Listed 81 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "CALABRIA Region ITALY" .
LOKRI EPIZEFIRIOI (Ancient city) ITALY
Messapia, was the name commonly given by the Greeks to the peninsula
forming the SE. extremity of Italy, called by the Romans Calabria. But the usage
of the term was very fluctuating; Iapygia and Messapia being used sometimes as
synonymous, sometimes the latter considered as a part only of the former more
general designation. (Pol. iii. 88; Strab. vi. pp. 277,282.) The same uncertainty
prevails, though to a less degree, in the use of the name of the people, the Messapii
(Messapioi), who are described by Herodotus (vii. 170) as a tribe of the Iapygians,
and appear to be certainly identical with the Calabri of the Romans, though we
have no explanation of the origin of two such different appellations. The ethnical
affinities of the Messapians have already been discussed, as well as their history
related, under the article Calabria.
Italian topographers in general admit the existence of a town of the
name of Messapia, the site of which is supposed to be marked by the village now
called Mesagne, between Oria and Brindisi; but the passage of Pliny, in which
alone the name is found, appears to be corrupt; and we should probably read, with
Cluverius and Mommsen, Varia (Uria) cui cognomen ad discrimen Apulae Messapia.
(Plin. iii. 11. s. 16. § 100; Cluver, Ital. p. 1248; Mommsen, Die Unter. Ital.
Dialekte, p. 61.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
IPPONION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
KAVLONIA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
(KauloW or KauloWia: Eth. KauloWiates). A city on the E. coast of
Bruttium, between Locri and the Gulf of Scyllacium. All authors agree that it
was a Greek colony of Achaean origin, but Strabo and Pausanias represent it as
founded by Achaeans direct from the Peloponnese, and the latter author mentions
Typhon of Aegium in Achaia as the Oekist or leader of the colony (Strab. vi. p.
261; Paus. vi. 3. § 12); while Scymnus Chius and Stephanus of Byzantium affirm
that it was a colony of Crotona. (Scymn. Ch. 319; Steph. B. s. v. AuloW.) It is
easy to reconcile both accounts; the Crotoniats, as in many similar cases, doubtless
called in additional colonists from the mother-country. Virgil alludes to it as
if it were already in existence as a city at the time of the Trojan War (Aen.
iii. 552), but this is evidently a mere poetical license, like the mention of
the Lacinian temple in the preceding line. Scylax and Polybius both mention it
as one of the Greek cities on this part of the Italian coast. (Scyl. § 13, p.
5; Pol. x. 1.) We are told that its name was originally Aulonia (AuloWia), from
a deep valley or ravine (auloW), close to which it was situated (Strab. l. c.;
Scymn. Ch. 320-322; Hecataeus, ap. Steph. B. s. v. KauloWia), and that this was
subsequently altered into Caulonia: the change must, however, have taken place
at a very early period, as all the coins of the city, many of which are very ancient,
bear the name Caulonia.
We have very little information as to the early history of Caulonia:
but we learn from Polybius that it participated in the disorders consequent on
the expulsion of the Pythagoreans from Crotona and the neighbouring cities; and
was for some time agitated by civil dissensions, until at length tranquillity
having been restored by the intervention of the Achaeans, the three cities of
Caulonia, Crotona, and Sybaris, concluded a league together, and founded a temple
to Zeus Homorius, to be a common place of meeting and deliberation. (Pol. ii.
39.) Iamblichus also mentions Caulonia among the cities in which the Pythagorean
sect had made great progress, and which were thrown into confusion by its sudden
and violent suppression (Iambl. Vit. Pyth. § § 262, 267); and, according to Porphyry
(Vit. Pyth. § 56), it was the first place where Pythagoras himself sought refuge
after his expulsion from Crotona. The league just mentioned was probably of very
brief duration; but the part here assigned to Caulonia proves that it must have
been at this time a powerful and important city. Yet, with the exception of an
incidental notice of its name in Thucydides (vii. 25), we hear no more of it until
the time of the elder Dionysius, who in B.C. 389 invaded Magna Graecia with a
large army, and laid siege to Caulonia. The Crotoniats and other Italian Greeks
immediately assembled a large force, with which they advanced to the relief of
the city: but they were met by Dionysius at the river Helorus or Helleporus, and
totally defeated with great slaughter. (Diod. xiv. 103--105.) In consequence of
this battle Caulonia was compelled to surrender to Dionysius, who removed the
inhabitants from the city and established them at Syracuse, while he bestowed
their territory upon his allies the Locrians. (Ib. 106.) The power of Caulonia
was effectually broken by this disaster, and it never rose again to prosperity;
but it did not cease to exist, being probably repeopled by the Locrians; as at
the time of the landing of Dion in Sicily, we are told that the younger Dionysius
was stationed at Caulonia with a fleet and army. (Plut. Dion, 26.) At a somewhat
later period, during the wars of Pyrrhus in Italy, it was taken by a body of Campanian
mercenaries in the Roman service, and utterly ruined. (Paus. vi. 3. § 12.) It
is probably this event, to which Strabo also alludes when he says that Caulonia
was laid desolate by the barbarians (vi. p. 261), though his addition that the
inhabitants removed to Sicily would rather seem to refer to its former destruction
by Dionysius. Both he and Pausanias evidently regard the city as having remained
desolate ever after; but it appears again during the Second Punic War, on which
occasion it followed the example of the Bruttians and declared in favour of Hannibal.
An attempt was afterwards made to recover it by a Roman force, with auxiliaries
from Rhegium, but the sudden arrival of Hannibal broke up the siege. (Liv. xxvii.
12, 15, 16; Plut. Fab. 22; Pol. x. 1.) We have no account of the occasion when
it fell again into the hands of the Romans, nor of the treatment it met with:
but there is little doubt that it was severely punished, in common with the rest
of the Bruttians; and probably its final desolation must date from this period.
Strabo tells us it was in his time quite deserted: and though the name is mentioned
by Mela, Pliny speaks only of the vestigia oppidi Caulonis, and Ptolemy omits
it altogether. (Strab. l. c.; Mel. ii. 4; Plin. iii. 10. s. 15.). It must, however,
have continued to exist, though in a decayed condition, as the name of Caulon
is still found in the Tabula. (Tab. Peut.) An inscription, in which the name of
the Cauloniatae is found as retaining their municipal condition under the reign
of Trajan (Orelli, Inscr. 150), is of very doubtful authenticity.
The site of Caulonia is extremely uncertain: the names and distances
given in this part of the Tabula are so corrupt as to afford little or no assistance.
Strabo and Pliny both place it to the N. of the river Sagras, but unfortunately
that river cannot be identified with any certainty. Many topographers place Caulonia
at Castel Vetere, on a hill on the S. bank of the river Alaro: but those who identify
the Alaro with the Sagras, naturally look for Caulonia N. of that river. Some
ruins are said to exist on the left bank of the Alaro, near its mouth; but according
to Swinburne these are of later date, and the remains of Caulonia have still to
be discovered.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Kroton: Eth. Krotoniates, Crotoniensis and Crotonensis, but Cicero
uses Crotoniatae for the people: Cotrone. One of the most celebrated of the Greek
colonies in Southern Italy, situated on the E. coast of the Bruttian peninsula,
at the mouth of the little river Aesarus, and about 6 miles N. of the Lacinian
Promontory. It was founded by a colony of Achaeans, led by Myscellus, a native
of Rhypae in Achaia, in obedience to the express injunction of the oracle at Delphi.
(Strab. vi. p. 262; Diod. viii. Exc. Vat. pp. 8, 9; Dionys. ii. 59; Ovid. Met.
xv. 9-59; Scymn. Ch. 325.) The date of its foundation is fixed by Dionysius at
B.C. 710, and his authority may probably be relied on, though Eusebius and Hieronymus
would place it some years later. (Clinton, F. H. vol. i. p. 174; Grote's Greece,
vol. iii. p. 401.) A tradition recorded by Strabo (l. c.), which would connect
its foundation with that of Syracuse by Archias, would therefore seem to be chronologically
inadmissible. Its name was derived, according to the current legend, from a person
of the name of Croton, who afforded a hospitable reception to Hercules during
the wanderings of that hero; but having been accidentally killed by him, was buried
on the spot, which Hercules foretold would eventually become the site of a mighty
city. (Diod. iv. 24; Iambl. Vit. Pyth. 50; Ovid, Met. xv. 12-18, 55; Etym. M.
v. Kroton.) Hence we find Croton sometimes called the founder of the city, while
the Crotoniats themselves paid peculiar honours to Hercules as their tutelary
divinity and Oekist. (Heraclid. Pont. 36; Iambl. Vit. Pyth. 40; Eckhel, vol. i.
p. 172.)
