Tristan Hughes

It's a damning portrayal, but it's also fictional.

Because, contrary to what Aristoxenus would have us believe, the Greeks did not forget their beliefs.

Greek culture at Pestum was not suppressed.

In fact, the archaeology is revealing quite the opposite.

Inscriptions and dedications show how the Greek language endured alongside Oskan, the language that the Lucanians spoke.

Pestum's prestigious Greek sanctuaries, including those three great temples we mentioned earlier, continued in use.

As did the Greek cemeteries, as did their public buildings in the Agora.

Lucanian elites may now have ruled Pestum, but they made no attempts to suppress Greek culture.

they admired it.

Let's take pottery as an example.

Under Lucanian overlordship, Peston produced some of the most beautiful vases from the ancient Mediterranean.

Made in the classically Greek red-figure style, more than 2,000 of these Peston vases have been discovered.

Many depict scenes of Greek mythology,

There's one that depicts the wondrous birth of Helen of Troy, who hatched from an egg after Helen's mother, Queen Leda of Sparta, had been seduced by Zeus, king of the gods, in the guise of a swan.

Another shows the Phoenician princess Europa being abducted from her homeland in the eastern Mediterranean by Zeus in the guise of a bull.

We even have the names of vase makers surviving.

Acetas was one celebrity name.

Python was another.

Both left their signatures on their vases, ensuring their names have survived to the present day.

The archaeology shows just how wrong Aristoxenus was.