Magna Graecia

Magna Graecia was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; these regions were extensively populated by Greek settlers. These settlers, who began arriving in the 8th century BC, brought with them their Hellenic civilization, which left a lasting imprint on Italy (such as in the culture of ancient Rome). They also influenced the native peoples, such as the Sicels and the Oenotrians, who became hellenized after they adopted the Greek culture as their own. The Greek colonists of Magna Graecia elaborated a civilization of the highest level, which had peculiar characteristics, due to the distance from the motherland and the influence of the indigenous peoples of southern Italy. The type of government was in the form of city-states (poleis) administered by the aristocracy. The Second Punic War put the end to the independence of the cities of Magna Graecia, which were annexed to the Roman Republic in 205 BC. The Greek expression , later translated into Latin as Magna Graecia, first appears in Polybius' Histories, (written around 150 BC) where he ascribed the term to Pythagoras and his philosophical school. Strabo also used the term to refer to the size of the territory that had been conquered by the Greeks, and the Roman poet Ovid used the term in his poem Fasti. Some of these Greek colonies in Italy still stand today such as Neapolis ("New City", now Naples), Syrakousai (Syracuse), Akragas (Agrigento), Taras (Taranto), Rhegion (Reggio Calabria), or Kroton (Crotone). The most populous city of Magna Graecia was Sybaris (now Sibari), with an estimated population, from 600 BC to 510 BC, between 300,000 and 500,000 inhabitants. The cities of Magna Graecia were often at war with each other. Magna Graecia, in some fields such as architecture and urban planning, sometimes surpassed the mother country and the other Greek colonies. The names of the inhabitants of Magna Graecia are Italiotes and Siceliotes.

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