Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily. Magna Graecia Ruins of the Temple of Hera in Metaponte, Southern Italy

Policies of mainland Greece According to ancient authors, during the Hellenistic period, Greece became depopulated due to a powerful migration movement to the East, and only a few large policies of Greece tried to maintain their former importance. These are Athens and, to a lesser extent, Corinth.

Mommsen T. History of Rome. T. 1. Before the Battle of Pydna.
Russian translation [V. N. Nevedomsky] edited by N. A. Mashkin.
State socio-economic publishing house, Moscow, 1936.
The pagination of notes has been changed to continuous pagination by chapter.
Page numbering according to ed. 1997 (St. Petersburg, "Nauka" - "Juventa").

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Chapter X

HELLENES IN ITALY. THE MARITIME POWER OF THE TUSK AND CARTHAGENIANS

Italy and foreign countries

The history of ancient peoples is not immediately illuminated by daylight; in it, as elsewhere, the dawn begins from the east. While the Italian peninsula was still immersed in deep twilight, on the shores of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea, a richly developed culture was already shone on all sides, and the fate of most peoples was to find, at the first steps of their development, a leader and mentor in one of their equals. by origin of the brothers - fell on a large scale and to the lot of the Italic tribes. But due to the geographical conditions of the peninsula, such an external influence could not penetrate it by land. We have no indication that in the most ancient times anyone used that difficult dry road that leads from Greece to Italy. Undoubtedly, trade routes from Italy went to the trans-Alpine countries from time immemorial: the oldest of them - the one along which amber was brought - went from the shores of the Baltic Sea and reached the shores of the Mediterranean Sea near the mouths of the Po, which is why the delta of this river was called in Greek legends are the birthplace of amber; this path adjoined another - the one that went across the peninsula through the Apennines to Pisa; but in this way the beginnings of civilization could not be brought into Italy. All elements of a foreign culture, which we find at an early time in Italy, were brought into it by the oriental peoples engaged in navigation. The oldest of the cultural peoples living on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea - the Egyptians - had not yet sailed the sea and therefore had no influence on Italy. The Phoenicians also had little influence. Phoenicians in Italy However, before all the peoples known to us, they dared to leave their narrow homeland, which lay on the extreme eastern limit of the Mediterranean Sea, and set off into this sea on houseboats, first for fishing and for getting shells, and soon after p.123 also for trade; they were the first to open maritime trade and incredibly early traveled around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea up to its extreme western limit. Phoenician sea stations appear earlier than the Hellenic ones on almost all the shores of this sea - both in Hellas itself, on the islands of Crete and Cyprus, in Egypt, Libya and Spain, and on the shores of the Italian western sea. Thucydides tells us that before the Greeks appeared in Sicily, or at least before they settled there in significant numbers, the Phoenicians had already managed to set up their trading posts there on the ledges and large islands that cut into the sea to trade with the natives, and not with to take over foreign land. But this was not the case on the Italian mainland. Of the colonies founded there by the Phoenicians, we still know with some certainty only one - the Punic trading post near the city of Caere, the memory of which is preserved partly in the name Punicum given to one place on the Cerite coast, partly in the second name given to the city of Caere itself - Agilla, which does not at all come from the Pelasgians, as the writers of fables claim, but is a real Phoenician word meaning "round city", as Caere appears from the coast. That this station - just like others like it, if they really were established somewhere on the coast of Italy - was in any case insignificant and short-lived, is proved by the fact that it disappeared almost without a trace; nevertheless, there is not the slightest reason to consider it more ancient than the Hellenic settlements homogeneous with it on the same banks. An important proof that at least Latium first became acquainted with the Canaanites through the Hellenes is their Latin name Poeni, borrowed from the Greek language. In general, all the ancient contacts of the Italics with Eastern civilization strongly point to the mediation of Greece, and in order to explain the emergence of the Phoenician trading post near Caere, there is no need to attribute it to the pre-Hellenic period, since it is simply explained by the later well-known relations of the Cerite trading state with Carthage. It is enough to recall that the most ancient navigation was and remained, in essence, navigation along the coast to understand that hardly any other of the countries washed by the Mediterranean Sea was so far from the Phoenicians as the Italian continent. They may have reached this continent either from the western coasts of Greece or from Sicily, and it is very probable that Hellenic navigation flourished early enough to overtake the Phoenicians in both the Adriatic Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Therefore, there is no reason to recognize the original direct influence of the Phoenicians on the Italics. As regards more p. 124 later relations between the Phoenicians and the Italic inhabitants of the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea, which arose as a result of the maritime dominion of the Phoenicians in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea, they will be dealt with elsewhere.

Greeks in Italy

So, of all the peoples who lived on the shores of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea, the Hellenic navigators, in all likelihood, first of all began to visit the coast of Italy. However, if we ask ourselves important questions, from what area and at what time the Greek navigators got there, we will be able to give a somewhat reliable and detailed answer only to the first of them. Homeland of the Greek settlers Hellenic navigation was widely developed for the first time near the Aeolian and Ionian coasts of Asia Minor, from where the Greeks had access both to the interior of the Black Sea and to the shores of Italy. In the name of the Ionian Sea, which still remains behind the water area between Epirus and Sicily, and in the name of the Ionian Gulf, originally given by the Greeks to the Adriatic Sea, the memory of the southern and eastern shores of Italy, once discovered by Ionian navigators, has been preserved. The oldest Greek settlement in Italy - Cumy - was founded, as can be seen from 117 both from its name and from legends, by a city of the same name, located on the Anatolian coast. According to trustworthy Hellenic legends, the first Greeks to travel around the shores of the distant western sea were the Asia Minor Phocians. Other Greeks soon followed the path opened by Asia Minor - Ionians from the island of Naxos and from the Euboean Chalkis, Achaeans, Locrians, Rhodians, Corinthians, Megarians, Messenians, Spartans. Just as, after the discovery of America, the civilized European nations hastened to warn one another in founding colonies there, and these colonists became more aware of the solidarity of European civilization among the barbarians than in their former homeland, the westward voyage of the Greeks and their settlements in the western countries were not exceptional. belonging to some separate land or any one tribe, but became the common property of the entire Hellenic nation; and just as the North American colonies were a mixture of English settlements with French and Dutch with German - Greek Sicily and "Greater Greece" included the most diverse Hellenic tribal elements, merged into one whole to such an extent that they could no longer be distinguished from one another . However, with the exception of a few settlements that stood apart, such as, for example, the settlements of the Locrians with their settlements of Hipponion and Medama, and the settlement of the Phocians in Giel (Velia, Elea), founded already at the end of that era, all these colonies can be divided into three main groups. To the first group belong cities of Ionian origin, but subsequently p.125 known under the general name of Chalkid, such as: in Italy - Cumy, together with other Greek settlements at the foot of Vesuvius, and Region, and in Sicily - Zankle (later Messana) , Naxos, Katana, Leontynes, Himera; the second - Achaean - group consists of Sybaris and most of the great Greek cities; to the third - Dorian - belong: Syracuse, Gela, Akragant and most of the Sicilian colonies, and in Italy - only Tarentum (Tarentum) and its settlements of Heraclea. In general, the main part in the resettlement belonged to the most ancient of the Hellenic tribes - the Ionians - and the tribes that lived in the Peloponnese before the Dorians migrated there; of these latter, communities with a mixed population, such as Corinth and Megara, took the most active part in the migrations, and to a lesser extent, purely Dorian areas; this is due to the fact that the Ionians have long been engaged in trade and navigation, and the Dorian tribes descended rather late from the mountains lying inland to the coastal countries and always kept aloof from maritime trade. These various groups of migrants are very clearly distinguished from each other by their monetary system. The Phocaean settlers minted their coin according to the Babylonian pattern circulating in Asia. The cities of Chalcis, in the most ancient times, kept to the Aeginian model, i.e., that which originally prevailed in all European Greece, and especially in its modified form, which is found in Euboea. The Achaean communities minted according to the Corinthian pattern, and, finally, the Dorian ones, according to the one introduced by Solon in Attica in 160 from the founding of Rome, with the only difference that Tarentum and Heraclea followed the example of their Achaean neighbors more than the example of the Sicilian Dorians.

