. The eastern nations and Greece. Magna Gr^cia and Sicily formed an important region of Greek colonization. Corinth, as wasnatural from her position, took a prominent part in the establishmentof colonies here. One of the most important of her settlements wasCorcyra. The relations of this colony to its mother city was veryunfilial, and a quarrel between them was one of the immediate causesof the Peloponnesian War (sect. 249). i68 THE AGE OF COLONIZATION [§185 The colonies on the Ionian Islands were the halfway station toItaly, and it was by the way of these settlements that Italy during theera
. The eastern nations and Greece. Magna Gr^cia and Sicily formed an important region of Greek colonization. Corinth, as wasnatural from her position, took a prominent part in the establishmentof colonies here. One of the most important of her settlements wasCorcyra. The relations of this colony to its mother city was veryunfilial, and a quarrel between them was one of the immediate causesof the Peloponnesian War (sect. 249). i68 THE AGE OF COLONIZATION [§185 The colonies on the Ionian Islands were the halfway station toItaly, and it was by the way of these settlements that Italy during theera of colonization received a large and steady stream of immigrants. 185. Colonies in Southern Italy: Magna Grascia. At this timeItaly, with the exception of Etruria on the western coast, was occu-pied by tribes that had made but little progress in culture. Thepower of Rome had not yet risen. Hence the land was practicallyopen to settlement by anysuperior or enterprising r ti, - ? ? ^ ^T^ ir ? ^T Fig. 96. Ruined Temples at Paestum was the Greek Posidonia, inLucania. These ruins, which stand to-day on a desolate plain, form the mostnoteworthy existing monuments of theearly Greek occupation of southern Italy Consequently it is not surprising that during •the Greek colonizingera southern Italy became so thickly set with Greek cities as tobecome known as Magna Grcecia (Great Greece). Here werefounded during the latter part of the eighth century p,.c. the impor-tant city of Taras, the Tarentum of the Romans (708 ); the^olian city of Sybaris (721 ), noted for the luxurious life ofits citizens, whence our term Sybarite^ meaning a voluptuary; ^ thegreat Croton (711 B. c), distinguished for its schools of philosophyand its victors in the Olympic games ; and Rhegium (about 715 b. c),the mother of statesmen, historians, poets, and artists. 1 It was the habit, he [Plutarch] tells us. at Sybaris, to send out invitations witha years notice,
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