The late 5th century BCE saw the increasing conflict with the indigenous population, particularly the Oscan tribes based in the Apennine Mountains. Heraclea (Tarentum, 433 BCE) seat of the Italiote League from 387 BCE.443 BCE) the place of the historian Herodotus’ retirement. 540 BCE) famous for its Eleatic school of philosophy. Tarentum (Sparta, 706 BCE) blessed with the best harbor on the southern coast, the presence of Tarentine coins and goods across southern Italy is testimony to the city’s prosperity and trade network.710 BCE) where Pythagoras founded a religious community in 530 BCE. ![]() 720 BCE) had a reputation for luxury based on its rich agriculture and was itself the founder of Poseidonia (Paestum). 740 BCE) the earliest Greek colony on the Italian mainland and founder of new cities such as Neapolis, which from 421 BCE became the most important city in Campania. ![]() The poleis were also unstable internally due to their cosmopolitan mix of races - locals, colonists, mercenaries, residents from neighboring areas, etc.Īmongst the most important poleis of Magna Graecia (with founding city and date) were: The region was also subject to greater political instability precisely because it was at the crossroads of several civilizations, and its wealth in natural resources meant that territory was often enviously regarded, particularly by the tyrants of Sicily. However, the region was not a single harmonious entity, for just as on mainland Greece, small city-states or poleis (quite independent from their founding mother-city) both competed and cooperated with neighboring cities to form a constantly shifting political network of rivalries and alliances. Indeed, the amnesty ( ekecheiria) which was enforced during the Olympic Games was also respected in the colonies, and the list of victors at Olympia includes many a name from Magna Graecia. That the colonies became a fully integrated part of the Greek world is evidenced in the presence of votive offerings from Magna Graecia at the great religious sanctuaries of Delphi and Olympia. Greek colonists, following in the footsteps of the Bronze Age Mycenaeans, selected Magna Graecia as a suitable site for colonies due to the fertility of the land and, at the meeting point of the Greek, Etruscan, and Phoenician worlds, its advantageous geographical position for trade. The last colony to be founded was Heraclea in 433 BCE. 740 BCE) to the Spartan colony of Tarentum (founded c. The original region extends from the Euboean colony of Cumae (probably the earliest and founded c. ![]() However, later writers such as Strabo did include Sicily and the term even came to signify the entire Greek world. Sicily, although also a region of Greek colonization, is not usually included in this area. Magna Graecia ( Megalē Hellas) refers to the coastal areas of southern Italy which were colonized by various ancient Greek city-states from the 8th to 5th centuries BCE.
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