Time of the Greek Migration

118 The exact timing of the first sea journeys and the first migrations will, of course, always remain shrouded in deep obscurity. However, even here we can to some extent find the continuity of events. In the most ancient historical monument of the Greeks, belonging, like the most ancient relations with the West, to the Ionians of Asia Minor, - in Homeric songs - the horizon embraces almost nothing but the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea. The sailors, who were carried into the western sea by storms, could, on their return to Asia Minor, bring news of the existence of the western mainland and tell something about the whirlpools they saw and about the islands with fire-breathing mountains; however, even in those Greek countries that had previously entered into relations with the West, there was still no reliable information about either Sicily or Italy in the era of Homeric chants; and Eastern storytellers and poets could freely inhabit the empty spaces of the West with their airy fantasies, just as p.126 Western poets did this in relation to the fabulous East. The contours of Italy and Sicily are more clearly outlined in the poetic works of Hesiod; there are already local names of both Sicilian and Italic tribes, mountains and cities, but Italy is still considered a group of islands. On the contrary, in all post-Hesiodian literature, one can see the acquaintance of the Hellenes not only with Sicily, but with the entire Italic coast, at least in general terms. It is possible to determine with some certainty the order in which the Greek settlements gradually arose. The oldest and most famous of the colonies founded in the west were, according to Thucydides, Cuma, and he, of course, was not mistaken. Although Greek navigators could take refuge in many other, less distant marinas, none of them was so well protected from storms and from barbarians as that located on the island of Ischia, where the city of the same name was originally founded; and that it was precisely such considerations that guided the founding of this settlement, is shown by the very place subsequently chosen for the same purpose on the mainland: it is a steep but well-protected cliff, which to this day bears the venerable name of the Anatolian metropolis. That is why no other Italian locality is described in Asia Minor tales in such detail and so vividly as the one in which the Kums are located: the earliest travelers in the west set foot there for the first time on that fabulous land, about which they had heard so many wonderful stories, and, imagining that they ended up in some kind of magical world, left traces of their stay there in the name of the rocks of the Sirens and in the name of the Aorn lake leading to the underworld. If, however, it was in Cum that the Greeks first became neighbors of the Italics, then this very easily explains the fact that for many centuries they called all Italics opic, that is, the name of that Italic tribe that lived in the closest neighborhood with the Cum. In addition, we know from reliable legends that the settlement of lower Italy and Sicily by dense crowds of Hellenes separated from the foundation of Kum for a considerable period of time, that it was undertaken by the same Ionians from Chalkis and from Naxos, that Naxos, located in Sicily, was the oldest of all the Greek cities founded in Italy and Sicily by real colonization, and finally, that the Achaeans and Dorians took part in the colonization only at a later time. However, apparently, there is no way to even approximately determine the years of all these events. The founding of the Achaean city of Sybaris in 33 and the founding of the Dorian city of Tarentum in 46 from the founding of Rome are the most ancient events in Italian history, the time of which is indicated at least with approximate accuracy. But p.127 we know just as little about how long from this era the more ancient Ionian colonies were founded, as about the time of the appearance of the poetic works of Hesiod and even Homer. If we assume that Herodotus correctly determined the time in which Homer lived, then we will have to conclude from this that a hundred years before the founding of Rome [c. 850] Italy was still unknown to the Greeks; but this indication, like all others relating to the time of the life of Homer, is by no means direct evidence, but only an indirect conclusion; if we take into consideration both the history of the Italic alphabets and the remarkable fact that the Greek people were known to the Italics before the tribal name of the Hellenes came into use, and that the Italics gave the Hellenes the name Grai or Graeci after a tribe that disappeared early in Hellas, then the earliest relations between the Italics and the Greeks will have to be attributed to a much more ancient era.

The nature of the Greek migration

True, the history of the Italian and Sicilian Greeks is not included in the history of Italy as an integral part: the Hellenic colonists who settled in the west were constantly in the closest connection with their homeland - they took part in national festivals and enjoyed the rights of the Hellenes. Nevertheless, when presenting the history of Italy, it is necessary to outline the diverse nature of the Greek settlements and point out, in any case, those very outstanding features that determined the many-sided influence of Greek colonization on Italy. Achaean city union Among all the p. 128 Greek colonies, the most concentrated in itself and the most closed was the one from which the Achaean Union of Cities arose; it included the cities of Siris, Pandosia, Metab, or Metapont, Sybaris with their settlements of Posidonia and Laos, Croton, Caulonia, Temes, Terina and Pixos. These colonists, for the most part, belonged to that Greek tribe which stubbornly retained both its peculiar dialect, which was most closely related to Dorian, and the old national Hellenic script in place of the new alphabet that had come into common use, and which, thanks to its strong allied organization, guarded its special nationality and from the influence of the barbarians and from the influence of the rest of the Greeks. What Polybius says about the Achaean symmachy formed in the Peloponnese also applies to these Italian Achaeans: “They not only live in allied and friendly communion with each other, but also have the same laws, the same weights, measures and coins and the same rulers , senators and judges. This Achaean union of cities was a peculiar phenomenon of colonization. The cities did not have harbors (only Croton had a tolerable raid) and did not trade themselves; a resident of Sybaris could boast that he lived his whole life without leaving the bridges inside the city built on the lagoons, while the natives of Miletus and the Etruscans were engaged in trade instead of him. However, the Greeks owned there not only the coastal strip of land, on the contrary, they dominated from sea to sea "in the country of wine and bulls" (Οἰνωτρία, Ἰταλία), or in "Great Hellas", and local farmers were obliged to work the land for them and pay them dues as their clients or even serfs. Sybaris, which was at one time the largest of the Italian cities, ruled over four barbarian tribes, owned twenty-five towns and was able to establish Laos and Posidonia on the shores of another sea; the extremely fertile lowlands of Cratis and Bradan brought huge profits to the Sybarites and Metapontians, and there, probably, the land was first cultivated for the sale of grain bread for export. The high degree of prosperity that these states achieved in an incredibly short time is most clearly evidenced by the only artistic works of these Italian Achaeans that have come down to us - coins: they are distinguished by strict antique-fine work and are generally the oldest monuments of art and writing in Italy; they began to be minted, as has been proved, already in 174. from the founding of Rome. These coins prove that the Achaeans who lived in the west not only took part in the development of the art of sculpture, which at that time achieved brilliant success in their homeland, but even surpassed their homeland in terms of technology: instead of p.129, minted on only one side and always without any inscription of thick pieces of silver, which were at that time in use in their own Greece and among the Italic Dorians, the Italian Achaeans began to mint very skillfully and deftly large, thin and always inscribed silver coins with the help of two homogeneous hallmarks, partly convex, part with recesses; this method of minting testified to the improvement of a civilized state, as it protected against forgery, which consisted in the fact that metals of lower quality were enveloped in thin silver leaves. However, this rapid prosperity did not bear any fruit. In a carefree existence that did not require either a stubborn struggle with the natives or intense internal work, the Greeks had unlearned to strain their physical and mental strength. None of the brilliant names of Greek artists and writers glorified the Italic Achaeans, while in Sicily there were innumerable such names, and even in Italy the Chalcidian Region could call Ivika, and the Dorian Tarentum - Archyta; among this people, a spit constantly rotated at 121 hearths and only fisticuffs flourished for a long time. Tyrants were not allowed to rule there by the jealous aristocracy, who early took the reins of government into their own hands in individual communities, and, if necessary, found reliable support in the allied authorities; however, the rule of the best people threatened to turn into the dominion of the few, especially when the clans, which enjoyed exclusive rights in various communities, united with each other and served as support for one another. Such tendencies prevailed in the League of Friends named after Pythagoras; she prescribed to honor the ruling class like gods and to treat the subordinate class "as with animals." With such a theory and practice, she provoked a terrible reaction, which ended in the destruction of the Pythagorean league of "friends" and the restoration of the former allied institutions. But the violent strife of the parties, the uprisings of the slaves by the masses, the social ills of every kind, the application of impractical political philosophy in practice, in short, all the ills of a morally corrupt civilization, did not cease to rage in the Achaean communities until they crushed the political power of these communities. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Achaeans who settled in Italy had a less beneficial influence on its civilization than all other Greek colonies. It was more difficult for these farmers than for the trading communities to extend their influence beyond the limits of their domain, and within these domains they enslaved the natives and stifled all the germs of national development, without paving in return for the Italics a new path through their complete Hellenization. As a result, p.130 in Sybaris and Metapont, in Croton and Posidonium disappeared, and more quickly, and more without a trace, and more ingloriously than in any other country, that same Greek way of life, which everywhere retained its vitality, despite no political failures, and those bilingual mixed peoples, which subsequently formed from the remnants of the native Italics and Achaeans and from the admixture of the latest settlers of Sabelian origin, also did not achieve real prosperity. However, this catastrophe belongs in time to the next period.

