By Magna Graecia (at the time no one called it that) we now mean that part of southern Italy and Sicily that underwent colonization by the various Greek poleis, which the colonists themselves called “metropolises.” The first of these colonies was founded by Chalcidian settlers on the island of Ischia and was given the name Pithecusa (some remains on the Green Island still bear witness to this). Other metropolises followed in no particular order: settlers arrived from Corinth and from Sparta; we find Messenians and Chalcidians as well, among others (Chalcis was one of the two poleis of the island of Euboea).
This phenomenon was due to demographic overcrowding and the consequent impoverishment of Greece. In previous centuries the Greeks had colonized the rich coasts of the eastern Aegean; now it was the turn of the almost unknown West. They set out led by an oikist, who guided them—after consulting an oracle—in search of fertile lands, safe harbors, and women, to ensure descendants; in a word, they were seeking a better future.
We will tell you four stories set in as many colonies: Kroton, Syracuse, Rhegion, and Locri. Naturally, these are not all of them. Enjoy!
K R O T O N, Kalos kai Agathos.
September 520 BC according to our calendar: the polis was still suffering the repercussions of the war and of the defeat against Locri Epizephyrii. It had happened about ten years earlier, and the Crotoniates had only their own aggressiveness to blame. There had been many skirmishes along the southern Crotoniate border, involving even the Locrian colonies of Medma and Hipponion.
But perhaps it is better to proceed in order, accompanied by Leonimus, a gigantic blacksmith whom we find seated sipping a cup of wine with his friend Derthis, who had requested his services. To discuss the work, he had invited him to the tavern. Both were stout men, but Derthis was younger and, having not taken part in the Battle of the Sagra, he was very interested in Leonimus’s account, which he himself had prompted. The wine had already warmed them both, and deep down the Herculean blacksmith enjoyed recalling his warrior past.
The polis was named after a friend of Heracles—Kroton—accidentally killed by the hero himself, who, to remember his friend, had erected a burial mound. The city had grown around it and was famous for the beauty of its women and for the health and strength of its men.
There was in the city an athlete who had already won seven times at Olympia, Milo, a legendary man, but not the only one to have triumphed at the games, so much so that a saying existed in the Greek world: the first of the Greeks in competition came behind the last of the Crotoniates. This story greatly infuriated the Spartans, who, by their constitution and because of the famous Greek hybris, felt superior to everyone!
The polis had been founded by Miscellus, who, after going to Delphi to ask where to found a colony, had been told by the Pythia—or rather by her priests—that he must establish the city between Cape Lacinion and Punta Alice. Miscellus, who was hunchbacked (as mentioned, the leader of an expedition to found a colony was called an oikist), passing through Sybaris, already founded and flourishing, wondered whether it might not be better to stop there. The god Apollo, greatly angered, reminded Miscellus in his own way that it was not wise to disobey an oracle and ordered him to stop between the Lacinian promontory and the sacred Kramisa. So strong was the bond between the Achaean colony and Delphi that the coins minted at Kroton bore the Delphic tripod in high relief.
From the volume: Flutes of War, Nino Salzone alias Cenides, 2025
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