Dorians

one of the principal ancient Greek tribes. Originally the Dorians inhabited northern and central Greece. At about the beginning of the 12th century B.C., they migrated to southwestern Greece, where they dealt crushing blows to the weakened centers of Achaean Greece—Mycenae, Tiryns, and Pylos. The Dorians, joined by other tribes, brought under their rule Laconia, Messenia, Cynuria, Argolis, Megara, and Corinth on the isthmus. Later, the Dorians colonized the islands of Rhodes, Crete, Thera, Melos, Cos, Calimnos, and the coast of Caria (the cities of Cnidus, Halicarnassus). As early as the eighth to sixth centuries B.C. states similar in both culture and social organization (Sparta, the city-states of Crete, and Argos) were established on the territory settled by the Dorians. These states were characterized by a slaveholding mode of production and by the preservation of numerous survivals of the clan system.