![]() Recall that the Roman empire had become so vast that it was divided into two parts for administrative purposes. Records of Magna Graecia being predominantly Greek-speaking date as late as the 11th century (the end of the Byzantine empire what is commonly known as the Eastern Roman Empire). There is rich oral tradition and Griko folklore, limited now, though once numerous, to only a few thousand people, most of them having become absorbed into the surrounding Italian element. Griko is the name of a language combining ancient Doric, Byzantine Greek, and Italian elements, spoken by people in the Magna Graecia region. Although most of the Greek inhabitants of Southern Italy became de-Hellenized and no longer spoke Greek, remarkably a small Griko-speaking minority still exists today in Calabria and mostly in Salento. ĭuring the Early Middle Ages, new waves of Greeks came to Magna Graecia from Greece and Asia Minor, as Southern Italy remained governed by the Eastern Roman Empire. 1578–1648) a wealthy Greek lawyer and merchant in Venice, who founded the Flanginian School a Greek college where many teachers were trained. ![]() 1494–1575) was born in Messina, Sicily to a Greek family who had settled there following the Ottoman invasion of Constantinople. Today many Greeks in Southern Italy follow Italian customs and culture, experiencing assimilation.ġ6th-century Greek migrants in Italy. ![]() Alongside this group, a smaller number of more recent migrants from Greece lives in Italy, forming an expatriate community in the country. A Greek community has long existed in Venice as well, the current centre of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta, which in addition was a Byzantine province until the 10th century and held territory in Morea and Crete until the 17th century. They are believed to be remnants of the ancient and medieval Greek communities, who have lived in the south of Italy for centuries. Nowadays, there is an ethnic minority known as the Griko people, who live in the Southern Italian regions of Calabria ( Province of Reggio Calabria) and Apulia, especially the peninsula of Salento, within the ancient Magna Graecia region, who speak a distinctive dialect of Greek called Griko. Greek presence in Italy began with the migrations of traders and colonial foundations in the 8th century BC, continuing down to the present time. Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria
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