Ionian-Dorian cities

The colonies of all the other Greeks were of a different kind and had a different influence on Italy. They also did not neglect agriculture and the acquisition of landed property; in any case, since the Greeks came into power, they were not content, as the Phoenicians were, with the foundation of fortified trading posts in the barbarian countries. But all these cities were founded mainly for the purpose of trade, and therefore, in contrast to the Achaeans, they were usually located at the best harbors and the most convenient places for mooring. The origin, motives and time of these settlements were very different; however, they all had something in common with one another: for example, in all these cities some newer forms of the alphabet were in common use and the Dorian dialect, which early penetrated even into those cities where, for example, 122 in Cum, was always in using a soft Ionian dialect. For the development of Italy, these colonies were far from being of the same importance; here it will suffice to mention those of them who had a decisive influence on the fate of the Italic tribes - the Dorian Tarentum and the Ionian Cum. Tarentum Of all the Hellenic settlements in Italy, the Tarentines had the most brilliant role. Thanks to an excellent harbor - the only convenient one on the entire southern coast - their city became a warehouse for the South Italian trade, and even partly for that which was conducted on the Adriatic Sea. Two industries brought there from Asia Minor Miletus - rich fishing in the bay and the development of excellent sheep's wool, as well as its dyeing with the juice of the purple Tarentine snail, capable of competing with the Tyrian - occupied thousands of hands and added export trade to the internal trade. Coins found there in much greater numbers than anywhere else in Greek p.131 Italy, and often minted in gold, still serve as eloquent proof of the vastness and liveliness of Tarentine trade. Tarentum must have begun his extensive commercial relations at the time when he disputed with Sybaris the primacy among the Greek cities of lower Italy; however, the Tarentines, apparently, never succeeded, unlike other Achaean cities, in any significant way to expand their territory, to secure it for themselves.

Greek cities near Vesuvius

While the easternmost of the Greek colonies in Italy developed with such speed and brilliance, the northernmost of them, founded at the foot of Vesuvius, achieved more modest prosperity. The inhabitants of Kum moved to the mainland from the fertile island of Enaria (Ischia) and founded for themselves a second homeland on a hill near the seashore, and from there they founded the port city of Dikearchia (later Puteoli) and then the “New City” - Naples. They lived, like all the Chalkid cities in Italy and Sicily in general, according to the laws introduced by the native of Catana, Charond (about 100) [c. 650] under a democratic form of government, which, however, was limited to a high qualification and gave power to a council elected from the richest citizens; these institutions remained in force for a long time and protected all these cities both from usurpers and from the despotism of the mob. We have little information about the external relations of these Greeks who settled in Campania. Of necessity or of good will they were still more than the Tarentines confined within the narrow confines of their territory; since they showed no intention to conquer and oppress the natives, but, on the contrary, entered into peaceful and commercial relations with them, they successfully arranged their fate and at the same time took the first place among the missionaries of Greek civilization in Italy.

Relations of the Adriatic lands to the Greeks

On the shores of the Regina Strait, the Greeks occupied, on the one hand, the entire southern and entire western shores of the mainland up to Vesuvius, on the other, most of eastern Sicily. Circumstances were completely different on the western shores of Italy north of Vesuvius and on all its eastern shores. On that Italian coast, which is washed by the Adriatic Sea, there were no Greek colonies anywhere, with which, apparently, the relatively small number and secondary importance of such colonies on the opposite Illyrian coast and on the 123 numerous islands lying along these coasts were connected. Although in that part of this coast, which is at the closest distance from Greece, two significant trading cities were founded in the era of the Roman kings - Epidamnus, or Dyrrhachium (now Durazzo, 127), and Apollonia (near Avlona, ​​about 167 d.) [ca. 587], but further north no ancient Greek colony can be identified, with the exception of an insignificant p.132 settlement on black Corfu (Kurzola, circa 174?) [c. 580]. Until now, it has not yet been proved with sufficient clarity why the Greek colonization was so insignificant in this particular country, where, it would seem, nature itself showed the way to the Hellenes and where from ancient times the trade movement from Corinth, and especially from the one founded shortly after Rome, was directed. (ca. 44) [c. 710] settlements on Kerkyra (Corfu) - a trading movement, for which they served as storage places on the Italian coast of the city near the mouths of the Po - Spina and Atria. To explain this fact, it is not enough to point to the storms that raged on the Adriatic Sea, to the inhospitality of the Illyrian coasts and to the savagery of the natives. But for Italy, the fact that elements of civilization coming from the east were brought into her eastern countries not directly, but in a roundabout way, through her western regions, had extremely important consequences. Even in the trade that Corinth and Corcyra conducted there, the easternmost of the trading cities of Magna Graecia, the Dorian Tarentum, took part in a certain share, which dominated the entrance to the Adriatic Sea from Italy due to the fact that he owned Hydra (Otranto). Since at that time there were no significant trading markets on the entire east coast at that time, with the exception of port cities near the mouths of the Po (Ancona began to flourish much later and Brundisium became known even later), it is clear that the ships that went to sea from Epidamnus and from Apollonia, often had to unload in Tarentum. And by land the Tarentines carried on frequent intercourse with Apulia; they brought to southeastern Italy everything that she owed to Greek civilization. However, only the first beginnings of this civilization date back to that time, since the Hellenization of Apulia was a matter of a later era.

Relations of Western Italics to Greeks

On the contrary, there is no doubt that the Greeks in the most ancient times also visited those western coasts of Italy that lie north of Vesuvius, and that Hellenic trading posts existed on the capes and islands there. Of course, the oldest evidence of such visits is that the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea were chosen as the scene for the story of the Odyssey. If the Aeolian Islands were found among the Aeolian Islands, if p.133 the Lakinsky Cape was mistaken for the island of Calypso, the Mizensky - for the island of Sirens, the Circeian - for the island of Circe, if the steep Tarracinian Cape was mistaken for the tomb of Elpenor set at a height, if near Caieta and lestrigons are found near Formia, if both sons of Odysseus and Circe - Agria, i.e. wild, 124 and Latin - ruled over the Tyrrhenians "in the innermost corner of the sacred islands", or, according to the latest interpretation, Latin was the son of Odysseus and Circe, Avzon - the son of Odysseus and Calypso, then all these are old tales of Ionian sailors who recalled their dear homeland on the Tyrrhenian Sea; and the same delightful liveliness of impressions that we find in the Ionian legend about the wanderings of Odysseus is reflected in the transfer of the same legend to the area near Cum and to all those places visited by the Cum sailors. Traces of these ancient wanderings are also seen in the Greek name of the island of Aetalia (Ilva, Elbe), which seems to have belonged to the number of places previously occupied by the Greeks after Enaria, and perhaps also in the name of the port of Telamon in Etruria; they are also visible in two settlements on the Cerite coast - in Pirgi (near Santa Severa) and in Alsion (near Palo), where not only the names, but also the peculiar architecture of the walls in Pirgi, are undoubtedly pointing to the Greek origin, which is not at all similar to the architecture of the Cerite and the Etruscan city walls in general. Aetalia ("fiery island"), with its rich copper and especially iron mines, probably played a major role in trade relations and served as a center for both foreign settlers and their relations with the natives; this is all the more likely because the smelting of ore on a small and unforested island could not be carried out without commercial relations with the mainland. And the silver mines in Populonia, on the promontory that lies opposite the Elbe, were perhaps also known to the Greeks and exploited by them. Since in those days foreign aliens were usually engaged not only in trade, but also in robbery at sea and on land, and, of course, did not miss the opportunity to rob the natives and take them into slavery, the natives, for their part, of course, enjoyed the right of retribution; and that the Latins and Tyrrhenians exercised this right, and with more vigor and more success than their southern Italian neighbors, is evident not only from legends, but chiefly also from the results achieved. In these countries, the Italians managed to protect themselves from foreign invaders and not only not to give up their trading and port cities, but also to wrest them from their hands and remain masters on their own sea. The same Hellenic invasion, which enslaved the South Italian tribes and destroyed their nationality, taught the Middle Italic peoples to sail and to found new cities - of course, against the will of the mentors. There p.134 the Italian for the first time replaced his rafts and shuttles with Phoenician and Greek row galleys. There for the first time there are large trading cities, among which Caere in southern Etruria and Rome on the banks of the Tiber occupy the first places; judging by the Italic names of these cities and by the fact that they were built at some distance from the sea coast, as well as trading cities completely homogeneous with them near the mouths of the Po - Spina and Atria and further south - Arimin, it should be assumed that they were founded not Greeks, and Italians. We, of course, are not in a position to trace the historical course of this ancient reaction of the Italian nationality against the invasion of foreigners; however, we are able to distinguish one fact, which was extremely important for the further development of Italy - that this reaction took a different direction in Latium and southern Etruria than in the Tuscan countries proper and in those that adjoined them.

