The Greeks were only a small minority in ancient Southern Italy.
The German classical historian Karl Julius Beloch (see: Die bevölkerung der griechisch-römischen welt, 1886 & Griechische geschichte, 1922) placed the number of actual Hellenes in mainland Italy at 80,000 people in the 4th century BC; however, the subjugated populations living in the territories under Greek control — who were non-Hellenic, even if sometimes Hellenized — numbered about 600,000 (both free and slave). This means that the Greeks would have been no more than 15% of the population even within their own colonies.
According to the estimates of Prof. Mario Cappieri (see: La composition ethnique de la population italienne, 1977), the Hellenic colonists in Italy numbered 33,000 in 600 BC. During that same time period the total Italic population of southern Italy and Sicily is estimated by him at about 1.6 million people. According to the estimates of Beloch and Cappieri, the Hellenic colonists would have formed only 2% to 4.7% of the total population in Southern Italy and Sicily.
According to British classical historian P. A. Brunt (see: Italian Manpower, 225 B.C. - A.D. 14, 1971, p. 54) the total free population of Central and Southern Italy — excluding Northern Italy and the islands, therefore — would have been 2.962 million people in 225 BC. Unfortunately, Brunt does not provide individual estimates for Greeks; instead, he counts Bruttians and Greeks together as forming a combined 210,000 people. If we divide the figure evenly — that is, if we assume that both the Bruttians and Greeks each numbered 105,000 — this would give us an estimated figure of about 3.5% Greeks compared to 96.4% Italians in Central-Southern Italy.
All of these figures are perfectly consistent with archeological findings. According to the 2015 study Urbanism in Ancient Peninsular Italy by Sewell & Witcher, in the 4th century BC the Hellenes had 14 colonial settlements in peninsular Southern Italy, representing just 5.3% of pre-Roman settlements in Southern Italy. Instead, the settlements of the local Italic tribes (not counting fortifications) are calculated at no less than 248, representing 94.6% of pre-Roman settlements in Southern Italy.
According to the estimates of Prof. Mario Cappieri (see: La composition ethnique de la population italienne, 1977), the Hellenic colonists in Italy numbered 33,000 in 600 BC. During that same time period the total Italic population of southern Italy and Sicily is estimated by him at about 1.6 million people. According to the estimates of Beloch and Cappieri, the Hellenic colonists would have formed only 2% to 4.7% of the total population in Southern Italy and Sicily.
According to British classical historian P. A. Brunt (see: Italian Manpower, 225 B.C. - A.D. 14, 1971, p. 54) the total free population of Central and Southern Italy — excluding Northern Italy and the islands, therefore — would have been 2.962 million people in 225 BC. Unfortunately, Brunt does not provide individual estimates for Greeks; instead, he counts Bruttians and Greeks together as forming a combined 210,000 people. If we divide the figure evenly — that is, if we assume that both the Bruttians and Greeks each numbered 105,000 — this would give us an estimated figure of about 3.5% Greeks compared to 96.4% Italians in Central-Southern Italy.
All of these figures are perfectly consistent with archeological findings. According to the 2015 study Urbanism in Ancient Peninsular Italy by Sewell & Witcher, in the 4th century BC the Hellenes had 14 colonial settlements in peninsular Southern Italy, representing just 5.3% of pre-Roman settlements in Southern Italy. Instead, the settlements of the local Italic tribes (not counting fortifications) are calculated at no less than 248, representing 94.6% of pre-Roman settlements in Southern Italy.
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| Map of Southern Italy in the 4th century BC |
Tribal breakdown of non-fortified urban settlements in mainland Southern Italy (Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia):
- Samnite: 80
- Lucanian: 44
- Messapian: 32 or 33
- Marsic: 19
- Bruttian: 16
- Peucetian: 12
- Vestinian: 11 or 12
- Daunian: 10 or 11
- Campanian: 7
- Paelignian: 6
- Frentanian: 5 or 7
- Auruncan: 3
- Aequian: 2
- Sabine: 1
All historical and archaeological evidence suggests that the overwhelming majority of Southern Italy was populated by the above-cited Italian tribes; the Hellenes were never anything more than a very small minority occupying a handful of cities along the coast. The reason why their importance seems so much greater than it really was, is because the Greeks left behind a large corpus of literature documenting their own history and myths, which has been the object of study and obsession among intellectuals for hundreds of years, whereas the Italic tribes (except for the Romans) did not do so, and thus their pre-Roman and pre-Hellenic civilization — despite being relatively advanced (especially in the case of the Samnites and Enotrians) — is more obscure and little-discussed outside of a small circle of scholars and specialists.
