agreement as to the date of either of these sources. Many historians still assume that it began, if not with the foundation of the Greek colonies in Sicily, at least with that of Cumae. These colonies, they maintain, were planted solely as a means of solving the problem of over-population in old Greece, in areas suitable for the production of corn, and without commercial intent. Whence came the necessary geographical knowledge and how the sites were chosen is seldom clearly stated, if it is stated at all. We are left with vague suggestions such as a preliminary expedition of exploration or ‘Traditional Survival’ of geographical knowledge based on Minoan, Mycenaean and Nostoi voyages, any explanation, in fact, that will save the historian from the natural assumption that the western colonies were planted in areas previously reached by Greek commercial enterprise.