Italiotes

The Italiotes (Greek: Ὶταλιῶται, Italiōtai) were the pre-Roman Greek-speaking inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, between Naples and Sicily.

Greek colonisation of the coastal areas of Southern Italy and Sicily started in the 8th century BC and, by the time of Roman ascendance, the area was so extensively hellenized that Romans called it Magna Graecia, Greater Greece.

The Latin alphabet is a derivative of the Western Greek alphabet used by these settlers, and was picked up and adopted first by the Etruscans and then by the Romans.

Italiote League
Tarentum controlled the Italiote League from about the end of the 5th century BC and levied troops from the Greek cities. Dionysius I of Syracuse conquered southern Italy (Magna Graecia), crushing the Italiote (Greek) League at the battle of Eleporus and destroying Rhegium.