Greeks in Pre-Roman Italy

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Magna Graecia (Greek colonies in Italy)

The Greeks established colonies at Sicily and Tarentum, and on the western coast as far as Naples (Neapolis) in Campania. So completely did these coasts become dotted with Greek cities, enlivened with Greek commerce, and influenced by Greek culture, that this part of the peninsula received the name of Magna Graecia. [Source: “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901)]

The Greek city states set up a number of colonies in Italy, known then as Magan Graecia (Great Greece), often on the sites of established towns. The first known Greek settlement was established on Pithekoussai, an island off of present-day Naples, in 770 B.C. A few years later colonies were established in Sicily and southern Italy. Many of the early settlers were poor farmers looking for a better life the same way immigrants from Europe came to America in the 19th century to seek their fortune.

Two important concepts in the development of mankind — democracy and the construction of cities in a grid pattern — are believed to have evolved in the Greek colonies in Italy. Archimedes and Pythagoras came from Italy and many of the great Greek philosophers that preceded Socrates, were also from the west. The Sicilian city state of Syracuse crushed an invasion from Athens in 413 B.C.

Websites on Ancient Rome: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; Lacus Curtius penelope.uchicago.edu; The Internet Classics Archive classics.mit.edu ; Bryn Mawr Classical Review bmcr.brynmawr.edu; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org; Ancient Rome resources for students from the Courtenay Middle School Library web.archive.org ; History of ancient Rome OpenCourseWare from the University of Notre Dame web.archive.org ; United Nations of Roma Victrix (UNRV) History unrv.com

Contacts Between Ancient Greeks and Italians

David Silverman of Reed College wrote: “The western Greeks are important for us as students of Roman History because they are the vehicle for the transmission of Greek culture and technology to Italy. Among the debts of the Italians to the Greek traders and colonists of the second half of the 8th and the 7th centuries are letters (literacy), viticulture, olives, stone fortification walls, and the hoplite phalanx. ^*^

“Contact between Greeks and Italians had ceased during the Greek Dark Ages (c. 1050-800 B.C.). The colonies of the 8th century B.C., therefore, are not continuations but something new. In the course of the 8th century, the "Age of Colonization" in Greece, Greeks virtually took over western Sicily and much of the south of Italy. Among the most vigorous of the colonizing states were Chalkis and Eretria, whose foundations included Pithekoussai (on Ischia), Cymae (an offshoot of Pithekoussai), Zankle, Mylae, Rhegion, Naxos, Leontinoi, and Katane. The earliest of these, Pithekoussai (founded around 750 B.C.) was also the furthest north. It was strategically positioned to export the mineral resources of Etruria (copper, iron, tin), and to sell Greek imports (bronzes and fine ware pottery).

“The purpose of some of the other colonies can also be deduced from their locations. Zankle (Messana) and Rhegion were to guard the passage through the straights of Messina. Massilia (Marseilles), a later foundation (c. 600 B.C.) by the Phokaians (whose home is on the coast of Asia Minor north of Smyrna), was positioned to trade with Gaul, especially for tin. Its existence accounts for such discoveries as this bronze crater, of Laconian manufacture and dating to the sixth century B.C., found at Vix.” ^*^

Inter-Cultural ‘Party’ with Minoans and Mycenaeans in Southern Italy?

Minoan

The Bronze Age site of Roca in Southern Italy has produced archaeological evidence of “one of the earliest inter-cultural feasting parties’ in Mediterranean Europe, dating to c.a. 1200 B.C. . Dr. Francesco Iacono wrote in pasthorizonspr.com: “This small (about 3 hectares nowadays, although it was larger in the past) but monumental fortified settlement (its stone walls measured up to 25m in width), located on the Adriatic coast of Apulia, southern Italy, has been investigated for many years by a team from the University of Salento. Such a research has demonstrated the existence of a long-lasting and intense relationship with Minoan and Mycenaean Greece at least from c.a. 1400 B.C. and of more sporadic connections since the earliest Bronze Age occupation at the site. One of the areas of the settlement (investigated a few years ago) has produced the largest set of ceramics of Mycenaean type ever found in the same context west of Greece (more than 380 vessels). This pottery was associated with abundant local ceramics, remains of meals and of numerous animal sacrifices. A recent study suggests this was the result of a large-scale feast in which it is possible to recognise the participation of groups of people with two distinct cultural backgrounds. [Source: Francesco Iacono, pasthorizonspr.com, December 2015, Iacono is a specialist in Mediterranean prehistory and is a postdoctoral fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.

