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88-476: Fishing is one of the main activities, including that of tuna and coral. As with many other places in Calabria, Pizzo claims ancient origins. The town may have been founded by colonists from an unknown site in ancient Magna Grecia , but there is currently no documentary or archeological evidence to support this. Consequently, the history of Pizzo begins in 1300 when the existence of a community of Basilian monks,

176-705: A Doric style influenced by the Ionic one was also used, especially in Sicily in the Achaean colonies. In Magna Graecia, limestone was used as a building material due to the difficulty in finding other materials. The Doric style in Magna Graecia reached its apogee, surpassing that of the motherland and the other Greek colonies. Regarding urban planning, the cities of Magna Graecia, as well as many cities of Greek colonies in other regions, were more orderly and rational in

264-409: A fort, and a fishing village is documented . The name Pizzo (translated either as bird's beak or projecting point) fits perfectly with the tuffa promontory that juts out into the sea near the mouth of the river Angitola. For centuries tuna was trapped in the beaches around Pizzo, especially in the months of May and June. Despite fading in importance over time this activity continued until the 1970s in

352-482: A journey of one day. The roads to villas in the countryside were roofed over and canals transported wine from vineyards to cellars near the sea. A fragment of the comedian Metagenes he quotes has a Sybarite boasting about literal rivers of food flowing through the city. Not only does Athenaeus provide a great deal of examples to show the decadence of Sybarites, but he also argues that their excessive luxury and sins led to their doom. According to Athenaeus ambassadors of

440-608: A long stay in the Sicilian colonies, died in Sicily in the colony of Gela in 456 BC. Epicarmus and Phormis , both of 6th century BC, are the basis, for Aristotle , of the invention of the Greek comedy, as he says in his book on Poetics : Sybaris Sybaris ( Ancient Greek : Σύβαρις ; Italian : Sibari ) was an important ancient Greek city situated on the coast of the Gulf of Taranto in modern Calabria , Italy. The city

528-467: A notable level of quality. In Magna Graecia there were examples of excellence in sculpture, coroplastics and bronzes. As for vase painting, many famous Athenian potters moved to Magna Graecia creating works influenced by the culture of the place, making their paintings peculiar and different from those of the motherland, giving rise to the South Italian ancient Greek pottery . Also noteworthy are

616-523: A suburb of Split ). Rhegium (now Reggio Calabria ) founded Pyxus ( Policastro Bussentino ) in Lucania ; Locri founded Medma ( Rosarno ), Polyxena and Hipponium ( Vibo Valentia ) in present-day Calabria; Sybaris (now Sibari ) revitalised the indigenous centres of Laüs and Scydrus in Calabria and founded Poseidonia ( Paestum ), in Campania; Kroton (now Crotone ) founded Terina and participated in

704-403: A thousand slaves, fishermen, bird-catchers and cooks. However, his information must be false because he claims to cite Herodotus, who does not mention such a number. Claudius Aelianus even alleges that Smyndirides could not sleep on a bed of rose petals because it gave him blisters . Another Sybarite who is known by name is Alcimenes. A Pseudo-Aristotle mentions that it was said he dedicated

792-464: A very expensive cloak as a votive offering at the temple of Lacinian Hera . Here Athenaeus distorts the information too: he treats the story as genuine rather than hearsay and attributes it to the real Aristotle. Justin mentions an alliance of Sybaris with the other Achaean colonies Metapontum and Kroton against the Ionian colony Siris . This resulted in the conquest of Siris in the middle of

880-766: Is Lamezia Terme Airport . [REDACTED] Media related to Pizzo at Wikimedia Commons Magna Grecia Magna Graecia is a term that was used for the Greek-speaking areas of Southern Italy , in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria , Apulia , Basilicata , Campania and Sicily ; these regions were extensively populated by Greek settlers starting from the 8th century BC. The settlements in this region, founded initially by their metropoleis (mother cities), eventually evolved into strong Greek city-states ( poleis ), functioning independently. The settlers brought with them their Hellenic civilization , and developed their own civilisation, due to

968-542: Is again uncertain. According to Diodorus, the Sybarites requested Sparta and Athens to help them reoccupy their city. With the help of Athens and some other cities in the Peloponnese they founded the city of Thurii not far from the site of Sybaris. Soon a conflict arose between the Sybarites and the other colonists of Thurii over the privileges the Sybarites enjoyed. Practically all of the Sybarites were killed by

