jackass

The origin of the early Cretan population remains a mystery, as the Pelasgian / Illyrian (Eastern Mediterranean) type, also at home in Cyprus, bore no racial resemblance to the Egyptians and other North-African peoples, nor to the peoples and tribes in the Near and Middle East (Semitic). The island of Crete was most likely settled in the 6th millennium BC, and it soon was densely populated. Cretans soon travelled north to mainland Greece, Asia Minor and elsewhere to establish settlements and trading posts there.

From The History, c. 430 B.C., I.56-59

Herodotus on the Pelasgians and the Early Greeks
[Herodotus, The History of Herodotus, George Rawlinson, tr., vol. 1 (New York: D. ******on and Company, 1885), Book 1; and vol. 2 , book 3].

56. .......and sought to ascertain by inquiry which was the most powerful of the Grecian states. His inquiries pointed out to him two states as pre-eminent above the rest. These were the Lacedaemonians (the Spartans) and the Athenians, the former of Doric the latter of Ionic blood. And indeed these two nations had held from very early times the most distinguished place in Greece, the one being a Pelasgic the other a Hellenic people, and the one having never quitted its original seats, while the other had been excessively migratory; for during the reign of Deucalion, Phthiotis was the country in which the Hellenes dwelt, but under Dorus, the son of Hellen, they moved to the tract at the base of Ossa and Olympus, which is called Histiaeotis; forced to retire from that region by the Cadmeians,[1] they settled, under the name of Macedni, in the chain of Pindus. Hence they once more removed and came to Dryopis; and from Dryopis having entered the Peloponnese in this way, they became known as Dorians.

57. What the language of the Pelasgi was I cannot say with any certainty. If, however, we may form a conjecture from the tongue spoken by the Pelasgi of the present day, - those, for instance, who live at Creston above the Tyrrhenians, who formerly dwelt in the district named Thessaliotis, and were neighbours of the people now called the Dorians, - or those again who founded Placia and Scylace upon the Hellespont, who had previously dwelt for some time with the Athenians, - or those, in short, of any other of the cities which have dropped the name but are in fact Pelasgian; if, I say, we are to form a conjecture from any of these, we must pronounce that the Pelasgi spoke a barbarous language. If this were really so, and the entire Pelasgic race spoke the same tongue, the Athenians, who were certainly Pelasgi, must have changed their language at the same time that they passed into the Hellenic body; for it is a certain fact that the people of Creston speak a language unlike any of their neighbours, and the same is true of the Placianians, while the language spoken by these two people is the same; which shows that they both retain the idiom which they brought with them into the countries where they are now settled.

58. The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech. This at least seems evident to me. It was a branch of the Pelasgic, which separated from the main body and at first, was scanty in numbers and of little power; but it gradually spread and increased to a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as I think, a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied.

Addition from another later historian
1. The Cadmeians were the Graeco-Phoenician race (their name merely signifying "the Easterns"), who in the ante-Trojan times, occupied the country which was afterwards called Boeotia. Hence the Greek tragedians, in plays of which ancient Thebes is the scene, invariably speak of the Thebans.

This text, if read carefully to the end you will understand that ancient Greece was inhabited by two native nations, the Pelasgi and the Hellen. These may have very early commonalities but Hellenic may have been mixed with Cadmian or other nations during their migrations. It also happens that the Phoenician alphabet is strangely similar to Greek compared to other alphabets of the time, which supports the idea that Helens in Athens were mixed or quite possibly assimilated by those Greaco-phoenicians called Cadmians or easteners. So even though it is true that Greece is a very old nation, the Greek language that we know did not necessarily belong to the natives, but Albanian has not had such Asian influence and is likely to be an even truer descendant of the Pelasgi.

Anyway, we know that Macedonians and the Spartans were Dorians or Pellasgians, not Hellena, and definitely not Cadmians, so they do not belong to the Greek history. Herodotus makes it clear that Pelasgians spoke a different language altogether and not just a different dialect; he logically defends this very argument.
Therefore we know that Spartans and Macedonians were probably Illyrian

I know my explanation and the text by Herodotus can be confusing at first glance, so I will try to bring a sequential description of what he mentions to explain how I came to the conclusions above.

First of all I will tell you why I have researched this topic. A few years back, a very close friend of mine who is half Albanian - half Greek, suggested that Greeks had originated from the Phoenicians (Fenikasit ne shqip) His grandfather being such a Greek nationalistic that he would teach my friend the old Greek as well as the new, something very few Greeks do, my friend knew a lot about these things despite being only 14 at the time and obviously I was annoyed by his Greek "research reports" when there was nothing better to talk about. You can understand why i ignored his theories at the time.