“One is the southern Italian component, hinted by the local ceramic material as well as by the very modality of the sacrifices. Analyses of bones have shown that after the killings, extensive portions (e.g. one entire leg, or the head) were separated from the carcasses and deposited in the ground and covered up with leaves and branches that left impressions on the back of the thick crushed limestone pavement that sealed all this. Such a ritual procedure seems not to be attested in the Mycenaean world, where animal sacrifices normally involve the use of fire, but finds some parallels in other Bronze Age sites in Southern Italy.

“The second cultural component was the Aegean one, broadly intended, and this is suggested by the copious presence of Aegean style pottery (both imported and locally made) as well as by the very nature of the feast. Evidence for large feasting events involving the presence of a considerable number of people at the same time (the count of participants estimated on the basis of the consumption of the meat of the sacrificed animals alone was between 530 and 176 people) is lacking in Italian Bronze Age, but these events were relatively common in the Aegean world. Also, the probable use of alcoholic drinks (suggested by the recovery of both Aegean style wine cups and large transport stirrup jars, the ancestors of classical amphorae) is an element that is not present in southern Italy but widespread in the Minoan/Mycenaean world, where this was an important part of Palatial societies.

“The broad context in which this event took place provides clues on some of the possible reasons behind it. In the Late Bronze Age, after the fall of Mycenaean palaces, the links between Italy (including the north of the peninsula, rich in metal resources) and the societies that continued to inhabit the Aegean, had increased considerably. East-west connections did not affect only the central Mediterranean region as indeed at the same time many ‘western looking’ artefacts (both ceramics and metal types) started to appear in main sites in Greece.

“Being located at the junction between the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea, Roca acquired a considerable importance in these connections, acting as a mediating node. The feasting practices demonstrated at Roca give us a first concrete snapshot of the details of what these encounters between people possibly coming from distant locales might have looked like."

Ancient Greek Trading

6th century BC Greek Trireme

The Greeks traded all over the Mediterranean with metal coinage (introduced by the Lydians in Asia Minor before 700 B.C.); colonies were founded around the Mediterranean and Black Sea shores (Cumae in Italy 760 B.C., Massalia in France 600 B.C.) Metropleis (mother cities) founded colonies abroad to provide food and resources for their rising populations. In this way Greek culture was spread to a fairly wide area. ↕

Greece was resource poor and overpopulated. They needed to colonize the Mediterranean to get resources. Beginning in the 8th century B.C., the Greeks set up colonies in Sicily and southern Italy that endured for 500 years, and, many historians argue, provided the spark that ignited Greek golden age. The most intensive colonization took place in Italy although outposts were set up as far west as France and Spain and as far east as the Black Sea, where the established cities as Socrates noted like "frogs around a pond." On the European mainland, Greek warriors encountered the Gauls who the Greeks said "knew how to die, barbarians though they were." [Source: Rick Gore, National Geographic, November 1994]

During this period in history the Mediterranean Sea was frontier as challenging to the Greeks as the Atlantic was to 15th century European explorers like Columbus. Why did the Greeks head west? "They were driven in part by curiosity. Real curiosity," a British historian told National Geographic. "They wanted to know what lay on the other side of the sea." They also expanded abroad to get rich and ease tensions at home where rival city-states fought with one another over land and resources. Some Greeks became quite wealthy trading things like Etruscan metals and Black Sea grain.

