Dorian and Ionian colonies in Italia

[Gladius Hispaniensis]

Salve

 

I am curious to learn about the ethnic extraction of the various Greek colonies in Sicily and the Italian peninsula. I do know that Tarentum was settled by Doric colonisers who had named it Taras and I believe the same goes for Syracuse. Can anyone fill in the gaps here? Which cities were Doric and which Ionic?

 

Thanks in advance

[marcus silanus]

Salve

 

I am curious to learn about the ethnic extraction of the various Greek colonies in Sicily and the Italian peninsula. I do know that Tarentum was settled by Doric colonisers who had named it Taras and I believe the same goes for Syracuse. Can anyone fill in the gaps here? Which cities were Doric and which Ionic?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Tarentum was a Spartan colony and therefore Doric as was Syracuse founded by the Doric Corinthians. Two of the most important Ionian/Attic settlements on Euboea - Chalcis and Eritria - in turn founded one of the very earliest trading posts in the bay of Naples; Pithekoussai. Chalcis was also the mother city of Rhegium.

 

This is terribly sketchy, I know, but I hope that it's a start. This is part of the wider subject of Hellenic culture and its influence on that of the Roman Republic and is therefore very important and wide reaching. There was a conflict within Hellenic culture that, loosely, saw the Ionians viewing the Dorians as rather rustic and culturally inferior. A great example is the contrast between the Athens and Sparta; the former highly cultured and the latter a harsh military state.

 

The loyalty of any colony was to her mother city and the lack of political unity was a factor that led to their wholesale absorption by the Roman Republic following the Pyrrhic War. Ionian Rhegium, for example, resisted Pyrrhus and was sent the - ultimately treacherous - Oscan garrison led by Decius for protection against the Molossian King brought by Doric Tarentum.