Hellenes and Latins

125 It is significant that even the legend opposes the Latin to the “wild Tyrrhenian”, and the peaceful coast near the mouth of the Tiber to the inhospitable seashore on which the Volsci lived. However, this comparison should not be given the meaning that Greek colonization was tolerated in some areas of central Italy, and in some others it was not allowed. In historical times, there was no independent Greek community anywhere north of Vesuvius, and if the Pirgi ever were such a community, then they, of course, were returned to the Italics, i.e. Cerites, even before the beginning of that era, about which before we got the legends. But there is no doubt that peaceful relations with foreign merchants found patronage and encouragement in southern Etruria, and in Latium, and on the eastern shores, which was not the case in other places. Particularly remarkable is the position of the city of Caere. “The Tserites,” says Strabo, “were highly valued by the Hellenes for their courage, for their justice, and for the fact that, despite their power, they refrained from robbery.” This does not mean sea robberies, which Cerite merchants, like any other, would not refuse on occasion; but Caere was, to both the Phoenicians and the Greeks, something of a free harbour. We have already mentioned that Phoenician station, which later received the name Punicum (), as well as two Hellenic ones - Pyrgi and Alsion; the Cerites abstained from plundering these port cities, which, no doubt, was the reason that Caere, who had a bad raid and did not have any mines nearby, so early achieved a high prosperity and received even more for the ancient Greek trade. more important than by nature itself, the Italian cities intended for trading ports, located near the mouths p.135 of the Tiber and Po. All the cities named here from ancient times were in religious connection with Greece. The first of all the barbarians who brought gifts to Olympian Zeus was the Tusk king Arimn, who perhaps owned Arimin. Spina and Caere had their own treasuries in the temple of the Delphic Apollo, along with other communities that were in constant communication with this sanctuary, and in the oldest traditions of the Cerites and Romans, both the Cuma oracle and the Delphic sanctuary play a prominent role. These cities were freely visited by all Italics, for whom they served as centers of friendly relations with foreign merchants; that is why they became rich and powerful earlier than others, and for Hellenic goods, as well as for the beginnings of Hellenic civilization, they served as real storage places.

Hellenes and Tusks. The sea power of the Etruscans

Circumstances developed differently for the "wild Tyrrhenians". We have already seen what causes prevented the population of those Latin and Etruscan (or rather, were under the rule of the Etruscans) countries that lie on the right bank of the Tiber and near the lower reaches of the Po River from foreign maritime domination; but the same causes caused in their own Etruria the occupation of sea robberies and the development of their own maritime power, either under the influence of special local conditions or due to the fact that the local population had an innate tendency to violence and robbery. They no longer contented themselves with driving the Greeks out of Aetalia and Populonia; it seems that not even a single foreign merchant was allowed in there, and the Etruscan privateers soon began to venture far into the sea, and the name of the Tyrrhenians began to inspire fear in the Greeks - it was not for nothing that these latter considered the grappling hook an Etruscan invention and called the Italian western sea the Tusca Sea. How quickly and how irresistibly these wild corsairs began to rule, especially on the Tyrrhenian Sea, is most clearly seen from the fact that they founded strongholds both on the coast of Latium and on the coast of Campania. Although the Latins ruled in Latium proper, and the Greeks at the foot of Vesuvius, but among them and next to them, the Etruscans ruled in Antia and Surrent. The Volsci became dependent on the Etruscans; these latter extracted keels from their forests for their galleys, and since the sea robberies of the Antians ceased only with the occupation of the country by the Romans, it is understandable why the Greek navigators called the southern coast of the Volsci Laestrygonian. The Etruscans early occupied the high Cape of Sorrento and the still more rocky but harborless island of Capri, which rises between the Gulfs of Naples and Salerno like a real watchtower from which the pirates could survey the Tyrrhenian Sea. Even in Campania, they are said to have established their own union of twelve cities, and already in the historical epoch p.136 there are communities there within the mainland who spoke Etruscan; these settlements probably owed their existence also to the dominion of the Etruscans in the sea washing Campania and their rivalry with the Cumans who lived at the foot of Vesuvius. However, the Etruscans were not limited to robberies and robberies. Their peaceful dealings with the Greek cities are evidenced by gold and silver coins minted from at least 200 from the founding of Rome [c. 550] in the Etruscan cities and especially in Populonia according to the Greek model and according to the Greek sample; and the fact that the stamp on these coins was not Great Greek, but rather Attic or even Asia Minor, is an indication of the unfriendly attitude of the Etruscans towards the Italic Greeks. In fact, they were in a more favorable position for trade and much more advantageous position than the inhabitants of Latium. Occupying the entire space from one sea to another, they dominated in the western waters over the large Italian free port, in the eastern - over the mouths of the Po and then Venice, moreover - over the great land road that from ancient times went from Pisa on the Tyrrhenian Sea to Spina. on the Adriatic, and finally in southern Italy - over the rich plains of Capua and Nola. They possessed the most important products in the Italian export trade: iron from Etalia, copper from Volaterra and Campania, silver from Populonia, and even amber, which was delivered to them from the shores of the Baltic Sea (). Under the protection of their pirate organization, which in this case played the role of an English navigational act, but only in a crude form, their own trade, of course, began to flourish, and it is not surprising either that the Etruscan merchants could compete with the Milesian merchants in Sybaris, nor that this combination of privateering with wholesale trade gave rise to that immense and reckless luxury, among which the forces of the Etruscans were exhausted early.

Rivalry between the Phoenicians and the Hellenes

The defensive and partly hostile position in which the Etruscans and, to a lesser degree, the Latins became in relation to the Hellenes, must have also responded to the rivalry that at that time had the strongest influence on trade and shipping in the Mediterranean - on the rivalry of the Phoenicians. with the Hellenes. This is not the place to describe in detail how in the era of the Roman kings these two great nations fought for dominance on all the shores of the Mediterranean - in Greece and in Asia Minor itself, in Crete and Cyprus, on the African, Spanish and Celtic coasts; this struggle was not carried out directly on Italian soil, but its consequences were deeply and long felt in Italy. The fresh energy and more versatile talents of the younger of the two rivals at first gave him the upper hand everywhere; the Hellenes not only got rid of p.137 the Phoenician trading posts established both in their European and Asian homelands, but even drove the Phoenicians out of Crete and Cyprus, established themselves in Egypt and Cyrene, and took possession of lower Italy and the greater eastern part of the Sicilian island. Small Phoenician trading settlements everywhere had to give way to more vigorous Greek colonization. Selinus (126) and Acragast (174) were already founded in western Sicily; bold Asia Minor Phocians have already begun to travel around the most remote western sea, built Massalia on the Celtic coast (about 150) [c. 600] and began to get acquainted with the coast of Spain. But about half of the 2nd century [c. 600] the development of Greek colonization suddenly stopped; the reason for this suspension, no doubt, was the rapid growth of the most powerful of the cities founded by the Phoenicians in Libya - Carthage, apparently caused by the danger that the Hellenes began to threaten the entire Phoenician tribe. Although the nation that initiated maritime trade in the Mediterranean had already been robbed by its younger rival of exclusive dominion over the western sea, the possession of both routes connecting the eastern basin of the Mediterranean with the western, and the monopoly of commercial mediation between east and west, but the Phoenicians still they could retain dominion at least over the sea west of Sardinia and Sicily; Carthage took up this matter with all the stubborn and prudent energy characteristic of the Aramaic tribe. Both the resistance of the Phoenicians and their colonization took on a completely different character. The oldest Phoenician settlements, like those they founded in Sicily and were described by Thucydides, were trading posts, and Carthage subjugated vast countries with numerous subjects and strong fortresses. Until then, the Phoenician settlements defended themselves against the Greeks one by one, while the powerful Libyan city concentrated all the defensive forces of its fellow tribesmen with such unbending determination, which was not equal in Greek history.

