Rome And Magna Graecia:the Relations Ca.350-200BC

Rome had close contact with Magna Graecia during the process in conquest of South Italy between350BC and200BC. From a Moderate touch to the conquest of Magna Graecia fiercely by Rome, it experienced the second Samnite War, The Pyrrhic War and The Second Punic War, These wars had profound impact on the relationship between Rome and Magna Graecia. This text will investigate the evolution of the relationship in starting from the three wars, and analysis the factors which influenced the relationship.Before350BC, there were few contacts between Rome and Magna Graecia. For one thing, Rome were facing tremendous pressures of survive, and had no energy to take into account the South Italy, it had more important things to deal with. For another thing, to Magna Graecia, it almost had no interest shared with Rome, and faced internal and external dispute itself, so it difficult for Magna Graecia to contact with Rome.During the second Samnite War, Rome involved the affairs of South Italy by Naples Event. In this time, the primary goal which Rome wanted to against was Samnites, so Rome adopted liberal policies to the polis of Magna Graecia like Naples and Tarentum. From the perspective of Magna Graecia, Rome didn’t damage their interest substantially, and their own strength was weak, so Magna Graecia had no more frictions with Rome.With the Rome interfere the affairs of Magna Graecia constantly, Tarentum-the hegemony of the Magna Graecia was intolerable with Rome. So Tarentum call Pyrrhus for help to confront Rome. During The Pyrrhic War, all the polis of Magna Graecia wanted to use one of the two strong powers to achieve the interest of their own, so had a swing attitude towards Rome. This situation also showed that Magna Graecia couldn’t form a consistent policy towards Rome.In the post of The Second Punic War, Rome and Carthage focused on how to win the support of the polis of Magna Graecia. In this text, I will analysis the factors which influence the relationship between Rome and Magna Graecia through describing the historical facts of loyalty and renegade. Finally, Rome reoccupied the Magna Graecia, and drew a satisfactory conclusion for the relationship.Finally, I summarized the factors which influenced the relationship from three aspects:the disputes inside and outside the Magna Graecia, the interest extension of Rome, and the situation of the region. The first one is objective condition, the second one is subjective motives, and the third one is the catalyst of the relationship.