Were did Greeks live in Italy!?

Answer 1

They established city-states on the coastline of southern Italy (eg today's Naples came from Neo Polis = New City in Greek). Many upper class Romans became enamoured of Greek culture as evidenced in their architecture and entertainments.

Answer 2

They influenced Roman civilisation by bringing them a base to their religion, a type of democracy, but most important they brought a variety of the Greek alphabet with them. This alphabet was absorbed by the Etruscans and from them the alphabet evolved into the Latin alphabet. The Greeks lived mainly in southern Italy in an area called Magna Graecia by the Romans. Sicily too, was inhabited by the Greek settlers.

Answer 3

Several Greek city-states established colonies (settlements) in southern Italy and Sicily in the 8th and 7th century BC, presumably due to insufficient land to support population growth in the homeland. Being a more advanced civilisation, their arrival had a big impact on all the Italic peoples they came in contact with during the archaic (early) period. This led, among other things, to the adoption and adaptation of the western Greek alphabet by all Italic peoples, including the Latins and the Romans (the Romans were Latins).

Etruscan civilisation arose out of trade with and influence by these Greeks in what has been called the orientalising period; a term which refers to a period when Greek art was influenced by motifs from their east/orient, notably Syria and Egypt. The wealth which gave rise to Etruscan civilisation came from their mines and selling their metals to the Greeks. The Etruscans imported Greek manufactures, particularly pottery. They also adapted and adopted the orientalised style for their own pottery.

The Italic peoples also adopted the stone houses and temples and the columns used to support roofs or for porticoes of the Greeks.

Recent archaeological evidence has shown that the archaic Latins were also involved in this process described above and that there was influence by the Greeks of Cumae (a Greek city near Naples, some 125 miles south of Rome) as well as the Etruscan neighbours. Peoples who lived in Apulia and Calabria (the heel and toe of Italy) and the mountains of southern Italy (Lucania and Samnium) were also influenced by the Greeks.

Answer 4

Several Greek city-states established colonies (settlements) in southern Italy and Sicily in the 8th and 7th century BC, presumably due to insufficient land to support population growth in the homeland. Being a more advanced civilisation, their arrival had a big impact on all the Italic peoples they came in contact with during the archaic (early) period. This led, among other things, to the adoption and adaptation of the western Greek alphabet by all Italic peoples, including the Latins and the Romans (the Romans were Latins).

Etruscan civilisation arose out of trade with and influence by these Greeks in what has been called the orientalising period; a term which refers to a period when Greek art was influenced by motifs from their east/orient, notably Syria and Egypt. The wealth which gave rise to Etruscan civilisation came from their mines and selling their metals to the Greeks. The Etruscans imported Greek manufactures, particularly pottery. They also adapted and adopted the orientalised style for their own pottery.

The Italic peoples also adopted stone houses and temples and the columns used to support roofs or for porticoes of the Greeks.

Recent archaeological evidence has shown that the archaic Latins were also involved in this process described above and that there was influence by the Greeks of Cumae (a Greek city near Naples, some 125 miles south of Rome) as well as the Etruscan neighbours.

Already the 6th century BC the Romans started using the books of the Sibylline who were Greek oracles, some of whom lived in Greek city of Cumae in Italy. They also adopted the Greek god Apollo, who was an oracular god (that is he was the god of the oracles) and built the Temple of Apollo Medicus (the doctor) in in 431. BC. Apollo's son, who mediated Apollo's association with medicine and healing, was also adopted. The Senate was instructed to build a temple in his honour by the Sybil oracles in 293 BC. The Romans also procured a statue of him from Greece. The Romans also adopted the Greek twin gods Castor and Pollux and the mythology associated with them by the late 5th century. They turned Heracles, the Greek mythological hero (whom they called Hercules) into a god because he was said to have killed Cacus, a fire-breathing giant who was terrorising the Roman countryside and founded an altar near the city during his 10th labour. During the Second Punic War (218-202 BC) they 'imported' Cybele (whom they called Magna Mater, Great Mother) a Greek goddess because the books sibylline oracles said that with this Rome could defeat Carthage. Besides adopting some Greek gods, at one point the Romans linked their gods to the Greek gods and their associated mythologies.

The Romans adopted Greek columns for their temples and porticoes and the three orders (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) the Greeks used to style them. They also developed composite orders which were a mixture of these orders.

With contact with mainland Greece, there was also influence from this part of the Greek world. The first professional teachers in Rome were Greeks. The children of the rich received an education in both Latin and Greek and were fluent in Greek. The pinnacle of their education was a stay in Greece to study Greek philosophy. From Augustus onwards, the Romans modelled their statues on the Hellenistic ones. They also copied and modelled statues on those of the great classical sculptors of Greece. They adopted Greek medicine and Greek sports. They adopted and greatly improved on the Greek cranes and the ballista (a crossbow-like) catapult. Latin tragedies and comedies and theatre were based on the Greek ones. Roman theatre architecture was inspired by that of the Greeks. However, whilst the seating of Greek theatres were always built on hillsides, the Romans also built theatres with their own foundations which could be built on flat land.

Answer 5

They established city-states on the coastline of southern Italy (eg today's Naples came from Neo Polis = New City in Greek). Many upper class Romans became enamoured of Greek culture as evidenced in their architecture and entertainments.