Greek colonisation father of the poet Archilochus, Telesicles. The region of the Ionian Sea and that of Illyria were colonized strictly by Corinth. The Corinthians founded important overseas colonies on the sea lanes to Southern Italy and the west which succeeded in making them the foremost emporia of the western side of the Mediterranean. Important colonies of Corinth included Leucada, Astacus, Anactoreum, Actium, Ambracia, and Corcyra. The Corinthians also founded important colonies in Illyria, which evolved into important cities, Apollonia and Epidamnus. Nymphaeum, was also a Greek colony in Illyria. The first to colonise Southern Italy were the Euboeans, who with the
Ionian League of Melia were part of the Lohmann et al. discoveries of 2004. Prior to then other theories of the location had been prevalent. The Ionian League was the first alliance of city-states in the region. Ionian League The Ionian League (ancient Greek: , "Íōnes"; , "koinón Iōnōn"; or , "koinē sýnodos Iōnōn"; Latin: "commune consilium"), also called the Panionic League, was a confederation formed at the end of the Meliac War in the mid-7th century BC comprising twelve Ionian cities (a dodecapolis, of which there were many others). These were listed by Herodotus as After 650 BC Smyrna, an originally