Hellenic Romans Discussion

Dedicated for all DNA, Analysis Results, History, Research topics related to: Hellenic Romans

Hundreds of years before the traditional founding of Rome (753 BC), Greeks began to colonize southern Italy. They established themselves along the coast of Sicily, and on the littoral of the regions now known as Campania, Calabria, Apulia and Basilicata. The Romans would later refer to this territory, which includes the toe of the boot of Italy, as Magna Graecia (Greater Greece). The settlers brought Hellenic civilization including Greek-style democracy and the Greek language to this land, interacted with the native Italic tribes, and had a lasting impact on the developing culture of Rome. The Hellenic cities were eventually absorbed into the Roman Republic. Naples, the Greek Neapolis, became Roman in 327 BC. Sicily, which was initially populated by Phoenicians and by their colony Carthage, was also heavily colonized and settled by Greeks. Syracuse, on the south-eastern coast of Sicily, was the most populous Greek city in the world by the 3rd century BC. All of Sicily was Roman by 212 BC, conquered during the Punic Wars against Carthage.