Eleia

Eleia, also called Elea, was an ancient Greek city-state in Magna Graecia, situated on the Tyrrhenian coast of southern Italy. The site is near the modern town of Velia (Ancient Velia / Ascea Velia) in the Cilento area of Campania. It was founded by Phocaean colonists in the 6th century BCE and developed as a polity with its own institutions and reforms.

Elea is best known as the homeland of the Eleatic School of philosophy. Its most prominent figures were Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, and Melissus, who advanced doctrines of monism and argued for the unreality of change and plurality. Zeno's paradoxes, devised to defend Parmenides' views, explored issues of motion, plurality, and sensory illusion. The school's ideas influenced later Greek metaphysics and were transmitted through later philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, contributing to debates about being, truth, and knowledge.

Under Roman rule it became Velia, and the area remained inhabited into late antiquity. Today, the archaeological site preserves remnants of fortifications, public buildings, and sanctuaries, and the modern town of Ascea Velia preserves the historical continuity of Eleia. The site is a focal point for studies of Magna Graecia and early Greek philosophy.