Phoenicians and Italics in the fight against the Hellenes

But perhaps the most important moment of this reaction for the future was the close connection that the weaker Phoenicians entered into for defense against the Hellenes with the native population of Sicily and Italy. When the Cnidians and Rhodians tried to establish themselves near Lilibei, in the very center of the Phoenician settlements in Sicily, around 175, they were driven out from there by the natives - the Elymeans from Segest - and the Phoenicians. When the Phocians settled about 217 in Alalia (Aleria) on the island of Corsica, against Caere, to drive them out, an allied fleet of the Etruscans and Carthaginians, consisting of one hundred and twenty sailing ships, appeared; and although in the naval battle that took place there - one of the most ancient, with which p. 138 is familiar to history - the victory was attributed to itself by a twice as weak fleet of the Phocians, however, the Carthaginians and Etruscans achieved the goal of their attack: the Phocians left Corsica and settled on a less open for attacks on the banks of the Lucania at Giele (Velia). The agreement concluded between 128 Etruria and Carthage not only established rules regarding the importation of goods and punishment for their violation, but was at the same time a military alliance (συμμαχία ), the importance of which is evidenced by the above-mentioned battle of Alalia. It is characteristic of the situation of the Cerites that in the square in Caer they stoned the captured Phocians with stones and then, in order to make amends for their crime, sent gifts to the Delphic Apollo, Latium did not take part in this struggle with the Hellenes; on the contrary, the Romans were in very ancient times on friendly terms with the Phocians, both with those who lived in Giele, and with those who lived in Massalia, and the Ardeates, as they say, even founded a city together with the Zakynthians in Spain, subsequently called Sagun. But the Latins could no longer be expected to take the side of the Hellenes; the close connection between Rome and Caere, as well as the traces of ancient relations between the Latins and the Carthaginians, serve as a guarantee of this. The Romans met the Canaanite tribe through the Hellenes, as they constantly called it by the Greek name (); but they did not borrow from the Greeks either the name of the city of Carthage, or the popular name of Aphrov; Tyrian goods were called by the ancient Romans Sarran, and this name, obviously, could not be borrowed from the Greeks; both these facts and later treaties testify to the ancient and direct trade relations between Latium and Carthage. The Italians and the Phoenicians did, in the main, succeed in holding together the western part of the Mediterranean Sea. In direct or indirect dependence on the Carthaginians remained the northwestern part of Sicily with the important port cities of Soleis and Panormus on the north coast and with Motia on the cape facing Africa. At the time of p.139 Cyrus and Croesus, just when the wise Bias was urging the Ionians to move from Asia Minor to Sardinia (about 200) [c. 550], they were warned by the Carthaginian commander Malchus, who conquered a significant part of this important island, and half a century after that, the entire coast of Sardinia was already in the undisputed possession of the Carthaginian community. On the contrary, Corsica, along with the cities of Alalia and Nicaea, went to the Etruscans, who began to collect tribute from the natives with the products of their poor island - resin, wax and honey. In the Adriatic Sea and on the waters west of Sicily and Sardinia, allies dominated - the Etruscans and Carthaginians. True, the Greeks still did not stop fighting. The Rhodians and Cnidians expelled from Lilibei established themselves on the islands between Sicily and Italy and founded the city of Lipara there (175). Massalia began to prosper, despite its isolated position, and soon took over the trade from Nice to the Pyrenees. Near the Pyrenees, a colony of Roda (now Rozas) was founded from Lipara; in Sagunta the Zakynthians are said to have settled, and even in Tingis (Tanger), in Mauritania, Greek dynasts ruled. But the Greeks no longer moved forward; after the founding of Acragas, they could no longer achieve any significant expansion of their possessions either in the Adriatic Sea or in the western Mediterranean Sea, and access to Spanish waters and the Atlantic Ocean was completely closed to them. Every year the struggle of the Liparians with the Tusk "sea robbers" and the Carthaginians with the Massaliotes, with the Cyreneans and especially with the Greek Sicilians was resumed; but neither side achieved lasting success, and the result of centuries of strife was only the maintenance of the status quo. Thus Italy was, though indirectly, indebted to the Phoenicians for the fact that, at least in her middle and northern parts, she had avoided colonization and that there, especially in Etruria, a national maritime power had arisen. However, there is no lack of evidence that the Phoenicians treated, if not their Latin allies, then at least the Etruscans, who were more powerful at sea, with that envy that is characteristic of all maritime powers: the story that the Carthaginians prevented the dispatch of the Etruscan colonies in the Canary Islands, he at any rate proves that competing interests clashed there too.

NOTES

Indigenous people of the Apennine Peninsula

Many tribes have lived on the territory of the Apennine Peninsula from time immemorial. Ligures settled on the slopes of the mountains (Alps and Apennines). On the banks of the Padus lived the Celts (Gauls, as the Romans called them). The central regions of the peninsula were inhabited by tribes that gave names to these territories:

• Etruscans - in Etruria;
• Piceni - in Picenum;
• umbra - in Umbria.

The Latins settled in Latium, and next to them, the Sabines and Guernica. wolsci and aequi. They all spoke Italian. In Samnia, the tribes of the Samnites and Sabelli divided the lands. The inhabitants of Campania had a dual origin: the descendants of mixed marriages of Oscans and Avzones, Osks and Avrunks made up the bulk of the population. In the south of the peninsula lived the Oscas (in Lucania and Bruttia) and the Iapigi (in Apulia and Calabria). Sicily was occupied by Siculi and Sicani.

Remark 1

Romanization of the population of Italy as a result of the Roman conquest led to the formation of the Italian people from various ethnic components. Latin, native to Italians, gradually replaced all other dialects.

First Greek colonies in Italy

For the development of statehood on the Apennine Peninsula, the Greek colonization of the island of Sicily and southern Italy had a great influence. The first Greeks settled in the Aeolian Islands and in Sicily about the second half of the 2nd millennium. But intensive Greek colonization began in the VIII-VI centuries BC.

The city of Kuma became the first Italian colony of the Greeks. The city was founded in Campania by settlers from Chalkis around 750 BC. In Sicily in 734 BC. the Greek colony of Naxos appeared. In the following decades, the cities of the Greeks grow along the coast of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas and in Sicily. The most famous of them:

• Syracuse - founded by the inhabitants of Corinth in 733 BC.
• Tarentum is a Spartan colony founded in 706 BC.
• Gela has been a colony of Rhodians and Cretans since 688 BC.
• Sybaris - in 720 BC founded by the Achaeans.

Prosperous Greek city-colonies began to establish their own colonies. Syracuse had the colonies of Acre, Camarina and Kasmena. Kuma became the metropolis for Naples, Abella, Zankla, Nola and Dicearchia. Sybaris founded Posidonia in 700 BC. Akagantt became a colony of Gela in 580 BC.

Development of Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily

Greek colonies were traditionally built on the coast of the sea, equipped with a harbor and became independent city-states in the nearest fertile area. They maintained close economic, political and cultural ties with the mother country. The political structure of the colony was copied from the main city.

Simultaneously with the preservation of Greek traditions, the colonists had to establish close contact with the locals. In the VIII-VI centuries BC, the Greeks still existed separately, but gradually subjugated the indigenous tribes and Hellenized them. This led to the stabilization of relations between the settlers and the local population and the flourishing of the cities of Magna Graecia (the territory of Greek settlements in Sicily and Southern Italy).

The enslaved indigenous tribes influenced the organization of the social structure of the policies. The category of free citizens consisted of their aristocracy, owners of large land plots, craft workshops and merchant ships. All of them were natives of the metropolis.

Remark 2

Free citizens also included workers in trade, craft workshops and shipyards. These groups (slaves, free poor and aristocracy) were constantly in conflict with each other. In the VIII-VII centuries BC. in most cities, the power of the oligarchy was established, which was forced to reckon with the demands of the demos. In particular, this was manifested in the codification of laws by Charond in Campania and by Zaleuk in Locri.

