ABSTRACT
The period between approximately 600 and 350 BC is often indicated as the Archaic- Classical period of southern Italy. As in many analogous cases, the chronological schemes and denominations of periods that classicists had primarily devised for central and southern Aegean areas have been transferred to other regions and districts. In archaeology they often have implicit connotations of style and values. From this point of view, however, there is little reason to apply such terms - let alone a combination of these - to southern Italy. If, for instance, the term ‘classical’ is supposed to indicate a period of great artistic, intellectual and economic flourishing (as, for instance, for 5th- and 4th-century Athens), it should be noted that substantial parts of the 5th and 4th centuries BC were certainly not a ‘classical’ period in that particular sense in many parts of southern Italy. The Golden Age of southern Italy in fact was the period between 370/350 and 270/250 BC (see chapter 6) with perhaps the ‘Archaic’ period between c. 570/550 and 470/450 as second best.
