The Greeks founded a number of settlements outside of mainland Greece, most of which closely mirrored, and were partly dependent on, those of the homeland. This study focuses on two settlements, Megara Hyblaia and Selinous, established in Italy by the Greeks during the late 8th and mid-7th centuries BC.
The settlements made by Greeks in archaic Italy have largely been seen in terms of colonies duplicated from, and heavily dependant on, mainland Greece. The scarcity of the literary sources for this period makes the archaeological record crucial. Franco de Angelis makes use of both the archaeological and what literary evidence there is in reconstructing a history of Megara Hyblaia and Selinous, two settlements established by the Greeks during the late eighth and mid-seventh century BC. He looks at the existing environment and political setting the Greeks found when they arrived, the development of the settlements, including the extent of their territory and influence; society and politics, and environment and economy. Throughout, an emphasis is placed on the individual nature of the settlements and their development, based on the particular circumstances that existed in Sicily, rather than seeing them as copies of city-states on mainland Greece.
