Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day

Italian regions The regions of Italy ( it, regioni d'Italia) are the first-level administrative divisions of the Italian Republic, constituting its second NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, five of which have higher autonomy than the rest. ...

of Calabria,

Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...

Basilicata it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

and

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

; 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 In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...

). They also influenced the native peoples, such as the

Sicels The Sicels (; la, Siculi; grc, Σικελοί ''Sikeloi'') were an Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age. Their neighbours to the west were the Sicani. The Sicels gave Sicily the name it has held since antiquity, b ...

and the

Oenotrians The Oenotrians (Οἴνωτρες, meaning "tribe led by Oenotrus" or "people from the land of vines - Οἰνωτρία") were an ancient Italic people who inhabited a territory in Southern Italy from Paestum to southern Calabria. By the sixth ...

, who became

hellenized Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in th ...

after they adopted the Greek culture as their own. The Greek expression ''Megálē Hellás'', later translated into Latin as ''Magna Graecia,'' first appears in

Polybius Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...

' ''

Histories Histories or, in Latin, Historiae may refer to: * the plural of history * ''Histories'' (Herodotus), by Herodotus * ''The Histories'', by Timaeus * ''The Histories'' (Polybius), by Polybius * ''Histories'' by Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), ...

,'' where he ascribed the term to

Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His poli ...

and his philosophical school.

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...

also used the term to refer to the size of the territory that had been conquered by the Greeks, and the Roman poet

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...

used the term in his poem '' Fasti''.

Antiquity

According to

's '' Geographica'', the colonization of Magna Graecia had already begun by the time of the

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans ( Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ...

and lasted for several centuries. In the 8th and 7th century BC, due to demographic crises (famine, overcrowding, etc.), ''

stasis Stasis (from Greek στάσις "a standing still") may refer to: * A state in stability theory, in which all forces are equal and opposing, therefore they cancel out each other * Stasis (political history), a period of civil war within an ancient ...

'', a developing need for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland after wars, Greeks began to settle in southern Italy. Colonies began to be established all over the Mediterranean and Black Seas (with the exception of Northwestern Africa, in the sphere of influence of Carthage), including in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called this area ''Magna Graecia'' (Latin for "Greater Greece") since it was so densely inhabited by the

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, ot ...

. Ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely

and Calabria,

and

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

being the most prominent advocates of the wider definitions. With colonization,

Greek culture The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Minoan and later in Mycenaean Greece, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, while influencing the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. Other cul ...

was exported to Italy in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites and its traditions of the independent ''

polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...

''. An original Hellenic civilization soon developed and later interacted with the native Italic civilisations. The most important cultural transplant was the Chalcidean/ Cumaean variety of the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...

, which was adopted by the

Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roug ...

; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

, which became the most widely used alphabet in the world. Some of these Hellenic colonies still stand today such as Neapolis ("New City", now

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

), Syracuse, Akragas (Agrigento), Taras (

Taranto Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label=Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important comme ...

Rhegion Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label=Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated popula ...

(Reggio Calabria), or Kroton (Crotone). The first Greek city to be absorbed into the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...

was Neapolis in 327 BC. The other Greek cities in Italy followed during the

Samnite Wars The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343–341 BC, 326–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe ...

and the

Pyrrhic War The Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC) was largely fought between the Roman Republic and Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus, who had been asked by the people of the Greek city of Tarentum in southern Italy to help them in their war against the Romans. A sk ...

; Taras was the last to fall in 272. Sicily was conquered by Rome during the

First Punic War The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Roman Republic, Rome and Ancient Carthage, Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years ...

. Only Syracuse remained independent until 212 because its king

Hiero II Hiero II ( el, Ἱέρων Β΄; c. 308 BC – 215 BC) was the Greek tyrant of Syracuse from 275 to 215 BC, and the illegitimate son of a Syracusan noble, Hierocles, who claimed descent from Gelon. He was a former general of Pyrrhus of Epirus an ...

was a devoted ally of the Romans. His grandson Hieronymus however made an alliance with

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...

, which prompted the Romans to besiege the city, which fell in 212 despite the machines of Archimedes, described by Proclus in his commentary on Euclid's Elements. Archimedes constructed weapons powered by compressed air, weights and counterweights, according to Ctesibius and Hero. File:Paestum BW 2013-05-17 15-01-57.jpg, Greek temples of Paestum,

File:Reggio calabria museo nazionale mosaico da kaulon.jpg, Mosaic from

Caulonia Caulonia is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about southwest of Catanzaro and about northeast of Reggio Calabria in the Stilaro Valley. Originally it was known as Castelvete ...

