AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Magna graecia12/22/2023 These peoples increasingly pushed into the fertile plains and so came eventually to overrun the poleis through mass immigration. The late 5th century BCE saw 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 harbour on the coast of south Italy, the presence of Tarentine coins and goods across southern Italy are testimony to the city's prosperity and trade network.710 BCE) where Pythagoras founded a religious community in 530 BCE. 720 BCE) which 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. Key City-StatesĪmongst the most important poleis of Magna Graecia (with founding city and date) were: These Greek cities were also unstable internally due to their cosmopolitan mix of races - locals, colonists, mercenaries, residents from neighbouring areas etc. 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 neighbouring cities to form a constantly shifting political network of rivalries and alliances. Indeed, the ceasefire ( 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 in southern Italy 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.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |