Magna Græcia (Gr. Megalē Hellas), the name given in ancient times to the Greek colonies of Southern Italy. The appellation must have been current at an early period. Polybius says it was used in the time of Pythagoras. Some writers include under the term the Greek cities in Sicily, others restrict it to those situated on the Gulf of Tarentum; but in general it is used to denote all the Greek cities in the south of Italy, exclusive of those in Sicily. The oldest settlement is believed to have been Cumæ, though it is doubtful whether it and its colonies, Dicæarchia and Neapolis, were really embraced under the designation Magna Græcia. The period assigned to its foundation—soon after the Trojan war—is obviously fanciful. The other more important Greek settlements in Italy were Sybaris (founded by the Achæans, 720 B.C.), Croton (by the Achæans, 710 B.C.), Tarentum (by the Spartans, 707 B.C.), Locri (by the Locrians, 710 B.C.; according to others, thirty or forty years later), Rhegium (by the Chalcidians; date of origin not known, but believed to be earlier than Sybaris), Metapontum (by the Achæans, 700-650 B.C.), Siris (by Ionians; date unknown), and Velia (by the Phocæans, 540 B.C.). These cities became in their turn the parents of many others. Of the earlier history of Magna Græcia very little authentic information has survived. The settlements appear to have risen rapidly to power and wealth, partly by the brisk commerce which they carried on with the mother-country, and partly also, it is conjectured, by an amalgamation with the Pelasgic (and therefore kindred) natives of the interior, as at Locri. About 530 B.C. Pythagoras, the philosopher, arrived at Crotona, and soon acquired supreme influence in Magna Græcia, though it did not last long. The quarrels between the different cities were often bitter and bloody; the most notable cases were the destruction of Siris by the Achean cities and of Sybaris by Croton (510). Besides this they were hotly pressed at times by the Lucanians and Brutnians; and finally, 272-271 B.C., the Romans conquered the whole of Lower Italy. Long before this several of the cities had disappeared. The longest to survive was Tarentum.
See the separate articles on the cities; also Lenormant, La Grande-Grèce (3 vols. 1881) and A travers l'Apulie et la Lucanie (2 vols. 1883), or the more popular Land of Manfred, by Mrs Janet Ross (1889).