INTRODUCTION

For the last regional case study I will focus on ‘eastern Magna Graecia’, the band of Greek cities stretching along the coast of the Gulf of Taranto from Taras to Thurii. This strip equates more or less to the southern portion of Lucania, though Taras lay within the confines of Messapia. Taras was the most powerful city in the region, and it would become one of the most important cities to ally with Hannibal during the Second Punic War, its defection setting in motion a string of revolts by other Greek cities – and perhaps also some Lucanian communities (see Appendix D). Scholars have tended to see the defection of these eastern Italiote cities in terms of a broader, even global phenomenon: an expression of Hellenic identity and an effort by proud Greeks to recapture former glory. Yet Taras, Thurii, Metapontion and Heraclea defected two years after Locri and Croton, while Rhegion and Naples never revolted. The previous chapter discussed the bitter rivalry between Locri and Rhegion, and we will see later in this chapter that Taras and Thurii also harboured a long-standing rivalry. Livy (25.15.7) states explicitly that the Thurians did not revolt out of a common cause with the Tarentines or because of cultural ties with the people of Metapontion. Greek fraternity does not appear, therefore, to explain adequately why only some of these cities revolted, nor why they revolted when they did.