Magna Graecia

This is the area where Roman and Greek cultures first came into conflict and merged.

Date: 700 b. c.e.-700 c. e.

Category: Cities and civilizations Locale: Southern Italy

Background The term Magna Graecia (MAG-nuh GREE-shuh) generally refers to the coastal regions of Italy from the heel of the Italian peninsula clockwise to just north of the Bay of Naples, wherein a significant cluster of Greek-founded cities prospered before and into the Roman period. Some of the more prominent of these colonies were Tarentum (Taranto), Croton (Crotone), Paestum, Naples, and Cumae, but dozens of other cities are known, many of which have been at least partially excavated. The term can also be taken more generally to denote the Greek world outside mainland Greece. Mainland Greeks established colonies around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, mostly in the eighth through sixth centuries b. c.e. Most of these colonies were located where trading entrepots had already been established. Mycenaean remains at some of these sites confirm the existence of long-established trade ties between Greece and Italy. The most significant of the colonizers of Italy were the Achaeans, a confederation of small cities in the northwest part of the Peloponnese. The Spartans had one Italian colony, although it gradually gained preeminence over many of the others.

The colonies in Italy, like all Greek colonies, tended to retain loose political and economic ties to their mother cities. The result was twofold. The petty particularism of intercity rivalries and suspicion common to mainland Greece became an embedded feature of Magna Graecia as well. On the other hand, these ties to mainland Greece also provided an important conduit for Greek influence and commerce between the Greek and Italian worlds. For example, Greek-style vases are regular features in all sorts of non-Greek settings, especially in Etruria. The cities farthest southeast, such as Tarentum and Heraclea, tended to retain their distinctive Greek character the longest. The cities farther northwest around the Bay of Naples exhibited a more obvious cultural fusion with the Italian cultures with which they actively interacted. Pompeii is the most famous example of this process. Naples is an important exception to this rule, as it retained the use of the Greek language well into the Imperial Roman period.

Generally speaking, textual evidence for the history of this region is filtered through the experience of the Romans whose domination of Magna Graecia began in the last years of the fourth century b. c.e. The archaeological record and anecdotal references in the ancient sources are the main resources for the period preceding the Romans

The Colonies Tarentum, located at the northeast corner of the Gulf of Tarentum, was the lone Spartan foundation and is traditionally dated to 706 b. c.e. Initially unimportant, it eventually gained prominence at the expense of its neighbors in the middle and late 400’s b. c.e., gradually becoming the most important city in the southern gulf. Tarentum’s rise to prominence was largely at the expense of Croton, a colony of the Achaeans (c. 710 b. c.e.). Croton, located in the toe of the Italian boot, was the most powerful city in the area and well positioned geographically to dominate intercourse with Sicily and eastern Italy. It was this geographic advantage that prompted Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse to seize the city in 379 b. c.e., after which it never regained its former prominence.

Paestum, located thirty-five miles (fifty-six kilometers) southeast of Naples, was a colony of Sybaris, itself a colony of the Achaeans. Founded about 600 b. c.e., it was originally named Poseidonia. It quickly became prominent in trade with the Etruscans to the north. Some of the best surviving examples of Greek temple architecture from the sixth and fifth centuries b. c.e. are located within the original walls of the city along with many other significant remains. Paestum became a Roman colony in 273 b. c.e.

Cumae, founded in 740 b. c.e. by Euboean colonists, was the first of the Greek colonies on the Italian mainland. Located about ten miles (sixteen kilometers) northwest of Naples, it became the mother city of a whole series of other colonies, including Naples itself. The history of Cumae intersected early on with that of Rome. Aristodemus, the tyrant of Cumae, defeated an Etruscan army near Rome in 505 b. c.e. that probably included Roman elements. By 338 b. c.e., Cumae had become a staunch ally of the Romans after having cooperated with them in their war with their Latin allies. Thereafter, Cumae remained a significant city until long after the

Western Roman Empire collapsed. Naples, founded by Cumae about 600 b. c.e., had eclipsed its mother city in influence by the late 400’s b. c.e., after which it became the most important city in the area. Naples had become an ally of the Romans by 326 b. c.e. and retained independent status for another two hundred years.

One of the most intriguing figures of Magna Graecia was Pythagoras. Born in Samos, Pythagoras migrated to Croton about 530 b. c.e. and became a dominant intellectual figure there in science and religion. Much is ascribed to him personally, but it is likely that his disciples developed many of the ideas attributed to him. The ancients ascribe the first discussion concerning the transmigration of the soul to Pythagoras. These ideas were very important to the development of Plato’s ideas more than one hundred years later. Pythagoras’s followers developed a semisecret society in his name that featured secret initiation rites and dietary restrictions. Pythagoras seems to have become a cult figure during his own lifetime as well as the ancient paragon of the wise old sage. Pythagoras’s forays into science were related to his interest in religion, as were the works of the other pre-Socratic philosophers. He discovered the well-known geometric theorem that bears his name, as well as mathematical relationships in musical harmonics.