Umbrian settlements, Samnites. - Etruscans. - Agricultural and trading colonies of the Greeks in Italy. - The movement of the Greeks was stopped by the Etruscans and Carthaginians

Umbro-saber tribes moved to the peninsula later than the Latins. Geographical names testify that once these tribes occupied the whole of Northern Italy up to the Po River. Then they were partly ousted from here by the Etruscans, partly conquered: the extremely rapid Latinization of the southern regions of Etruria after the conquest by the Romans is, of course, explained by the presence of an Umbrian, related to the Latins, population. The Sabines, part of the Umbrians, pressed by the Etruscans, moved south, but at the same time they could occupy only mountainous areas, since the more convenient plains were previously occupied by the Latins. The inevitable clashes with these neighbors greatly weakened the Sabines. Another part of the Umbrian tribe moved east and occupied the mountainous region of the Abruzzi. As always happens in mountainous areas, these settlers also divided into several tribes - Samnites, Picentes, Girpins, Marses, etc., but they all perfectly recognized and felt their close tribal kinship. Far from powerful neighbors, these tribes led a quiet life and retained their strength. Their political life developed poorly, and in general they took relatively little part in the historical events on the peninsula. Only the Samnites subsequently withstood a serious struggle with Rome, but they also only defended themselves - their individual communities were weakly united, remained almost independent and could not resist the forces of Latium, firmly led by Rome.
The nearest neighbors of the Romans from the north, the Etruscans, or different, as they called themselves, were Indo-Europeans - and this is all that can be said positively about them. In their outward appearance, in language and in religion, they stand completely apart from other branches of the Indo-European tribe. They came to the peninsula by land and lived for a long time in the region of the Rhaetian Alps and in the Po valley. Pressed then by the Celts, they descended to the south and occupied the area between the Arno and Tiber rivers, partly displacing the Umbrians.
Initially, the Etruscans lived in communities, like the Greeks and Latins. Then cities appeared among them, ruled by kings and united in loosely connected alliances, usually consisting of twelve cities. The Etruscans had little inclination towards the military and much more towards trade. For a long time they had relations with the Romans, mostly commercial and, generally speaking, peaceful: individuals and their entire families began to move to Rome early, and the last Roman king Tarquinius was undoubtedly of Etruscan origin, which is proved by the names of all members

When, near the end of the 8th century BC, ships of a new type appeared in Ancient Greece - triremes, enterprising residents Corinth carried out colonization on a large scale. The Corinthian aristocracy (Bacchiads) strongly patronized navigation and the foundation of colonies on distant shores, firstly, because this paved new ways for profitable trade, and secondly, it made it possible in a plausible way to remove from the state opponents of the privileges of the aristocracy, who sought to establish equality. The island of Corinthians, already mastered by the Corinthians, was a convenient crossroads, facilitating further navigation to the west, to the shores of Italy and Sicily.

Even two centuries before the founding of the Corinthian colony on Kerkyra, Euboean settlers took possession of the ore-bearing Pitekuzu island of Enaria (Ischia) in the north of Sicily. Their strength was increased by the influx of immigrants from different parts of Greece. They founded a colony on the rocky coast of the Italic Campania near the island, at the Cape of Le Havre, and called this their settlement Kima (later the Romans gave its Greek name, Kume, a form of Cumae, Kuma); the soil was volcanic, very fertile, and trade with the natives was profitable; the colonists of Qom became very rich. The Corinthians heard it; they also heard that Theocles, with the Chalcidians, who had long been engaged in navigation, and with settlers from the Cyclades, founded the colony of Naxos (later called Tauromenia) in Trinacria (in Sicily), where flourishing Phoenician settlements existed for a very long time; that the Greek colonists built a temple to Apollo the Guide (Archegetes) on the spot where the Greeks first set foot on the Sicilian coast; that this shore is very good; from a huge mountain (Etna) the Akesin River runs into the sea, along which luxurious meadows spread, olive and lemon groves grow.

These rumors were attractive, and the Corinthian colonists sailed to the shore, the path to which from afar indicates the smoking peak of the snow-covered Etna. Probably, the Greeks had to wage many difficult wars in Trinacria with the Phoenician settlers, with the warlike natives, with the Siculi who moved from Italy to Sicily. But the Greeks endured the struggle and founded many colonies there.

Greek colony of Syracuse

In 735, when the Corinthian colonists had not yet established themselves on Corcyra, Bakchiad Archius had already sailed to Sicily; so the oracle ordered him to do, in expiation of the curse that lay on him. Tradition says that Archius wanted to kidnap the beautiful Actaeon; Actaeon's relatives protected him and he was killed in a fight. His father demanded punishment for the guilty, but in vain: Archias was Bakhiad, therefore he remained unpunished. During a great feast at the temple of Poseidon on Isthma, Actaeon's father threw himself from the roof of the temple into the sea, pronouncing a curse on Archius.

The Greek settlers, led by Archius, were accompanied by the poet Eumel, also a Corinthian. They landed on the small island of Ortigia, famous in mythology for its stream, Arethusa, off the southeastern coast of Sicily, in front of a spacious bay of this coast. Soon the Greeks built a colony on the coast and connected the island to the coast with a dam. So Syracuse was founded, which later became a magnificent city. Ortigia, which forms the excellent marina of Syracuse, has always remained the most important part of the city. It was surrounded by a special wall and was a citadel, in which there were shipyards, shops, and ancient temples. The Corinthian colonists of Syracuse and their descendants were the ruling class; they were called Gamors or "landowners". The Sicilian natives were enslaved, plowed the land of their masters and herded their flocks. The fertility and beauty of the environs of Syracuse and the advantageous position of the city for trade soon attracted new settlers there. Syracuse quickly became a large trading colony and acquired a strong influence on the course of the history of the Hellenic people.

Syracuse at present. In the foreground - the island of Ortigia

The most ancient, coastal part of Syracuse was called Ahradina; the heights above the seaside were gradually built up; these new parts of the city were called Tyche and Temenit. Two generations after the rise of Syracuse, their inhabitants founded (in 665) at some distance from the sea two new Sicilian colonies, Acre and Ennu. Then (in 645) the Greeks founded Kasmena, and in 599, on the south coast, near the Phoenician settlements, the port city of Kamarina; after 100 years, they destroyed it because in the war waged then by Syracuse, it fell away from them; her region they kept under their rule.

Beginning of Megarian colonization in Sicily

The example of Corinth captivated the city of Megara, whose region in Greece bordered on that of Corinth. The Megarians were subject to the Corinthians for a long time and, like the Laconian perieks, who were obliged to wear mourning for the death of the Spartan king, they were obliged to come to Corinth to express grief when the Corinthian king died. But they regained their independence and then always courageously and successfully defended it from strong neighbors. To the 15th the Olympics Orsippus the Megarian won the race; he was the first of all the Greeks to compete naked, without a belt. This proves that gymnastics was diligently and successfully practiced in Megara.

After the abolition of royal power, Megara began to be ruled by a militant aristocracy. The fertile lands in the Megarian region belonged to aristocrats. Common Greeks lived in scattered settlements in the highlands and on the seaside; they were tight. The government wanted to remove the excess population from the state, therefore it favored colonization.

Megara lay between the largest western and eastern gulfs of Greece - Corinthian and Saronic. Her merchant ships sailed both to the western sea and to the east. Around the year 725, Greek settlers from Megara founded a colony in Sicily at a beautiful bay north of Syracuse, in an area rich in forests and pastures. They named their city Megara of Hybele. Tradition says that this Sicilian Megara received the name "Giblean" on behalf of the king, who gave way to the settlers to build the city. New Greek inhabitants poured into the colony. The merchant ships of Megara of Gible were not afraid to sail along the southern coast of Sicily, dangerous for its rocks protruding far into the sea, from the gorges of which swift streams run.

Colonies of Selinunte, Gela and Acragas

A hundred years later, after the founding of Megara of Gible, the Greek settlers built from it (about 620 BC) on the same Sicilian coast between the Phoenician settlements the colony of Selinunt ("Ivy"), by the river, which was also called Selinunt. The Phoenicians tried in vain to thwart their undertaking. This coastal area was rich in palm groves and was only two days' sail from Carthage.

