Home > Elea

History

Elia was founded by Phocaean Greeks fleeing the Persian invasion of Ionia on the western coast of present-day Turkey. It, together with the rest of the Greek colonies in southern coastal Italy, formed the so-called Magna Graecia, the Greek expansion into southern Italy, which began in the 8th century BC. It remained independent longer than many Greek cities in Italy, finally becoming an ally of Rome around 275 BC, and, as a result of the Social War or Italian War, it gained the Roman franchise as a citizen municipium in 90-89 BC. It was abandoned in the middle ages and today it is the site of extensive ruins situated inside the Cilento National Park.