GraeciansThe Graecians were an ancient Hellenic tribe. Their name is the origin of the Latin name of the Greeks as a whole.EtymologyIt is possible that their name is derived from the toponym of Graea, a city in Boeotia identical with Tanagra according to Pausanias. The word means "old" based on the adjective Indo-European vocabulary#ǵerh₂- "old ".HistoryAccording to the historian Georg Busolt, the Graecians were among the first to colonize Italy in the 9th century BC when they established the city of Cumae; they were the first Greeks with whom the Latins came into contact, which then made them adopt the name of Graeci by synecdoche as the name of the Hellenes. Aristotle records that during the deluge of Deucalion, the Graecians were the inhabitants of Hellas who were also known as Hellenes. In the Parian Chronicle, the Hellenes were originally called Graecians and established the Panathenean Games in 1522–1521 BC.Eponymous ancestorHesiod stated that the eponymous ancestor of the Graecians was Graecus, the son of Deucalion's daughter Pandora, who also had a brother, Latinus. Other sources have Graecus as the son of Thessalus.