Ancient Greek Colonies

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Ancient Greek colonization began at an early date, during the so-called Geometric period of about 900 to 700 B.C., when many seminal elements of ancient Greek society were also established, such as city-states, major sanctuaries, and the Panhellenic festivals. The Greek alphabet, inspired by the writing of the Phoenician sea traders, was developed and spread at this time. [Source: Collete Hemingway, Independent Scholar, Seán Hemingway, Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2007 \^/]

“Greece is a country surrounded by water and the sea has always played an important role in its history. The ancient Greeks were active seafarers seeking opportunities for trade and founding new independent cities at coastal sites across the Mediterranean Sea. By the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., Greek colonies and settlements stretched all the way from western Asia Minor to southern Italy, Sicily, North Africa, and even to the coasts of southern France and Spain. Regional schools of artists exhibited a rich variety of styles and preferences at this time. The major Ionian cities along the coast of Asia Minor prospered. They cultivated relationships with other affluent centers like Sardis in Lydia, which was ruled by the legendary King Croesus in the sixth century B.C. Indeed, by this time, the eastern Greeks controlled much of the Aegean Sea and had established independent cities to the north along the Black Sea. This region, in particular, opened up further trade connections to the north that gave access to valuable raw materials, such as gold.” \^/

John Porter of the University of Saskatchewan wrote: “In order to head off revolution and the rise of a tyrannos, various poleis began to adopt measures designed to ease the social and economic hardships exploited by the tyrannoi in their bid for power. One measure that became increasingly popular, beginning c. 750-725, was the use of colonization. A polis (or a group of poleis) would send out colonists to found a new polis. The colony thus founded would have strong religious and emotional ties to its mother city, but was an independent political entity. This practice served a variety of purposes. First, it eased the pressure of overpopulation. Second, it provided a means of removing the politically or financially disaffected, who could hope for a better lot in their new home. It also provided useful trading outposts, securing important sources of raw materials and various economic opportunities. Finally, colonization opened up the world to the Greeks, introducing them to other peoples and cultures and giving them a new sense of those traditions that bound them to one another, for all of their apparent differences. [Source: John Porter, “Archaic Age and the Rise of the Polis”, University of Saskatchewan. Last modified November 2009 *]

Greek colonies were founded around the Mediterranean and Black Sea shores (Cumae in Italy 760 B.C., Massalia in France 600 B.C.) Metropleis (mother cities) founded colonies abroad to provide food and resources for their rising populations. In this way Greek culture was spread to a fairly wide area. Porter wrote: “The principal areas of colonization were: (1) southern Italy and Sicily; (2) the Black Sea region. Many of the poleis involved in these early efforts at colonization were cities that, in the classical period, were relatively obscure — an indication of just how drastically the economic and political changes entailed in the transition from Dark Age to Archaic Greece affected the fortunes of the various poleis. [Source: John Porter, “Archaic Age and the Rise of the Polis”, University of Saskatchewan. Last modified November 2009 *]

Greek Colonies in Italy

The Greek city states set up a number of colonies in Italy, known then as Magan Graecia (Great Greece), on the site of established town. The first known Greek settlement was established on Pithekoussai, an island off of present-day Naples, in 770 B.C. A few years later colonies were established in Sicily and southern Italy. Many of the early settlers were poor farmers looking for a better life the same way immigrants from Europe came to America in the 19th century to seek their fortune.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “The Greek colonies in Sicily and southern Italy, a region known as Magna Graecia, comprised politically independent entities that maintained religious ties and trade links with their mother cities. Up until the mid-sixth century B.C., Corinth dominated trade in the West. For the most part, it exported Corinthian vases, which were often filled with olive oil, in return for grain. Some city-states, such as Syracuse and Selinus in Sicily, erected major temples that rivaled those in the eastern part of Greece. Unlike the Aegean islands and mainland Greece, where marble was plentiful, Sicily and southern Italy had few local sources of high-quality marble. Thus, the artists in Magna Graecia established a strong tradition of working with terracotta and limestone. Many of the colonies in the West minted their own silver coins with distinctive designs and emblems.” [Source: Collete Hemingway, Independent Scholar, Seán Hemingway, Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2007]

