Italy is a land in these years of conquest for many people coming from abroad, so that between the eighth and seventh century BC, a number of settlers from Greece began to settle on the coast of southern Italy and in particular in Sicily, Calabria and Campania.
Greek colonies in Italy were certainly more substantial than those coming from the Ionian and the Peloponnese, which brought to the territory the first forms of democratic governance characterized by citizen participation in political life and that produced expressions and very high forms of culture and art.
Naples, Syracuse, Messina, Reggio Calabria, are just some of the Italian cities of Magna Graecia founded in this period, a name given by the Romans to the colonies for the prosperity and high quality of life they could provide to its citizens.
The Greeks were favorable to the absorption of local cultures within their own by building relationships of mutual respect with indigenous peoples and ensuring centuries of good governance.
However, in the third century BC, all the colonies of Magna Graecia was absorbed by Rome and they began an inevitable and fatal downward parabole.