The typical colony was basically a rural community. Most of the Greek colonies were founded as autonomous cities under the auspices of a mother-city, which provided the founder (oikist) and probably the ships and the artisans for the foundation of the colony. Each city's objective was self-sufficiency. That is the reason why they took possession of and cultivated enough land, so that they could ensure adequate sustenance for their population.

There is no information about the method of land distribution in the new colonies. It is very likely that conditions differed from one colony to the other. It is not known, whether the estates (kleroi) were distributed equally among the inhabitants, nor is it clear what became of the land in certain cases, as for example in case the owner died. In any case, it was impossible to avoid inequalities in the colonies, such as the ones that arose among the first colonists or their descendants and those who came to settle later.

Usually, the inhabitants of a colony were of common origin and the colony-city that they founded was related to only one mother-city. Such examples are the majority of Corinth's colonies ( Ambracia, Corcyra, Potidaea, Syracuse), of Chalcis (Zangle, Rhegium, Leontini, Catana etc.), of Eretria (Methone, Mende, etc.), Miletus (Abydos, Apollonia Pontica, Cyzicus, Odessa, Olbia, Sinope, etc.), Megara (Byzantium, Chalcedon, Selymbria, etc.) and other cities.

However, there were cases of mixed colonies called this way, because they were founded by inhabitants of different Greek cities, such as Gela in Sicily -founded by Rhodians and Cretans- or Cumae and Pithecusae in South Italy founded by Chalcidians and Eretrians.

Apart from agriculture, other sources of income for certain colonies were piracy and fishing. For instance, in the region of the Black Sea, the abundance of sea and river fish favoured the development of trade in salted or sun-dried products, such as tuna and herring.
| introduction | agriculture | trade | state organization | Archaic Period

Note: Click on a picture for a brief description.