Editing Ionia (section)

====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"/>