Editing Ionia (section)

===Archaic period===
[[File:Ephesos 620-600 BC.jpg|right|thumb|275px|One of the earliest [[electrum]] coins struck in [[Ephesus]], 620–600 BC. Obverse: Forepart of stag. Reverse: Square incuse punch.]]
In the Archaic period, "the Ionian poleis were among the cultural, intellectual, and political leaders of the Greek world."{{sfn|Hallmannsecker|2022|p=17}} The region prospered economically due to the contributions of [[Immigration|immigrants]], traders, and other social classes from at least [[750 BC|750 BCE]] to well after [[510 BC|510 BCE]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Weisstein|first=Eric W.|author-link=Eric W. Weisstein|year=2007|title=Pre-Classical (Archaic) Greece (ca. 750-ca. 490 BC) |url=https://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Pre-ClassicalGreece.html|access-date=2024-01-15|website=ScienceWorld|series=Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography|publisher=[[Wolfram Research]]}}</ref>

====Ionian League====
{{Main|Ionian League|Panionium|Delos}}
The twelve Ionian cities formed a religious and cultural (as opposed to a political or military) confederacy, the [[Ionian League]], of which participation in the Pan-Ionic festival was a distinguishing characteristic. This festival took place on the north slope of [[Mt. Mycale]] in a shrine called the [[Panionium]].<ref name="Ionia"/> The foundation took place late in the Archaic period, but the exact date is unclear. This is also when stories of the [[Ionian migration]] are first attested. All of these initiatives were probably aimed at emphasising Ionian distinctiveness from other Greeks in Asia.{{sfn|Hallmannsecker|2022|p=18}}

But the Ionian League was primarily a religious organisation rather than a political one. Although they did sometimes act together, civic interests and priorities always trumped broader Ionian ones.{{sfn|Hallmannsecker|2022|p=18}} They never formed a real confederacy. The advice of [[Thales]] of Miletus to combine in a political union was rejected.<ref name="Ionia"/> In inscriptions and literary sources from this period, Ionians generally identify themselves by their city of origin, not as "Ionians."{{sfn|Hallmannsecker|2022|p=17}}

====Ionians overseas====
The cities became prosperous. [[Miletus]] especially was, in an early period, one of the most important commercial cities of Greece, and in its turn became the parent of numerous other colonies, which extended all around the shores of the [[Euxine Sea]] and the Propontis from Abydus and [[Cyzicus]] to [[Trabzon|Trapezus]] and Panticapaeum. [[Phocaea]] was one of the first Greek cities whose mariners explored the shores of the western Mediterranean. From an early period, [[Ephesus]], though it did not send out any colonies of importance, became a flourishing city.<ref name="Ionia"/>

In the eighth century, Ionian Greeks are recorded in Near Eastern sources as coastal raiders: an inscription of [[Sargon II]] (ca 709–07, recording a naval expedition of 715) boasts "in the midst of the sea" he had "caught the Ionians like fish and brought peace to the land of Que [[Cilicia]] and the city of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]]".<ref name="Fox 2008">Sargon's inscription in A. Fuchs, ''Die Inschriften Sargons II aus Khorsabad'' (1994:40) noted in Robin Lane Fox, ''Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer'', 2008:29f.</ref> For a full generation earlier, Assyrian inscriptions had recorded troubles with the Ionians, who escaped on their boats.<ref name="Fox 2008"/>

====Lydian rule====
About 700 BC [[Gyges of Lydia|Gyges]], first Mermnad king of [[Lydia]], invaded the territories of Smyrna and Miletus, and is said to have taken Colophon. His son [[Ardys of Lydia|Ardys]] conquered Priene. In the middle of the 7th century, the [[Cimmerians|Cimmerii]] ravaged a great part of Asia Minor, including Lydia, and sacked [[Magnesia on the Maeander]], but were defeated when they attacked Ephesus. It was not until the reign of [[Croesus]] (560–545 BC) that the cities of Ionia fell completely under Lydian rule.<ref name="Ionia"/>