Editing Magna Graecia (section)

==Terminology==
[[File:Napoli - Panoramica su Piazza Bellini.jpg|thumb|Remains of the ancient Greek city of Neàpolis (now [[Naples]]) in Piazza Bellini, Naples]]
[[File:Iron Age Italy.svg|thumb|Ethnolinguistic map of Italy in the [[Iron Age]], before the [[Roman conquest of Italy|Roman expansion and conquest of Italy]]]]

The original Greek expression ''Megálē Hellás'' ({{lit|Great[er] Greece}}), later translated into Latin as {{lang|la|Magna Graecia}}, is attested for the first time in a passage from the 2nd century BC by the Greek historian [[Polybius]]<ref>[[Polybius]], ''[[The Histories (Polybius)|The Histories]]'', II 39, 1-6-</ref> (written around 150 BC), where he ascribed the term to [[Pythagoras]] and his [[Pythagoreanism|philosophical school]].<ref>Polybius, [[wikisource:The Histories (Paton translation)/Book II#39|ii. 39]].</ref><ref>A. J. Graham, "The colonial expansion of Greece", in John Boardman et al., ''Cambridge Ancient History'', vol. III, part 3, p. 94.</ref>

Ancient authors use "Magna Graecia" to mean different parts of southern Italy,<ref>Kathryn Lomas, Aspects of the Relationship between Rome and the Greek Cities of Southern Italy and Campania during the Republic and Early Empire, Thesis L3473, Newcastle University, 1989 http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/744 p. 9-10</ref><ref>Calderon, S. "La Conquista Romana di Magna Grecia. " ACTH 15,1975, 30-81</ref><ref>Justin 20.1</ref> including or excluding Sicily, [[Strabo]] and [[Livy]] being the most prominent advocates of the wider definitions.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/magna-grecia_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/|title=MAGNA GRECIA|access-date=24 November 2021|language=it}}</ref> [[Strabo]] used the term to refer to the territory that had been conquered by the Greeks.<ref>Strabo 6.1.2</ref><ref name="CerchiaiJannelli2004" />

There are various hypotheses on the origin of the name ''Megálē Hellás''. The term could be explained by the prosperity and cultural and economic splendour of the region (6th–5th century BC); notably by the Achaeans of the city of [[Crotone|Kroton]], to refer to the network of colonies they founded or controlled between the end of the 6th and mid-5th centuries at the time of the [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagoreans]].<ref name="enciclopedia">{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/magna-grecia|title=Magna Grecia nell'Enciclopedia Treccani|language=it|access-date=18 September 2021}}</ref>