The Ionie is an area located at the west of the minor Asia, between Phocée and Milet.

In the Antiquity, it federated twelve quoted Greek, of the continent and the islands: Tap-holes, Éphèse, Érythrée, Clazomènes, Colophon, Lébédos, Millet, Myonte, Phocée, Priène, Samos and Téos. Halicarnasse joined them afterwards. Shining hearth of Hellenic civilization to the VII {{E}} and sixth century BC, it belongs to a vaster unit called Greece of Asia or Greece of the East .

Its settlement resulting from the second vagueness of Achaean migration, into, had integrated, following many mixed marriages, Doriens and populations Préhellénique S. This population was linked by a common dialect, and a common religious sanctuary, the Panionion located on the territory of Priène.

Each city was independent and had its own government and its own social organization, but they had the same political evolution, towards the Tyrannie, that the other Greek cities, with which they were linked by a community of culture, even if there were many frontier conflicts.

The Ionian coasts presented many economic advantages: good natural shelters facilitating the establishment of ports for the trade with easy communications towards the back-country, a pleasant climate, open valleys for the culture of the Cereal S and the breeding of the horses, the plates for the breeding of the Sheep S, the hills for the fruit trees and the olive-tree S.

Ionie is the first area of Greece where philosophy, art (in particular architecture with the Ionic order) and sciences developed, profiting from the intellectual richnesses of the Middle East and the Egypt. The Ionian cities gave many large thinkers Présocratiques, large large artists and Architecte S, like Thalès de Milet, Anaximandre, Anaximène, Leucippe, with Priène, Héraclite with Éphèse, Anaxagore with Clazomènes and Pythagore in the island of Samos.

Ionie was coveted for its economic richness and its intellectual development, by powerful neighbors, ambitious and undertaking. The Ionian ones had developed the luxury items and of quality, the banquets and the elegant and cultivated courtesans fascinated. They were representative of the very high point of sophistication reaches by Greek civilization. However, the Ionian ones were bad combatants, little trained, their cities were often divided, their roads were easy for the Commerce and the exchanges, but also for the invasion S.

Ionie passed initially under protectorate of the Lydie NS, then after the victory of Cyrus over Crésus, under domination of the Perses, to which it was to pay heavy tributes and to maintain the garrisons, n the other hand of a certain autonomy and freedom left to the local tyrants.

This situation worsened with the king of Perse Darius I {{er}} and leads in 499 av. J. - C. to a revolt of Ionie, supported by the military setbacks of the Perses in the Danubian Steppe , and the military support of Athens and Érétrie. But the revolt turned to the disaster in spite of some victories, and the population paid this episode heavily: destruction and fire of Éphèse and Millet, deportation of the populations like slaves in Mésopotamie in 494 av. J. - C., until their total allegiance.

Many inhabitants (commercial, craftsmen, poets, thinkers), emigrated, carrying with them refinements of their culture. It was a crushing argument to the intellectual rise of Ionie.

It is only after the victories of the cities of continental Greece with Marathon, then with the Bataille of Salamine, in -480, with the Bataille of Foundations, and with the Bataille of the course Mycale in -479, that the Ionian ones recovered their freedom, the expansion of the Persian Empire towards the west was definitively stopped.

Athens which had played a paramount role in the victory, benefitted glory and from it, and in 478 av. J. - C., by the creation of the Ligue of Délos, it undertook to constitute around it a maritime empire ensuring its hegemony on the Aegean Sea, from now on prohibited with the Persian vessels, and its domination on the Greek world. The war finished in 449 av. J. - C. and the defeat of Persians was confirmed by the Paix of Callias.

See too

• Ionic order

External bonds

• Pythagore : a brilliance arising of Ionie (multi-media presentation)

Simple: Ionia