Italy from earliest times not initially welcoming Greek character at the outset (9)
I believe the answer is:
incipient
'italy from earliest times' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'not initially welcoming greek character at the outset' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'not' could be 'nt' (synonyms) and 'nt' is present in the answer.
'character' could be 'pi' (pi is a kind of character) and 'pi' is present in the answer.
'at' could be 'in' (synonymous in some cases - eg at school, in school) and 'in' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for incipient that I've seen before include "Developing" , "Beginning to exist, in an early stage" , "Nascent" , "Starting to happen" , "Beginning to develop" .)