The earliest Greek settlements in Italy and Sicily

This chapter reassesses the earliest Greek settlements in Italy and Sicily by integrating literary traditions with archaeological evidence, focusing on the chronology and dynamics of eighth-century mobility. It highlights the leading role of Euboean networks, the impact of the Lelantine conflict, and the economic and social drivers of expansion (trade, access to resources, and land pressure), while also addressing debates over absolute dating. Through key case studies—especially Pithecusae and Cumae, and the Straits settlements of Zancle and Rhegion—it shows how ceramic sequences, Near-Eastern synchronisms, and funerary data illuminate processes of reconnaissance, conflict and negotiation with indigenous communities, and the formation of mixed, rapidly evolving colonial societies