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HERAKLIA (Ancient city) ITALY
Heracleia (Herakleia: Eth. Herakleios, Heracliensis or Heracleensis:
Policoro), a city of Magna Graecia, situated in Lucania on the gulf of Tarentum,
but a short distance from the sea, and between the rivers Aciris and Siris. It
was a Greek colony, but founded at a period considerably later than most of the
other Greek cities in this part of Italy. The territory in which it was established
had previously belonged to the Ionic colony of Siris, and after the fall of that
city seems to have become the subject of contention between the neighbouring states.
The Athenians, we know, had a claim upon the territory of Siris (Herod. viii.
62), and it was probably in virtue of this that their colonists the Thurians,
almost immediately after their establishment in Italy, advanced similar pretensions.
These were, however, resisted by the Tarentines; and war ensued between the two
states, which was at length terminated by an arrangement that they should found
a new colony in the disputed district, which, though in fact a joint settlement,
should be designated as a colony of Tarentum. The few remaining inhabitants of
Siris were added to the new colonists, and it would appear that the settlement
was first established on the ancient site of Siris itself, but was subsequently
transferred from thence, and a new city founded about 24 stadia from the former,
and nearer the river Aciris, to which the name of Heracleia was given. Siris did
not cease to exist, but lapsed into the subordinate condition of the port or emporium
of Heracleia. (Strab. vi. p. 264.) The foundation of the new city is placed by
Diodorus in B.C. 432, fourteen years after the settlement of Thurii; a statement
which appears to agree well with the above narrative, cited by Strabo from Antiochus.
(Antiochus, ap. Strab l. c.; Diod. xii. 36; Liv. viii. 24.) Diodorus, as well
as Livy, calls it simply a colony of Tarentum: Antiochus is the only writer who
mentions the share taken by the Thurians in its original foundation. Pliny erroneously
regards Heracleia as identical with Siris, to which it had succeeded; and it was
perhaps a similar misconception that led Livy, by a strange anachronism, to include
Heracleia among the cities of Magna Graecia where Pythagoras established his institutions.
(Liv. i. 18; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15.) The new colony appears to have risen rapidly
to power and prosperity, protected by the fostering care of the Tarentines, who
were at one time engaged in war with the Messapians for its defence. (Strab. vi.
p. 281.) It was probably owing to the predominant influence of Tarentum also that
Heracleia was selected as the place of meeting of the general assembly (paneguris)
of the Italiot Greeks; a meeting apparently originally of a religious character,
but of course easily applicable to political objects, and which for that reason
Alexander, king of Epirus, sought to transfer to the Thurians for the purpose
of weakening the influence of Tarentum. (Strab. vi. p. 280.)
But beyond the general fact that it enjoyed great wealth and prosperity,
- advantages which it doubtless owed to the noted fertility of its territory -
we have scarcely any information concerning the history of Heracleia until we
reach a period when it was already beginning to decline. We cannot doubt that
it took part with the Tarentines in their wars against the Messapians and Lucanians,
and it appears to have fallen gradually into a state of almost dependence upon
that city, though without ever ceasing to be, in name at least, an independent
state. Hence, when Alexander, king of Epirus, who had been in. vited to Italy
by the Tarentines, subsequently became hostile to that people, he avenged himself
by taking Heracleia, and, as already mentioned, transferred to the Thurians the
general assemblies that had previously been held there. (Liv. viii. 24; Strab.
vi. p. 280.) During the war of Pyrrhus with the Romans, Heracleia was the scene
of the first conflict between the two powers, the consul Laevinus being totally
defeated by the Epirot king in a battle fought between the city of Heracleia and
the river Siris, B.C. 280. (Plut. Pyrrh. 16, 17; Flor. i. 18. § 71 ; Zonar. viii.
4; Ores. iv. 1.)
Heracleia was certainly at this time in alliance with the Tarentines
and Lucanians against Rome; and it was doubtless with the view of detaching it
from this alliance that the Romans were induced shortly afterwards (B.C. 278)
to grant to the Heracleians a treaty of alliance on such favourable terms that
it is called by Cicero prope singulare foedus. (Cic. pro Balb. 22, pro Arch. 4.)
Heracleia preserved this privileged condition throughout the period of the Roman
republic; and hence, even when in B.C. 89 the Lex Plautia Papiria conferred upon
its inhabitants, in common with the other cities of Italy, the rights of Roman
citizens, they hesitated long whether they would accept the proffered boon. (Cic.
pro Balb. 8) We have no account of the part taken by Heracleia in the Social War;
but from an incidental notice in Cicero, that all the public records of the city
had been destroyed by fire at that period, it would seem to have suffered severely.
