Macedonia and Greece
The North Sea peoples invaded Macedonia and Greece after the terrible volcano eruption in Thera.
The population of Greece was greatly reduced. Because of this, there was little resistance to the invaders, except for some groups of Achaeans who had fortified their defenses.
The kings of Greece and Crete had received warnings that the Vikings were coming from the north. They had enough time to prepare for their impending attack. The fortified enclosures were hastily built. A wall was built around the Acropolis and a tunnel leading to the spring on the north side.
In Mycenae and Tirio, the walls were built with uncut rocks. Hidden accesses to the wells were built. In Corinth a strong wall was built.
Some Achaean chiefs expected to fight at sea. The remains of their castles are proof that they lost.
The king of Pylos sent his army to Pleuron on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth. Their ships were manned by 400 rowers and warriors. They provided a coastal observation corps. They knew that the Vikings would land by sea.
Quick charioteers were installed between the army that was guarding and the Palace of Pylos. The king of Pylos could not defend the entire coast or prevent a landing at all points. But he had a good early warning system. But this coastal defense system could not prevent the Peoples of the North Sea from landing on the coast of the Peloponnese.
Hyllus, leader of the North Sea Warriors, made the following proposal to the Greek king: “… There was no need for the two armies to risk their lives in an all-out fight. He suggested that the Pelopenessians choose a champion to fight against. in a single combat. He took his oath (sacred to the Vikings) that if he lost, he would withdraw his army and not attack the Peloponnese again for a hundred years … “
In this duel, Echemus, King of the Greeks, killed Hyllus. The Vikings kept their oath and went ahead without invading. They returned a hundred years later and occupied the Peloponnese.
Then the land was divided between Hyllus’s three great-grandchildren. Temenus, the eldest, received Argus. Cresphontes took Messene. Aristodemus took Sparta.
Aristodemus, according to Herodotus, was the ancestor of the Spartan king. Leonidas, who fell at the head of his 300 Spartans in Thermopile.
The Vikings entered the peninsula shortly before 1200 BC. The palaces and settlements of the Peloponnese were destroyed by earthquakes and fires and not by invading warriors from the north.
Between natural catastrophes and invasions from the North, the Mycenaean culture ended; circa 1150 and 1100 BC
The king of Crete sent his fleet to stop the Vikings at sea. He also had 400 chariots ready for battle, in case they landed. Armor and weapons of all kinds were prepared. More than 20,000 sheep and 500 pigs were gathered to feed the troops.
But before the Vikings reached Crete, the terrible eruption of Thera took place.
Archaeologists found the weapons and the remains of the North Sea peoples on top of the volcanic ash and lava – neither in it nor under it! They came after the disaster.
The Vikings only encountered resistance when a part of the population that had survived united in a defensible position.
Who knows what history would say if the Vikings tried to conquer Greece and Crete when they were in full force?