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1056-415: Is attested for the first time in a passage from the 2nd century BC by the Greek historian Polybius (written around 150 BC), where he ascribed the term to Pythagoras and his philosophical school . Ancient authors use "Magna Graecia" to mean different parts of southern Italy, including or excluding Sicily, Strabo and Livy being the most prominent advocates of the wider definitions. Strabo used

1144-619: Is found in the Italian regions of Calabria and Apulia . Griko is considered by linguists to be a descendant of Byzantine Greek , which had been the majority language of Salento through the Middle Ages, combining also some ancient Doric and local romance elements. There is a rich oral tradition and Griko folklore , limited now but once numerous, to around 30,000 people, most of them having abandoned their language in favour of Italian. Some scholars, such as Gerhard Rohlfs , argue that

1232-444: Is the only source and it might be a corruption of [Sagar]is or [Sybar]is. Further complicating the issue is the appearance of the letters Wiis on coins of Poseidonia . This has been interpreted as a confirmation of Strabo's account because Poseidonia is thought to be a colony of Sybaris. Sybaris amassed great wealth and a huge population as a result of its fertile farming land and its policy of admitting aliens to its citizenry. It

1320-560: Is thought that Poseidonia had a major share in this because the coins of the new city have a great resemblance to those of Poseidonia. Possibly a treaty of friendship between Sybaris, its allies and the Serdaioi (an unknown people) dates to this new foundation, because Poseidonia was the guarantor of this treaty. Ultimately the Sybarites were again driven off by the Krotoniates from their new city in 446/445 BC. What happened next

1408-551: Is thought to have founded its colonies Poseidonia , Laüs and Scidrus . Poseidonia was founded in approximately 600 BC, In the second half of the 7th century BC the Sybarites took over from the Oenotrians the sanctuary of Athena on the Timpone della Motta as their acropolis, located 15 km to the northwest, where they regularly celebrated large festivals. Descriptions of the wealth and luxury of Sybaris are plentiful in

1496-767: The lex Atinia of 197   BC. In 194   BC, garrisons of 300 Roman veterans were implanted in Volturnum , Liternum , Puteoli , Salernum and Buxentum , and to Sipontum on the Adriatic. This model was replicated in the territory of the Brettii; 194   BC saw the foundation of the Roman colonies of Kroton and Tempsa , followed by the Latin colonies of Copia (193   BC) and Valentia (192   BC). The social, linguistic and administrative changes arising from

1584-690: The Ancient Greek language , its religious rites, and its traditions of the independent polis . An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, and later interacted with the native Italic civilisations. The most important cultural transplant was the Chalcidean / Cumaean variety of the Greek alphabet , which was adopted by the Etruscans ; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into

1672-501: The Greek Theatre of Hippana  [ it ] , the Greek Theatre of Akrai  [ it ] , the Greek Theatre of Monte Jato  [ it ] , the Greek Theatre of Morgantina  [ it ] and the most famous Greek Theater of Taormina , amply demonstrate this. Only fragments of original dramaturgical works are left, but the tragedies of the three great giants Aeschylus , Sophocles and Euripides and

1760-580: The Heraion at Foce del Sele , the Temple of Poseidon (Taranto) , the Tavole Palatine and the Temple of Victory (Himera) . The Sicilian Greek colonists in Magna Graecia, but also from Campania and Apulia , also brought theatrical art from their motherland. The Greek Theatre of Syracuse , the Greek Theatre of Segesta  [ it ] , the Greek Theatre of Tindari  [ it ] ,

1848-685: The Latin alphabet , which became the most widely used alphabet in the world. Over time, due to overpopulation and other political and commercial reasons, the new cities expanded their presence in Italy by founding other Greek cities; effectively expanding the Greek civilisation to the whole territory known today as Magna Graecia. Remains of some of these Greek colonies can be seen today such as those of Neapolis ('new city', now Naples ), Syracusae ( Syracuse ), Akragas ( Agrigento ), Taras ( Taranto ) and Rhegion ( Reggio Calabria ). An intense colonisation program

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1936-593: The Pyrrhic War in 272   BC, most of the cities of southern Italy were linked to Rome with pacts and treaties ( foedera ) which sanctioned a sort of indirect control. Sicily was conquered by Rome during the First Punic War . Only Syracuse remained independent until 212 because its king Hiero II was a devoted ally of the Romans. His grandson Hieronymus however allied with Hannibal , which prompted

