The Italiotes (Greek: Ὶταλιῶται, Italiōtai) were the pre-Roman Greek-speaking inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, between Naples and Sicily.
Greek colonisation of the coastal areas of Southern Italy and Sicily started in the 8th century BC and, by the time of Roman ascendance, the area was so extensively hellenized that Romans called it Magna Graecia, Greater Greece.
The Latin alphabet is a derivative of the Western Greek alphabet used by these settlers, and was picked up and adopted first by the Etruscans and then by the Romans.
Italiote League
Tarentum controlled the Italiote League[1] from about the end of the 5th century BC and levied troops from the Greek cities. Dionysius I of Syracuse conquered southern Italy (Magna Graecia), crushing the Italiote (Greek) League at the battle of Eleporus and destroying Rhegium[2].
See also
References
- ^ For the Glory of Rome: A History of Warriors and Warfare By Ross Cowan Page 25 ISBN 1853677337
- ^ The Encyclopedia of world history: By Peter N. Stearns, William Leonard Langer Page 68 ISBN 0395652375
- A history of earliest Italy By Massimo Pallottino Page 118 ISBN 0472100971
- The Cambridge ancient history By John Boardman Page 709 ISBN 0521850738
- Rome and the Western Greeks, 350 BC-AD 200 Page 103 ISBN 0415050227
- Gender and ethnicity in ancient Italy By Tim Cornell, Kathryn Lomas Page 40 ISBN 1873415141
- Calabria, the first Italy By Gertrude Elizabeth Taylor Slaughter Page 107
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