
The Doric or Dorian Hexapolis () was a
federation
A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...
of six cities of
Dorian foundation in southwest
Asia Minor
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
and adjacent islands, largely coextensive with the region known as Doris or Doris in Asia (), and included:
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Cos, on the island of
Cos;
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Cnidus in
Caria
Caria (; from Greek language, Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; ) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being Anatolian main ...
;
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Halicarnassus
Halicarnassus ( ; Latin: ''Halicarnassus'' or ''Halicarnāsus''; ''Halikarnāssós''; ; Carian language, Carian: 𐊠𐊣𐊫𐊰 𐊴𐊠𐊥𐊵𐊫𐊰 ''alos k̂arnos'') was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Caria, in Anatolia. in Caria;
*
Lindus, on the island of
Rhodes
Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...
;
*
Ialysus on Rhodes; and
*
Camirus on Rhodes.
The members of this ''hexapolis'' celebrated a festival, with games, on the
Triopian promontory near Cnidus, in honour of the Triopian
Apollo
Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
; the prizes in those games were brazen tripods, which the victors had to dedicate in the
temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
of Apollo; and Halicarnassus was struck out of the league, because one of her citizens carried the tripod to his own house before dedicating it in the temple of Apollo. The ''hexapolis'' thus became the
Doric Pentapolis. (
Herod. i. 144.)
Pliny (v. 28) says, ''Caria mediae Doridi circumfunditur ad mare utroque latere ambiens'', by which he means that Doris is surrounded by
Caria
Caria (; from Greek language, Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; ) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being Anatolian main ...
on all sides, except where it is bordered by the sea. He makes Doris begin at
Cnidus. In the bay of Doris he places
Leucopolis,
Hamaxitus, ''etc.'' An attempt has been made among scholars to ascertain which of two bays Pliny calls ''Doridis Sinus'', the more probable being the
Ceramic Gulf. This Doris of Pliny is the country occupied by the Dorians, which
Thucydides
Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...
(ii. 9) indicates, not by the name of the country, but of the people: Dorians, neighbours of the Carians.
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
(v. 2) makes Doris a division of his
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
, and places in it
Halicarnassus
Halicarnassus ( ; Latin: ''Halicarnassus'' or ''Halicarnāsus''; ''Halikarnāssós''; ; Carian language, Carian: 𐊠𐊣𐊫𐊰 𐊴𐊠𐊥𐊵𐊫𐊰 ''alos k̂arnos'') was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Caria, in Anatolia. ,
Ceramus, and
Cnidus. The term Doris, applied to a part of Asia, does not appear to occur in other writers.
In the ''
Digesta seu Pandectae'' (533), the second volume of the
codification of laws ordered by
Justinian I
Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...
(527–565) of the
Eastern Roman Empire, a
legal opinion
In law, a legal opinion is in certain jurisdictions a written explanation by a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling.
Opinions are in those jurisdi ...
written by the
Roman jurist Paulus at the beginning of the
Crisis of the Third Century
The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis, was a period in History of Rome, Roman history during which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressure of repeated Barbarian invasions ...
in 235 AD was included about the ''
Lex Rhodia'' ("Rhodian law") that articulates the
general average principle of marine insurance established on the island of
Rhodes
Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...
in approximately 1000 to 800 BC as a member of the Doric Hexapolis, plausibly by the
Phoenicians
Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...
during the proposed
Dorian invasion and emergence of the purported
Sea Peoples during the
Greek Dark Ages () that led to the proliferation of the
Doric Greek
Doric or Dorian (), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its Variety (linguistics), varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. Doric was spoken in a vast area, including northern Greec ...
dialect
A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
.
The law of general average constitutes the fundamental
principle
A principle may relate to a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of beliefs or behavior or a chain of reasoning. They provide a guide for behavior or evaluation. A principle can make values explicit, so t ...
that underlies all
insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...
.
References
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{{Ancient Greece topics
States and territories established in the 12th century BC
States and territories disestablished in the 6th century BC
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey
Historical regions of Anatolia
Caria
Ancient Greek geography
Ancient Greeks in Caria
Greek Anatolia
Greek city-state federations