This leads many people to believe or falsely assume the Greeks were the only people in Southern Italy at that time, or that the Greeks were the main ethnic group. In reality, however, most of Southern Italy was never Greek.
Another misconception derives from the careless and imprecise tendencies of authors who, when speaking of Southern Italy, sometimes speak of a ‘Greek period’, almost using this term as a synonym for ‘pre-Roman’, applying it even to territories which were neither inhabited nor controlled by Greeks. As an example, writers will sometimes make reference to a “Greek-era necropolis”, when in reality they are speaking of an Italic settlement in the pre-Roman age. The two terms are not synonymous at all: there was no “Greek period” in most of pre-Roman Southern Italy. And yet, everything between the 8th century BC (arrival of the first Greek colonists) and the 3rd century BC (Pyrrhic War and Roman conquest) becomes incorrectly labeled “Greek”, as if there were no other peoples, cultures and histories distinct from the Greeks in those territories.
This very sloppy historiography is sometimes also a result of incorrectly conflating Greek and non-Greek populations (such as the Enotrians, who were an indigenous Italic tribe), or conflating Greek towns with non-Greek ones. Sometimes it is enough for archaeologists to discover some ancient Greek pottery or artifacts (which often made its way to non-Greek settlements via trade) for certain writers to then begin to hastily speak of “Hellenization” and wrongly include the non-Greek tribe or settlement as part of the Hellenic world. A classic case of historical revisionism based on the most scant evidence, leading to highly improbable interpretations and false conclusions.
The same people often forget, or are completely unaware, that most of the Greek colonies faced severe decline and fell to the Italic tribes. With the decline and destruction of several Hellenic colonies, and with the Roman conquest and establishment of Latin colonies (327-272 BC onwards), the already-small number of Hellenes would only diminish in favour of the Latins and other native Italic peoples.
Beloch explains (translated from German):
This leads many people to believe or falsely assume the Greeks were the only people in Southern Italy at that time, or that the Greeks were the main ethnic group. In reality, however, most of Southern Italy was never Greek.
Another misconception derives from the careless and imprecise tendencies of authors who, when speaking of Southern Italy, sometimes speak of a ‘Greek period’, almost using this term as a synonym for ‘pre-Roman’, applying it even to territories which were neither inhabited nor controlled by Greeks. As an example, writers will sometimes make reference to a “Greek-era necropolis”, when in reality they are speaking of an Italic settlement in the pre-Roman age. The two terms are not synonymous at all: there was no “Greek period” in most of pre-Roman Southern Italy. And yet, everything between the 8th century BC (arrival of the first Greek colonists) and the 3rd century BC (Pyrrhic War and Roman conquest) becomes incorrectly labeled “Greek”, as if there were no other peoples, cultures and histories distinct from the Greeks in those territories.
This very sloppy historiography is sometimes also a result of incorrectly conflating Greek and non-Greek populations (such as the Enotrians, who were an indigenous Italic tribe), or conflating Greek towns with non-Greek ones. Sometimes it is enough for archaeologists to discover some ancient Greek pottery or artifacts (which often made its way to non-Greek settlements via trade) for certain writers to then begin to hastily speak of “Hellenization” and wrongly include the non-Greek tribe or settlement as part of the Hellenic world. A classic case of historical revisionism based on the most scant evidence, leading to highly improbable interpretations and false conclusions.
The same people often forget, or are completely unaware, that most of the Greek colonies faced severe decline and fell to the Italic tribes. With the decline and destruction of several Hellenic colonies, and with the Roman conquest and establishment of Latin colonies (327-272 BC onwards), the already-small number of Hellenes would only diminish in favour of the Latins and other native Italic peoples.
