Northward Expansion of Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece,one of the favourites of a lot of History and Science enthusiasts alike, a thriving Civilization with a lot of contributions to the later Civilizations and thinkers, which was based in the Southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula and many parts of Western Asia Minor and encompassing the countless islands inbetween.

In their hay day,they managed to expand in almost all directions except one. They expanded to the West, to the southern tip Italian peninsula, to the East, deeper into Asia Minor, Bactria and few centers in the Middle East region, to the South, to a few settlements on the Northern shore of Egypt, Alexandria being the most prominent one.

There is one prize and one direction that they had evaded from. The North. To the North,deeper up into the Balkan Peninsula, lie several fertile river valleys and mostly tribal populations to subjugate.

What if,they did fix eyes on the North and expand deeper into the Balkans? I agree,they weren't mostly unified for the most of the time, but what if in their few unified periods, they did manage to try out such an experiment? The Northernmost I know of is,Dyrracherum in what is today Albania.

They could expand in two ways. One,slowly settling smaller rural and urban settlements along the river valleys and fertile plains and Two,in a militaristic expansion to subjugate the tribes in the region and then settle there with some help from the mostly tribal or rural natives living there. I am unsure with who all they would have to face and subjugate, en route this expansion. But from my estimates, Dacians,Celtic tribes and the Germanic tribes would be the ones hardest to subjugate.

I highly doubt if the Greeks could settle there initially, all by themselves. Hence, subjugation of native population would need to play an important role to provide the resources needed in the beginning and also a settler/workforce base.

If they somehow manage to expand up to the Danube Basin and the Pannonian plains, before the Romans expanded and early enough to stabilize the dynamics of the whole region they settle in, it would be a Bounty for them.
 
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Well, they kinda did.

The northern Aegean coast (today northern Greece ) was heavily colonized to the extent that it became an integral part of the hellenic world.

The black sea coast in present day Bulgaria and Romania was essentially a large string of Greek Colonies.

To the northwest the Adriatic saw less activity but you still had several colonies on the dalmatian islands before they were conquered by illurians

As with most Greek Colonies however all of these were mainly coastal cities with limited power projection onto tribes in the interior.

To get a more comprehensive expansion that seeks to systematically subjugate tribes and control land, you'd have to change the nature of colonization. OTL colonies were mainly individual city state led affairs so we're pretty limited in nature to one settlement. The exception was mainly the large Hellenistic Kingdoms of Alexander and his successor generals who would create military settlements of the type you describe, albeit their focus being on the East.

You could set something similar up where an Epeirote, Macedonian, Thracian or Bosporian kingdom seeks to unify it's immediate area and expand towards the danube. You'd likely need expansion east blocked by a strong Anatolian state, and expansion west by a strong Italic one, to leave North as the most attractive.
 
To get a more comprehensive expansion that seeks to systematically subjugate tribes and control land, you'd have to change the nature of colonization. OTL colonies were mainly individual city state led affairs so we're pretty limited in nature to one settlement. The exception was mainly the large Hellenistic Kingdoms of Alexander and his successor generals who would create military settlements of the type you describe, albeit their focus being on the East.

We could potentially get this.

Hellenistic states include Ptolemaic Egypt(Egypt), Indo-Greek Kingdom(Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) and Seleucid Empire(Persia, Middle East and Eastern Asia Minor).

So this left the core region of the Greeks(Western Asia Minor, Agean Peninsula and its Islands and Southern Italy) not yet united.

But this is exactly the region, from where we could get an expansion to the North. I'm not talking about any unification before Alexander and Darius, though it could be possible but we could have a fourth Hellenistic kingdom containing Greece, Western Anatolia, Thrace and Macedonia, which could yield a potential Northern Expansion.

You could set something similar up where an Epeirote, Macedonian, Thracian or Bosporian kingdom seeks to unify it's immediate area and expand towards the danube. You'd likely need expansion east blocked by a strong Anatolian state, and expansion west by a strong Italic one, to leave North as the most attractive

To have expansion blocked towards Anatolia, we could have a strong Hittite(?) Empire. I know,this needs a lot of earlier events which could butterfly a lot of things that led to the Greek Empires as we know them. But we could give it a try.

However, one more effect that would cause would be Early Persian Empire which invaded Greece, not existing and that could butterfly Alexander the Great, as we know him. Maybe a Hittite Invasion of Greece could end up with such an effect.

Interesting possibilities, though.
 
Is life worth living without wine and olives ? there are agricultural reasons why Greeks farmer-soldier choose where they settle their colonies.
 
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