II. Ancient and Classical Periods, 3500 B.C.E.–500 C.E. > D. Classical Greece and the Hellenistic World > 3. The Archaic Period, 800–510 B.C.E. > f. Sicily and Magna Graecia
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  The Encyclopedia of World History.  2001.
 
 
f. Sicily and Magna Graecia
c. 800
 
Before the Greeks arrived, Sicans, Sicels, and Elymi, along with Phoenician colonists, inhabited Sicily. Sicels also lived in south Italy, along with other native peoples such as the Messapii and Apuli.  1
 
c. 775
 
Pithecusae (Ischia) was settled from Chalcis, Eretria, and Cyme on an island in the Bay of Naples. A very early Greek inscription (c. 730) was found there.  2
 
757
 
Cumae was established by Pithecusan colonists, Chalcidians and Eretrians. Southern Italy came to be known as Greater Greece (Magna Graecia).  3
 
735
 
Thucles, the oikistes for a group of Chalcidians, established Naxos, the first Greek colony in Sicily. Subsequent Greek colonization drove the Phoenicians from most of Sicily. Only three Phoenician cities remained: Motya, Panormus, and Solus, all on the west coast.  4
 
c. 734
 
Corinth founded Syracuse, which grew to be the preeminent city in Sicily.  5
 
c. 729
 
Thucles, leading a party of Naxian colonists, founded Leontini in Sicily. Around the same time another group of Naxians, under Evarchus, settled Catana.  6
 
728
 
The Megarians, failing at colonizing Trotilon and Thapsos, succeeded at Megara Hyblaea, 14 miles north of Syracuse.  7
 
c. 720
 
Chalcis settled Rhegium, in Italy, just across the strait of Messene from Sicily.  8
 
c. 710
 
The Achaeans established Croton on the toe of Italy, which became a leading city in Magna Graecia.  9
 
706
 
Sparta established its sole colony, Taras (Tarentum), in southern Italy. The colonists, lead by Phalanthus, were Partheniae, children of Spartan men and helot women.  10
 
688
 
Gela on the southern coast of Sicily was founded by Cretans and Rhodians.  11
 
 
 
The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth edition. Peter N. Stearns, general editor. Copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Maps by Mary Reilly, copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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