Contact with Rome Roman interaction with Magna Graecia coincides with some important thresholds in Roman history. The first paved Roman road was built in 312 b. c.e. to Capua and extended to Brundusium (Brindisi) by 244 b. c.e. The first Roman silver coinage was struck not in Rome but in Magna Graecia—probably Naples, about 325 b. c.e.—and should be associated with a treaty struck between Rome and Naples at about the same time. The Romans were interested in Naples’s fleet of ships. From the Greek point of view, this alliance with the Romans was consistent with the policy of the southern Italian Greeks to make alliances with powerful outsiders to counter local threats rather than to develop and maintain citizen militias. Rome’s involvement with Naples and Roman expansion into south-central Italy eventually alarmed Tarentum, the theretofore dominant city in the very south of Italy. This is the background to Tarentum’s invitation to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, to defend southern Italy from Roman expansion. This invitation backfired when Pyrrhus was unable to counter Rome’s enormous manpower reserves. After a series of indecisive battles with the Romans, Pyrrhus was forced to withdraw from Italy, leaving his erstwhile clients to submit to Roman terms.

The challenge from Pyrrhus was the last real obstacle Rome faced in organizing the southern peninsula under its control. Surprisingly, the Romans exercised a light hand in the settlement and did not attempt to rule the Greeks directly. Nevertheless, at least some of the Greek cities of southern Italy maintained ambivalent feelings concerning Roman hegemony. When Hannibal invaded Italy in the late 200’s b. c.e., some of these cities offered him aid and comfort. This assistance accounts for Hannibal’s long stay in southern Italy and, of course, a much more onerous settlement with the Romans after Hannibal’s hurried departure in 203 b. c.e. The Romans confiscated significant portions of land in the south and settled it with Roman and allied veterans and replaced the political independence of the Greek cities with Roman control. Some of these Greek cities disappeared altogether after this date, but it is difficult to know exactly what happened to them.

Since the 300’s b. c.e. , a significant cultural fusion of the Greeks with indigenous Italian peoples had been taking place. This fusion was hastened by the new Roman settlers such that the distinctive Greek character of Magna Graecia was mostly diluted after 200 b. c.e. Even so, southern Italy remained a culture apart from central and northern Italy. The rugged geography of southern Italy was clearly a factor. It provided refuge for rebellious elements late in Rome’s war with its Italian allies in the 90’s and 80’s b. c.e. and for the slave army of Spartacus in the 70’s b. c.e. Little is known of the history of Magna Graecia apart from what concerned the Roman Empire for the next few centuries.

Further Reading

De Angeles, Franco. Megara Hyblaia and Selinous: Two Greek City-States in Archaic Sicily. Oxford, England: University of Oxford, Committee for Archaeology, 2003.

Fredericksen, M. Campania. London: Routledge, 1984.

Pugliese Carratelli, Giovanni. The Western Greeks. London: Thames and Hudson, 1996.

Ridgway, D. The First Western Greeks. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Randall S. Howarth

See also: Dionysius the Elder; Pyrrhus; Pythagoras; Trade, Commerce, and Colonization.

Rome’s victory over Antiochus the Great ended Seleucidpower in Asia Minor, thereafter exposing the subcontinent to Roman imperial domination.

Date: 190 b. c.e.

Category: Wars and battles

Locale: Magnesia, western Asia Minor northeast of Smyrna

Summary Antiochus the Great, having formed an alliance with the Aetolian League and Sparta, sought to expand his power in the eastern Mediterranean by invading Greece in 192 b. c.e. This action alarmed Rome, whose legions decisively checked the Seleucid king’s expansion at Thermopylae two years later. Antiochus’s defeat was soon followed by a Roman invasion of Asia Minor.

At Magnesia ad Sipylum (mag-NEE-zhuh ad SIH-pih-luhm), Antiochus the Great assembled his army of 70,000 near the Hermus River. He placed the infantry in the center, interspersed with war elephants, and stationed sizable formations of cavalry on both flanks and to the front. The Roman force of 30,000, under the command of Gaius Domitius, was deployed on the left against the river, with contingents of cavalry positioned to the right of this main legionary formation. As the legions attacked Antiochus’s center, Syrian cavalry penetrated the Roman line and momentarily endangered the Roman left flank. Almost simultaneously, an intense charge by Roman cavalry broke the enemy’s left. Under the pressure of this combined Roman assault, Syrian resistance collapsed. In the ensuing rout,

50,000 Syrians were killed or captured.