2024-523: The Temple of Hera Lacinia , the Temple of Heracles, Agrigento , The Temple of Juno in Agrigento , the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Agrigento , the Temple of Apollo (Syracuse) , the Temple of Athena (Syracuse) , the Temple of Athena (Paestum) , the Temple C (Selinus) , the Temple E (Selinus) , the Temple F (Selinus) , the Temple of Juno Lacinia (Crotone) , the Second Temple of Hera (Paestum) ,

2112-607: The Val Demone ), and much of Calabria and Lucania were still largely Greek-speaking. Some regions of southern Italy experienced demographic shifts as Greeks began to migrate northwards in significant numbers from regions further south; one such region was Cilento , which came to have a Greek-speaking majority. At this time the language had evolved into medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek , and its speakers were known as Byzantine Greeks . The resultant fusion of local Byzantine Greek culture with Norman and Arab culture (from

2200-474: The large-scale establishment of colonies elsewhere: according to one estimate, the population of the widening area of Greek settlement increased roughly tenfold from 800 BC to 400 BC, from 800,000 to as many as 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 -10 million. This was not simply for trade, but also to found settlements. These Greek colonies were not, as Roman colonies were, dependent on their mother-city, but were independent city-states in their own right. Another reason

2288-464: The 6th century BC in Sybaris, to protect culinary creations of chefs or bakers for a period of 1 year. Diodorus Siculus writes that the oligarchic government of the city was overthrown in 510/509 BC by a popular leader named Telys (Herodotus describes him as a tyrant ). He persuaded the Sybarites to exile the 500 richest citizens and confiscate their wealth. The exiled citizens took refuge at

2376-517: The Arab occupation of Sicily) gave rise to Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture in Sicily. This is a list of the 22 poleis (" city-states ") in Italy, according to Mogens Herman Hansen . It does not list all the Hellenic settlements, only those organised around a polis structure. This is a list of the 46 poleis (" city-states ") in Sicily, according to Mogens Herman Hansen. It does not list all

2464-539: The Centofontane area, where nets were spread to corral tuna from offshore. Ruins of the activity remain. The activity is now banned. The Piedigrotta and Prangi areas include some sea caves, and "the cave of the Saracen", although largely eroded today, was supposedly used by Saracen pirates to store booty and people captured during their raids along the coast of Calabria. The former King of Naples Joachim Murat , who

2552-567: The Coscile pursued a direct course into the Gulf of Taranto, probably at a short distance to the north. The city lay on the widest plain in modern Calabria that was renowned for its fertility and the origin of the city's wealth. The city lay close to sea level and the plain surrounded by the two rivers was subject to periodic flooding so that today Sybaris lies some 6 m below the surface and below groundwater level. A disastrous flood in 2013 filled

2640-564: The English Language , alludes to Aelianus' anecdote about Smindyrides. It mentions a Sybarite sleeping on a bed of rose petals, but unable to get to sleep because one of the petals was folded over. The location of the city which had been buried over time by more than 6 m of alluvial sediment from the Crati river was found only after a massive core drilling project from the early 1960s. It also lies below present groundwater level. It

2728-556: The Greeks, which formed as independent poleis. The second form was in what historians refer to as emporia ; trading posts which were occupied by both Greeks and non-Greeks and which were primarily concerned with the manufacture and sale of goods. Examples of this latter type of settlement are found at Al Mina in the east and Pithekoussai in the west. From about 750 BC the Greeks began 250 years of expansion, settling colonies in all directions. According to Strabo 's Geographica ,

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2816-491: The Hellenic settlements, only those organised around a polis structure. The administrative organisation of Magna Graecia was inherited from the Hellenic poleis, taking up the concept of " city-states " administered by the aristocracy . The cities of Magna Graecia were independent like the Greek poleis of the motherland, and had an army and a military fleet. There were also cases of tyranny as in Syracuse, governed by

2904-539: The Krotoniate army had their flute players make music the horses of the Sybarites ran over to the Krotoniates along with their riders. Strabo gives the "luxury and insolence" of the Sybarites as the reason for their defeat. Claudius Aelianus attributes the fall of Sybaris to its luxury and the murder of a lutenist at the altar of Hera. Vanessa Gorman gives no credence to these accounts because grave sins followed by divine retribution were stock elements of fiction at