, Calabria File:Tavole-palatine - Hera temple.jpg, Temple of

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; grc-gre, Ἥρα, Hḗrā; grc, Ἥρη, Hḗrē, label=none in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she ...

in Metaponto,

File:Agrigento-Tempio della Concordia01.JPG, The Temple of Concordia, Akragas,

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

File:Suvée, Joseph-Benoit - Milo of Croton.jpg, Milo of Croton File:ആർക്കിമിഡീസ്‌.jpg,

Archimedes of Syracuse Archimedes of Syracuse (;; ) was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse in Sicily. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists ...

File:Archytas of Taras.jpg,

Archytas of Tarentum Archytas (; el, Ἀρχύτας; 435/410–360/350 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, music theorist, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. He was a scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed f ...

File:Tarentum.jpg, 5th century BC Greek coins of Tarentum File:2547 - Milano - Museo archeologico - Piatto apulo - Foto di Giovanni Dall'Orto - 1 feb 2014.jpg, The goddess Nike riding on a two-horse chariot,

n patera (tray), 4th century BC. File:Head-Kantharos of a Female Faun or Io (?) LACMA 50.8.25.jpg, Head- Kantharos of a Female Faun or Io,

red-figure pottery Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 520 BCE and remained in use until the late 3rd century BCE. It replaced the previously dominant style of black-figure va ...

, South Italy, 375-350 BC

List of Hellenic ''Poleis'' in Italy

This is a list of the 22 ''poleis'' (city states) in Italy, according to Mogens Herman Hansen. It does not list all the Hellenic settlements, only those organised around a ''polis'' structure.

List of Hellenic ''Poleis'' in Sicily

This is a list of the 46 ''poleis'' (city states) in Sicily, according to Mogens Herman Hansen. It does not list all the Hellenic settlements, only those organised around a ''polis'' structure.

Middle Ages

During the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

, following the disastrous Gothic War, new waves of Byzantine Christian Greeks may have come to Southern Italy from

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

and

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, as Southern Italy remained loosely governed by the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...

. Although possible, the archaeological evidence shows no trace of new arrivals of Greek peoples, only a division between barbarian newcomers, and Greco-Roman locals. The iconoclast emperor Leo III appropriated lands that had been granted to the Papacy in southern Italy and the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire continued to govern the area in the form of the Catapanate of Italy (965 -1071) through the Middle Ages, well after northern Italy fell to the Lombards. At the time of the

Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...

' late medieval conquest of southern Italy and Sicily (in the late 12th century), the Salento peninsula (the "heel" of Italy), up to one-third of Sicily (concentrated in the

Val Demone Val Demone or Val di Demona (English: 'Valley of Demona') is a historical and geographical region encompassing the north-eastern third of Sicily. Historically, it was one of the three valli of Sicily. Val Demone was the last part of the island to ...

), and much of Calabria and Lucania were still largely Greek-speaking. Some regions of southern Italy experienced demographic shifts as Greeks began to migrate northwards in significant numbers from regions further south; one such region was

Cilento Cilento is an Italian geographical region of Campania in the central and southern part of the Province of Salerno and an important tourist area of southern Italy. Cilento is known as one of the centers of Mediterranean diet. Geography The ...

, which came to have a Greek-speaking majority. At this time the language had evolved into medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, and its speakers were known as

Byzantine Greeks The Byzantine Greeks were the Greek-speaking Eastern Romans of Orthodox Christianity throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. They were the main inhabitants of the lands of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), of Constantinople ...

. The resultant fusion of local Byzantine Greek culture with Norman and Arab culture (from the Arab occupation of Sicily) gave rise to Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture on Sicily. A remnant of this influence can be found in the survival of the Greek language in some villages of the above mentioned Salento peninsula (the "heel" of Italy). This living dialect of Greek, known locally as Griko, is found in the Italian regions of Calabria and

. ''Griko'' is considered by linguists to be a descendant of Byzantine Greek, which had been the majority language of Salento through the Middle Ages, combining also some ancient

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

and local romance elements. There is a rich

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and Culture, cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Traditio ...

and Griko

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...

, limited now but once numerous, to around 30,000 people, most of them having abandoned their language in favour of Italian. Some scholars, such as

Gerhard Rohlfs Gerhard Rohlfs (July 14, 1892 – September 12, 1986) was a German linguist. He taught Romance languages and literature at the universities of Tübingen and Munich. He was described as an "archeologist of words". Biography Rohlfs was born ...

, argue that the origins of Griko may ultimately be traced to the colonies of Magna Graecia.

