Volume 2

Italy / by K. Mason.

  • Great Britain. Naval Intelligence Division.
Date:
1944-1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Italy / by K. Mason. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/760 (page 5)
    Veii, their chief southern fortress, was destroyed by the Romans in 397 8.c. After inveterate resistance they were crushed politically by 250 B.c., and gradually lost their language, religion, and distinctive culture. But the Romans believed that they owed much to Etruscan manners and beliefs; and both medieval and modern Tuscany retained features which may be Etruscan in origin. Greek Colonies The Ionian coast from Otranto to western Sicily was colonized intensively and permanently by the Greeks from about 730 B.c. onward. Greek colonies were quite different from Roman (p. 10). As their Greek name apozkia implies, they were ‘a home away from home’, and were used as a remedy for over-population and economic distress. Each usually duplicated and was organized by a ‘mother- city’ (metropolis) or group of such cities, and had a well-established political constitution for the mutual defence and maintenance of an agreed mode of life and conduct. But once founded, the new city- state retained only sentimental ties with the old; politically, and even economically, it was independent and sovereign in its own territory. Where the indigenous tribes were friendly, intercourse and Greek culture spread rapidly and far; where they were hostile, and especially when Etruscan or Phoenician rivals instigated resistance to Greek exploitation, there were long struggles, frequent territorial conquests, and a few failures. ‘The principal regions of Greek settlement in Italy were as follows: A very early settlement was made at Cumae in northern Campania. This founded a ‘New Town’ or Neapolis (Naples) and other cities farther south, like Paestum (Posidonia) in the lower Sele basin. Along the ‘toe’ of Italy and the Ionian coast a group of cities, of which Metapontum, Locri, Sybaris (Sibari), Croton (Crotone), and Rhegium (Reggio) were the chief, formed a ‘Greater Greece’ (Magna Graecia). ‘The majority were established by 700 B.c. and some had much older traditions. hey formed a loose league with a federal sanctuary at Croton, and prospered on friendly terms with the natives till the Sabellian highlanders moved south about 400 B.c. cand occupied their hinterland. Sybaris, one of the oldest and most prosperous, was destroyed by Croton in 510, but was refounded in 443 B.c. under the name ‘Thurii. Tarentum (Taranto) created a wide-reaching dependency in the ‘heel’ of Italy and bore the severest shocks of the Sabellian move- ment. Its great harbour, fisheries, and easy landward avenues gave it