Crotona, as well as its neighbour Sybaris, seems to have rapidly risen
to great prosperity; but the general fact of its size, wealth, and power, is almost
all that we know concerning it; its history during the first two centuries from
its foundation being almost a blank to us. But the fact that the walls of the
city enclosed a space of not less than 12 miles in circuit (Liv. xxiv. 3), sufficiently
proves the great power to which it had attained; and it is during this early period
also that we find the Crotoniats extending their dominion across the Bruttian
peninsula, and founding the colony of Terina on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea,
as well as that of Caulonia between the parent city and Locri. Lametium also,
or Lametini, on the Hipponian Gulf, as well as Scyllacium on the opposite side
of the isthmus, must at this period have been subject to its rule. The great wealth
and prosperity enjoyed by the two neighbouring cities of Crotona and Sybaris,
seems to prove that they continued for a long time on terms of friendship, in
accordance with their common Achaean origin; and the Oenotrian tribes of the interior
were not powerful enough to offer any obstacle to their growth. They thus became
during the sixth century B.C. two of the most populous, wealthy, and powerful
cities of the Hellenic name. Crotona, however, was far less luxurious than its
rival; its inhabitants devoted themselves particularly to athletic exercises,
and became celebrated for the number of the prizes which they carried off at the
Olympic games. (Strab. vi. p. 262.) The government of Crotona appears to have
been of an oligarchic character; the supreme power being in the hands of a council
of one thousand persons, who were, or claimed to be, descendants from the original
settlers. (Iambl. V. P. 45; Val. Max. viii. 15. Ext. § 1.) This state of things
continued without interruption, till the arrival of Pythagoras, an event that
led to great changes both at Crotona and in the neighbouring cities. It was, apparently,
about the middle of the sixth century (between B.C. 540 and 530) that that philosopher
first established himself at Crotona, where he quickly attained to great power
and influence, which he appears to have employed not only for philosophical, but
for political purposes. But the nature of the political changes which he introduced,
as well as the revolutions that followed, is involved in great obscurity. We learn,
however, that besides the general influence which Pythagoras exerted over the
citizens, and even over the Great Council, he formed a peculiar society of 300
young men among the most zealous of his disciples, who, without any legal authority,
exercised the greatest influence over the deliberations of the supreme assembly.
This state of things continued for some time, until the growing unpopularity of
the Pythagoreans led to a democratic revolution, which ended in their expulsion
from Crotona and the overthrow of the Great Council, a democratic form of government
being substituted for the oligarchy. This revolution was not confined to Crotona,
but extended to several other cities of Magna Graecia, where the Pythagoreans
had obtained a similar footing; their expulsion led to a period of confusion and
disorder throughout the south of Italy. (Justin. xx. 4; Val. Max. viii. 15. Ext.
§ 1; Diog. Laert. viii. 1. § 3; Iambl. Vit. Pyth. 248-251, 255-262; Porphyr. Vit.
Pyth. 54, 55; Grote's Greece, vol. iv. pp. 525-550.)
It was during the period of the Pythagorean influence (so far as we
can trust the very confused and uncertain chronology of these events), that the
war occurred between Crotona and Sybaris which ended in the destruction of the
latter city. The celebrated athlete Milo, himself a leading disciple of Pythagoras,
was the commander of the Crotoniat army, which is said to have amounted to 100,000
men, while that of the Sybarites was three times as numerous; notwithstanding
which the former obtained a complete victory on the banks of the Traeis, and following
up their advantage took the city of Sybaris, and utterly destroyed it. The received
date of this event is B.C. 510. (Diod. xii. 9; Strab. vi. p. 263; Herod. v. 44,
vi. 21; Iambl. Vit. Pyth. 260; Scymn. Ch. 357-360.) Polybius, however, represents
the Crotoniats as concluding a league with Sybaris and Caulonia, after the expulsion
of the Pythagoreans, a statement wholly irreconcilable with the history transmitted
by other authors. (Pol. ii. 39. See on this point Grote's Greece, vol. iv. p.
559.)
The next event of importance in the history of Crotona, would appear
to be the great defeat which the Crotoniats in their turn sustained at the river
Sagras, where it is said that their army, though consisting of 130,000 men, was
routed by 10,000 Locrians and Rhegians with such slaughter, as to inflict an indelible
blow upon the prosperity of their city. (Strab. vi. pp. 261, 263; Cic. de N. D.
ii. 2; Suid. s. v. alethestera.) Justin, on the contrary (xx. 2, 3), represents
this event as having taken place before the arrival of Pythagoras; but the authority
of Strabo seems decidedly preferable on this point, and is more consistent with
the general history of Crotona. Heyne, however, follows Justin, and places the
battle of the Sagras as early as 360 B.C., and Mr. Grote inclines to the same
view. As no notice is found in the extant books of Diodorus of so important an
event, it seems certain that it must have occurred before B.C. 480. (Heyne, Prolus.
Acad. x. p. 184; Grote's Greece, vol. iv. p. 552.) Strabo has, however, certainly
exaggerated the importance of this disaster in its effects on Crotona; for nearly
a century later that city is still spoken of as the most populous and powerful
of the Greek colonies in this part of Italy. (Diod. xiv. 103.)
Very few notices of it are found in the interval. We learn only that
the Crotoniats viewed with favour the establishment of the new colony of Thurium,
and concluded a treaty of alliance with it (Diod. xii. 11); and that during the
Athenian expedition to Sicily they endeavoured to preserve a strict neutrality,
furnishing the Athenian fleet with provisions, but refusing to allow the passage
of the land forces through their territory. (Diod. xiii. 3; Thuc. vii.35.) In
B.C. 389, when the elder Dionysius carried his arms across the Sicilian Strait,
and proceeded to attack Caulonia, the Crotoniats put themselves at the head of
the Greek cities which opposed the Sicilian despot, but the confederate forces
were totally defeated by Dionysius at the river Helleporus; and the latter, following
up his advantage, made himself master of Caulonia, Hipponium, and Scylletium.
the last of which he wrested from the dominion of Crotona. (Diod. xiv. 103-107;
Strab. vi. p. 261.) No mention is found in Diodorus of his having made any attack
on Crotona itself, but Livy tells us that he surprised the citadel, and by this
means made himself master of the city (Liv. xxiv. 3); of which, according to Dionysius,
he retained possession for not less than 12 years. (Dionys. Exc. xix.) After the
fall of the tyrant, Crotona appears to have recovered its independence; but it
suffered severely from the growing power of the Lucanians and Bruttians, who pressed
upon it from without, as well as from domestic dissensions. It was at one time
actually besieged by the Bruttians, and compelled to apply for aid to the Syracusans,
who sent an armament to its succour under Heracleides and Sosistratus; but those
generals seem to have carried on intrigues with the different parties in Crotona,
which gave rise to revolutions in the city; and after the Crotoniats had rid themselves
of their Bruttian foes by a treaty, they were engaged in a war with their own
exiles. (Diod. xix. 3, 10.) The conduct of this was entrusted to a general named
Menedemus, who defeated the exiles, but appears to have soon after established
himself in the possession of despotic power. (Id. xix. 10, xxi. 4.) In B.C. 299,
Agathocles made himself master of Crotona, in which he established a garrison.
(Id. xxi. 4. Exc. H. p. 490.) How long he retained possession of it we know not;
but it is clear that all these successive revolutions must have greatly impaired
the prosperity of Crotona, to which, according to Livy (xxiv. 3), the final blow
was given during the war of Pyrrhus. The circumstances of this are very imperfectly
known to us; but it appears that the Rhegians made themselves masters of the city
by treachery, put the Roman garrison to the sword, and destroyed great part of
the city. (Zonar. viii. 6. p. 127.) It subsequently passed into the power of Pyrrhus,
but was surprised and taken by the Roman consul Cornelius Rufinus during the absence
of that monarch in Sicily, B.C. 277. (Id. p. 123; Frontin. Strat. iii. 6. § 4.)
So reduced was the city after all these disasters, that little more than half
the extent comprised within the walls continued to be inhabited. (Liv. xxiv. 3.)
In the Second Punic War the Brattians, with the assistance of the
Carthaginian general Hanno, succeeded in making themselves masters of Crotona,
with the exception of the citadel, which held out until the defenders were induced
by Hanno to surrender upon terms; the aristocratic party, who had occupied it,
being persuaded to migrate to Locri, and a body of Bruttians introduced into the
city to fill up the vacancy of its inhabitants. (Liv. xxiv. 2, 3.) The fortifications
of Crotona, its port, and the strength of its citadel, still rendered it a place
of some importance in a military point of view, and during the last years of the
war it was the principal stronghold which remained in the hands of Hannibal, who
established his chief magazines there, and fixed his head-quarters for three successive
winters in its immediate neighbourhood. (Liv. xxix. 36, xxx. 19; Appian. Annib.
57.) The ravages of this war appear to have completed the decay of Crotona; so
that a few years afterwards, in B.C. 194, a colony of Roman citizens was sent
thither to recruit its exhausted population. (Liv. xxxiv. 45.) From. this period
Crotona sank into the condition of an obscure provincial town, and is not again
mentioned in history until after the fall of the Roman Empire. Its port, however,
appears to have been always in some degree frequented as a place of passage to
Greece (Cic. ad Att. ix. 1. 9); and an inscription still gives it the title of
a colony in Imperial times (Mommsen, Inscr. R. Neap. 73), though neither Pliny
nor Ptolemy acknowledges it as such. The name of Crotona again appears in the
wars of Belisarius and Narses against the Goths (Procop. B. G. iii. 28, iv. 26);
it was one of the few cities which at that time still retained some consideration
in this part of Italy, and continued under the sovereignty of the Byzantine Emperors
till it passed with the rest of the modern Calabria into the hands of the Normans.
