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Taking into consideration approximately forty years of study on the territory of Greek colonies of South Italy, this paper concentrates on the definition and the evolution of the limits of the rural-space occupation by Greek colonists. The borderline’s issue is different according to whom is on the other side, whether the analyzed city-state is opposed to another Greek city-state or to an italic population, either native or coming from another region of the Italian peninsula. Without underestimating the importance of the relations between Greeks and non-Greeks, priority will be given to the opposition between two Greek city-states and the tendency to the constitution of a hegemonic zone of influence, larger than the civic territory of a colony. The paper follows an order at the same time thematic, chronological, and topographical : it starts with the idea of the Sybarite “empire”, analyzing the best known territories of Metapontum and Poseidonia, it analyzes another type of territorial organization with the example of Taras (Tarentum), and it finishes with the fortifications of Velia and with the case study of the border between Locris and Rhegion.