2992-765: The Papacy in southern Italy and the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire continued to govern the area in the form of the Catapanate of Italy (965 -1071) through the Middle Ages, well after northern Italy fell to the Lombards. At the time of the Normans ' late medieval conquest of southern Italy and Sicily (in the late 12th century), the Salento peninsula (the "heel" of Italy), up to one-third of Sicily (concentrated in

3080-606: The Roman conquest only took root in this region by the 1st century AD, while Greek culture remained strong and was actively cultivated as shown by epigraphic evidence. During the Early Middle Ages , following the disastrous Gothic War , new waves of Byzantine Christian Greeks fleeing the Slavic invasion of Peloponnese settled in Calabria, further strengthened the Hellenic element in the region. The iconoclast emperor Leo III appropriated lands that had been granted to

3168-479: The Romans to besiege the city , which fell in 212   BC. After the second Punic War, Rome pursued an unprecedented program of reorganisation in the rest of Magna Graecia, where many of the cities were annexed to the Roman Republic in 205   BC, as a consequence of their defection to Hannibal. Roman colonies ( civium romanorum ) were the main element of the new territorial control plan starting from

3256-516: The Samnites. However, the needs of the Roman populace determined their need for territorial expansion towards the south. As the Greek cities of southern Italy came under threat from the Bruttii and Lucanians from the end of the 4th century BC, they asked for help from Rome, which exploited this opportunity by sending military garrisons in the 280s BC. Following Rome's victory over Taras after

3344-399: The Sybarites (one of whom was named Amyris ) consulted the oracle of Delphi , who prophesied that war and internal conflict awaited them if they would honour man more than the gods. Later he cites Phylarchus , who would have written that the Sybarites invoked the anger of Hera when they murdered thirty ambassadors from Kroton and left them unburied. He also cites Herakleides as attributing

3432-515: The Sybarites, possibly in the form of a sympolity . Sybaris was not completely destroyed, as Diodorus and Strabo claimed, but became a dependent "ally" of Kroton. "Alliance" coins show the tripod symbol of Kroton on one side and the bull symbol of Sybaris on the other side. Literary evidence from Aristoxenus attests of Pythagoreans who apparently moved to Sybaris after its subjugation by Kroton. Diodorus Siculus mentions that Kroton besieged Sybaris again in 476/475 BC. The Sybarites appealed to

3520-435: The altars of Kroton. Telys demanded the Krotoniates return the exiles under threat of war. The Krotoniates were inclined to surrender the exiles to avoid war, but Pythagoras convinced them to protect the suppliants. As a consequence the Sybarites marched with 300,000 men upon the Krotoniates, whose army led by Milo numbered 100,000. The army sizes given by Diodorus (shared with Strabo) must have been even more exaggerated than

3608-429: The ancient literature. Smindyrides was a prominent citizen who is claimed by Herodotus to have surpassed all other men in refined luxury. Diodorus describes him as the wealthiest suitor for the daughter of Cleisthenes of Sicyon . He sailed from Sybaris to Sicyon in a ship of fifty oars manned by his own slaves and surpassed even Cleisthenes himself in luxury. Athenaeus makes the claim that his entourage consisted of

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3696-418: The area, and had an acropolis at Timpone della Motta near Francavilla Marittima about 10 km distant. The city of Sybaris was destroyed in about 510 BC by its neighbour Kroton and its population driven out, but its colonies in the area continued to exist. It was replaced by a new colony under Athenian leadership in 444/43 BC which became the city Thurii built partially on top of the older city. Thurii

3784-629: The colonisation of Magna Graecia had already begun by the time of the Trojan War and lasted for several centuries. Greeks began to settle in southern Italy in the 8th century BC. Their first great migratory wave was by the Euboeans aimed at the Gulf of Naples ( Pithecusae , Cumae ) and the Strait of Messina ( Zancle , Rhegium ). Pithecusae on the island of Ischia is considered the oldest Greek settlement in Italy, and Cumae their first colony on

3872-447: The comedies of Aristophanes are known. Some famous playwrights in the Greek language came directly from Magna Graecia. Others, such as Aeschylus and Epicharmus , worked for a long time in Sicily. Epicharmus can be considered Syracusan in all respects, having worked all his life with the tyrants of Syracuse . His comedy preceded that of the more famous Aristophanes by staging the gods for the first time in comedy. While Aeschylus, after