The modern city of Cotrone is but a poor place, though possessing about 5000 inhabitants,
and a well-fortified citadel. This fortress undoubtedly occupies the same situation
as the ancient arx, on a rock projecting into the sea (Liv. xxiv. 3), and affording
in consequence some degree of shelter to the port. But the importance of the latter,
though frequently mentioned as one of the sources of the prosperity of Crotona,
must not be overrated. Polybius expressly tells us that it was no good harbour,
but only a Therinos hormos, or station where ships could ride in summer (Pol.
x. 1), and that its value arose from the absence of all harbours along this part
of the Italian coast. The ancient city spread itself out in the plain to the W.
and N. of the citadel; in the days of its prosperity it extended far across the
river Aesarus, which in consequence flowed through the middle of the city; but
as early as the Second Punic War, the town had shrunk so much that the Aesarus
formed its northern limit, and flowed on the outside of its walls. (Liv. xxiv.
3.) It is now about a mile to the N. of the modern town.
We have scarcely any topographical information concerning the ancient
city, and there are no ruins of it remaining. Many fragments of masonry and ancient
edifices are said to have been still in existence till about the middle of last
century, when they were employed in the construction of a mole for the protection
of the port. Livy tells us that the walls of Crotona in the days of its greatness
enclosed an extent of 12 miles in circumference; and though its population was
not equal to that of Sybaris, it was still able to send into the field an army
of 100,000 men. Even in the time of Dionysius of Syracuse, when it had already
declined much from its former prosperity, Crotona was still able to furnish a
fleet of 60 ships of war. (Diod. xiv. 100.) But in the Second Punic War the whole
number of citizens of all ages had dwindled to less than 20,000, so that they
were no longer able to defend the whole extent of their walls. (Liv. xxiii. 30.)
Crotona was celebrated in ancient times for the healthiness of its
situation. An old legend represented Archias, the founder of Syracuse, as having
chosen wealth for his city, while Myscellus preferred health (Strab. vi. p. 269;
Steph. B. v. Surakousan): according to another tale, Myscellus, when he first
visited Italy, preferred the situation of Sybaris, but was commanded by the oracle
to adhere to the spot first indicated to him. (Strab. vi. p. 262.) To the favourable
position of the city in this respect was ascribed the superiority of its citizens
in athletic exercises, which was so remarkable that on one occasion they bore
away the seven first prizes in the footrace at the Olympic games. (Strab. l. c.;
Cic. de Inv. ii. 1) Among their athletes Milo was the most celebrated for his
gigantic strength and power of body. (Biogr. Dict. art. Milo.) To the same cause
was attributed the remarkable personal beauty for which their youths and maidens
were distinguished. (Cic. l. c.) The system of training which produced these results
was probably closely connected with the medical school for which Crotona was preeminent
in the days of Herodotus, the physicians of Crotona being regarded at that time
as unquestionably the first in Greece (Herod. iii. 131), and at a later period
the school of Crotona still maintained its reputation by the side of those of
Cos and Cnidus (Grote's Greece, vol. iv. p. 539). Among the most eminent of the
physicians of Crotona we may notice Alcmaeon, to whom the first introduction of
anatomy was ascribed, and Democedes, who was for some time physician at the court
of Darius, king of Persia. (Herod. iii. 129-138.) The great influence exercised
by Pythagoras during his residence at Crotona naturally raised up a numerous school
of his disciples, many of whom perished in the political revolution that put an
end to their power in that city, while the rest were dispersed and driven into
exile: a long list of Pythagorean philosophers, natives of Crotona, is preserved
to us by Iamblichus (Vit. Pyth. 167); but the only two names of real eminence
among them are those of Alcmaeon, already mentioned, and Philolaus, whom however
Iamblichus represents as belonging to Tarentum. (Diog. Laert. viii. 5, 7.)
The territory of Crotona in the days of its prosperity was extensive,
stretching from sea to sea: on the N. it was bounded by the river Hylias (Thuc.
vii. 35), while to the S. it probably extended to the confines of the Locrians,
the intermediate towns of Scylletium and Caulonia being its colonies and dependencies.
The immediate neighbourhood of the city, though less fertile than that of Sybaris
and Thurii, was well adapted for the growth of corn, and the luxuriant pastures
of the valley of the Neaethus are celebrated by Theocritus, and retain their richness
to the present day. The same poet, who has laid the scene of one of his Idylls
in the neighbourhood of Crotona, speaks with praise of the banks of the Aesarus,
which are now dreary and barren: as well as of the pastures and shady woods of
two mountains called Physcus and Latymnum. These last must have been situated
in the neighbourhood of Crotona, but cannot be identified with any certainty.
(Theocr. iv. 17-19, 23-25; and Schol. ad loc.; Swinburne's Travels, vol. i. p.
313.)
Six miles distant from the city of Crotona was the celebrated temple
of the Lacinian Juno, on the promontory of the same name. (Liv. xxiv. 3; Strab.
vi. p. 261; Scyl. p. 5. § 13; Dionys. Per. 371; and Eustath. ad loc.) Livy calls
it nobile templum, ipsa urbe nobilius: indeed, there was no other temple of equal
fame or sanctity in the whole of Magna Graecia. The period of its foundation is
wholly unknown. Virgil alludes to it as already in existence at the time of the
voyage of Aeneas, and Dionysius tells us that a bronze cup was still preserved
there, which had been dedicated by that hero. (Virg. Aen. iii. 552; Dionys. i.
52.) Some legends ascribed its foundation to Hercules, others to Lacinius or Lacinus,
who was said to have been dwelling there when it was visited by Hercules, and
from whom the promontory derived its name: others, again, spoke of the headland
and sacred grove as having been presented by Thetis to Hera herself. (Diod. iv.
24; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 857, 1006; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 552.) These legends may be
considered as indicating that the temple did not owe its foundation to the Greek
colonists of Crotona, but that there previously existed a sacred edifice, or at
least a consecrated locality (temenos), on the spot, probably of Pelasgic origin.
The temple of Hera became the scene of a great annual assembly of all the Italian
Greeks, at which a procession took place in honour of the goddess, to whom splendid
offerings were made; and this festival became a favourite occasion for the Greeks
of the neighbouring cities to display their magnificence. (Pseud. Arist. de Mirab.
96; Athen. xii. p. 541.) The interior of the temple was adorned with paintings,
executed by order of the Crotoniats at the public cost, among which the most celebrated
was that of Helen by Zeuxis, for the execution of which that artist was allowed
to select five of the most beautiful virgins of the city as his models. (Cic.
de Inv. ii. 1; Plin. xxxv. 9. s. 36.) Besides abundance of occasional offerings
of the most costly description, the temple derived great wealth from its permanent
revenues, especially its cattle, out of the produce of which a column of solid
gold was formed, and set up in the sanctuary. (Liv. xxiv. 3.) Immediately adjoining
the temple itself was an extensive grove, or rather forest, of tall pinetrees,
enclosing within it rich pastures, on which the cattle belonging to the temple
were allowed to feed, unprotected and uninjured. (Ibid.)
The immense mass of treasures that had thus accumulated in the temple
is said to have excited the cupidity of Hannibal, during the time that he was
established in its neighbourhood, but he was warned by the goddess herself in
a dream to refrain from touching them. (Cic. de Div. i. 2. 4) It was at the same
period that he dedicated there a bronze tablet, containing a detailed account
of his wars in Spain and Italy, the number of his forces, &c., which was consulted,
and is frequently referred to, by the historian Polybius. (Pol. iii. 33, 56.)
But though this celebrated sanctuary had been spared both by Pyrrhus and Hannibal,
it was profaned by the Roman censor Q. Fulvius Flaccus, who, in B.C. 173, stripped
it of half its roof, which was composed of marble slabs instead of tiles, for
the purpose of adorning a temple of Fortuna Equestris, which he was erecting at
Rome. The outrage was, indeed, severely censured by the senate, who caused the
slabs to be carried back to Lacinium, but in the decayed condition of the province,
it was found impossible to replace them. (Liv. xlii. 3; Val. Max. i. 1. § 20.)
The decay of the temple may probably be dated as commencing from this period,
and must have resulted from the general decline of the neighbouring cities and
country. But Appian tells us that it was still wealthy, and replete with offerings,
as late as B.C. 36, when it was plundered by Sex. Pompeius. (App. B.C. v. 133.)
Hence Strabo speaks of it as having in his time lost its wealth, though the temple
itself was still in existence. Pliny mentions the Lacinian Promontory, but without
noticing the temple. It appears, however, from extant remains, as well as from
an inscription, Herae Laciniae, found in the ruins, that it still continued to
subsist as a sacred edifice down to a late period. (Dionys. i. 52; Strab. vi.
p. 261; Mommsen, I. R. N. 72.)
The ruins of this celebrated temple are but inconsiderable; one column
alone is standing, of the Doric order, closely resembling those of Metapontum:
it is. based on a foundation of large stones cut into facets: but some admixture
of brickwork shows that the building must have been repaired in Roman times. A
second column was standing till near the middle of the last century; and considerable
remains of the pavement, and the wall which formed the peribolus of the temple,
were carried off to be used in the construction of the mole and the bishop's palace
at Cotrone. Riedesel, who visited these ruins in 1767, and upon whose authority
many modern writers have described the building as of enormous extent, appears
to have been misled by some masses of masonry (of reticulated work, and therefore
certainly of Roman construction), more than 100 yards distant from the column,
and which could never have formed any part of the temple. These fragments are
generally known by the absurd appellation of the School of Pythagoras. The position
of the temple on a bold projecting rock (as described by Lucan. ii. 434), must
have been very striking, commanding a noble view in all directions, and forming
a landmark to voyagers, who were in the habit of striking across the bay direct
from the Iapygian Promontory to that of Lacinium (Virg. Aen. iii. 552). The single
column that forms its solitary remnant, still serves the same purpose. (Swinburne's
Travels, vol. i. pp. 321-323; Craven, Southern Tour, p. 238.)
