I - 86 : What was the Doric Hexapolis?

Mainstreet of the Dorian City of Camirus, 40 km SW of Rhodes, with the Fountain Square

Was trying for months to find out more about the Doric Hexapolis, the alliance of the six Dorian cities of Halicarnassus (Bodrum), Kos, Knidos, Italysus, Carnirus and Lindus (the last three on Rhodes). Have not found anything detailed. Seems history forgot about it. The few articles I found were all copied from each other. Apparently not only journalists copy other people's work. Historians are guilty too.

The six Dorian Cities which formed the Doric Haxapolis

The little information I could glean from these articles is that these six cities had common rules for marine commerce and that they held regular games in Knidos where the winner would take home a bronze tripod – similar to Olympia but with fewer participants. That is pretty meager for a blog. Is there other information one could add? If any of my readers knows more, please let me know. In the meantime I add some circumstantial additional evidence which provides - at least - some context.

Phoenician Trade Routes followed Wind Pattern. West - East was easy. Malta to Levant in 2 Weeks was feasible. For East - West, they had to use the Thermal Winds of Anatolia and had to pass by the Dodecanese (Rhodes)

Let’s start with location. The six cities lie at the cross-road of two wind system. The thermal Anatolian system that allows ships to sail from East to West and the Aegean system where the winds blow from North to South (Meltemi). The Dorians, coming from the Peloponnese, settled the Dodecanese between 1'000 - 800 BC, exactly at the time when Phoenicians merchants expanded into the Mediterranean. The two people must have met.

16 m long Uluburun Ship - Model in Bodrum Museum

which sank in the 14th Century BC close to Kastellorizo

Another contextual piece is the rise of the Assyrian Empire. Between 900 - 700 BC, Phoenicia lost its independence. The well known carving from Nineveh, Assyria’s capital, from 700 BC shows a ship with rowers – proof that the Assyrians took maritime matters seriously.

Nineveh Relief of an Assyrian Warship around 700 BC

We do not know whether the Phoenicians coming to Rhodes were independent merchants or Assuroam warriors. Possibly, Assyrian triremes accompanied these merchant vessels to protect them against local piracy which was everywhere after the turbulent Dark Ages. The Hexapolis may have been Dorian self-defence against the Assyrian intruders.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire won control over the Levant between 800 and 700 BC

Why did Phoenician traders push into the Mediterranean? They began with exporting products from the Levant which were unavailable in Egypt. To mention a few: copper, tin, purple dye, large timber logs, olive oil, wines and glass beads. Egypt’s Pharaohs however craved for ever more luxury. Phoenician merchants sourced additional products from the rest of the Mediterranean. Pushing west by 900 BC, they bought gold and silver from Siphnus, shellfish from Cythera, marbles from Poros, sulphur from Melos and high quality wine from Rhodes.

The Phoenician Trade with Egypt took off In the 15th

Century BC when the Levant was an Egyptian Province

To support their activities, the Phoenicians established trading posts, ports and colonies everywhere. They needed shelter for storms and places to stay during winter. Starting with Cyprus, then Rhodes, they settled on the Sporades and the Cyclades. By the 9th century BC, the Phoenicians probably dominated the Aegean. Some scholars argue that the Rhodinian cities of Italysus, Camirus and Lindus were founded by Phoenicians, not Dorians. They base their claims on shards and relicts from Egypt and Assyria found in burial places. Also, the name Rhodes seems to have derived from the Phoenician word "Erod "for snakes. Rhodes is still famous for them. This again supports the thesis that the Hexapolis was a defence alliance against the Phoenician-Assyrian expansion.

Some Scholars dispute the Dorian Origin of the City of Camirus and believe it was founded by Phoenicians - here the excavated Mainroad with the Fountain Square at the End

Let’s now move to maritime technology. We know that these technologies (triremes, navigation by stars) arrived around 800 BC in Greece. Add that Greek people adopted the Phoenician alphabet at the same time. I am pretty sure this happened around the Dodecanese. We find Dorians and Phoenicians living in Rhodes at the same time. Without close, daily interactions such cultural transfers do not happen. The Dorians must have grasped the benefits that the adoption of these elements of Phoenician culture bestowed.

Comparison of Phoenician - Greek - Latin Alphabet

The reasons why these two cultural spheres overlapped at the Dodecanese are the two wind systems I talked about earlier. Eventually, the Dorians – the warriors from the Peloponnese - prevailed. I suspect the six Hexapolis cities pooled their naval resources to push the Phoeenicians out. But their ships still arrived in Dorian harbors. To reach the Western Med, the Phoenicians had to take a route through the southern Aegean. They couldn’t have established Carthage, Cadiz and their many other settlements in Spain and North Africa without using this route. A prolonged century long next-to-each-other co-existance was the consquence.  

Vase with Greek Discus Thrower from 400 BC, now in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston

The games in Knidos deliver another indicator that the Hexapolis was a Dorian Defence alliance. The young men competed in military games. The games of Knidos, as the ancient Olympic games, were about war fighting. Spear, stone and discus throwing, running and long-jumping, boxing and equestrian competitions – all served military fitness. They were not like today’s skate boarding – not just for fun. They were about military readiness.

Replica of a Ceremonial Greek Tripod

How important the defence alliance was shows the prize an athlet could win. The victor received a bronze tripod. Initially used for cooking on open fire before people became sedentary, tripods became – as in China – ritual objects for religious purposes. They were beautifully crafted, heavy and expensive.  The victorious athlet could not keep his trophy though. He had to dedicate it to the God Apollo in his home town and leave it in the temple. Bronze was precious at the time – the cultural bond the trophy created even more.

The Kyrenia II - a Replica of the Cargo Ship from 400 BC found near Girne in Cyprus

The Dorian alliance was not limited to defence alone. We know from Justinian's codification of Roman law that the Dorians applied the “general average principle” when crews had to throw cargo over board to save the ship. The law said such losses had to be equally shared between cargo and ship owner. If the Dorians were not engaged in maritime commerce, they would not need such rules. The law dates back to at least 800 BC and was codified in Rhodes. It is fair to interpret that the member states of the Hexapolis all applied the same set of maritime laws to foster commerce and prevent unfair competition.

Could not find a Photo of Actis - Here is the Head of his Father Helios, the Sun God

Last but not least, the founding mythodology provides another clue. The island of Rhodes is apparently the love child of Helios and Rhodos, a local nymph. Their son Actis travelled to Egypt where he built the city of Heliopolis and thaught the Egyptians astrology. Am convinced it was the other way round. But the myth confirms the links Rhodes had early on with Egypt, the Phoenicians and the Middle East. Rhodes was the portal to Greece.

Ancient Heliopolis, once the Capital of Lower Egypt, is now a NW Suburb in Cairo

Whether my idea that the Doric Hexapolis was a Defence Alliance against the Assyrian-Phoenician colonists can be proven is to be seen. But my theory would explain how the Greek acquired the technology that allowed them 300 years later to defeat the Persian Emperor Xerxes and how the West got its alphabet from the Levant.