ABSTRACT
How brilliant was Ionian civilization up to the time when Persia conquered the kingdom of Lydia (546) 2 whose prosperous vassal Ionia had become! The twelve federated cities, especially the three leading ones, Ephesus, Miletus and Phocis, grew wealthy through their overland and maritime trade, and extended their power, founding in the north trading bases on the Thracian coasts, along the shores of the Hellespont and the Euxine as far as the furthest point of the Sea of Azov; 3 in the south they established settlements at the Nile mouths which had been thrown open to them by the phil-Hellenic pharaohs Psammetichus (666-612) and Amasis (570); and in the west they ventured as far afield as Corsica, Gaul and even Spain.. The products of their industry found their way everywhere. “In the middle of the 6th century” says Curtius, “Miletus, the mother of eighty colonies, was the proudest and most powerful of all Hellenic cities.”