The coins of Crotona are very numerous: the more ancient ones are
of the class called incuse, having the one side convex, the other concave: a mode
of coinage peculiar to the cities of Magna Graecia. The type of all these earlier
coins is a tripod, as on the one annexed, in allusion to the oracle of Delphi,
in pursuance of which the city was founded; later coins have the head of the Lacinian
Juno, and on the reverse the figure of Hercules.
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LOKRI EPIZEFIRIOI (Ancient city) ITALY
Locri (Lokroi), sometimes called, for distinction's sake, Locri Epizephyrii
(Lokroi Epizephurioi, Thuc. vii. 1; Pind. Ol.xi.15; Strab.; Steph. B.: Eth. Lokros,
Locrensis: Ruins near Gerace), a city on the SE. coast of the Bruttian peninsula,
not far from its southern extremity, and one of the most celebrated of the Greek
colonies in this part of Italy. It was a colony, as its name obviously implies,
of the Locrians in Greece, but there is much discrepancy as to the tribe of that
nation from which it derived its origin. Strabo affirms that it was founded by
the Locri Ozolae, under a leader named Euanthes, and censures Ephorus for ascribing
it to the Locri Opuntii; but this last opinion seems to have been the one generally
prevalent. Scymnus Chius mentions both opinions, but seems to incline to the latter;
and it is adopted without question by Pausanias, as well as by the poets and later
Latin authors, whence we may probably infer that it was the tradition adopted
by the Locrians themselves. (Strab. vi. p. 259; Scymn. Ch. 313-317; Paus. iii.
19. § 12; Virg. Aen. iii. 399.) Unfortunately Polybius, who had informed himself
particularly as to the history and institutions of the Locrians, does not give
any statement upon this point. But we learn from him that the origin of the colony
was ascribed by the tradition current among the Locrians themselves, and sanctioned
by the authority of Aristotle, to a body of fugitive slaves, who had carried off
their mistresses, with whom they had previously carried on an illicit intercourse.
(Pol. xii. 5, 6, 10-12.) The same story is alluded to by Dionysius Periegetes
(365-367). Pausanias would seem to refer to a wholly different tale where he says
that the Lacedaemonians sent a colony to the Epizephyrian Locri, at the same time
with one to Crotona. (Paus, iii. 3. § 1.) These were, however, in both cases,
probably only additional bands of colonists, as Lacedaemon was never regarded
as the founder of either city. The date of the foundation of Locri is equally
uncertain. Strabo (l. c.) places it a little after that of Crotona and Syracuse,
which he regarded as nearly contemporary, but he is probably mistaken in this
last opinion. Eusebius, on the contrary, brings it down to so late a date as B.C.
673 (or, according to Hieronymus, 683); but there seems good reason to believe
that this is much too late, and we may venture to adopt Strabo's statement that
it was founded soon after Crotona, if the latter be placed about 710 B.C. (Euseb.
Arm. p. 105; Clinton F. H. vol. i. p. 186, vol. ii. p. 410.) The traditions adopted
by Aristotle and Polybius represented the first settlers as gaining possession
of the soil from the native Oenotrians (whom they called Siculi), by a fraud not
unlike those related in many similar legends. (Pol. xii. 6.) The fact stated by
Strabo that they first established themselves on Cape Zephyrium (Capo di Bruzzano),
and subsequently removed from thence to the site which they ultimately occupied,
about 15 miles further N., is supported by the evidence of their distinctive appellation,
and may be depended on as accurate. (Strab. l. c.)
As in the case of most of the other Greek colonies in Italy, we have
very scanty and imperfect information concerning the early history of Locri. The
first event in its annals that has been transmitted to us, and one of those to
which it owes its chief celebrity, is the legislation of Zaleucus. This was said
to be the most ancient written code of laws that had been given to any Greek state;
and though the history of Zaleucus himself was involved in great obscurity, and
mixed up with much of fable, there is certainly no doubt that the Locrians possessed
a written code, which passed under his name, and which continued down to a late
period to be in force in their city. Even in the days of Pindar and of Demosthenes,
Locri was regarded as a model of good government and order; and its inhabitants
were distinguished for their adherence to established laws and their aversion
to all innovation. (Pind. Ol. x. 17; Schol. ad loc.; Strab. vi. p. 260; Demosth.
adv. Timocrat. p. 743; Diod. xii. 20, 21.)
The period of the legislation of Zaleucus cannot be determined with
certainty: but the date given by Eusebius of Ol. 30, or B.C. 660, may be received
as approximately correct. (Euseb. Arm. p. 105; Clinton, vol. i. p. 193.) Of its
principles we know but little; and the quotations from his laws, even if we could
depend upon their authenticity, have no reference to the political institutions
of the state. It appears, however, that the government of Locri was an aristocracy,
in which certain select families, called the Hundred Houses, enjoyed superior
privileges: these were considered to be derived from the original settlers, and
in accordance with the legend concerning their origin, were regarded as deriving
their nobility from the female side. (Pol. xii. 5.)
The next event in the history of Locri, of which we have any account,
is the memorable battle of the Sagras, in which it was said that a force of 10,000
Locrians, with a small body of auxiliaries from Rhegium, totally defeated an army
of 130,000 Crotoniats, with vast slaughter. (Strab. vi. p. 261; Cic. de N. D.
ii. 2; Justin. xx. 2, 3.) The extraordinary character of this victory, and the
exaggerated and fabulous accounts of it which appear to have been circulated,
rendered it proverbial among the Greeks (alethestera ton epi Sagra, Suid. s. v.)
Yet we have no means of assigning its correct place in history, its date being
extremely uncertain, some accounts placing it after the fall of Sybaris (B.C.
510), while others would carry it back nearly 50 years earlier.
The small number of troops which the Locrians are represented as bringing
into the field upon this occasion, as compared with those of Crotona, would seem
to prove that the city was not at this time a very powerful one; at least it is
clear that it was not to compare with the great republics of Sybaris and Crotona.
But it seems to have been in a flourishing condition; and it must in all probability
be to this period that we must refer the establishment of its colonies of Hipponium
and Medma, on the opposite side of the Bruttian peninsula. (Scymn. Ch. 308; Strab.
vi. p. 256.) Locri is mentioned by Herodotus in B.C. 493, when the Samian colonists,
who were on their way to Sicily, touched there (Herod. vi. 23); and it appears
to have been in a state of great prosperity when its praises were sung by Pindar,
in B.C. 484. (Pind. Ol. x., xi.) The Locrians, from their position, were naturally
led to maintain a close connection with the Greek cities of Sicily, especially
with Syracuse, their friendship with which would seem: to have dated,. according
to some accounts, [p. 200] from the period of their very foundation. (Strab. vi.
p. 259.) On the other hand, they were almost constantly on terms of hostility
with their neighbours of Rhegium, and, during the rule of Anaxilas, in the latter
city, were threatened with complete destruction by that despot, from which they
were saved by the intervention of Hieron of Syracuse. (Pind. Pyth. ii. 35; and
Schol. ad loc.) In like manner we find them, at the period of the Athenian expeditions
to Sicily, in close alliance with Syracuse, and on terms of open enmity with Rhegium.
Hence they at first engaged in actual hostilities with the Athenians under Laches;
and though they subsequently concluded a treaty of peace with them, they still
refused to admit the great Athenian armament, in B.C. 415, even to anchor on their
coasts. (Thuc. iii. 99, 115, iv. 1, 24, v. 5, vi. 44, vii. 1; Diod. xii. 54, xiii.
3.) At a later period of the Peloponnesian War they were among the few Italian
cities that sent auxiliary ships to the Lacedaemonians. (Thuc. viii. 91.)
During the reign of the elder Dionysius at Syracuse, the bonds of
amity between the two cities were strengthened by the personal alliance of that
monarch, who married Doris, the daughter of Xenetus, one of the most eminent of
the citizens of Locri. (Diod. xiv. 44.) He subsequently adhered steadfastly to
this alliance, which secured him a footing in Italy, from which he derived great
advantage in his wars against the Rhegians and other states of Magna Graecia.
In return for this, as well as to secure the continuance of their support, he
conferred great benefits upon the Locrians, to whom he gave the whole territory
of Caulonia, after the destruction of that city in B.C. 389; to which he added
that of Hipponium in the following year, and a part of that of Scylletium. (Diod.
xiv. 100, 106, 107; Strab. p. 261.) Hipponium was, however, again wrested from
them by the Carthaginians in B.C. 379. (Id. xv. 24.) The same intimate relations
with Syracuse continued under the younger Dionysius, when they became the source
of great misfortunes to the city: for that despot, after his expulsion from Syracuse
(B.C. 356), withdrew to Locri, where he seized on the citadel, and established
himself in the possession of despotic power. His rule here is described as extremely
arbitrary and oppressive, and stained at once by the most excessive avarice and
unbridled licentiousness. At length, after a period of six years, the Locrians
took advantage of the absence of Dionysius, and drove out his garrison; while
they exercised a cruel vengeance upon his unfortunate wife and daughters, who
had fallen into their hands. (Justin, xxi. 2, 3; Strab. vi. p. 259; Arist. Pol.
v. 7; Clearch. ap. Athen. xii. 541.)