Modern Italy

Although many of the Greek inhabitants of Southern Italy were entirely Latinized during the Middle Ages, pockets of Greek culture and language remained and survived into modernity partly because of continuous immigration to southern Italy from the Greek mainland. One example is the Griko people in Calabria and Salento, some of whom still maintain their Greek language and customs. Their working practices have been passed down through generations through storytelling and allowing the observation of work. The Italian parliament recognizes the Griko people as an ethnolinguistic minority under the official name of ''Minoranze linguistiche Grike dell'Etnia Griko-Calabrese e Salentina''. Greek nobles started taking refuge in Italy following the

Fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city fell on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun o ...

in 1453. Greeks immigrated once again to the region in the 16th and 17th centuries in reaction to the conquest of the Peloponnese by the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

. Especially after the end of the

Siege of Coron The siege of Coron in 1532–1534 involved the siege and capture of the Ottoman-held fortress of Koroni (Coron) in Messenia, Greece, by the forces of the Habsburg Empire, and its subsequent recapture by the Ottomans. Coron had been a posse ...

(1534), large numbers of Greeks took refuge in the areas of Calabria, Salento and Sicily. Greeks from Coroni, the so-called Coronians, were nobles, who brought with them substantial movable property. Other Greeks who moved to Italy came from the Mani Peninsula of the Peloponnese. The Maniots (their name originating from the Greek word ''mania'') were known for their proud military traditions and for their bloody vendettas, many of which still continue today. Another group of Maniot Greeks moved to

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

in the 17th century under the protection of the

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the La ...

References

Sources

* Polyxeni Adam-Veleni and Dimitra Tsangari (editors), ''Greek colonisation: New data, current approaches; Proceedings of the scientific meeting held in Thessaloniki (6 February 2015),'' Athens, Alpha Bank, 2015. *Michael J. Bennett, Aaron J. Paul, Mario Iozzo, & Bruce M. White, ''Magna Graecia: Greek Art From South Italy and Sicily,'' Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2002. * John Boardman, N. G. L. Hammond (editors), ''The'' ''Cambridge Ancient History, vol. III, part 3, The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries B.C.'', Cambridge University Press, 1982. *Giovanni Casadio & Patricia A. Johnston, ''Mystic Cults In Magna Graecia,'' Austin, University of Texas Press, 2009. *Lucia Cerchiai, Lorenna Jannelli, & Fausto Longo (editors), ''The Greek cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily,'' Photography by Mark E. Smith, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004. *Giovanna Ceserani, ''Italy's Lost Greece: Magna Graecia and the Making of Modern Archaeology,'' New York, Oxford University Press, 2012. *T. J. Dunbabin, ''The Western Greeks'', 1948. *M. Gualtieri, ''Fourth Century B.C. Magna Graecia: A Case Study,'' Jonsered, Sweden, P. Åströms, 1993. * Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen, ''An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis'', Oxford University Press, 2004. * R. Ross Holloway, ''Art and Coinage In Magna Graecia,'' Bellinzona, Edizioni arte e moneta, 1978. *Margaret Ellen Mayo, ''The Art of South Italy: Vases From Magna Graecia,'' Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1982. *Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli, ''The Greek World: Art and Civilization In Magna Graecia and Sicily,'' New York: Rizzoli, 1996. *———— (editor), ''The Western Greeks: Catalog of an exhibition held in the Palazzo Grassi, Venice, March–Dec., 1996,'' Milan, Bompiani, 1976. * William Smith
"Magna Graecia."
In ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'', 1854. *A. G. Woodhead, ''The Greeks in the West'', 1962. *

Günther Zuntz Günther Zuntz (28 January 1902 – 3 April 1992), German-English classical philologist, professor of Hellenistic Greek and Bible scholar. He obtained a D.Phil. from the University of Marburg in 1928 and was later a professor at the University of M ...

, ''Persephone: Three Essays On Religion and Thought In Magna Graecia,'' Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971.

External links

*
Map
'' Ancient Coins. * David Willey.
Italy rediscovers Greek heritage
'' BBC News. 21 June 2005, 17:19 GMT 18:19 UK. *
Gaze On The Sea
'' Salentine Peninsula, Greece and Greater Greece. (in Italian, Greek and English) *
Oriamu pisulina
'' Traditional Griko song performed by Ghetonia. *
Kalinifta
'' Traditional Griko song performed by amateur local group. *
Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Southern Italy
'' Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). June 11, 2015. (Dates: Monday, May 30, 2016 to Thursday, June 2, 2016.) * Sergio Tofanelli et al.

'' European Journal of Human Genetics, (15 July 2015). {{Authority control Ancient Italian history Historical regions