Beloch explains (translated from German):
“All these [Greek] communities together must have numbered 80-90,000 citizens, about as many as the Greek cities of Sicily. ... But already in the period of the Peloponnesian War [431–404 BC] the decline began. Kyme was lost to the Campanians around 420 BC; a little later (around 400 BC) the Lucanians conquered Poseidonia, Pyxus and Laos, and then penetrated further into what later became known as the Bruttian Peninsula [Calabria], the northern half of which they took possession of for the most part. Then, when the Empire of Syracuse collapsed after Dion's campaign, the cities of Sybaris on the Traeis, Terina, Hipponion and other places were also lost. Thus Greek culture in Italy was only concentrated in a few towns, and most of them, moreover, had difficulty defending their independence against barbarian attacks [by Italian tribes]. Only Taras was an exception to the general decline. ... But Taras too was forced to fight a constant struggle for survival with the Italians, and in the end its own strength was not sufficient to resist them.”
(Source: Julius Beloch, Griechische geschichte, ed. 2, 1922, pp. 307-308)
“Accordingly, the number of citizens of the Italian-Greek cities in the 5th and at the beginning of the 4th century would have been approximately the same as that of the Greek cities in Sicily, i.e. about 80,000. In the course of the 4th and 3rd centuries centuries BC, most of those [Greek] cities fell into the hands of the Lucanians and Bruttians, so that at the beginning of the war with Hannibal [Second Punic War, 218 BC] only Neapolis, Elea, Rhegion, Lokroi, Kaulonia, Croton, Thurioi, Herakleia, Metapont and Taras retained their Hellenic population, mostly as small and insignificant towns. At that time Italy may have had scarcely more than 100,000 Greek inhabitants (excluding the enslaved population), a number which was perhaps reduced by half [50,000] as a result of the war with Hannibal. Since then, the demise of the Greeks in Italy was only a matter of time.”
(Source: Julius Beloch, Die bevölkerung der griechisch-römischen welt, 1886, p. 305)
It should, furthermore, be remembered that the Greeks themselves did not establish homogenous Hellenic enclaves in Southern Italy; many of the ostensibly ‘Greek’ city-states in fact grew as a result of absorbing native Italic peoples into their population. Diodorus Siculus, for example, tells us that Sybaris grew so large because it granted citizenship to ‘foreigners’, i.e. to the local Enotrians. The major colony of Neapolis (Naples) was already a partially Oscan-speaking city by the 5th century BC: Greek colonies like Taras, Siris and Metapontion were likewise inhabited in large part by a Hellenized population of Italian origin. This is shown also by the study below.
On the subject of Italic migration to Greek cities, the following examples are informative:
“Diodorus states that one of the reasons for the increase of the population of Sybaris was its liberality in the granting of citizenship. Such liberality might have embraced not only additional settlers from Greece, but perhaps some native Italians as well. ... Sometimes a Greek city was compelled to receive [Italic] natives into its citizen body, as for example Naples was when it was overrun by Samnites at the end of the fifth century [BC].”
(Source: N. K. Rutter, “Sybaris: Legend and Reality”, in Greece & Rome, 1969, p. 171)
“Buried within the fill inside the ekklesiasterion was an inscription of the late fourth century BC, which attests to a significant Italian presence in the city [of Poseidonia]... It is unclear under what circumstances the Italians would have become part of the community of the Greek city. Was it the result of a rapid influx due to specific, possibly military, circumstances as suggested by Strabo? Or was it rather a slower process of migration and intermixing which affected the majority of the Greek cities on the coasts of Italy? The evidence points to the latter...”
(Source: Elena Isayev, Inside Ancient Lucania: Dialogues in History and Archaeology, 2007, pp. 115-117)
When, therefore, we are discussing the proportion of ethnic Greeks relative to Italic peoples in the pre-Roman period, we must bear in mind that among the ‘Greeks’ there were in reality a considerable number of Italics and Hellenized Italic people. The ancient Hellenes would have constituted a much smaller portion of the population in Southern Italy than is generally supposed. This too is affirmed by the new study Rathmann et al. (2019) concerning the impact of ancient Hellenic colonization in Southern Italy.
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