Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/161

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Chap. X.]
THE HELLENES IN ITALY.
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nation "Græci,"[1] will be inclined to refer the earliest intercourse of the Italians with the Greeks to an age considerably more remote.

Character of the Greek immigration. The history of the Italian and Sicilian Greeks forms no part of the history of Italy; the Hellenic colonists of the west always retained the closest connection with their original home, and participated in the national festivals and rights of Hellenes. But it is of importance even as bearing on Italy, that we should indicate the diversities of character that prevailed in the Greek settlements there, or at least exhibit certain of their leading features—the features which enabled the Greek colonization to exercise so varied an influence on Italy.

The league of the Achæan cities. Of all the Greek settlements, that which retained most thoroughly its distinctive character, and was as least affected by influences from without, was the settlement which gave birth to the league of the Achæan cities composed of the towns of Siris, Pandosia, Metabus or Metapontum, Sybaris with its offsets, Posidonia and Laus, Croton, Caulonia, Temesa, Terina, and Pyxus. These colonists, taken as a whole, belonged to a Greek stock, which steadfastly adhered to its own peculiar dialect (distinguished from Doric, with which in other respects it had most affinity, e. g. by the want of the h), and retained no less steadfastly the old national Hellenic mode of writing instead of adopting the more recent alphabet which had elsewhere come into general use; and which preserved its own national standing distinct from the bar-
  1. The name Græci is, like that of Hellenes, associated with the primitive seat of Greek civilization, the interior of Epirus and the region of Dodona. In the Eoai of Hesiod it still appears as a collective name for the nation, although it is manifest that it is intentionally thrown into the shade, and rendered subordinate to that of Hellenes. The latter does not occur in Homer, but in addition to Hesiod, it is found in Archilochus, about the year 50 u.c. [700], and it may very probably have come into use considerably earlier (Duncker, Gesch. d. Alt. iii. 18, 556). Before this period, therefore, the Italians had already attained so extensive an acquaintance with the Greeks, that they knew not only how to name the individual stock, but how to designate the nation by a collective term. It is difficult to see how we can reconcile with this feet the statement that a century before the foundation of Rome Italy was still quite unknown to the Greeks of Asia Minor. We shall speak of the alphabet below; its history yields an entirely similar result. It may perhaps be characterized as a rash step to reject the statement of Herodotus respecting the age of Homer, on the strength of such considerations; but is there no rashness in following implicitly the guidance of tradition in questions of this kind?