3960-504: The course of the river Crathis to submerge Sybaris. The Crati transports coarse sand and pebbles in its channel and if Strabo's claim is true, that material would have been deposited as sediment above the city when the river submerged it. An analysis of core samples taken from the site did not find such river deposits directly above the former city, and the burial of Sybaris more likely resulted from natural processes such as fluvial overbank alluviation . After its destruction

4048-449: The destruction of Sybaris as divine vengeance upon the Sybarites for their pride, arrogance, and excessive luxury. Athenaeus is the richest source for anecdotes about the Sybarites. According to him they invented the chamber pot and pioneered the concept of intellectual property to ensure that cooks could exclusively profit from their signature dishes for a whole year. They always travelled in chariots , but would still take three days for

4136-527: The distance from the motherland and the influence of the indigenous peoples of southern Italy which left a lasting imprint on Italy (such as in the culture of ancient Rome ). They also influenced the native peoples, such as the Sicels and the Oenotrians , who became hellenised after they adopted the Greek culture as their own. In some fields such as architecture and urban planning, they sometimes surpassed

4224-481: The distance from the motherland and the influence of the indigenous peoples of southern Italy. From the motherland Greece, art, literature and philosophy decisively influenced the life of the colonies. In Magna Graecia much impetus was given to culture, especially in some cities, such as Taras (now Taranto ). Pythagoras moved to Crotone where he founded his school in 530 BC . Among others, Aeschylus , Herodotus , Xenophanes and Plato visited Magna Graecia. Among

4312-451: The distribution of spaces than those of the mother country, making the urban fabric more practical. The first examples of urbanistically more rational Greek cities belonged to Magna Graecia, in this case Taranto , Metapontum and Megara Hyblaea . Characteristic of this new urban concept, which later spread also in the motherland to Rhodes and Miletus , was a checkerboard road network. In Magna Graecia painting and sculpture also reached

4400-696: The divine wrath to the murder of supporters of Telys on the altars of the gods. Herakleides supposedly mentioned that the Sybarites attempted to supplant the Olympic Games by attracting the athletes to their own public games with greater prizes. The most direct link between luxury and corruption is evident in Athenaeus' anecdote about the defeat of the Sybarites: to amuse themselves the Sybarite cavalrymen trained their horses to dance to flute music. When

4488-421: The doctors Alcmeon of Crotone and Democedes of Crotone; the sculptor from Reggio Clearchus ; the painter Zeuxis , the musicologist Aristoxenus of Taranto and the legislator Zaleucus of Locri. A remnant of Greek influence can be found in the survival of the Greek language in some villages of the above-mentioned Salento peninsula (the "heel" of Italy). This living dialect of Greek, known locally as Griko ,

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4576-554: The downfall of the Sybarites. In 444/443 BC the Athenians and other new colonists then turned the city into a new foundation called Thurii. The city received a new democratic constitution which made provisions for ten tribes, but which did not include the Sybarites. Unlike Herodotus, Diodorus and earlier ancient Greek writers, later authors from the Roman period denounced the Sybarites. Aelianus, Strabo and especially Athenaeus saw

4664-591: The events of this period precise dates are unknown, but the destruction of Sybaris may have occurred around 510 BC, while the two other clashes are placed around 580-560 BC, with the destruction of Siris before the Battle of the Sagra . The first Greek city to be absorbed into the Roman Republic was Neàpolis in 327   BC. At the beginning of the 3rd century, Rome was a great power but had not yet entered into conflict with most of Magna Graecia, which had been allies of

4752-463: The excavated site and covered it with silt. Even in 2023 powerful pumps are continuously needed to remove groundwater from the site. Sybaris was founded in 720 BC by Is [ sic ] of Helice , a city in Achaea in the northern Peloponnese . The Achaeans were accompanied by a number of Troezenians who were eventually expelled by the more numerous Achaeans. The Achaean colonisation

4840-671: The foundation of Caulonia (near Monasterace marina) in Calabria; Messana (now Messina ), in collaboration with Rhegium, founded Metaurus ( Gioia Tauro ); Taras together with Thurii founded Heracleia ( Policoro ) in Lucania in 434 BC, and also Callipolis ('beautiful city'). At the beginning of the 6th century BC, all the main cities of Magna Graecia on the Ionian Sea had achieved a high economic and cultural development, which shifted their interests towards expansion of their territory by waging war on neighbouring cities. The 6th century

