Plato, Locri and “the Flower of Italy”: Revaluating an “Ancient” Epithet

It is often claimed that Plato described Locri, the Greek settlement on Sicily, as ‘the flower of Italy.’ Yet this phrase nowhere appears in Plato’s work, and a concrete reference is never provided for this attribution. This short note provides a correction to the record—suggesting that modern usage of the term in fact stems from a misunderstanding of the sixteenth century writings of Leandro Alberti.