Professor Polly Lowe

So we know that this happens in a couple of communities on the island of Euboea, which is Athens, the island just to the east of Athens.

We know that this happens on Samos.

Later on, it's what happens to Mytilene.

And then either the Athenians rent back that land to the original owners who stay there and farm it, but have to pay Athens for the privilege of doing so.

Or they send out settlers, Athenians, who go and then live in those communities.

And so they become effectively settlers.

a bit like a sort of garrison because these are now Athenian men who are living in that place.

So it's a win-win for the Athenians because they get the financial benefit of having this land, but also they secure their hold over those places because there's a bunch of Athenians living there.

Yeah, so the distinction, the sort of technical distinction is that a cleric would still be an Athenian citizen.

So a colonist, sort of standard model, forms an entirely new community and is a citizen of that new community and then gives up their citizenship of their original community.

The Athenians do found at least one colony.

in this period that we know about, or maybe a little bit later that we know about.

But a cleric, it's a bit more temporary, so it could be that they're not permanently resident there.

So they own property.

They'd probably go out and farm that property, but they would also still be an Athenian and be able to go back to Athens and they'd fight.

If they were fighting, they'd be fighting as part of an Athenian army and not, say, a Samian army.

There's lots of activity in the Black Sea.

Again, not...

at all well recorded by Thucydides, but we hear about this in Plutarch's Life of Pericles.

That's important because it's quite hard to square that with the original terms of the Delian League, but that's something that very obviously benefits Athens, as I've already mentioned.