At this time the colonies in Asia Minor were far advanced in civilization beyond the Grecian continent.

Along the western coast of that delicious district--on a shore more fertile, under a heaven more bright, than those of the parent states--the Aeolians, Ionians, and Dorians, in a remoter age, had planted settlements and founded cities (probably commenced under Penthilus, son of Orestes, about B.C.
1068).

The Aeolian colonies (the result of the Dorian immigrations) [101] occupied the coasts of commenced Mysia and Caria--on the mainland twelve cities--the most renowned of which were Cyme and Smyrna; and the islands of the Heccatonnesi, Tenedos, and Lesbos, the last illustrious above the rest, and consecrated by the muses of Sappho and Alcaeus.

They had also settlements about Mount Ida.

Their various towns were independent of each other; but Mitylene, in the Isle of Lesbos, was regarded as their common capital.