Greek
and Etruscan Colonization in Italy
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History of Italy)
During the 8C BC the Greeks
arrived in Italy. They came from Euboea, Argolis, Locris, Crete
and the Aegean islands, settling on the southern coasts (from Campania
to Apulia)
and eastern and southern Sicily.
They founded many prosperous colonies whose economy was generally
based on agriculture and commerce. Often they allied together
against common enemies but they were also divided by disagreement
and rivalry. The term `Magna Grecia' describes a population and
civilization rather than a political reality. Among the first to
settle on the Italian coasts were the Achaeans (of Dorian origins)
who founded towns like Taranto,
Metaponto, Posidonia (Paestum), and Sibari. They were followed by
Locrians and then Chalcidians from Euboea who founded Naxos (Taormina),
Zancle (Messina)
and, after the occupation of Pitecusa (Ischia), Cuma in Campania.
The Corinthians founded Siracusa,
still in the 8C BC, and the Megarians Megara Hyblaea on the Gulf
of Augusta. Finally, the Phocaeans founded Elea (Velia) in Campania.
While in Northern Italy, during
the first half of the first millennium BC, there began the
increasing penetration of the Gauls (of Celtic origins)
from beyond the Alps, who would gradually occupy the entire Po
Valley, on the Tyrrhenian slopes of Central Italy the Etruscans
began to take form (circa 8C BC). The latter had an advanced
civilization whose origins are still not clear. Whether they
migrated from the East (as many aspects of their civilization
suggest) by land or sea, or developed on the peninsula itself as
direct heirs of the Villanovans, it is clear that the Etruscans
formed the most important Italic cultural and political ethnic
group before the advent of Roman power.
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