The path along the southern coast of Sicily had already been shown to the Megarians by the Greeks from Rhodes, brave sailors accustomed to penetrating where the Phoenicians sailed. Long before the founding of Selinunte, the Rhodians built the colony of Gelu on the southern coast of Sicily (about 690 (o) 620). A century later, Gela, whose population had been increased by the influx of new migrants from Rhodes, from Thera and Cnidus, founded (about 582) on the terrace of a steep rock the colony of Akragas (Agrigentum), which soon became more magnificent and stronger than its metropolis and which was called " most beautiful of all cities."

Temple of Concord in ancient Akragant (now - Agrigento)

Both in Gela and in Akragant, the Dorian aristocrats who founded them ruled, dividing in these colonies into phyla Gilles, Dimans and Pamphils. Commoners of Greek origin - artisans, sailors, small traders - did not have political rights. The Sicilian natives were enslaved and plowed the land or grazed the herds of their masters, the noble Dorians.

Colonies of Croton and Sybaris

Like the Megarians, citizens of other regions of the Corinthian coast followed the example of the Corinthians. It often happened that in order to move west, these emigrants boarded Corinthian ships or sailed on their ships with them. To the south of the southeastern protrusion, by which Italy approaches Greece, and which the Greeks called the Iapygian, is a fertile mountainous region; grapes and olives grew excellently on the slopes of its mountains, and above the vineyards there were beautiful pastures, magnificent plane trees and cypress forests, which provided excellent material for shipbuilding. Here, in the land of the oenotras (“wine-makers”), the Achaean colonists from Helika and Eg, with an admixture of emigrants from other areas, founded the colonies of Sybaris (about 720) and Croton (about 710). It was not long before the Lacedaemonian steamFenians founded the city of Tarentum in the middle of the bend of that bay.

Coin (nom) of Sybaris. Second half of the 6th century BC

The citizens of Sybaris and Croton gave the newcomers a share in their political rights, and their land was very good, therefore the population of these Greek colonies of Italy increased rapidly and they became very strong. The Greeks of Sybaris and Croton subjugated the neighboring tribes of primroses and Oscans, placed them in a position similar to serfdom, and founded many colonies, some even on the eastern coast of Italy. One Sybaris founded 25 cities. The northernmost of these was Posidonia (Paestum). In his brilliant time, Sybaris could lead 300,000 warriors into the field, and 5,000 magnificently dressed horsemen appeared in the processions of his holidays. The banks of the Kratisa River, on which this colony stood, were built up with houses for more than a whole geographical mile (about 7.5 km.).

Ancient Greek temple in Paestum (Posidonia), Southern Italy

But the wealth that the land rich in grain and wine and extensive trade gave to the landowners of Sybaris pampered them. They feasted, indulged in luxury, so that the name "sybarite" became a proverb to denote a pampered rich man, feasting and luxurious. It is said that young people in Sybaris wore purple clothes, woven gold jewelry into their long hair. The city gave golden wreaths as a reward to those rich who arranged sumptuous dinners for all citizens at their own expense. Such morals weakened this Greek colony, and two centuries after its founding it was destroyed by its neighbors from Croton, ruled by the followers of Pythagoras, who transformed the political and moral life of the city according to the teachings of their mentor.

Colony of Tarentum

Tarentum, founded by the Greeks in Italy about 708 B.C., also early became a city of luxury. It had an excellent harbor and a strong citadel on a rock. The founders of this colony were Spartans, but not from among full citizens, but people of the lower class. They soon became rich in their new country; this part of Italy was hilly but fertile. In addition to agriculture, the Greek colonists of Tarentum were actively engaged in trade and navigation. Having become rich, they began to live happily and were very fond of feasting. Their year had more holidays than working days. Tarentum's industry was highly developed. Thousands of hands were occupied in making cloth from the excellent wool of their sheep, and in dyeing the cloth purple; shells for paint were mined in the Gulf of Tarentum; the trade in purple fabrics gave the colonists of Tarentum great benefits. The bay was also rich in fish. The high state of the Tarentine industry is evidenced by the coins found in that area; they have excellent coinage and there are as many of them as anywhere else in the part of Italy colonized by the Greeks.

Colony of Locri

But the Locrian Greeks did not succumb to the effeminacy, who founded their colony in Italy (about 700) - to the north of Cape Zephyria - and called this city by their tribal name, Locris of the Epizethirs. The Greek homeland of the Locrians had an aristocratic rule. One hundred families of noble origin, which constituted a privileged class, formed a closed corporation, did not give the rest of the population any participation in the government and did not marry with it. The Locrians who moved to Italy were commoners, dissatisfied with their lack of rights in their homeland. Probably, among them were violent people, because the aristocrats, probably, took care, taking advantage of the opportunity, to remove the agitators most dangerous to them from their homeland to the colony. Emigrants from other tribes joined the Locrians. Such a mixed population of the colony, having no community of legal customs, needed the establishment of a strict legal order. This task was carried out in Locri by the famous Zaleukos, the author first written laws of ancient Greece.

Colonies of the Chalcidians

The most active sailors of Greece were the Euboean Ionians; they sailed wherever, with the founding of the Greek colonies, trading activity developed. In particular, many enterprising sailors had two Euboean cities, both standing by the Strait of Eurypus: Chalkis ("Copper City") and Eretria ("City of Rowers").

Chalcis got its name probably from the fact that it was a center for the manufacture of copper utensils and copper decorations on weapons; she traded these, products; those areas in which copper ore was located were the most attractive for the Chalcidians. After Chalkis, the most important trading city of Euboea was Eretria, which had good fishing for purple shells. The dominions of these two Greek cities stretched across the entire width of the island to the opposite shore. In the procession of the Eretrians going to the feast of Artemis at Amarinth, there were once 3,000 hoplites, 600 horsemen and 60 war chariots.

But earlier, at the dawn of Greek history, the main trading port of Euboea was, it seems, another city, Kima, which stood on the eastern coast, on a cape, in an area rich in vineyards. Tradition says that this Euboean Kima was the founder of the Italian Kima, which was considered a very ancient city, and in the vicinity of which there was an extinguished crater with deep cracks, which, according to folk fantasy, was the entrance to the kingdom of the dead, and near this crater were the Acheruz and Averno lakes, according to the dark color of their water, they were considered the black waters of this kingdom.

The extensive maritime trade of the Chalcidian Greeks expanded even more around the middle of the 8th century, when the rule in Chalkis passed into the hands of aristocrats, who were called there hippobots (owners of herds). They were large landowners who looked with contempt on the common people. There were pastures on the Lelanthian field suitable for breeding horses, therefore the Chalcidian aristocrats, who owned part of this field, had many horses.

Long accustomed to trade and navigation, the Chalcidians, leaving their homeland, where they had no political rights and were offended by the contempt of the hippobots, went to found new colonies. In the 8th and 7th centuries, several Chalkid colonies arose in southern Italy and Sicily, which quickly achieved prosperity. At the foot of Etna, in a fertile area, the Chalcidians founded (about 730) Katana, to the south from there the Leontines.

But the existence of Greek colonies in the west became completely consolidated only when the dominion of the Greeks was established over the strait separating Sicily from Italy. Settlers from the Italian Kima founded a city on its Sicilian coast, which they called Zankla ("Sickle"), in the form of a cape that forms the city's harbor. Shortly thereafter, the Chalcidians built on the Italian coast, obliquely against Zankla, Regium ("Connector", that is, the island's connector from the mainland). The strait reminded them of Eurypus, near which stood their hometown. The number of inhabitants of Zankla was increased by other colonists from Chalkis. After the First Messenian War, the Messenians who left their homeland settled in Zankle and gave it a Dorian character. The Zankleian Chalcidians founded a colony near the Phoenician settlements, on the northern coast of Sicily, by the river Himera, which they also called Himera. There they also made a pier, Mila.

