ime the most flourishing city in
Campania; and it was not till its decline in the fifth century before
the Christian era that Capua rose into importance.

The earliest Grecian settlement in Sicily was founded in B.C. 735. The
extraordinary fertility of the land soon attracted numerous colonists
from various parts of Greece, and there arose on the coasts of Sicily a
succession of flourishing cities. Of these, Syracuse and Agrigentum,
both Dorian colonies, became the most powerful. The former was founded
by the Corinthians in B.C. 734, and at the time of its greatest
prosperity contained a population of 500,000 souls, and was surrounded
by walls twenty-two miles in circuit. Its greatness, however, belongs
to a later period of Grecian history.

The Grecian colonies in southern Italy began to be planted at nearly
the same time as in Sicily. They eventually lined the whole southern
coast, as far as Cumae on the one sea and Tarentum on the other. They
even surpassed those in Sicily in number and importance; and so
numerous and flourishing did they become, that the south of Italy
received the name of Magna Graecia. Of these, two of the earliest and
most prosperous were Sybaris and Croton, both situated upon the gulf of
Tarentum, and both of Achaean origin. Sybaris was planted in B.C. 720
and Croton in B.C. 710. For two centuries they seem to have lived in
harmony, and we know scarcely anything of their history till their
fatal contest in B.C. 510, which ended in the ruin of Sybaris. During
the whole of this period they were two of the most flourishing cities
in all Hellas. Sybaris in particular attained to an extraordinary
degree of wealth, and its inhabitants were so notorious for their
luxury, effeminacy, and debauchery, that their name has become
proverbial for a voluptuary in ancient and modern times. Croton was
the chief seat of the Pythagorean philosophy. Pythagroras was a native
of Samos, but emigrated to Croton, where he met with the most wonderful
success in the propagation of his views. He established a kind of
religious brotherhood, closely united by a sacred vow. They believed
in the transmigration of souls, and their whole training was designed
to make them temperate and self-denying. The doctrines of Pythagoras
spread through many of the other cities of Magna Graecia.

Of the numerous other Greek settlements in the south of Italy, those of
Locri, Rhegium, and Tarentum were the meet important. Loc