macedonia and greece

The North Sea Peoples invaded Macedonia and Greece after the terrible eruption of the volcano in Thera.

The population of Greece was greatly reduced. Because of this there was little resistance to the invaders except for a few groups of Achaeans who had fortified their defenses.

The kings of Greece and Crete had received warnings that the Vikings were coming from the north. They had enough time to prepare for their impending attack. The fortified enclosures were hastily built. A wall was built around the Acropolis and a tunnel leading to the spring on the north side.

At Mycenae and Tirio walls were built from unhewn rocks. Hidden accesses to the wells were built. In Corinth a strong wall was built.

Some Achaean chiefs expected to fight at sea. The remains of their castles are proof that they lost.

The king of Pylos sent his navy to Pleuron on the north shore of the Corinthian Gulf. His ships were manned with 400 oarsmen and warriors. They provided a coastal observation corps. They knew that the Vikings would land by sea.

Swift charioteers were stationed between the watching Armada and the Palace of Pylos. The king of Pylos could not defend the entire coast or prevent a landing at every point. But he had a good early warning system. But this coastal defense system could not prevent the North Sea Peoples from landing on the Peloponnesian coast.

Hyllus, leader of the North Sea Warriors, made the following proposal to the Greek king: “…There was no need for the two armies to risk their lives in an all-out fight. He suggested that the Pelopenesians choose a champion to fight him.” in single combat. He took his oath (sacred to the Vikings) that if he lost he would withdraw his army and not attempt to attack the Peloponnese again for a hundred years…”

In this duel, Echemus, King of the Greeks, killed Hyllus. The Vikings kept their oath and passed without invading. They returned a hundred years later and occupied the Peloponnese.

The land was then divided among Hyllus’s three great-grandchildren. Temenus, the eldest, greeted Argus. Cresphontes took Messene. Aristodemus took Sparta.

Aristodemus, according to Herodotus, was the ancestor of the Spartan king. Leonidas, who fell at the head of his 300 Spartans at Thermopile.

The Vikings entered the peninsula shortly before 1200 BC. The palaces and settlements of the Peloponnese were destroyed by earthquakes and fires and not by the invading Warriors from the North.

Between natural catastrophes and invasions from the north, the Mycenaean culture ended; around 1150 and 1100 BC.

The King of Crete sent his fleet to stop the Vikings at sea. He also had 400 war chariots ready for battle, in case they landed. Armor and weapons of all kinds were prepared. More than 20,000 sheep and 500 pigs were gathered to feed the troops.

But before the Vikings reached Crete, the terrible eruption of Thera took place.

Archaeologists found the weapons and remains of the North Sea Peoples on top of the volcanic ash and the lava was not in or under it! They came after the disaster.

The Vikings only met resistance when a part of the population that had survived united in a defensible position.

Who knows what history would have to say if the Vikings tried to conquer Greece and Crete when they were at full strength?