| |
| f. Sicily and Magna Graecia |
| c. 800 |
| |
| Before the Greeks arrived, Sicans, Sicels, and Elymi, along with Phoenician colonists, inhabited Sicily. Sicels also lived in south Italy, along with other native peoples such as the Messapii and Apuli. | 1 |
| |
| c. 775 |
| |
| Pithecusae (Ischia) was settled from Chalcis, Eretria, and Cyme on an island in the Bay of Naples. A very early Greek inscription (c. 730) was found there. | 2 |
| |
| 757 |
| |
| Cumae was established by Pithecusan colonists, Chalcidians and Eretrians. Southern Italy came to be known as Greater Greece (Magna Graecia). | 3 |
| |
| 735 |
| |
| Thucles, the oikistes for a group of Chalcidians, established Naxos, the first Greek colony in Sicily. Subsequent Greek colonization drove the Phoenicians from most of Sicily. Only three Phoenician cities remained: Motya, Panormus, and Solus, all on the west coast. | 4 |
| |
| c. 734 |
| |
| Corinth founded Syracuse, which grew to be the preeminent city in Sicily. | 5 |
| |
| c. 729 |
| |
| Thucles, leading a party of Naxian colonists, founded Leontini in Sicily. Around the same time another group of Naxians, under Evarchus, settled Catana. | 6 |
| |
| 728 |
| |
| The Megarians, failing at colonizing Trotilon and Thapsos, succeeded at Megara Hyblaea, 14 miles north of Syracuse. | 7 |
| |
| c. 720 |
| |
| Chalcis settled Rhegium, in Italy, just across the strait of Messene from Sicily. | 8 |
| |
| c. 710 |
| |
| The Achaeans established Croton on the toe of Italy, which became a leading city in Magna Graecia. | 9 |
| |
| 706 |
| |
| Sparta established its sole colony, Taras (Tarentum), in southern Italy. The colonists, lead by Phalanthus, were Partheniae, children of Spartan men and helot women. | 10 |
| |
| 688 |
| |
| Gela on the southern coast of Sicily was founded by Cretans and Rhodians. | 11 |
| |
| |
