Every city of Southeastern Europe north of Greece that became Greek between the first colonies and the Ottoman conquest, every bilingual city where Greek was spoken beside Illyrian, Thracian, Latin, Albanian, Slavic or Turkish, and the later Greek towns of the Ottoman centuries, among them towns whose Greeks spoke Aromanian, Albanian or Slavic at home: when Greek came, how, and when its last Greek community was gone. And the Greek communities that lived on after the conquest, in their own towns and in other people’s, down to today.
The area: Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova, with Eastern Thrace, Imbros and Constantinople. The 40 cities of Eastern Thrace come from Greek Cities in Turkey, and the 19 of the western Black Sea coast from Greek Cities of the Black Sea. One standard throughout: a Greek community counts whatever its home language, as in those sets, and every city is placed on one ladder of evidence. Where the evidence is thin, a city is included and drawn hollow, and the doubt is stated in its record. Kosovo is shown as a country (it declared independence from Serbia in 2008; recognised by about half of UN members).
Pick a period to see the cities that became Greek or bilingual in it, in colour; the cities that were Greek before it, or again later in it, are grey, and a dark ring marks a city whose Greek community was gone by the end of the period. Or drag the year slider, or press Play, to see which cities had a Greek community in any year from 700 BC to today. Hollow dots are doubtful, and dashed rings can be placed only within their region. Small grey rings are Greek cities of the neighbouring sets (Greece, Italy, Turkey, the Black Sea) outside this area; grey squares are Greek communities in towns of other languages (see After the conquest). Use the zoom buttons for the crowded areas. Hover or tap a dot for its name; select it for the full record and, for some cities, their stories.
The quarrel at Epidamnus, Octavian at Apollonia, Issa’s appeal to Rome, Pyrrhus’ Antigonea, Philip’s Philippopolis, a Thracian king’s Greek oath, the battle of Adrianople, Melnik’s last Greeks, the evacuation of Eastern Thrace: things that happened in these cities, from the ancient texts, the chronicles and the archives.
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Select a row for the full record. ? after a name: doubtful as a Greek city or as a site. † a Greek city with a bilingual period. ° many of its Greeks spoke another language at home (Aromanian, Albanian or Slavic). + a Greek community there again later, after a gap (the record gives the phases). Grey names under Today are villages. Dates of fading are approximate.
The eleven images: the overview, one map per period, the rise and fade, the Greek communities after the conquest, today’s Southeastern Europe, and the list.
A town, not a trading post, fort or sanctuary, whose residents spoke Greek, or whose Greek community was the town’s majority or about a quarter. Up to the Ottoman conquest of each area (1354 at Gallipoli to 1501 at Durrës; 1500 where the Ottomans never ruled): a polis in the Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis; a town that an early author calls Greek or Macedonian, or a city of a Greek-speaking province in Hierocles’ list (the 520s); a town with Greek civic coins, inscriptions or institutions; or a see whose Christians spoke Greek. After the conquest, a later town counts if its Greek community was the majority or about a quarter or more beside one other. Greek used only by officials, soldiers, traders, a court or a school does not count, and Roman cities whose inscriptions are overwhelmingly Latin are Latin cities.
When the place became Greek: its foundation for a Greek foundation, by the ancient date where there is one (many are Eusebius’ and doubted) and by the archaeology otherwise; for a native town or a see, the first evidence of Greek-speaking residents; for a later town, the year it became a Greek or bilingual town. Where a town is known only from texts, the date is an estimate from its context, and the record says so.
A bilingual city had Greek speakers, but another main language lived on beside Greek: Illyrian at Byllis, Amantia, Dimale, Olympe, Lissus, Skodra, Rhizon and Daorson; Thracian at Kabyle and Seuthopolis; Latin at Stobi, Nicopolis ad Istrum, Marcianopolis, Serdica and Deultum; and in the later towns a Greek community of about a quarter or more lived beside a community of Slavic, Albanian, Aromanian or Turkish speech, and many or most of these Greeks spoke that language at home themselves (marked ° and described in each record). A bilingual city has its own colour, and its dates are when Greek was spoken there. A Greek city that had a second main language for a time is marked †.
The town on the site is the one whose built-up area covers the ancient city; ruins outside a town count as ruins. A national or regional seat counts if it stands within 3 km of the city. Populations are the latest censuses (2021–2024; Bosnia and Herzegovina 2013), official estimates and TÜİK (2024).
Six research batches by region (the Adriatic; Albania; North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia; inland Bulgaria; Romania and Moldova; Eastern Thrace, reusing and checking the 40 records of the Turkey set), with the 19 records of the Black Sea set for the coast, and one on the later Greeks; then three checks: the ends, the close calls, and coverage. A second round applied the editor’s standard: Greek communities count whatever their home language, as in the Turkey and Black Sea sets; one ladder of evidence for every city; and it added the towns of the Greek church and school in Albania and Macedonia, the coin towns of Illyria and the cities of Hierocles’ list. A last fact-check went through the cards, the stories and the history of the later Greeks. The identifiers follow the Pleiades gazetteer. Every record keeps its sources and notes, and statements that could not be checked again are marked “unchecked”.
The full table with every field, sources and notes, as a CSV table, as JSON, or as a spreadsheet with the places left out, the Greek villages and other presence points, the year-by-year series, the seats on the sites, the stories, and the later Greeks (timeline, communities, census figures, events).
Sources: M. H. Hansen and T. H. Nielsen, An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis (2004); Thucydides; Pseudo-Scylax; Strabo, book 7; Polybius; Livy; Hierocles, Synekdemos; F. Papazoglou, Les villes de Macédoine à l’époque romaine (1988); P. Cabanes and others, Corpus des inscriptions grecques d’Illyrie méridionale et d’Épire; G. Mihailov, Inscriptiones Graecae in Bulgaria repertae; B. Gerov (1980) on the Latin–Greek language line; A. Külzer (2008) on Eastern Thrace; Hilmi Pasha’s count (1904), D. M. Brancoff (1905) and V. Kanchov (1900) on Macedonia; M. Peyfuss (1989) on Moscopole; T. Dragostinova (2011) on the Greeks of Bulgaria; the Bulgarian, Romanian, Albanian, Yugoslav and Ottoman censuses; the Pleiades gazetteer. Map: Natural Earth; today’s borders dashed.
These calls rest on thin or conflicting evidence. The map, the chart and the list follow the reading shown here; the alternative is given so that readers can weigh it themselves.