The Locrians are said to have suffered severely from the oppressions
of this tyrant; but it is probable that they sustained still greater injury from
the increasing power of the Bruttians, who were now become most formidable neighbours
to all the Greek cities in this part of Italy. The Locrians never appear to have
fallen under the yoke of the barbarians, but it is certain that their city declined
greatly from its former prosperity. It is not again mentioned till the wars of
Pyrrhus. At that period it appears that Locri, as well as Rhegium and other Greek
cities, had placed itself under the protection of Rome, and even admitted a Roman
garrison into its walls. On the approach of Pyrrhus they expelled this garrison,
and declared themselves in favour of that monarch (Justin, xviii. 1); but they
had soon cause to regret the change; for the garrison left there by the king,
during his absence in Sicily, conducted itself so ill, that the Locrians rose
against them and expelled them from their city. On this account they were severely
punished by Pyrrhus on his return from Sicily; and, not content with exactions
from the inhabitants, he carried off a great part of the sacred treasures from
the temple of Proserpine, the most celebrated sanctuary at Locri. A violent storm
is said to have punished his impiety, and compelled him to restore the treasures.
(Appian, Samn. iii. 12; Liv. xxix. 18; Val. Max. i. 1, Ext. § 1.)
After the departure of Pyrrhus, the Locrians seem to have submitted
again to Rome, and continued so till the Second Punic War, when they were among
the states that threw off the Roman alliance and declared in favour of the Carthaginians,
after the battle of Cannae, B.C. 216. (Liv. xxii. 61, xxiii. 30.) They soon after
received a Carthaginian force within their walls, though at the same time their
liberties were guaranteed by a treaty of alliance on equal terms. (Liv. xxiv.
1.) When the fortune of the war began to turn against Carthage, Locri was besieged
by the Roman consul Crispinus, but without success; and the approach of Hannibal
compelled him to raise the siege, B.C. 208. (Id. xxvii. 25, 28.) It was not till
B.C. 205, that Scipio, when on the point of sailing for Africa, was enabled, by
the treachery of some of the citizens, to surprise one of the forts which commanded
the town; an advantage that soon led to the surrender of the other citadel and
the city itself. (Id. xxix. 6-8.) Scipio confided the charge of the city and the
command of the garrison to his legate, Q. Pleminius; but that officer conducted
himself with such cruelty and rapacity towards the unfortunate Locrians, that
they rose in tumult against him, and a violent sedition took place, which was
only appeased by the intervention of Scipio himself. That general, however, took
the part of Pleminius, whom he continued in his command; and the Locrians were
exposed anew to his exactions and cruelties, till they at length took courage
to appeal to the Roman senate. Notwithstanding vehement opposition on the part
of the friends of Scipio, the senate pronounced in favour of the Locrians, condemned
Pleminius, and restored to the Locrians their liberty and the enjoyment of their
own laws. (Liv. xxix. 8, 16-22; Diod. xxvii. 4; Appian, Annib, 55.) Pleminius
had, on this occasion, followed the example of Pyrrhus in plundering the temple
of Proserpine; but the senate caused restitution to be made, and the impiety to
be expiated at the public cost. (Diod. L. C.)
From this time we hear little of Locri. Notwithstanding the privileged
condition conceded to it by the senate, it seems to have sunk into a very subordinate
position. Polybius, however, speaks of it as in his day still a considerable town,
which was bound by treaty to furnish a certain amount of naval auxiliaries to
the Romans. (Pol. xii. 5.) The Locrians were under particular obligations to that
historian (lb.) ; and at a later period we find them enjoying the special patronage
of Cicero (Cic. de Leg. ii. 6), but we do not know the origin of their connection
with the great orator. From Strabo's account it is obvious that Locri still subsisted
as a town in his day, and it is noticed in like manner by Pliny and Ptolemy (Strab.
vi. p. 259; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Ptol. iii. 1. § 10). Its name is not found in
the Itineraries, though they describe this coast in considerable detail; but Procopius
seems to attest its continued existence in the 6th century (B. G. i. 15), and
it is probable that it owed its complete destruction to the Saracens. Its very
name was forgotten in the middle ages, and its site became a matter of dispute.
This has however been completely established by the researches of modern travellers,
who have found the remains of the ancient city on the sea-coast, near the modern
town of Gerace. (Cluver, Ital. p. 1301; Romanelli, vol. i. p. 152; Cramer, vol.
ii. p. 411; Riedesel, Voyage dans la Grande Grece, p. 148.)
The few ruins that still remain have been carefully examined and described
by the Due de Luynes. (Ann. d. Inst. Arch. vol. ii. pp. 3-12.) The site of the
ancient city, which may be distinctly traced by the vestiges of the walls, occupied
a space of near two miles in length, by less than a mile in breadth, extending
from the sea-coast at Torre di Gerace (on the left bank of a small stream called
the Fiume di S. Ilario), to the first heights or ridges of the Apennines. It is
evidently to these heights that Strabo gives the name of Mount Esopis (Esopis),
on which he places the first foundation of the city. (Strab. vi. p. 259.) The
same heights are separated by deep ravines, so as to constitute two separate summits,
both of them retaining the traces of ancient fortifications, and evidently the
two citadels not far distant from each other noticed by Livy in his account of
the capture of the city by Scipio. (Liv. xxix. 6.) The city extended from hence
down the slopes of the hills towards the sea, and had unquestionably its port
at the mouth of the little river S. Ilario, though there could never have been
a harbour there in the modern sense of the term. Numerous fragments of ancient
masonry are scattered over the site, but the only distinct vestiges of any ancient
edifice are those of a Doric temple, of which the basement alone now remains,
but several columns were standing down to a recent period. It is occupied by a
farm-house, called the Casino dell' Imperatore, about a mile from the sea, and
appears to have stood without the ancient walls, so that it is not improbable
the ruins may be the remains of the celebrated temple of Proserpine, which we
know to have occupied a similar position. (Liv. xxix. 18.) The ruins of Locri
are about five miles distant from the modern town of Gerace, which was previously
supposed to occupy the site of the ancient city (Cluver, l. c.; Barr. de Sit.
Calabr. iii. 7), and 15 miles from the Capo di Bruzzano, the Zephyrian promontory.
The Locrians are celebrated by Pindar (Ol. x. 18, xi. 19) for their
devotion to the Muses as well as for their skill and courage in war. In accordance
with this character we find mention of Xenocritus and Erasippus, both of them
natives of Locri, as poets of some note; the lyric poetess Theano was probably
also a native of the Epizephyrian Locri. (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. xi. 17; Boeckh,
ad Ol. x. p. 197.) The Pythagorean philosophy also was warmly taken up and cultivated
there, though the authorities had refused to admit any of the political innovations
of that philosopher. (Porphyr. Vit. Pyth. 56.) But among his followers and disciples
several were natives of Locri (Iambl. Vit. Pyth. 267), the most eminent of whom
were Timaeus, Echecrates, and Acrion, from whom Plato is said to have imbibed
his knowledge of the Pythagorean tenets. (Cic. de Fin. v. 29.) Nor was the cultivation
of other arts neglected. Eunomus, a Locrian citizen, was celebrated for his skill
on the cithara; and the athlete Euthymus of Locri, who gained several prizes at
Olympia, was scarcely less renowned than Milo of Crotona. (Strab. vi. pp. 255,
260; Paus. vi. 6. § § 4-11.)
The territory of Locri, during the flourishing period of the city,
was certainly of considerable extent. Its great augmentation by Dionysius of Syracuse
has been already mentioned. But previous to that time, it was separated from that
of Rhegium on the SW. by the river Halex or Alice, while its northern limit towards
Caulonia was probably the Sagras, generally identified with the Alaro. The river
Buthrotus of Livy (xxix. 7), which appears to have been but a short distance from
the town, was probably the Novito, about six miles to the N. Thucydides mentions
two other colonies of Locri (besides Hipponium and Medma already noticed), to
which he gives the names of Itone and Melae, but no other trace is found of either
the one or the other. (Thuc. v. 5.)
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MACALLA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Macalla(Makalla), an ancient city of Bruttium, where, according to
Lycophron, was the sepulchre of Philoctetes, to whom the inhabitants paid divine
honours. (Lycophr. Alex. 927.) The author of the treatise De Mirabilibus, ascribed
to Aristotle, mentions the same tradition, and adds that the hero had deposited
there in the temple of Apollo Halius the bow and arrows of Hercules, which had,
however, been removed by the Crotoniats to the temple of Apollo in their own city.
We learn from this author that Macalla was in the territory of Crotona, about
120 stadia from that city; but its position cannot be determined. It was doubtless
an Oenotrian town: at a later period all trace of it disappears. (Pseud.-Arist.
de Mirab. 107; Steph. B. s. v.; Schol. ad Lycophr. l. c.)