Significance Rome’s victory at Magnesia ad Sipylum ended Seleucid power in Asia Minor and forced Antiochus the Great to relinquish all territories northwest of the Taurus Mountains to Rhodes, Pergamum, and Rome’s Greek allies in Asia Minor.

Further Reading

Grainger, John D. The Roman War of Antiochus the Great. Boston: Brill, 2002.

Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age. Reprint. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Liddell Hart, B. H. Scipio Africanus: Greater than Napoleon. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 1994.

Donathan Taylor

See also: Aetolian League; Antiochus the Great; Seleucid Dynasty.

Mantinea was the center of struggles for domination of the central Peloponnese.

Date: 418, 362, and 207 b. c.e. Category: Wars and battles Locale: Central Arcadia

Summary The geographical position of the large Arcadian plain dominated by Mantinea (man-TIH-nee-uh) in the north and Tegea in the south gave it strategical importance to anyone wishing to apply military pressure to Sparta, Argos, or Achaea (Akhaia).

The battle of 418 b. c.e. began with Agis II of Sparta marching on Mantinea to crush its alliance with Athens and Argos. Agis devastated the land until his enemies confronted him. He then drew up his line, with his Spartans on his right and his allies on the left. Against him stood the Mantineans, with their own members on their right and their allies on their left. Owing to the disobedience of two officers, a gap opened in the Spartan line into which the Mantineans poured. Agis, however, routed those opposite him, defeated the enemy, and ended their threat to Sparta.

In 362 b. c.e., the Thebans and their allies under Epaminondas confronted Mantinea, Sparta, and Athens south of their earlier battle. Epaminondas led his army in an oblique march against the Spartan line, which he easily broke, but was killed early in the battle. Fighting stopped, and the battle resulted immediately in stalemate and eventually in general peace.

The conflict of 207 b. c.e. pitted Philopoemen and his Achaeans with some mercenaries against the Spartan Machanidas and his mercenaries. Machanidas made the unusual move of interspersing catapults along his line. Philopoemen attacked immediately, but in confused fighting, Macha-nidas repulsed his mercenaries. When he failed to pursue them, Philopoe-men wheeled against the Spartans, decisively defeating them and killing Machanidas.

Significance Each battle temporarily furthered the victor’s political

Goals but was ultimately indecisive. Even the peace gained in 362 b. c.e.

Was short-lived.

Further Reading

Brewer, Paul. Warfare in the Ancient World. Austin, Tex.: Raintree/Steck-Vaughn, 1999.

Buckler, J. The Theban Hegemony, 371-362 B. C. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980.

Hanson, Victor Davis. The Wars of the Ancient Greeks. London: Cassell,

1999.

Montagu, John Drogo. Battles of the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Chronological Compendium of 667 Battles to 31 B. C., from the Historians of the Ancient World. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2000.

Pritchett, W. K. Studies in Ancient Greek Topography. Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.

Wees, Hans van. Greek Warfare: Myths and Realities. London: Duckworth, 2004.

John Buckler

See also: Alcibiades of Athens; Epaminondas; Philopoemen.

Greece defeated the invading Persians, which enabled the Classical Greek influences of philosophy, politics, and education to evolve.

Date: September, 490 b. c.e.

Category: Wars and battles

Locale: Plain of Marathon, 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Athens, Greece

Summary Ionian Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor revolted against Persia. The Persian leader Darius the Great invaded the city-state of Athens as punishment for supporting Ionia. Some 10,000 Athenian and

1,000 Plataean soldiers attacked 20,000 Persians shortly after they landed

The Battle of Marathon. (F. R. Niglutsch)

From the Bay of Marathon. The Greek commander Miltiades the Younger ordered an immediate attack so that afterward they could defend Athens from a second invading Persian force.

Miltiades strategically allowed the Persians to push back the weaker center of his line. Greek soldiers on the ends attacked forward and completed a “double envelopment”; both Persian wings were pushed backward and inward on themselves. The Persians panicked and retreated to their ships, suffering 6,400 casualties to only 192 Greek casualties. The Greeks quickly marched to Athens and scared away the second Persian force.

Significance Defeating the invading Persians saved the evolving Classical Greek ideals of civilization from suppression under Persia. The Persians, defeated, returned home.

Further Reading

Creasy, E. S. Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. New York: Dorset Press, 1987.

De Souza, Philip. The Greek and Persian Wars, 499-386 B. C. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Green, Peter. The Greco-Persian Wars. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

Sekunda, Nicholas. Marathon, 490 B. C.: The First Persian Invasion of Greece. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005.

Alan P. Peterson

See also: Athens; Greco-Persian Wars; Miltiades the Younger.