Separating Fact from Fiction in the Ionian Migration

The Ionian cities of Asia Minor have been the subject of much discussion, particularly in regard to their foundation. Traditional accounts of this foundation posit a large-scale migration from the Greek mainland led by Athenian colonists. This article reviews the historical, archaeological, and linguistic evidence for the origins of the Ionian cities, and offers a new analysis of the substantial body of later literary material written in Greek and Latin. This new analysis of the literary material brings the origin of the cities into sharper focus in terms of both the complex patterns of mobility and local settlement that contributed to their physical origins, and the equally complex sociopolitical concerns that shaped the origins of their Ionian identity.