Italiotes
The Italiotes (Greek: Ἰταλιῶται, Italiōtai) were the pre-Roman Greek-speaking inhabitants of the Italian Peninsula, between Naples and Sicily.
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Greek colonization of the coastal areas of southern Italy and Sicily started in the 8th century BC as a result of refugees fleeing tyrants in "Greece." The Romans were efficient census takers and upon discovering "Greek" settlements on Italian shores asked these peoples where they were from. The responses were varied because Greece was not a country in that era, but an agglomeration of tribes or City States. The most prolific tribe was that of the Graeci, hence the Romans called them Graeci, or Magna Graecia meaning outside the area of "Greece" proper. This is much in the same manner we refer to the greater Metropolitan Area of major cities today.
The Latin alphabet is a derivative of the Western Greek alphabet used by these settlers, and was picked up and adopted and modified first by the Etruscans and then by the Romans.
Italiote League
Tarentum controlled the Italiote League from about the end of the 5th century BC and levied troops from the Greek cities.[1] Dionysius I of Syracuse conquered southern Italy (Magna Graecia), crushing the Italiote (Greek) League at the Battle of the Elleporus and destroying Rhegium.[2]
See also
Notes
References
- A history of earliest Italy By Massimo Pallottino, 15 April 1991, Page 118 ISBN 0-472-10097-1
- The Cambridge ancient history By John Boardman Page 709 ISBN 0-521-85073-8
- Rome and the Western Greeks, 350 BC-AD 200 Page 103 ISBN 0-415-05022-7
- Gender and ethnicity in ancient Italy By Tim Cornell, Kathryn Lomas Page 40 ISBN 1-873415-14-1
- Calabria, the first Italy By Gertrude Elizabeth Taylor Slaughter Page 107
