Magna Graecia
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Magna Graecia: [Lat. =Great Greece], Greek colonies of S Italy. The Greek overseas expansion of the 8th cent. B.C. led to the foundation of several towns and cities that became the centers of a new, thriving Greek culture on Italian soil. These Greek colonies were established mostly on both coasts of the southern Italian peninsula from the Bay of Naples and the Gulf of Taranto southward. Unlike Greek Sicily, the power and wealth of Magna Graecia began to decline by 500 B.C., due in large part to the wide-spread presence of malaria in the region as well as to endless warfare among the colonies. Only Tarentum (now Taranto) and Cumae managed to remain relatively secure for any extended period. Despite the political and social difficulties that existed in Magna Graecia, two important philosophical schools developed there during the 6th cent. B.C.; that of Parmenides at Elea and that of Pythagoras at Kroton. The Greeks of Magna Graecia, especially those at Cumae in Campania, served as conduits through which Greek civilization spread to the Etruscans of Capua and the Romans. The following are the chief cities of Magna Graecia (those colonized from Greece, except Thurii and Elea, go back to the 8th or early 7th cent. B.C.; those colonized locally are perhaps a century younger): on the east coast from north to south, Taras (Tarentum) (colonized from Sparta), Metapontum (from Achaea), Heraclea (from Tarentum), Siris (from Colophon), Sybaris (from Achaea), Thurii (from Athens, replacing Sybaris), Kroton (Croton, Crotona) (from Achaea), Caulonia (from Croton), Epizephyrian Locris (from Locris); on the west coast from north to south, Kyme (Cumae) (from Chalcis), Neapolis (mod. Naples; from Cumae), Poseidonia (Paestum) (from Sybaris), Elea (Velia) (from Phocaea in Ionia), Laos (from Sybaris), Hipponium (from Epizephyrian Locris), and Rhegium (now Reggio de Calabria; from Chalcis).