Was Southern Italy during Roman times always irrelevant besides

The further south you go the more shit it gets.

it was the other way round, northern Italy was considered part of Gaul (Cisalpine Gaul) until the time of Augustus

agricultural practices at the time weren't as productive as they would be in the medieval era

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>>2458462
Northern Italy had the Etruscan civilization which is thought to have played a big part in founding Rome. The Veneti and the Ligurians were Italic like everyone else also.

>>2458476
That's central Italy

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>>2458482
Emilia-Romagna is part of the north. So is Veneto and Liguria (and a part of Piemonte). They were all either Italic or Etruscan.

>>2458488
Umbrians and Oscans were italic and not in northern italy

>>2458509
I know, but you're wrong about Northern Italy being all Celtic. Those were only the Lepontics, Rhaetians (there is still some doubt about whether they were Italic or Celtic) and Gauls.

>>2458518
I thought you were saying italics were only in north italy, my bad

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I think when that volcano erupted was when Southern Italy went to shit and never recovered, yes. Having your biggest cultural center destroyed can do that to you.

>>2458554
>biggest cultural center
You mean biggest prostitution center?

>>2458816
Go to any major city and you have prostitution. You could make the same lame joke about London, NY, Berlin, Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Moscow etc.

>>2458847
One could, but it does seem like Pompeii was bigger on the whores than most cities.

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>>2458885
It was also bigger on art, since the majority of Roman frescoes are from there.

>>2458442
I always thought Sicily was supposed to be like the big bread basket before Egypt.

>>2458903
>since the majority of surviving Roman frescoes are from there.

ftfy ;^)

>>2458442
Sicily and the fertile plains in the Campania region (around Naples) were very important for farming.

The slave rebellions were able to happen there because they were just that chock full of slaves used in farming.

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>>2458919
Sicily wasn't even considered Italian.

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>>2458929
It was also much poorer than Italia.

>>2458488
This is a linguistic map

>>2458941
Veneti and Ligurians = Italic
Lepontics and Gauls = Celtic
Rhaetians = Unsure if Italic or Celtic
Etruscans and Nuragics = Pre-Indo-European civilizations

>>2458442
Sicily was Magna Graecia, Archimedes was from there.

>>2458966
>Besides serving as a vessel for the Greeks to bring advancements to Italy Southern Italy always seemed to be considerably behind the rest

>>2458990
it was basically Greece
Anyway, they weren't behind the North until industrial age.

>>2458442
Man /his/ sure does have a poor grasp of history
Do you know what the kingdom of Sicily was?

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>>2459029
No. A huge part of it was native Italic. The Greek colonies were small and limited to coastal areas only. Remember that Southern Italy = Kingdom of Naples/Two Sicilies, which is a much bigger area than that.

>Anyway, they weren't behind the North until industrial age

That's false. Tuscany, Papal Sates, Venice, Milan, etc were way more relevant than the Naples and Sicily which were subjugated by several different people through history.

>>2459083
They were part of the ERE while the rest wasn't.

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>>2459090
>the rest wasn't

Except when Justinian conquered the entire peninsula again? Byzantine South Italy (encompassing a large territory) only lasts 100 years after that. And then they get conquered by Moors (Sicily only), Normans, Bourbons, Spaniards and fucked over by the Savoys.

>>2459146
That gif you post shows that throughout various centuries parts of southern Italy were indeed controlled by ERE. not just for 100 years.

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>>2459201
But so were other parts of Central and Northern Italy. Pic related is the geographic definition of Southern Italy (I would exclude Sardinia from it though). The Byzantines never controlled that much after the Lombards invaded.

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Some Romans described Pompeii as dirty back then. I guess nothing changed.

>>2459349
Have a read through the graffiti. You're right, nothing has changed.
http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%20Pompeii.htm

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>>2459083
The North was subjugated by the Austrians at a certain point, so what's your point?
Also this has nothing to do with advancement by itself.
Culturally speaking, the Italian language was born from Tuscany (center italy) with a good contribution from the Sicilian poetry (Scuola siciliana), and in the XV century Sicily had painters like Antonello da Messina who is now considered a precursor of Reinassance Art.
If you want an example of local powers, then you can look at Amalfi (near Naples), the oldest marinary republic.

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look at this motherfucker, LOOK
technically the Middle Age wasn't over yet when he painted this

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>>2459445
>>2459503
I would say Brunelleschi is the eponym of Renaissance art though, since he invented linear perspective.

Because the swarthy arabmonkey southerners have low iqs caused by sun exposure

because southern arab-monkeys have low iqs due to sun exposure

>>2460226
t. ignorant ape

>>2458442
South Italy was elder Greek aquisition and was becoming bad compare to newer land - obvious rule of colonisation.
Another important reason - British expansion after Napoleonic wars. All these mafia groups were created by Britain which stealing big part of local income.

>>2460557
I thought modern mafia was born after unification.

>>2460618
Yes. Unification was forced by Britain, but northern regions were displeased by that, so Italian state still weak and not so centralised. Mafia was created as parralel branch of power. Its glory path started in Sicilia near English settlement.

>>2459075
>on about roman times
>mentions an artifical kingdom created in the 12th century by Norman larpers.

>>2460557
You are joking, right? The Mafia was just the evolution of the latifundiary nobility of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies being like that kid that cheats in a multiplayer game by giving himself invincibility.

Essentially, the Mafia was the response both disgruntled peasants and noble fucknuts to Italian Unification. The former didn't like that the funny man asking you to pay taxes to "the King" was now asking for your sons (admittedly a bad idea in an agricultural society); the latter because the mere thought that having a latifunds occupying an area roughly equivalent to 140 square kilometers was not normal and/or beneficial to anyone.

>>2460737
Aristocrats havent reasons to hide and ignore their own native state institutions. Mafia was gradually breaking traditional authorities of Sicilia and furthermore. But you are right about mafia as additional guarantee against anti-British politicans in Italian government.

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People forget that the capitals of the late Western Roman Empire were both in Northern Italy; Milan and Ravenna, so Northern Italy was already the most important region back then. Southern Italy served as the breadbasket for farming early on, but was supplanted by Egypt/North Africa.