John Porter of the University of Saskatchewan wrote: The fertile resources of Southern Italy and Sicily “attracted intensive colonization, beginning c. the third quarter of the 8th century with the foundation of Cyme (near Naples), a colony of Chalcis, Eretria, and Cyme — neighboring poleis on the island of Euboea. [Originally the colonists settled on the island of Pithecusae, just off the coast of Cyme. They later established the settlements that were to become Puteoli and Naples (originally: "Neapolis" — the "New City").] Colonization in the following years led to the area of southern Italy and eastern Sicily becoming, in effect, an extension of Greece itself, which it was to remain until the rise of Rome in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. [Source: John Porter, “Archaic Age and the Rise of the Polis”, University of Saskatchewan. Last modified November 2009 ]

“Thus this region came to be known (in Latin) as Magna Graecia or "Great Greece," rather as we today speak of the "greater metropolitan" area of a major city. Settlement was limited by the other two great powers in the region: Carthage (which controlled western Sicily, Sardinia, and the coastal regions of Spain and Africa) and the Etruscans (who dominated northern Italy: today we still refer to the body of water off the west coast of Italy as the Tyrrhenian Sea, "Tyrrhenian" being the Greek for "Etruscan"). The other important Greek settlements in the region were: a) Syracuse (founded by Corinth and for many years one of the most powerful cities in the region), b) Corcyra (another colony of Corinth, off the northwest coast of Greece — a strategic settlement given the nature of Greek shipping [which tended to hug the coast rather than risk the open sea] since Corcyra provided the perfect jumping off point for sailors heading to Italy), c) Sybaris (on the west coast of Italy at the narrowest point of the Italian peninsula, where it controlled the most direct east-west land route through Italy; Sybaris was noted for its wild ways [rather like some towns of the Old West in the United States], to the degree that the adjective "sybaritic" today still denotes a wildly luxuriant and profligate lifestyle), and d) Massilia (modern Marseilles, a colony of Phocis). *\

“The colonies in Magna Graecia played a crucial role in the development of western culture. Through the close contacts between these colonies, on the one hand, and the local Italian populations, the Etruscans and, later, the Romans, on the other, Greek culture (its myths, religious views, alphabet, literary and philosophical traditions, art) came to pervade Italy, leaving a profound imprint on Roman culture and, through the Romans, on the West. (Thus, to pick just one example, Roman mythology is largely Greek mythology in another guise.) In fact, our word "Greek" itself derives from the Romans. The Greeks of the classical period (like Greeks today) referred to themselves as Hellenes (after their name for their homeland, *Hellas). However, a contingent of the colonists at Cyme came from an obscure place known as Graia (an area near Tanagra, just opposite Chalcis and Eretria on the Greek mainland). Somehow the local Italian populations came to refer to the settlers at Cyme as Graii, later transformed into the Latin form Graeci, whence modern English "Greek."” *\

Greek colonies in Italy

Etruscans and Greeks

The Etruscans were a mysterious people who resided in a region in east-central Italy slightly north of present-day Rome. They created the first great civilization in what is now Italy, centered in Latium and Tuscany, but left behind a sparse written record so little is known about them except what can be surmised from the pottery and artwork left behind in tombs and the observations of Roman historians.The Etruscans began as a loose confederation of towns as early 3000 years ago in Etruria, a land between the Tiber and Arno rivers mostly in what is now Tuscany and the area north of Rome, and flourished between 700 and 500 B.C. when they were assimilated into the Romans.

The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenians, was the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod, in his work, the Theogony. He mentioned them as residing in central Italy alongside the Latins. The 7th-century BC Homeric Hymn to Dionysus referred to them as pirates. Unlike later Greek authors, these authors did not suggest that Etruscans had migrated to Italy from the east, and did not associate them with the Pelasgians. It was only in the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization had been established for several centuries, that Greek writers started associating the name "Tyrrhenians" with the "Pelasgians", and even then, some did so in a way that suggests they were meant only as generic. [Source Wikipedia]

The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests conflicted with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC, when Phocaeans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of Sardinia, Spain and Corsica. This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also conflicted with the Greeks.

Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica. From the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Greek Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse, Sicily. A few years later, in 474 B.C., Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae. Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and the area was taken over by Romans and Samnites.

Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park: UNESCO World Heritage Site

Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archeological Sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. According to UNESCO: “Cilento is a cultural landscape of outstanding value that has evidence of human occupation dating from 250,000 years ago. It has been successively occupied over time by farmers during the Neolithic period, by Bronze and Iron Age societies, Etruscans, Greek colonists, Lucanians, and was eventually incorporated into the Roman territory inthe 3rd century B.C. Roman road networks replaced the earlier tracks, but after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, these roads fell into disrepair and the ancient network was revived during the Middle Ages, as is evident in the feudal castles and religious establishments built along routes. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website =]

The dramatic groups of sanctuaries and settlements along its three east–west mountain ridges in the province of Salerno — covering quite a vast area of 1591 square kilometers, including part of the National Park Cilento e Vallo di Diano, the two archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the monumental Certosa di Padula — vividly portray the area's historical evolution: it was a major route not only for trade, but also for cultural and political interaction during the prehistoric and medieval periods. The Cilento was also the boundary between the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia and the indigenous Etruscan and Lucanian peoples. The remains of two major cities from classical times, Paestum and Velia, are found there.

“The National Park, essentially a mountainous region divided by several river valleys sloping down to the Tyrrhenian Sea, is defined by natural features: the Tyrrhenian Sea on the east, and the Sele and Tanagro rivers, with the broad sweep of the Vallo di Diano in its upper reaches. Communication routes were established during pre-historic times along the crests of the mountain ranges, and while they fell into decline during the Roman era, they came back into use in the Middle Ages. Evidence of this use is visible in the many prehistoric and proto-historic sites discovered, and in the medieval towns and castles. The most noteworthy archaeological site is that of Paestum, the Greek city of Poseidonia, founded at the end of 7th century B.C. Another site of great importance is the archaeological area of Velia, which preserves the monumental remains of the colony of Elea, founded by the Phocaeans in the second half of the 6th century. =

The site is important because: 1) During the prehistoric period, and again in the Middle Ages, the Cilento region served as a key route for cultural, political, and commercial communications in an exceptional manner, utilizing the crests of the mountain chains running east-west and thereby creating a cultural landscape of outstanding significance and quality. And 2) In two key episodes in the development of human societies in the Mediterranean region, the Cilento area provided the only viable means of communication between the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian seas in the central Mediterranean region, and this is vividly illustrated by the cultural landscape of today. =

Important Greek Colonies in Italy

The two greatest Greek colonies in Italy were probably Syracuse and Sybaris. "Magna Graecia and Sicily became the Texas of the Greek world," one historian wrote. "Everything was bigger, bolder. It was a grand experiment." Sicily was known as "Sicily the rich" and "the pride of the blossoming earth." In 443 B.C., Pericles — the great leader of Athens — founded the colony of Thurii on the instep of Italy's boot following advise from the oracle of Delphi. For political reasons he asked other city states to join him and called it a Panhellenic colony.

Paestum — south of Salerno in southern Italy — is one of the most impressive set of Greek ruins in the world. The "Temple of Poseidon" looks like a smaller version of the Parthenon (built around the same time) in Athens on steroids. Built about 100 years before is the equally impressive "Basilica." It lacks a roof but it has massive columns that bulge at the bottom. It is long and looks more "elastic." Other ruins include the Temple of Cerese (a 2500-year-old temple later turned into a church), the Roman forum, the gymnasium, the Roman amphitheater, the 2,600-year-old basilica, a museum with paintings and pottery taken from Paestum tombs. Make sure to check out the famous Tomb of the Diver. There is a private beach about a mile and a half from the Paestum.

Velia (40 kilometers, 25 miles southeast of Paestum) is home to some impressive ancient Greek temples. In the 6th-century B.C. battle of Alalia off the coast of Corsica, Greek forces were victorious over Etruscan forces and their Carthaginian allies. Velia is famed for being the home of an ancient Greek school of philosophy, including philosophers Parmenides and Zeno. It was part of Magna Graecia, the area of southern Italy colonized by Greek city-states. The settlement at Velia occupied an upper part, or acropolis, of the area as well as hillsides, and was surrounded by a wall. [Source: Frances D'emilio, Associated Press, February 1, 2022]

On Sicily the Greeks established numerous colonies and left behind monumental temples and theaters which draw large numbers of tourists today. Eastern Sicily is said to have been the inspiration for the myth of Persephone and the seasons. Morgantina (near Armerina) is a Greek city on Sicily that was colonized in the 6th century B.C. and sacked by the Romans in the 3rd century B.C. has produced some of the most spectacular archaeological and looted discoveries made in recant years. Before the Roman invaded, the Greeks buried their wealth. Other Ancient Sites include the Greek ruins of Gela, Agrigento and Selinunte.

Syracuse

Syracuse (in the southeastern corner of Sicily) was almost as powerful as Athens during the golden age of Greece. During Hellenistic times, Syracuse along with Athens and Alexandria were the greatest centers of Greek culture. The city is closely associated with Archimedes. Syracuse's harbor was one of the best in the Mediterranean. An attack by the Sicilian city state against Athens led to the fall of the ancient Greece's most famous city. Although the Syracuse invasion was unsuccessful it crushed Athens' sea defenses, allowing the Spartan's to sack Athens a few years later.

Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to UNESCO: “The site consists of two separate elements, containing outstanding vestiges dating back to Greek and Roman times: The Necropolis of Pantalica contains over 5,000 tombs cut into the rock near open stone quarries, most of them dating from the 13th to 7th centuries B.C. Vestiges of the Byzantine era also remain in the area, notably the foundations of the Anaktoron (Prince’s Palace). The other part of the property, Ancient Syracuse, includes the nucleus of the city’s foundation as Ortygia by Greeks from Corinth in the 8th century B.C. The site of the city, which Cicero described as ‘the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of all’, retains vestiges such as the Temple of Athena (5th century B.C., later transformed to serve as a cathedral), a Greek theatre, a Roman amphitheatre, a fort and more. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website =]

“The site of Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica on the Mediterranean coast of south-eastern Sicily consists of two separate elements, the historic town of ancient Syracuse and the Necropolis of Pantalica. Together these two components form a unique cultural record that bears a remarkable testimony to Mediterranean cultures from the time of the ancient Greek. =

“The historic town of ancient Syracuse consists of Ortygia, the historic centre of the city, and today an island that has been inhabited for around 3000 years, and the archaeological area of the Neapolis. Syracuse, the second Greek colony in Sicily was founded by the Corinthians in 743 A.D and described by Cicero as ‘the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of all’. Syracuse or ‘Pentapolis’ was constructed in five parts, still visible today of which Ortygia is the base of all urbanistic and architectonic developments of successive eras. This area of the property contains traces of the temple of Apollo made in Doric style and the most ancient in Western Greece(6th century B.C.E.), and the temple of Athena, erected for the victory of Gelone over the Carthaginians in 480 A.D., re-used as a church from 6th century A.D. and rebuilt as a Baroque cathedral, in the late 17th century. The Neapolis contains the archaeological remains of sanctuaries and impressive complexes, a theatre, the Latomies, the so-called Tomb of Archimedes and the amphitheatre. Many structures attest to the continuing development of the city through Roman times, from the Byzantines to the Bourbons, interspersed with the Arabo-Muslims, the Normans, Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen dynasty (1197–1250), the Aragons and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. =

“The Necropolis of Pantalica is a rocky outcrop located 40 km. away from Syracuse that contains over 5,000 tombs cut into the rock near open stone quarries. The tombs are spread along a spur over 1200m northeast to southwest and 500m northwest to southeast and most date from the 13th to 7th centuries B.C. Associated with the tombs are the remains of dwellings dating from the period of Greek colonisation and other vestiges of the Byzantine notably the foundations of the Anaktoron (Prince’s Palace). =