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MEDMA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Medma or Mesma (Medme, Steph. B.; Medma, Strab., Scymn. Ch.; but Mesma
on coins, and so Apollodorus, cited by Steph. B.; Scylax has Mesa, evidently a
corruption for Mesma: Eth. Medmaios, Mesmaios), a Greek city of Southern Italy,
on the W. coast of the Bruttian peninsula, between Hipponium and the mouth of
the Metaurus. (Strab. vi. p. 256; Scyl. p. 4. § 12.) It was a colony founded by
the Epizephyrian Locrians, and is said to have derived its name from an adjoining
fountain. (Strab. l. c.; Scymn. Ch. 308; Steph. B. s. v.) But though it is repeatedly
noticed among the Greek cities in this part of Italy, it does not appear ever
to have attained to any great power or importance, and its name never figures
in history. It is probable, however, that the Medimnaeans (Medimnaioi), who are
noticed by Diodorus as contributing a body of colonists to the repeopling of Messana
by Dionysius in B.C. 396, are no other than the Medmaeans, and that we should
read Medmaioi in the passage in question. (Diod. xiv. 78.) Though never a very
conspicuous place, Medma seems to have survived the fall of many other more important
cities of Magna Graecia, and it is noticed as a still existing town both by Strabo
and Pliny. (Strab. l. c.; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10.) But the name is not found in Ptolemy,
and all subsequent trace of it disappears. It appears from Strabo that the town
itself was situated a little inland, and that it had a port or emporium on the
sea-shore. The exact site has not been determined, but as the name of Mesima is
still borne by a river which flows into the sea a little below Nicotera, there
can be no doubt that Medma was situated somewhere in the neighbourhood of that
town, and probably its port was at the mouth of the river which still bears its
name. Nicotera, the name of which is already found in the Antonine Itinerary (pp.
106, 111), probably arose after the decline of Mesma.
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PANDOSSIA (Ancient city) INOTRIA
Pandosia (Pandosia: Eth. Pandosinos). A city of Bruttium, situated
near the frontiers of Lucania. Strabo describes it as a little above Consentia,
the precise sense of which expression is far from clear (Strab. vi. p. 256); but
Livy calls it imminentem Lucanis ac Bruttiis finibus. (Liv. viii. 24.) According
to Strabo it was originally an Oenotrian town, and was even, at one time, the
capital of the Oenotrian kings (Strab. l. c.); but it seems to have certainly
received a Greek colony, as Scylax expressly enumerates it among the Greek cities
of this part of Italy, and Scymnus Chius, though perhaps less distinctly, asserts
the same thing. (Scyl. p. 4. § 12; Scymn. Ch. 326.) It was probably a colony of
Crotona; though the statement of Eusebius, who represents it as founded in the
same year with Metapontum, would lead us to regard it as an independent and separate
colony. (Euseb. Arm. Chron. p. 99.) But the date assigned by him of B.C. 774 seems
certainly inadmissible. But whether originally an independent settlement or not,
it must have been a dependency of Crotona during the period of greatness of that
city, and hence we never find its name mentioned among the cities of Magna Graecia.
Its only historical celebrity arises from its, being the place near which Alexander,
king of Epirus, was slain in battle with the Bruttians, B.C. 326. That monarch
had been warned by an oracle to avoid Pandosia, but he understood this as referring
to the town of that name in Thesprotia, on the banks of the Acheron, and was ignorant
of the existence of both a town and river of the same names in Italy. (Strab.
vi. p. 256 ; Liv. viii. 24 ; Justin, xii. 2; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15.) The name of
Pandosia is again mentioned by Livy (xxix. 38) in the Second Punic War, among
the Bruttian towns retaken by the consul P. Sempronius, in B.C. 204; and it is
there noticed, together with Consentia, as opposed to the ignobiles aliae civitates.
It was therefore at this time still a place of some consequence; and Strabo seems
to imply that it still existed in his time (Strab. l. c.), but we find no subsequent
trace of it. There is great difficulty in determining its position. It is described
as a strong fortress, situated on a hill, which had three peaks, whence it was
called, in the oracle Pandosia trikolonos (Strab, l. c.) In addition to the vague
statements of Strabo and Livy above cited, it is enumerated by Scymnus Chius between
Crotona and Thurii. But it was clearly an inland town, and must probably have
stood in the mountains between Consentia and Thurii, though its exact site cannot
be determined, and those assigned by local topographers are purely conjectural.
The proximity of the river Acheron affords us no assistance, as this was evidently
an inconsiderable stream, the name of which is not mentioned on any other occasion,
and which, therefore, cannot be identified.
Much confusion has arisen between the Bruttian Pandosia and a town
of the same name in Lucania (No. 2.); and some writers have even considered this
last as the place where Alexander perished. (Romanelli, vol. i. pp. 261- 263).
It is true that Theopompus (ap. Plin. iii. 11. s. 15), in speaking of that event,
described Pandosia as a city of the Lucanians, but this is a very natural error,
as it was, in fact, near the boundaries of the two nations (Liv. viii. 24), and
the passages of Livy (xxix. 38) and Strabo can leave no doubt that it was really
situated in the land of the Bruttians.
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PETELIA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Petelia or Petilia (Petelia: Eth. Petelinos, Petelinus: Strongoli),
an ancient city of Bruttium, situated about 12 miles N. of Crotona, and 3 miles
from the E. coast of the peninsula. According to the Greek traditions it was a
very ancient city, founded by Philoctetes after the Trojan War. (Strab. vi. p.
254; Virg. Aen. iii. 401; Serv. ad loc.) This legend probably indicates that it
was really a town of the Chones, an Oenotrian tribe; as the foundation of Chone,
in the same neighbourhood, was also ascribed to Philoctetes. It was only a small
place (Virg. l. c.), but in a strong situation. We have no account of its receiving
a Greek colony, nor is its name ever mentioned among the Greek cities of this
part of Italy; but, like so many of the Oenotrian towns, became to a great extent
Hellenised or imbued with Greek culture and manners. It was undoubtedly for a
long time subject to Crotona, and comprised within the territory of that city;
and probably for this reason, its name is never mentioned during the early history
of Magna Graecia. But after the irruption of the Lucanians, it fell into the hands
of that people, by whom it was strongly fortified, and became one of their most
important strongholds. (Strab. l. c.) It is apparently on this account, that Strabo
calls it the metropolis of the Lucanians, though it certainly was not included
in Lucania as the term was understood in his day. Petelia first became conspicuous
in history during the Second Punic War, when its citizens remained faithful to
the Roman alliance, notwithstanding the general defection of the Bruttians around
them, B.C. 216. They were in consequence besieged by the Bruttians as well as
by a Carthaginian force under Himilco: but though abandoned to their fate by the
Roman senate, to whom they had in vain sued for assistance, they made a desperate
resistance; and it was not till after a siege of several months, in which they
had suffered the utmost extremities of famine, that they were at length compelled
to surrender. (Liv. xxiii. 20, 30; Polyb. vii. 1; Appian, Annib. 29; Frontin.
Strat. iv. 5. § 18; Val. Max. vi. 6, ext. § 2; Sil. Ital. xii. 431.) The few inhabitants
who escaped, were after the close of the war restored by the Romans to their native
town (Appian, l. c.), and were doubtless treated with especial favour; so that
Petelia rose again to a prosperous condition, and in the days of Strabo was one
of the few cities of Bruttium that was still tolerably flourishing and populous.
(Strab. vi. p. 254.) We learn from inscriptions that it still continued to be
a flourishing municipal town under the Roman Empire (Orell. Inscr. 137, 3678,
3939; Mommsen, Inscr. R. N. pp. 5, 6): it is mentioned by all the geographers
and its name is still found in the Tabula, which places it on the road from Thurii
to Crotona. (Mel. ii. 4. § 8; Plin. iii. 10. s. 15; Ptol. iii. 1. F § 75 ; Tab.
Peut.) But we are unable to trace its history further: its identification with
Strongoli is, however, satisfactorily made out by the inscriptions which have
been found in the latter city. Strongoli is an episcopal see, with about 7000
inhabitants: its situation on a lofty and rugged hill, commanding the plain of
the Nieto (Neaethus), corresponds with the accounts of Petelia, which is represented
as occupying a position of great natural strength. There are no ruins of the ancient
city, but numerous minor objects of antiquity have been found on the spot, besides
the inscriptions above referred to.
The existence of a second town of the name of Petelia in Lucania,
which has been admitted by several writers, rests mainly on the passage of Strabo
where he calls Petelia the metropolis of Lucania; but he is certainly there speaking
of the well-known city of the name, which was undoubtedly in Bruttium. The inscriptions
published by Antonini, to prove that there was a town of this name in the mountains
near Velia, are in all probability spurious (Mommsen, I. R. N. App. p. 2), though
they have been adopted, and his authority followed by Romanelli and Cramer. (Romanelli,
vol. i. p. 348; Cramer's Italy, vol. ii. p. 367.) The Petelini Montes (ta Petelina
ore), mentioned by Plutarch (Crass. 11), to which Spartacus retired after his
defeat by Crassus, are evidently the rugged group of the Apennines S. of the Crathis,
between Petelia and Consentia.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
RIGION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Pegion: Eth. Rheginos, Rheginus: Reggio. An important city of Magna
Graecia, situated near the southern end of the Bruttian peninsula, on the E. side
of the Sicilian straits, and almost directly opposite to Messana in Sicily. The
distance between the two cities, in a direct line, is only about 6 geog. miles,
and the distance from Rhegium to the nearest point of the island is somewhat less.