(Cic. pro Arch. 4) Cicero nevertheless speaks of it, in his defence of Archias
(who had been adopted as a citizen of Heracleia), as still a flourishing and important
town, and it appears to have been one of the few Greek cities in the S. of Italy
that still preserved their consideration under the Roman dominion. (Strab. vi.
p. 264; Cic. l. c. 4, 5; Mel. ii. 4. § 8; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15.) Its name is unaccountably
omitted by Ptolemy; but its existence at a much later period is attested by the
Itineraries. (Itin. Ant. p. 113; Tab. Peut.) The time and circumstances of its
final extinction are wholly unknown; but the site is now desolate, and the whole
neighbouring district, once celebrated as one of the most fertile in Italy, is
now almost wholly uninhabited.
The position of the ancient city may nevertheless be clearly identified;
and though no ruins worthy of the name are still extant, large heaps of rubbish
and foundations of ancient buildings mark the site of Heracleia near a farm called
Policoro, about three miles from the sea, and a short distance from the right
bank of the Aciris or Agri. Numerous coins, bronzes, and other relics of antiquity
have been discovered on the spot; and within a short distance of the site were
found the bronze tables commonly known as the Tabulae Heracleenses, one of the
most interesting monuments of antiquity still remaining. They contain a long Latin
inscription relating to the municipal regulations of Heracleia, but which is in
fact only a copy of a more general law, the Lex Julia Municipalis, issued in B.C.
45 for the regulation of the municipal institutions of the towns throughout Italy.
This curious and important document, which is one of our chief authorities for
the municipal law of ancient Italy, is engraved on two tables of bronze, at the
back of which is found a long Greek inscription of much earlier date, but of very
inferior interest. The Latin one has been repeatedly published (Murat. Inscr.
vol. ii. p. 582; Haubold, Mon. Legal. pp. 98-133, &c.), and copiously illustrated
with legal commentaries by Dirksen (8vo. Berlin, 1817-1820) and Savigny (in his
Vermischte Schriften vol. iii.). Both inscriptions were published, with very elaborate
commentaries and disquisitions on all points connected with Heracleia, by Mazocchi
(2 vols. fol. Naples, 1754,1755).
Heracleia is generally regarded as the native country of the celebrated
painter Zeuxis, though there is much doubt to which of the numerous cities of
the name that distinguished artist really owed his birth. [Biogr. Dict. art. Zeuxis.
But the flourishing state of the arts in the Lucanian Heracleia (in common with
most of the neighbouring cities of Magna Graecia) is attested by the beauty and
variety of its coins, some of which may deservedly be reckoned among the choicest
specimens of Greek art; while their number sufficiently proves the opulence and
commercial activity of the city to which they belong. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 153;
Millingen, Numismatique de l'Anc. Italie, p. 111.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A city of Lucania in Italy, and situated between the Aciris and Siris. It was founded by the Tarentini after the destruction of the ancient city of Siris, which stood at the mouth of the latter river (B.C. 428). This city is rendered remarkable in history, as having been the seat of the general council of the Greek states.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
On the Gulf of Taranto at the mouth of the river Acris (Agri). The
city was colonized from Tarentum in 433-432 B.C. Excavation, however, has shown
that the acropolis (site of the Renaissance castle) was first occupied by Greek
settlers at the end of the 8th c. B.C. Scattered potters' works, identified by
the remains of kilns, have revealed a mixture of Greek and indigenous wares paralleled
by the mixture of burial rites (cremation and inhumation in pithoi) found in the
archaic necropolis. The E Greek character of much of the material of this settlement
makes it possible to interpret it as an outpost of Siris. Following the Tarentine
foundation, Herakleia became the meeting place of the representatives of the Italiote
Greek League and remained so until the 330s B.C. One of the battles between King
Pyrrhos of Epeiros and the Romans was fought in the vicinity in 280 B.C. In the
1st c. B.C., following the slave insurrection of Spartacus, the area occupied
by the city was reduced once again to the acropolis, where a settlement persisted
until the 5th c.
Long famous because of the discovery there of an inscribed text of
the Lex Julia Municipalis and inscribed bronze tablets recording partitioning
of temple properties (found in the river Acris), Herakleia has been the site of
intensive archaeological investigation since 1959. The city is situated on a long
low hill oriented NW-SE with the acropolis at the SE end toward the sea. The rectangular
city plan was laid out at the time of the founding of the Tarentine colony. Three
entire city blocks have been excavated. The city walls, traced largely from air
photographs, belong to the 4th c. B.C. and were strengthened after construction.
There are remains of a coroplastic industry in the form of kilns and dumps of
terracotta figurine fragments and molds. The foundations of a temple of the 4th
c. B.C. have also been uncovered. The excavation of the extramural Sanctuary of
Demeter and Kore has resulted in the discovery of a large group of dedications,
largely miniature vases and terracotta figurines. These, together with the distinguished
group of later 5th c. S Italian red-figure vases from a chamber tomb excavated
in 1963, are displayed in the new museum adjoining the site.
R. R. Holloway, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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