A few years later, in a Canadian library I read an article in an encyclopaedia about different ancient writing letters or alphabets, and what I observed and what the encyclopaedia said was that, of all the alphabets, the Phoenician alphabet was very similar to the Hellenic (and older than the Hellenic) therefore it was possible that the Hellenic alphabet and language were heavily influenced by the Phoenician language. Remembering what I had been told before, I gained curiosity. I believe it was from the same encyclopaedia that I found out the Phoenicians were a nation also responsible for the "Carthaginian Empire" but I am not absolutely certain about this as i don't remember the source. (Kartagjena qe luftoi 3 luftra kunder Romes). Very much like the Greeks they were a trading nation where ship trade was a great source of revenue. Consider that Greeks were also spread around the Mediterranean and especially in Southern minor Asia and the Aegean, given the similarities in language alphabet, and economy, tradition, way of life, and demographic spread patterns, isn't it at least plausible that they were one nation at least in origin. Herodotus mentions the cadmians who were Phoenicians, also called easteners, as a political force in mainland Greece strong enough to repel the small migratory tribe of the Helens.

If Helens were a Pelasgi tribe, how is it possible that a small tribe could assimilate the majority around them, whereas the Cadmians who’s most important city of Thebes, not far from Athens, is no longer mentioned. If Helens were a Pelasgi tribe that moved around a lot in the midst of other Pelasgian tribes they had no reason to change their language in a separate branch if they were still in contact with just other Pelasgian tribes. There must have been another influence, backed by all that I mentioned above, that influence must have been the Cadmians, a large Phoenician tribe with the trade networks to allow for strong growth and powerful enough to repel the Helens, influences of which are found in the language and alphabet of Greece today. Unfortunately other Phoenicians have not survived to allow for a better language comparison.

Herodotus states that he believes that Helens may have multiplied greatly. This last extension about the Helens multiplying and not changing their language is only his belief and almost 800 years have passed since the Trojan War when Helens migrated. Here I think that Herodotus is using his better judgement to not create controversy among fellow Greeks whom would be outraged had he suggested that the Greeks living in Greece at the time were foreign in origin. Herodotus was Greek after all. And besides, we are lucky about this. If he had said Greeks were foreigners, chances are his book would not have survived as it would have not been kept in any Greek library. Maybe there were other historians who wrote about this possibility but their books may have been lost. We know that Constantine was an Albanian with complete certainty. He believed to be a descendant of Achilles and Alexander the Great. Was he tapping into some other historical sources we today do not have.

What we know about the Phoenicians and Greeks is that during prospering trade their revenue was not limited by agriculture only, so this allowed population growth as is mentioned about Greece as well as carthage by many historians who considered Greek places as very densely populated. In fact Greece was so densely populated that it colonized Egypt with the city of Alexandria reaching half a million people and dozens of cities in Sicily. Carthage was also known to get "abnormal" population growth were Romans were alarmed at how quickly Carthage had recovered and also become a metropolis of half a million in a short period due to prospering trade. Isn't it possible that such growth by Cadmians could make them dominant in the small land of Greece, quickly overshadowing the Helens, than slowly assimilating the rest of the Pelasgians. (At this time these two nations (Greek vs. Carthage) had grown fairly distinct and were not confused by Romans, especially since Carthage, a colony in Africa was overflowed with Lybians.) (Libia e sotme).

My belief is that the Phoenicians were present in many parts of Greece since 4000 years ago, and, as a trading nation they slowly crept up in coastal trading Greek cities slowly gaining dominance over large regions and swallowing the Helens and later after settling with the Helens in Sparta they also outnumbered Spartans and eventually assimilated them also.

Could this population pressure from these foreigners cause the Spartans to resort to a military society???

After the "new Greeks" settled in Sparta and coastal cities of Macedonia, they obviously took on the name Dorian accordingly, ... and I am thankful that Herodotus points this out so that the misunderstanding of greekologists today is plainly clarified: One name, two different nations in different time frames. The same must have been true of Helens and Cadmians, as was later true of macedonians living near the Aegean coast.

In addition, given that Pelasgians still lived as a minority is all parts of Greece, we know that Phillip, a barbarian, a Pelasgian, a Dorian, who did not speak Greek, claimed Greek origin as well as the right to own the land now controlled by these new Greeks. Alexander who kept the Iliad like a bible, lashed out at Cadmians when they tried to rebel (Thebes being a purely Cadmian city, while Athens still was recognized to have a Pelasgian identity at least in origins, according to Herodotus) by killing all people inside Thebes to reassure them he had no intention of tolerating them if they did not recognize him as the rightful owner of Greece. In fact it was this very nationalistic propaganda that made Greeks weary of Phillip, and later, hateful of Alexander, even though today’s' Greek historians will try to hide this fact as much as they can despite numerous quotes proving it.

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