There is no doubt that it was a Greek colony, and we have no account of any settlement
previously existing on the site; but the spot is said to have been marked by the
tomb of Jocastus, one of the sons of Aeolus. (Heraclid. Polit. 25.) The foundation
of Rhegium is universally ascribed to the Chalcidians, who had, in a year of famine,
consecrated a tenth part of their citizens to Apollo; and these, under the direction
of the oracle at Delphi, proceeded to Rhegium, whither they were also invited
by their Chalcidic brethren, who were already established at Zancle on the opposite
side of the strait. (Strab. vi. p. 257; Heraclid. l. c.; Diod. xiv. 40; Thuc.
vi. 4; Scymn. Ch. 311.) With these Chalcidians were also united a body of Messenian
exiles, who had been driven from their country at the beginning of the First Messenian
War, and had established themselves for a time at Macistus. They were apparently
not numerous, as Rhegium always continued to be considered a Chalcidic city; but
they comprised many of the chief families in the new colony; so that, according
to Strabo, the presiding magistrates of the city were always taken from among
these Messenian citizens, down to the time of Anaxilas, who himself belonged to
this dominant caste. (Strab. vi. p. 257; Paus. iv. 23. § 6; Thuc. vi. 4; Heraclid.
l. c. 1.) The date of the foundation of Rhegium is uncertain; the statements just
mentioned, which connect it with the First Messenian War would carry it back as
far as the 8th century B.C.; but they leave the precise period uncertain. Pausanias
considers it as founded after the end of the war, while Antiochus, who is cited
by Strabo, seems to refer it to the beginning; but his expressions are not decisive,
as we do not know how long the exiles may have remained at Macistus; and it is
probable, on the whole, that we may consider it as taking place shortly after
the close of the war, and therefore before 720 B.C. (Paus. l. c.; Antioch. ap.
Strab. l. c.). In this case it was probably the most ancient of all the Greek
colonies in this part of Italy. Various etymologies of the name of Rhegium are
given by ancient authors; the one generally received, and adopted by Aeschylus
(ap. Strab. l. c.), was that which derived it from the bursting asunder of the
coasts of Sicily and Italy, which was generally ascribed to an earthquake. (Diod.
iv. 85; Justin. iv. 1, &c.) Others absurdly connected it with the Latin regium.
(Strab. l. c.), while Heraclides gives a totally different story, which derived
the name from that of an indigenous hero. (Heraclid. Polit. 25.) There
seems no doubt that Rhegium rose rapidly to be a flourishing and prosperous city;
but we know almost nothing of its history previous to the time of Anaxilas. The
constitution, as we learn from Heraclides, was aristocratic, the management of
affairs resting wholly with a council or body of 1000 of the principal and wealthiest
citizens. After the legislation of Charondas at Catana, his laws were adopted
by the Rhegians as well as by the other Chalcidic cities of Sicily, (Heraclid.
l. c.; Arist. Pol. ii. 12, v. 12.) The Rhegians are mentioned as affording shelter
to the fugitive Phocaeans, who had been driven from Corsica, previous to the foundation
of Velia. (Herod. i. 166, 167.) According to Strabo they extended their dominion
over many of the adjoining towns, but these could only have been small places,
as we do not hear of any colonies of importance founded by the Rhegians; and their
territory extended only as far as the Halex on the E., where they adjoined the
Locrian territory, while the Locrian colonies of Medma and Hipponinm prevented
their extension on the N. Indeed, from the position of Rhegium it seems to have
always maintained closer relations with Sicily, and taken more part in the politics
of that island than in those of the other Greek cities in Italy. Between the Rhegians
and Locrians, however, there appears to have been a constant spirit of enmity,
which might be readily expected between two rival cities, such near neighbours,
and belonging to different races. (Thuc. iv. 1, 24.)
Rhegium appears to have participated largely in the political changes
introduced by the Pythagoreans, and even became, for a short time after the death
of Pythagoras, the head-quarters of his sect (Iambl. Vit. Pyth. 33, 130, 251);
but the changes then introduced do not seem to have been permanent.
It was under the reign of Anaxilas that Rhegium first rose to a degree
of power far greater than it had previously attained. We have no account of the
circumstances attending the elevation of that despot to power, an event which
took place, according to Diodorus, in B.C. 494 (Diod. xi. 48); but we know that
he belonged to one of the ancient Messenian families, and to the oligarchy which
had previously ruled the state. (Strab. vi. p. 257; Paus. iv. 23. § 6; Arist.
Pol. v. 12; Thuc. vi. 4.) Hence, when he made himself master of Zancle on the
opposite side of the straits, he gave to that city the name of Messana, by which
it was ever afterwards known.
Anaxilas continued for some years ruler of both these cities, and
thus was undisputed master of the Sicilian straits: still further to strengthen
himself in this sovereignty, he fortified the rocky promontory of Scyllaeum, and
established a naval station there to guard the straits against the Tyrrhenian
pirates. (Strab. vi. p. 257.) He meditated also the destruction of the neighbouring
city of Locri, the perpetual rival and enemy of Rhegium, but was prevented from
carrying out his purpose by the intervention of Hieron of Syracuse, who espoused
the cause of the Locrians, and whose enmity Anaxilas did not choose to provoke.
(Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. ii. 34.) One of his daughters was, indeed, married to the
Syracusan despot, whose friendship he seems to have sought assiduously to cultivate.
Anaxilas enjoyed the reputation of one of the mildest and most equitable of the
Sicilian rulers (Justin. iv. 2), and it is probable that Rhegium enjoyed great
prosperity under his government. At his death, in B.C. 476, it passed without
opposition under the rule of his two sons; but the government was administered
during their minority by their guardian Micythus, who reigned over both Rhegium
and Messana for nine years with exemplary justice and moderation, and at the end
of that time gave up the sovereignty into the hands of the two sons of Anaxilas.
(Diod. xi. 48, 66; Herod. vii. 170; Justin. iv. 2; Macrob. Sat. i. 11.) These,
however, did not hold it long: they were expelled in B.C. 461, the revolutions
which at that time agitated the cities of Sicily having apparently extended to
Rhegium also. (Diod. xi. 76.)
The government of Micythus was marked by one great disaster: in B.C.
473, the Rhegians, having sent an auxiliary force of 3000 men to assist the Tarentines
against the Iapygians, shared in the great defeat which they sustained on that
occasion; but the statement of Diodorus that the barbarians not only pursued the
fugitives to the gates of Rhegium, but actually made themselves masters of the
city, may be safely rejected as incredible. (Diod. xi. 52; Herod. vii. 170; Grote's
Hist. of Greece, vol. v. p. 319.) A story told by Justin, that the Rhegians being
agitated by domestic dissensions, a body of mercenaries, who were called in by
one of the parties, drove out their opponents, and then made themselves masters
of the city by a general massacre of the remaining citizens (Justin, iv. 3), must
be placed (if at all) shortly after the expulsion of the sons of Anaxilas; but
the whole story has a very apocryphal air; it is not noticed by any other writer,
and it is certain that the old Chalcidic citizens continued in possession of Rhegium
down to a much later period.
We have very little information as to the history of Rhegium during
the period which followed the expulsion of the despots; but it seems to have retained
its liberty, in common with the neighbouring cities of Sicily, till it fell under
the yoke of Dionysius. In B.C. 427, when the Athenians sent a fleet under Laches
and Charoeades to support the Leontines against Syracuse, the Rhegians espoused
the cause of the Chalcidic cities of Sicily, and not only allowed their city to
be made the head-quarters of the Athenian fleet, but themselves furnished a considerable
auxiliary force. They were in consequence engaged in continual hostilities with
the Locrians. (Diod. xii. 54; Thuc. iii. 86, iv. 1, 24, 25.) But they pursued
a different course on occasion of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily in B.C.
415, when they refused to take any part in the contest; and they appear to have
persevered in this neutrality to the end. (Diod. xiii. 3: Thuc. vi. 44, vii. 1,
58.)
It was not long after this that the increasing power of Dionysius
of Syracuse, who had destroyed in succession the chief Chalcidic cities of Sicily,
became a subject of alarm to the Rhegians; and in B.C. 399 they fitted out a fleet
of 50 triremes, and an army of 6000 foot and 600 horse, to make war upon the despot.
But the Messenians, who at first made common cause with them, having quickly abandoned
the alliance, they were compelled to desist from the enterprise, and made peace
with Dionysius. (Diod. xiv. 40.) The latter, who was meditating a great war with
Carthage, was desirous to secure the friendship of the Rhegians; but his proposals
of a matrimonial alliance were rejected with scorn; he in consequence concluded
such an alliance with the Locrians, and became from this time the implacable enemy
of the Rhegians. (lb. 44, 107.) It was from hostility to the latter that he a
few years later (B.C. 394), after the destruction of Messana by the Carthagilians,
restored and fortified that city, as a post to command the straits, and from which
to carry on his enterprises in Southern Italy. The Rhegians in vain sought to
forestal him; they made an unsuccessful attack upon Messana, and were foiled in
their attempt to establish a colony of Naxians at Mylae, as a post of offence
against the Messenians. (Ib. 87.) The next year Dionysius, in his turn, made a
sudden attack on Rhegium itself, but did not succeed in surprising the city; and
after ravaging its territory, was compelled to draw off his forces. (Ib. 90.)
But in B.C. 390 he resumed the design on a larger scale, and laid regular siege
to the city with a force of 20,000 foot, 1000 horse, and a fleet of 120 triremes.