Greek Temples of Poseidon and Hera in Paestum, Italy

Greek Colony of Agrigento in Sicily

According to UNESCO: “The archaeological area of Agrigento, the Valley of the Temples, is on the southern coast of Sicily and covers the vast territory of the ancient polis, from the Rupe Atenea to the acropolis of the original ancient city, as well as to the sacred hill on which stand the main Doric temples and up to the extramural necropolis. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website =]

“Founded as a Greek colony in the 6th century B.C., Agrigento became one of the leading cities in the Mediterranean region. Its supremacy and pride are demonstrated by the remains of the magnificent Doric temples that dominate the ancient town, much of which still lies intact under today's fields and orchards. Selected excavated areas reveal the late Hellenistic and Roman town and the burial practices of its early Christian inhabitants. =

“Agrigento has a special place among classical sites in the history of the ancient world because of the way in which its original site, typical of Greek colonial settlements, has been preserved, as well as the substantial remains of a group of buildings from an early period that were not overlain by later structures or converted to suit later tastes and cults. =

Why the site is important: “1) The great row of Doric temples is one of the most outstanding monuments of Greek art and culture. 1) The archaeological area of Agrigento exhibits an important interchange of human values, being undoubtedly one of the leading cities in the Mediterranean region with its outstanding evidence of Greek influence. 3) As one of the greatest cities of the ancient Mediterranean region, Agrigento is an extraordinary testament of Greek civilization in its exceptionally preserved condition. 4) The temples in the area exemplify Greek architecture and are considered to be among the most extraordinary representations of Doric architecture in the world.” =

The site boundary includes the entire territory of the ancient polis, including the extramural area of the necropolis, the substantial excavated areas of the residential area of Hellenistic and Roman Agrigento, the complex network of underground aqueducts and a wide portion of land where there are still unexcavated archaeological structures. The archaeological structures have been preserved in good condition, thus ensuring an authentic representation. However, land instability remains an issue. =

Battles of Himera

The Mediterranean was a turbulent place and Greeks were involved in conflicts in other places. Himera in Sicily was the site of two important battles between Greeks and Carthaginians that proved vital to Greece expanding and holding on to its colonies. In 480 B.C. Carthage, in present-day Tunisia, sent an army against the Greek colony of Himera on Sicily. Greeks and Carthaginians fought a bloody battle in the plain under the town walls, with the Greeks and people from Himera prevailing in the end. In 409 B.C., Carthage waged a new war against Himera, conquered, and razed the town. "All the people were slaughtered or deported and the colony never rose again," one archeologist said.

On the 480 B.C. battle, John W.I. Lee wrote in Archaeology magazine, “It was one of the ancient world’s greatest battles, pitting a Carthaginian army commanded by the general Hamilcar against a Greek alliance for control of the island of Sicily. After a fierce struggle in 480 B.C. on a coastal plain outside the Sicilian city of Himera, with heavy losses on both sides, the Greeks eventually won the day. As the years passed, the Battle of Himera assumed legendary proportions. Some Greeks would even claim it had occurred on the same day as one of the famous battles of Thermopylae and Salamis, crucial contests that led to the defeat of the Persian invasion of Greece, also in 480 B.C., and two of the most celebrated events in Greek history. [Source: John W.I. Lee, Archaeology magazine, January/February 2011]

Nonetheless, for such a momentous battle, Himera has long been something of a mystery. The ancient accounts of the battle, by the fifth-century B.C. historian Herodotus and the first-century B.C. historian Diodorus Siculus (“the Sicilian”), are biased, confusing, and incomplete. Archaeological work led by Sefano Vassallo of the Archaeological Superintendency of Palermo has helped pinpoint the battle’s precise location, clarified the ancient historians’ accounts, and unearth new evidence of how classical Greek soldiers fought and died.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated October 2024