4928-474: The foundation of Thurii, Strabo writes that the Athenian and other Greek colonists first lived in Sybaris and only founded Thurii after the expulsion of the Sybarites. Modern scholarship corroborates Strabo's account and identifies two expeditions. In 446/445 BC Athens sent its expedition to reinforce the existing population of Sybaris. In the summer of 445 BC the collision between the two groups led to

5016-545: The illustrious characters born in Magna Graecia are the philosophers Parmenides of Elea , Zeno of Elea, Gorgias of Lentini and Empedocles of Agrigento; the Pythagoreans Philolaus of Crotone, Archytas of Taranto, Lysis of Taranto, Echecrates and Timaeus of Locri; the mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse; the poets Theocritus of Syracuse, Stesichorus , Ibycus of Reggio Calabria, Nossis of Locri, Alexis of Thuri and Leonidas of Taranto;

5104-522: The mainland of Italy. The second wave was of the Achaeans who concentrated initially on the Ionian coast ( Metapontion , Poseidonia , Sybaris , Kroton ), shortly before 720   BC. At an unknown date between the 8th and 6th centuries BC the Athenians, of Ionian lineage, founded Scylletium (near today's Catanzaro ). With colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy with its dialects of

5192-732: The mosaics, the goldsmith's art and wall painting. Noteworthy sculptures from Magna Graecia are the Apollo of Gaza , the Apollo of Piombino , the Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo , the Head of a Philosopher and the Riace bronzes , while notable vases from Magna Graecia are the Darius Vase and the Nestor's Cup . Noteworthy temples of Magna Graecia are the Temple of Concordia, Agrigento ,

5280-511: The mother country. The ancient inhabitants of Magna Graecia are called Italiotes and Siceliotes . Remains of some of these Greek cities can be seen today, such as Neapolis ("New City", now Naples ), Syrakousai ( Syracuse ), Akragas ( Agrigento ), Taras ( Taranto ), Rhegion ( Reggio Calabria ), and Kroton ( Crotone ). The most populous city of Magna Graecia was Sybaris (now Sibari ) with an estimated population, from 600 BC to 510 BC, between 300,000 and 500,000. The government of city-states

5368-464: The origins of Griko may ultimately be traced to the colonies of Magna Graecia. Magna Graecia, in some fields such as architecture and urban planning, sometimes surpassed the mother country and the other Greek colonies. In Magna Graecia, as well as in the other Greek colonies, the Doric style enriched with showy decorations was adopted as the dominant architectural style. In Magna Graecia, in particular,

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5456-580: The other colonists, who were more numerous and powerful. Some of the Sybarites managed to flee and founded Sybaris on the Traeis shortly after 444 BC. The request for help from the Sybarites must have been made after the conclusion of the Thirty Years' Peace in the early spring of 445 BC, for it would not have made sense to ask for help while Sparta and Athens were still at war with each other. While Diodorus identifies only one expedition for

5544-402: The population size. Even though they were greatly outnumbered, the Krotoniates won the battle and took no prisoners, killing most of the Sybarites. After their victory they plundered and razed Sybaris. According to Strabo either two months or nine days elapsed between the battle and the sack. Most likely the Sybarites executed Telys and his supporters during this time. Walter Burkert questions

5632-543: The present day. One example is the Griko people in Calabria ( Bovesia ) and Salento ( Grecìa Salentina ), some of whom still maintain their Greek language ( Griko language ) and customs. The Griko language is the last living trace of the Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia. The original Greek expression Megálē Hellás ( lit.   ' Great[er] Greece ' ), later translated into Latin as Magna Graecia ,

5720-520: The same cause in 1905. It has an old castle, built by the Aragonese in the 15th century, in which Joachim Murat , ex-king of Naples, was shot on October 13, 1815. Other sights include the Baroque church of St. George (1632) and the cave church of Piedigrotta (17th century) Pizzo is famous in the area for its Tartufo , a large ball of ice cream filled with molten chocolate. The nearest airport

5808-423: The sixth century BC. In the second half of the sixth century BC Sybaris started minting its first coins, of which the oldest have been dated to approximately 530 BC. These coins employed the Achaean weight standard which was shared with the other Achaean colonies Kroton, Caulonia and Metapontum. One of the first documented intellectual property laws similar to modern patent laws is thought to have been enacted in

