Doric or
Dorian was a
dialect of
Ancient Greek. Its variants were spoken in the southern and eastern
Peloponnese,
Crete,
Rhodes, some islands in the southern
Aegean Sea, some cities on the coasts of
Asia Minor,
Southern Italy,
Sicily,
Epirus and
Macedon. Together with
Northwest Greek, it forms the "Western group" of classical Greek dialects. By Hellenistic times, under the
Achaean League, the
Achaean Doric Koine appeared exhibiting many peculiarities common to all Doric dialects and which delayed the spread of the
Attic-based
Koine to the Peloponnese until the 2nd century BC.