Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/263

 MAGNA GEAECIA. nies in Italy Even of these, it is not dear wlietlicr Ciimae and its colonies in Campania were regarded as belonging to it : it is certain at least that the name is more generally used with reference only to the Greek cities in the south of Italy, including those on the shores of the Tarentine gulf and the Bruttian peninsula, together with Velia, Posidonia, and Laiis, on the W. coast of Lncania. Sometimes, indeed, the name is confined within still narrower limits, as applying only to the cities on the Tarentine gulf, from Locri to Tarentum (Plin. iii. 10. s. 15 ; Ptol. iii. 1. § 10) ; but it is probable that this dis-. tinction was introduced only by the later geogra- phere, and did not correspond to the original meaning of the tenn. Indeed, the name itself sufficiently implies (what is expressly stated by many ancient writers) that it was derived from the number and importance of the Greek colonies in Southern Italy, and must, therefore, naturally have been extended to them all. (Strab. vi. p. 253 ; Scymn. Ch. 303 ; Pol. ii. 39, iii. 118; Athen. xii. p. 523 ; Justin, XX. 2 ; Cic. Tusc. iv. 1, v. 4, de Or. iii. 34.) It jnust be added that the name was never understood (except perhaps by late geographers) as a territorial one, including the whole of Southern Italy, but ap- plied merely to the Greek cities on the coasts, so as to correspond with the expression " Graecorum omnis ora," employed by Livy (xxii. 61). The same au- thor in one passage (xxxi. 7) uses the phrase " Graecia Major," which is found also in Festus (p. 134, ed. Miill.), and employed by Justin and Ovid (Justin, I.e.; Ov. Fast' : &A) ; but the common form of expression was cei-tainly Graecia JIagna (Cic. II. cc.) There could obviously be no ethnic appellation which coiTCsponded to such a term ; but it is im- portant to obsei-ve that the name of 'IraAiaJTat is universally used by the best writers to designate the Greeks in Italy, or as equivalent to the phrase ol KOTO T^J' 'iTaXiav "EWrjves, and is never con- founded with that of "IraXot, or the Italians in general. (Thuc. vi. 44 ; Herod, iv. 15, &c.) Poly- bins, however, as well as later writers, sometimes loses sight of this distinction. (Pol. vi. 52.) The geographical description of the country known as Magna Graecia is given under the article Italia, and in more detail in those of Bbuttii, Lucania, and Calabkia ; but as the history of these Greek colonies is to a great extent separate from that of the mother country, while it is equally distinct from that of the Italian nations which came early in con- tact with Rome, it will be convenient here to give a brief summary of the histoiy of Magna Graecia, bringing together under one head the leading facts which are given in the articles of the several cities. The general testimony of antiquity points to Cnmae as the most ancient of all the Greek settlements in Italy ; and though we may reasonably refuse to admit the precise date assigned for its foundation (p.. c. 1050), there seems no sufficient reason to doubt the fact that it really preceded all other Greek colonies in Italy or Sicily. [Cumae.] But, from its remote position, it appears to have been in great measure isolated from the later Greek settlements, and, together with its own colonies and dependencies, Dicaearchia and Neapolis, formed a little group of Greek cities, that had but little connection with those further south, which here form the immediate subject of consideration. With the single exception of Cumae, it seems MAGNA GEAECIA. 247 certain that none of the Greek colonies in Italy were more ancient than those in Sicily ; while there seems good reason to suppose that the greater part of them were founded within the half century which followed the first commencement of Greek colonisation in that quarter, (b. c. 735 — 685.) The causes which just at that period gave so sudden an impulse to emigration in this direction, are unknown to us ; but, though the precise dates of the foundation of these colonies are often uncertain, and we have no record of their establishment equal either in com- pleteness or authority to that preserved iiv Thucy- dides concerning the Greek cities in Sicily, we may still trace with tolerable certainty the course and progress of the Greek colonisation of Italy. The Achaeans led the way ; and it is remarkable that a people who never played more than a subor- dinate part in the affairs of Greece itself should have been the founders of the two most powerful cities of Slagna Graecia. Of these, Sybaris was the earliest of the Achaean colonies, and the most ancient of the Greek settlements in Italy of which the date is known with any approach to certainty. Its foun- dation is ascribed to the year 720 B. c. (Scynm. Ch. 360 ; Clinton, F. II. vol. i. p. 174); and that of Crotona, according to the best authorities, may be placed about ten years later, b. c. 710. [Cro- tona.] Within a very few years of the same period, took place the settlem.ent of Takentom, a Spartan colony founded after the close of the First Messenian War, about 708 b. c. A spirit of rivalry between this city and the Achaean colonies seems to have early sprung up; and it was with a view of checking the encroachments of the Tarentines that the Achaeans, at the invitation of the Sybarites, founded the colony of Metapontum, on the immediate frontier of the Tarentine territory. The date of this is very uncertain (though it may probably be placed between 700 and 680 b. c.) ; but it is clear that Metapontum rose rapidly to prosperity, and became the third in itnportance among the Achaean colonies. MTiile the latter were thus extending themselves along the shores of the Tarentine gulf, we find sub- sisting in the midst of them the Ionian colony of SiRis, the history of which is extremely obscure, but which for a brief period rivalled even the neigh- bouring Sybaris in opulence and luxury. [SiRis]. Further towards the S., the Locrians from Greece founded near the Cape Zephyrium the city which was thence known by the name of Locri Epize- PHYRii. This settlement is described by Strabo as nearly contemporary with that of Crotona (b.c.710), though some authorities would bring it down to a period thirty or forty years later. [Locri.] The next important colony was that of Rhegium, on the Sicilian straits, which was, according to the general statement, a C'':ilcidic colony, founded subsequently to Zancle in Sicily, but which, from the traditions connected with its foundation, would seem to have been more ancient even than Sybaris. [Rhegium.] The Greek cities on the Tyrrhenian sea along the shores of Bruttium and Lucania were, with the single exception of Velia, which was not founded till about .540 b. c, all of them colonies from the earlier settlements already noticed and not sent out directly from the mother country. Thus Posi- donia, LaC's and Scidri^s, on the Tyrrhenian sea, were all colonies of Sybaris, which in the days of its greatness undoubtedly extended its dominion from sea to sea. In like manner, Crotona had founded Terina on the W. coast of the Brutlian peninsula, as well R 4