Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Magna Graecia
Following the earlier lead of the Elymians, the Chalcidians landed on Sicily's Ionian Coast
in 735 BC and founded a small settlement at Naxos. They were followed a year later by the
Corinthians, who built their colony on the southeastern island of Ortygia, calling it Syra-
coussai (Syracuse). The Chalcidians went further south from their own fort and founded a
second town called Katane (Catania) in 729 BC, and the two carried on stitching towns and
settlements together until three-quarters of the island was in Hellenic hands.
On the mainland, the Greeks' major city was Taras, which dominated the growing region
now known as Magna Graecia (Greater Greece). They exploited the opportunities offered
by its harbour, trading with Greece, the Near East and the rich colonies in Sicily to build up
a substantial network of commerce. Their lucrative business in luxury goods soon made
them rich and powerful and by the 4th century BC, the population had swelled to 300,000
and city life was cultured and civilised.
Although only a few monuments survive, among them the ambitious temples of Paestum
in Campania and Selinunte in Sicily, the Greek era was a true golden age for the south. Art,
sculpture, poetry, drama, philosophy, mathematics and science were all part of the cultural
life of Magna Graecia's cities. Exiled from Crotone (Calabria), Pythagoras spent years in
Metapontum and Taras; Empedocles, Zeno and Stesichorus were all home-grown talents.
But despite their shared Greekness, these city-states' deeply ingrained rivalries and paro-
chial politics undermined their civic achievements, ultimately leading to damaging con-
flicts like the Peloponnesian War (431-399 BC), fought by the Athenians against the Pelo-
ponnesian League (led by Sparta). Although Syracuse fought successfully against the at-
tacking Athenian forces, the rest of Sicily was in a constant state of civil war. In 409 BC
this provided the perfect opportunity for the powerful city-state of Carthage (in modern-day
Tunisia) to seek revenge for its humiliation in 480 BC, when Carthaginian mercenaries,
commanded by Hamilcar, were defeated by the crafty Greek tyrant Gelon. Led by Hamil-
car's bitter but brilliant nephew Hannibal, the Carthaginians wreaked havoc in the Sicilian
countryside, completely destroying Selinunte, Himera, Agrigento and Gela. The Syracus-
ans were eventually forced to surrender everything except the city of Syracuse itself to
Carthage.
During the 4th century, the mainland Greek colonies came under increasing pressure
from other powers with expansionist ambitions. The Etruscans began to move south to-
wards the major port of Cumae in Campania and then the Samnites and Sabines started to
capture the highlands of the Appenines in Basilicata. Unable to unite and beat off the grow-