The Rhegians, however, opposed a vigorous resistance: the fleet of Dionysius suffered
severely from a storm, and the approach of winter at length compelled him to abandon
the siege. (Ib. 100.) The next year (B.C. 389) his great victory over the confederate
forces of the Italiot Greeks at the river Helorus left him at liberty to prosecute
his designs against Rhegium without opposition: the Rhegians in vain endeavoured
to avert the danger by submitting to a tribute of 300 talents, and by surrendering
all their ships, 70 in number. By these concessions they obtained only a precarious
truce, which Dionysius found a pretext for breaking the very next year, and laid
siege to the city with all his forces. The Rhegians, under the command of a general
named Phyton, made a desperate resistance, and were enabled to prolong their defence
for eleven months, but were at length compelled to surrender, after having suffered
the utmost extremities of famine (B.C. 387). The surviving inhabitants were sold
as slaves, their general Phyton put to an ignominious death, and the city itself
totally destroyed. (Diod.xiv. 106-108, 111, 112; Strab. vi. p. 258; Pseud.-Arist.
Oecon. ii. 21.)
There is no doubt that Rhegium never fully recovered this great calamity;
but so important a site could not long remain unoccupied. The younger Dionysius
partially restored the city, to which he gave the name of Phoebias, but the old
name soon again prevailed. (Strab. l. c.) It was occupied with a garrison by the
despot, but in B.C. 351 it was besieged and taken by the Syracusan commanders
Leptines and Callippus, the garrison driven out, and the citizens restored to
independence. (Diod. xvi. 45.) Hence they were, a few years later (B.C. 345),
among the foremost to promise their assistance to Timoleon, who halted at Rhegium
on his way to Sicily, and from thence, eluding the vigilance of the Carthaginians
by a stratagem, crossed over to Tauromenium. (Diod. xvi. 66, 68; Plut. Timol.
9,10.) From this time we hear no more of Rhegium, till the arrival of Pyrrhus
in Italy (B.C. 280), when it again became the scene of a memorable catastrophe.
The Rhegians on that occasion, viewing with apprehension the progress of the king
of Epirus, and distrusting the Carthaginians, had recourse to the Roman alliance,
and received into their city as a garrison, a body of Campanian troops, 4000 in
number, under the command of an officer named Decius. But these troops had not
been long in possession of the city when they were tempted to follow the example
of their countrymen, the Mamertines, on the other side of the strait; and they
took advantage of an alleged attempt at defection on the part of the Rhegians,
to make a promiscuous massacre of the male citizens, while they reduced the women
and children to slavery, and established themselves in the sole occupation of
the town. (Pol. i. 7; Oros. iv. 3; Appian, Samnit. iii. 9; Diod. xxii. Exc. H.
p. 494, Exc. Vales, p. 562; Dion Cass. Fr. 40. 7; Strab. v. p. 258.) The Romans
were unable to punish them for this act of treachery so long as they were occupied
with the war against Pyrrhus; and the Campanians for some years continued to reap
the benefit of their crime. But as soon as Pyrrhus had finally withdrawn from
Italy, the Romans turned their arms against their rebellious soldiers; and in
B.C. 270, being actively supported by Hieron of Syracuse, the consul Genucius
succeeded in reducing Rhegium by force, though not till after a long siege. Great
part of the Campanians perished in the defence ; the rest were executed by order
of the Roman people. (Poi. i. 6, 7; Oros. iv. 3; Dionys. Fr. Mai. xix. 1, xx.
7.)
Rhegium was now restored to the survivors of its former inhabitants
(Pol. i. 7; Liv. xxxi. 31; Appian, l. c.); but it must have suffered severely,
and does not seem to have again recovered its former prosperity. Its name is hardly
mentioned during the First Punic War, but in the second, the citizens distinguished
themselves by their fidelity to the Roman cause, and repeated attempts of Hannibal
to make himself master of the city were uniformly repulsed. (Liv. xxiii. 30, xxiv.
1, xxvi. 12, xxix. 6.) From this time the name of Rhegium is rarely mentioned
in history under the Roman Republic ; but we learn from several incidental notices
that it continued to enjoy its own laws and nominal liberty as a foederata civitas,
though bound, in common with other cities in the same condition, to furnish an
auxiliary naval contingent as often as required. (Liv. xxxi. 31, xxxv. 16, xxxvi.
42.) It was not till after the Social War that the Rhegians, like the other Greek
cities of Italy, passed into the condition of Roman citizens, and Rhegium itself
became a Roman Municipium. (Cic. Verr. iv. 6. 0, Phil. i. 3, pro Arch. 3.) Shortly
before this (B.C. 91) the city had suffered severely from an earthquake, which
had destroyed a large part of it (Strab. vi. p. 258; Jul. Obseq. 114); but it
seems to have, in great measure, recovered from this calamity, and is mentioned
by Appian towards the close of the Republic as one of the eighteen flourishing
cities of Italy, which were promised by the Triumvirs to their veterans as a reward
for their services. (Appian, B.C. iv. 3.) Rhegium, however, had the good fortune
to escape on this occasion by the personal favour of Octavian (Ib. 86); and during
the war which followed between him and Sextus Pompeius, B.C. 38-36, it became
one of the most important posts, which was often made by Octavian the headquarters
both of his fleet and army. (Strab. vi. p. 258; Appian, B.C. v. 81, 84; Dion Cass.
xlviii. 18, 47.) To reward the Rhegians for their services on this occasion, Augustus
increased the population, which was in a declining state, by the addition of a
body of new colonists; but the old inhabitants were not expelled, nor did the
city assume the title of a Colonia, though it adopted, in gratitude to Augustus,
the name of Rhegium Julium. (Strab. l. c.; Ptol. iii. 1. § 9; Orell. Inser. 3838.)
In the time of Strabo it was a populous and flourishing place, and was one of
the few cities which, like Neapolis and Tarentum, still preserved some remains
of its Greek civilisation. (Strab. vi. pp. 253, 259.) Traces of this may be observed
also in inscriptions, some of which, of the period of the Roman Empire, present
a curious mixture of Greek and Latin, while others have the names of Roman magistrates,
though the inscriptions themselves are in Greek. (Morisani, Inscr. Reginae, 4to.
Neap. 1770, pp. 83, 126, &c.; Boeckh, C. L 5760-5768.)
Its favourable situation and its importance, as commanding the passage
of the Sicilian straits, preserved Rhegium from falling into the same state of
decay as many other cities in the south of Italy. It continued to exist as a considerable
city throughout the period of the Roman Empire (Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Ptol. l.
c.; Itin. Ant. pp. 112, 115, 490), and was the termination of the great highway
which led through the southern peninsula of Italy, and formed the customary mode
of communication with Sicily. In A.D. 410 Rhegium became the limit of the progress
of Alaric, who after the capture of Rome advanced through Campania, Lucania, and
Bruttium, laying waste those provinces on his march, and made himself master of
Rhegium, from whence he tried to cross over into Sicily, but, being frustrated
in this attempt, retraced his steps as far as Consentia, where he died. (Hist.
Miscell. xiii. p. 535.) Somewhat later it is described by Cassiodorus as still
a flourishing place (Var. xii. 14), and was still one of the chief cities of Bruttium
in the days of Paulus Diaconus. (Hist. Lang. ii. 17.) During the Gothic wars after
the fall of the Western Empire, Rhegium bears a considerable part, and was a strong
fortress, but it was taken by Totila in A.D. 549, previous to his expedition to
Sicily. (Procop. B. G. i. 8, iii. 18, 37, 38.) It subsequently fell again into
the hands of the Greek emperors, and continued subject to them, with the exception
of a short period when it was occupied by the Saracens, until it passed under
the dominion of Robert Guiscard in A.D. 1060. The modern city of Reggio is still
a considerable place, with a population of about 10,000 souls, and is the capital
of the province of Calabria Ultra; but it has suffered severely in modern times
from earthquakes, having been almost entirely destroyed in 1783, and again in
great part overthrown in 1841. It has no remains of antiquity, except a few inscriptions,
but numerous coins, urns, mosaics, and other ancient relics have been brought
to light by excavations.
Rhegium was celebrated in antiquity as the birthplace of the lyric
poet Ibycus, as well as that of Lycus the historian, the father of Lycophron.
It gave birth also to the celebrated sculptor Pythagoras (Diog. Laert. viii. 1.
§ 47; Paus. vi. 4. § 4); and to several of the minor Pythagorean philosophers,
whose names are enumerated by lamblichus (Vit. Pyth. 267), but none of these are
of much note. Its territory was fertile, and noted for the excellence of its wines,
which were especially esteemed for their salubrity. (Athen. i. p. 26.) Cassiodorus
describes it as well adapted for vines and olives, but not suited to corn. (Var.
xii. 14.) Another production in which it excelled was its breed of mules, so that
Anaxilas the despot was repeatedly victor at the Olympic games with the chariot
drawn by mules (apene), and his son Leophron obtained the same distinction. One
of these victories was celebrated by Simonides. (Heraclid. Polit. 25; Athen. i.
p. 3 ; Pollux, Onomast. v. 75.)
Rhegium itself was, as already mentioned, the termination of the line
of high-road which traversed the whole length of Southern Italy from Capua to
the Sicilian strait, and was first constructed by the praetor Popilius in B.C.
134. (Orell. Inscr. 3308; