Editing History of Italy (section)

===Magna Graecia===
{{Main|Magna Graecia}}
[[File:Magna Graecia ancient colonies and dialects-en.svg|thumb|left|Ancient Greek colonies and their [[:w:Ancient Greek dialects|dialect]] groupings in [[Magna Graecia]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodard |first=Roger D. |title=The Ancient Languages of Europe |date=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5216-8495-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00roge/page/51 51] |chapter=Greek dialects |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00roge/page/51}}</ref>
{{Legend|#cea980|NW Greek}}
{{Legend|#b5ad96|Achaean}}
{{Legend|#eacd85|Doric}}
{{Legend|#bebada|Ionian}}]]

In the eighth and seventh centuries BC, for reasons including demographic crisis, the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula, which became known as [[Magna Graecia]].<ref>Emilio Peruzzi, ''Mycenaeans in early Latium'', (Incunabula Graeca 75), Edizioni dell'Ateneo & Bizzarri, Roma, 1980</ref>

[[Greek culture]] was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the [[Ancient Greek language]], its religious rites and its traditions of the independent ''[[polis]]''. An original [[Hellenic civilization]] soon developed, later interacting with the native [[Italic languages|Italic]] and [[Rome|Latin civilisations]]. The most important cultural transplant was the [[Chalcis|Chalcidean]]/[[Cumaean alphabet|Cumaean]] variety of the [[Greek alphabet]], which was adopted by the [[Etruscans]]; the [[Old Italic alphabet]] subsequently evolved into the [[Latin alphabet]].

Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like ''Neapolis'' ([[Naples]]), ''[[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]]'', ''[[Akragas|Acragas]]'', and ''[[Sybaris]]''. Other cities in Magna Graecia included ''[[Taranto|Tarentum]]'', ''[[Locri|Epizephyrian Locri]]'', ''[[Rhegion|Rhegium]]'', ''[[Crotone|Croton]]'', ''[[Thurii]]'', ''[[Velia|Elea]]'', ''[[Nola]]'', ''[[Ancona]]'', ''[[Sessa Cilento|Syessa]]'', ''[[Bari]]'', and others.

After [[Pyrrhus of Epirus]] failed to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BC, the south fell under Roman domination. It was held by the [[Byzantine Empire]] after the [[Decline of the Roman Empire|fall of Rome]] in [[Western Roman Empire|the West]] and even the [[Lombards]] failed to consolidate it, though the centre of the south was theirs from [[Zotto]]'s conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Zottóne duca di Benevento |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/zottone-duca-di-benevento |access-date=16 August 2023 |language=it}}</ref>