When the Hellenes Asia Minor colonies fled from the Persians, then new settlers arrived in Sicily and southern Italy. On the advice of Anaxilaus, who seized dominion over Rhegium in 495, the Samian Greeks, who emigrated after battles of Lada, attacked Zanklu when its citizens went on a campaign against the Siculs, and took possession of the defenseless city. The Zanklyans appealed to Hippocrates, the tyrant of the Gela colony, for help. He went to Zankla, but made a treaty with the Samians, by which they recognized his authority and promised to give him all the movable property of the Zankla and all their slaves. Then Hippocrates took away the weapons from the Zanklyans and sold them into slavery. But the Samians did not hold out for long at Zunkle. Anaxilaus drove them out, populated Zankla with new colonists from various places, and left the city under his rule. He was a Messenian by birth and named Zancla Messana. To secure himself against Hippocrates, he entered into an alliance with Teryl, the tyrant of the Himera colony, and gave his daughter for him. Hippocrates probably thought to take Messana from Anaxilaus, but was killed in the war with the Siculi. Nine years later, Theron, the tyrant of Agrigenta, took Himera from Teryllus; Terill and Anaxilaus turned to the Carthaginians with a request to protect them from Feron.

All the colonies founded in Sicily and in Italy by the Chalcidian Greeks adopted (c. 640 B.C.) the laws written for Catana by Charondes, a younger contemporary of the aforementioned Zaleucos. The purpose of Charond's legislation was to establish agreement among the different estates with a precise and formerly just definition of their rights, and to provide a solid foundation for the development of honest and modest habits.

"Greater Greece"

The Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily, on fertile soil, under a clear sky, by the blue waves of the sea, quickly reached a flourishing state. The colonies of the eastern coast of Italy, to which were added Siris, founded by the Colophonians, and Metapont, founded by the Achaeans, were united by treaties and lived happily for a long time, adopting the laws of either Zalevka or Charonda. But in the end, luxury weakened them, the morals of the colonists deteriorated, strife arose between classes, quarrels between cities. In each of these Greek cities, the city council, consisting of citizens of the highest property qualification, managed the affairs; privileges by nobility of origin were replaced by privileges by wealth, the aristocracy was replaced by timocracy ("the rule of the rich"). But the qualification was determined by the size of landed property; therefore, the majority of the members of the government council of these Greek colonies were people of the old noble families. With the diversity of the soil of urban areas and with the difference in their location, the predominant occupations of the inhabitants were not the same: in some colonies, industry and maritime trade, in others, agriculture on fertile fields, cattle breeding on luxurious pastures, cultivation of vineyards and olive plantations.

Ruins of the Temple of Hera in Metaponte, Southern Italy

The Greeks of the cities of southern Italy recognized themselves as having created a new Hellas, and the expression of this proud feeling was the name that they gave to their country: "Great Greece". The altar of Zeus, the guardian of the borders (Zeus Gomaria), and the temple of Hera on the Lacinian Cape were the religious center of the cities of Magna Graecia: there the Greek colonists made common sacrifices. At these holidays, there were also meetings about the affairs of the whole country, there were games there, as in Hellas; the assembled people admired there the most beautiful of the works of industry, of the fine arts. Milesian merchants sailed to the marinas of Magna Graecia, buying an excess of bread and wine. But history knows little about these years of peaceful and strong development of the Greek colonies of Italy. Our news begins only from the time when the peaceful well-being of Magna Graecia was already disturbed by the strife of the parties and the internecine strife of the cities. The tribal differences between the colonies and the difference in their political institutions prevented them from uniting into one federation.

War between Sybaris and Croton

The decline of the Greek colonies in Italy begins with the death of Sybaris; it was destroyed, as we have already mentioned, by the Crotons, the tribesmen of the Sibarites.

In the second half of the 6th century, there were unrest in Sybaris. Small landowners, merchants and artisans envied the wealth and luxury of the upper class, strove for equality with it and wanted a more even distribution of property. Their first demand was the transformation of the government council in the colony, which consisted of a thousand citizens of the highest qualification. The lower estates of Sybaris wanted them to be elected to the council. Having been refused, they rebelled, expelled 500 wealthy citizens, confiscated their property. The leader of the rebels, the commoner Telid, seized power in his own hands. The citizens expelled from the colony fled to Croton and sat down, according to the custom of pleading for protection, at the altars in the square of the people's assembly. The Crotonians, then ruled by aristocrats and Pythagoreans, agreed to their request for shelter.

The new ruler of Sybaris, Thelid, was angry that the Crotonians had given shelter to his enemies. His irritation increased when the citizens of Croton expelled one of their wealthy fellow citizens, Philip, who won a victory at Olympia and was considered the most handsome man in the world, because he wooed the daughter of a Sybarite tyrant. Telid demanded the extradition of the aristocrats who had fled to Croton and threatened war if they refused. The Croton government council hesitated, fearing the military power of Sybaris; but Pythagoras persuaded the council to remain true to the promise.

Telis and the inhabitants of Sybaris gathered a large army - according to Diodorus, 300,000 people - and moved on to Croton. The Greek colonists of Croton were strong people, intensively engaged in gymnastics and military exercises. There was no city in Greece whose citizens would win so many victories at the Olympic Games. According to Strabo, there was once such a case that in all types of competitions the victory remained with the Crotons. And the most famous man in all of Greece for strength was the Crotonian Milo. He was the winner of the Olympic Games six times, the same number of times in Pythian, won even more victories on Nemean and on Isthmian games and carried his statue on his shoulders to Almida. He, with an Olympic wreath on his head, with a lion skin on his shoulders and with a mace, like Hercules, led the army of Croton. Beside him walked Doriaeus, the son of one of the Spartan kings, who stopped on the other side on his way to western Sicily, where he sailed to found a new colony, and wished to fight for the Crotons.

The omens before the battle were so unfavorable for the citizens of Sybaris that the Sybarite soothsayer Callius, a priest from the Olympic priestly family of Iamids, fled to the enemy in fear; this shook the spirit of the Sybarites and encouraged the Crotons. The number of Crotonians was three times less than the number of enemies, but they won a complete victory. They did not take prisoner, but killed everyone they overtook; therefore this lost battle was the death of Sybaris. Discord in it further weakened its defenses, and 70 days after the battle, this colony was taken by the Crotons. They plundered it and destroyed it to the ground (510 BC). And so that it was impossible to restore Sybaris, the inhabitants of Croton led the river Crates through the place where he stood. Those of the inhabitants who managed to escape went to the eastern coast, to Laos and Skidr, the former colonies of Sybaris.

Doriay built a temple to Athena in memory of the victory and sailed on. He was soon killed in battle with the Carthaginians at Eryx; but the settlers, whose leader he was, took possession of the Phoenician colony on the southern coast of Italy, the city of Minoa (c. 509); it became a Dorian city, and was named Heraclea-Minoa. The Crotonians gave the soothsayer Callius land in the former region of Sybaris.

With sadness the Hellenes of European Greece and Asia Minor heard the news of the death of Sybaris; in Miletus the regret for him was so great that all the men shaved their heads as a sign of mourning. The colonies of Miletus and Sybaris were united by the closest alliance of hospitality, says Herodotus.

Defeat of the Pythagorean League at Croton

But the victory did not bring happiness to the Greeks of Croton either. The democrats, who fought side by side with the aristocrats, demanded that the province of Sybaris be distributed to the people and that state institutions be reformed in a democratic spirit. Their leader was Cylon, a wealthy citizen who was hostile to the Pythagoreans. The transformation they wanted was to replace the aristocratic Council of the Thousand with a government council elected by all citizens, and to give the people the right to choose administrative dignitaries. The Council of the Thousand rejected this demand, and the people rebelled. The house of the athlete Milo was taken by the people and burned; the Pythagoreans who were caught at a meeting in this house - 40 or 60 people - were killed; the rest, and Pythagoras himself, were expelled. Their lands were divided among the citizens.

Hymn of the Pythagoreans to the sun. Artist F. Bronnikov, 1869

Similar upheavals took place in Locri, Metapontus, and other Greek colonies in Italy. This was the beginning of the class strife that killed the power of the Greek cities of southern Italy. At first violent democratic anarchy settled in them; she led them to the fact that power was seized tyrants; military and civil prowess disappeared, cities weakened. The dominion of the Greek colonists over the Italic and Sicilian natives was gradually crumbling throughout the space beyond the seaside strip. Murder, robbery, arrogant arbitrariness threatened Croton with the complete collapse of social ties. The Achaeans of the metropolis finally managed to convince the parties of Croton to reconcile, and they persuaded other colonies to do the same. Correct democratic institutions were established in them, an amnesty was given to all the exiles, and an agreement was concluded between the cities. However, this connection between the colonies was weak; its religious center was the temple of Zeus Gomaria. Common sacrifices and holidays there supported the memory of the unity of the origin of the Italic Greeks.