Battle of Alalia
| Battle of Alalia | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| The Greek Phocaean Colonies of Alalia |
Carthage Etruscans |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 60 Pentekonters | Around 120 Ships | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Almost 40 Pentekonters | Unknown | ||||||||
The naval Battle of Alalia took place between 540 BC and 535 BC off the coast of Corsica between Greeks and the allied Etruscans and Carthaginians. A Punic-Etruscan fleet of 120 ships defeated a Greek force of Phocean ships while emigrating to the western Mediterranean and the nearby colony of Alalia (now Aléria).
The Phoenicians had planted trading posts in Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and Iberia during the 9th and 8th centuries BC while creating their trading monopoly. They had a relatively free hand as other civilizations were suffering from a "Dark Age" during that period. The Etruscans emerged as a local power in the 8th century BC, spreading their trade to Corsica, Sardinia and Iberia and creating a powerful navy to guard their interests. The Phoenicians and Etruscans became trading partners and rivals, exchanging goods and opportunistic raids with each other. The situation changed with the arrival of the Greeks in the western Mediterranean in 750 BC.
The Greek colonization started with the planting of Cumae in Italy by 750 BC and Naxos in Sicily by 735 BC. Within the next 100 years, several Greek cities had planted colonies along the coast of southern Italy and most of Sicily, creating a position to control trade routes around these areas and dominating the Strait of Messina. Etruscans clashed with the Greeks, but were unable to stop the process. Although the colonization process was not done according to any master plan, with several Greek cities acting simultaneously, it probably seemed to the Phoenicians and Etruscans that a flood of Greeks were drowning the Tyrrhenian seacoast.
The Greek-colonized zone encompassing Sicily and Southern Italy came to be known as Magna Graecia. The Greeks living in this area behaved pretty much like the mainland Greeks, expanding their political and commercial domain at the expense of their neighbors while keeping the Ionian–Dorian feud alive. The colonization offered greater opportunities for increased trade, piracy and other conflicts among the Etruscans, Phoenicians and Greeks competing for control of seaborne trade of the area.
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