5896-463: The surviving inhabitants took refuge at their colonies Laüs and Scidrus. It is assumed some also fled to Poseidonia, because in the early fifth century Poseidonia's coins adopted the Achaean weight standard and the bull seen on Sybarite coins. A. J. Graham thinks it was plausible that the number of refugees was large enough for some kind of synoecism to have occurred between the Poseidonians and

5984-431: The term to refer to the territory that had been conquered by the Greeks. There are various hypotheses on the origin of the name Megálē Hellás . The term could be explained by the prosperity and cultural and economic splendour of the region (6th–5th century BC); notably by the Achaeans of the city of Kroton , to refer to the network of colonies they founded or controlled between the end of the 6th and mid-5th centuries at

6072-410: The time of the Pythagoreans . There were several reasons for the Greeks to establish overseas colonies; demographic crises (famine, overcrowding, etc.), stasis , a developing need for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland after wars. During the Archaic period , the Greek population grew beyond the capacity of the limited arable land of Greece proper, resulting in

6160-405: The time. Furthermore, she and Robert Gorman point to Athenaeus as the origin of the embellished accounts rather than the historians he cited. He altered details of the original accounts, disguised his own contributions as those of past historians and invented new information to fit his argument that luxury leads to catastrophe. This concept was called tryphé and was a popular belief in his time, at

6248-500: The turn of the 2nd century AD. Peter Green likewise argues that these accounts are most likely the inventions of moralists. He points out the vast natural wealth of the city was the more likely reason it was attacked by Kroton. This association of Sybaris with excessive luxury transferred to the English language , in which the words "sybarite" and "sybaritic" have become bywords for opulent luxury and outrageous pleasure seeking. One story, mentioned in Samuel Johnson 's A Dictionary of

6336-677: The tyrant Dionysius , who fought the Carthaginians until his death. In the cities of Magna Graecia, trade, agriculture and crafts developed. Initially oriented to the indigenous Italic populations, the trade was immediately an excellent channel of exchange with the Greeks of the motherland, even if today it is difficult to establish precisely the type of goods traded and the volume of these exchanges. Greek coinage of Italy and Sicily originated from local Italiotes and Siceliotes who formed numerous city-states . These Hellenistic communities descended from Greek migrants. Southern Italy

6424-466: The tyrant Hiero I of Syracuse for help. Hiero put his brother Polyzelos in command of an army to relieve the Sybarites, expecting that he would be killed by the Krotoniates. Polyzelos suspected this, refused to lead the campaign and took refuge with the tyrant Theron of Acragas . Diodorus makes no further mention of Hiero's plan to relieve Sybaris, indicating that the Sybarites were defeated again. However, according to Timaeus and two scholia Polyzelos

6512-415: The veracity of the account given by Diodorus Siculus. It would have been illogical for Telys to banish his opponents first and then to demand their return. He argues that the elements of the story resemble fictional tragedies . The version of Herodotus is more brief and doesn't involve Pythagoras, but does claim that the Krotoniates received help from Dorieus . Strabo claims that the Krotoniates diverted

6600-466: Was also destroyed in 193 BC but the Romans built the city of Copia on the same grid as Thurii, and parts of these cities are visible today. The ruins of Sybaris/Thurii/Copia became forgotten as they were buried by sediment from the Crati river. The ruins were rediscovered and excavated from 1932. Today they can be found southeast of Sibari in the Province of Cosenza , Calabria , Italy . The city

6688-517: Was also found that the later cities of Thurii and Copia were built partially above Sybaris. Due to these reasons only a few parts of the city have been excavated: the Stombi quarter and minor test pits in the Parco del Cavallo area. On the latter site were found wonderfully decorated architectural elements from an as yet unidentified temple. The large number of finds from so small an area gives an idea of

6776-739: Was founded around 720 BC by Achaean and Troezenian settlers and the Achaeans also went on to found the nearby great city of Kroton 10 years later. Sybaris amassed great wealth thanks to its fertile land and busy port so that it was known as the wealthiest colony of the Greek Archaic world. Its inhabitants became famous among the Greeks for their hedonism , feasts, and excesses, to the extent that "sybarite" and "sybaritic" have become bywords for opulence, luxury, and outrageous pleasure-seeking. Sybaris also ruled over smaller colonies throughout

