Today, this part of Italy is still known as Magna Grecia, just as it was in ancient times, though before the Greeks, there were the Italiots and with the Greeks, and after them, came the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians who tried to oppose the expansionist ambitions of the Greeks.
Under the Romans things seemed to have settled down, but no sooner did the Roman Empire decline and fall than other invaders established themselves: the Byzantines and the Arabs from the East, who later fought against, or mingled with, the Germans from the North, the Normans and the Swabians. Under the Swabians, Italy was to become the birthplace of King Frederick II, one of the most fascinating personalities of the Middle Ages.
He was followed by the infinitely worse Angevin kings who were not given the time to reign for long, for at the door was the House of Aragon, which, in its turn, was followed by that of Bourbon. And, finally, Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily, and marched up to Naples in order to unite the South with the rest of Italy.