6864-469: Was situated close to the sea and lay between the Crathis and Sybaris rivers (from which the city derives its name). Most modern research places the city on a coastal ridge near a wetland lagoon . The rivers are now known as the Crati and Coscile. Today the Coscile feeds into the Crati about 5 km from its mouth, which passes just south of the archaeological site of the city. When Sybaris was still populated

6952-440: Was so thoroughly Hellenized that it was known as the Magna Graecia. Each of the polities struck their own coinage. Taras (or Tarentum) was among the most prominent city-states. By the second century BC, some of these Greek coinages evolved under Roman rule, and can be classified as the first Roman provincial currencies . The Greek colonists of Magna Graecia elaborated a civilization, which had peculiar characteristics, due to

7040-416: Was successful in relieving the siege of Sybaris and fled to Acragas later when he was accused of plotting revolution. Regardless of the results of the siege of 476 BC, it seems the Sybarites had to leave their city at some point between that year and 452/451 BC. Diodorus writes that the Sybarites refounded their city at its former site in 452/451 BC under the leadership of a Thessalian . It

7128-569: Was the South Italian ancient Greek pottery , fabricated in Magna Graecia largely during the 4th century BC. The settlers of Magna Graecia had great successes in the Ancient Olympic Games in their homeland. Crotone 's athletes won 18 titles in 25 Olympics. Although many of the Greek inhabitants of Magna Graecia were entirely Latinized during the Middle Ages , pockets of Greek culture and language remained and have survived to

7216-545: Was the brother-in-law of Napoleon , was imprisoned for several days in the town's Aragonese castle and then sentenced to death. He was executed by firing squad on October 13, 1815, in the main hall of the castle and was possibly buried in the church of San Giorgio. Paradoxically, the castle is now called Castello Murat . Inside the castle is the Provincial Museum Murat. In 1783 the town was almost destroyed by an earthquake , and it suffered some damage from

7304-491: Was the largest Greek city in Italy and may have had 300,000 inhabitants although others give a figure of 100,000. The circumference of the city was fifty stadia (over 6 miles (9.7 km)) and the area approximately 500 hectares (1,200 acres). Sybaris was also a dominant power in the region and ruled over 4 tribes and 25 cities. Sybaris extended its dominion across the peninsula to the Tyrrhenian Sea , where it

7392-471: Was the second great migratory wave from Greece towards the West after that of the Euboeans , concentrating instead on the Ionian coast (Metapontum, Poseidonia, Sibaris, Kroton). The Achaeans were motivated, like others of the Greek colonisation , by the lack of cultivatable land in their mountainous region and by population pressure. The authenticity of the name of the founder ( oekist ) is uncertain as Strabo

7480-404: Was the strong economic growth with the consequent overpopulation of the motherland. The terrain that some of these Greek city-states were in could not support a large city. Politics was also the reason as refugees from Greek city-states tended to settle away from these cities in the colonies. Greeks settled outside of Greece in two distinct ways. The first was in permanent settlements founded by

7568-401: Was therefore characterised by great clashes between the colonies. Some of the clashes that established the new balance and the new relationships of force were the Battle of the Sagra river (the clash between Locri Epizefiri and Kroton), the destruction of Siris (by Sybaris and Metapontum), and the clash between Kroton and Sybaris (which ended with the destruction of the latter). As with all

7656-638: Was undertaken by Syracuse , at the time of the tyranny of Dionysius I of Syracuse , around 387–385 BC. This phenomenon affected the entire Adriatic coast, and in particular led to the foundation in Italy of Ancon (now Ancona ) and Adria ; in the Dalmatian coast he saw the foundation of Issa (current Vis ), Pharus ( Stari Grad ), Dimus ( Hvar ); Lissus (now Lezhë ) was founded on the Albanian coast. Issa in turn then founded Tragurium (now Trogir ), Corcyra Melaina (now Korčula ) and Epetium (now Stobreč ,

7744-461: Was usually an aristocracy and the cities were often at war with each other. The Second Punic War put an end to the independence of the cities of Magna Graecia, which were annexed to the Roman Republic in 205   BC. From the motherland Greece, art, literature and philosophy decisively influenced the life of the colonies. In Magna Graecia much impetus was given to culture, especially in some cities such as Taras (now Taranto ). Noteworthy

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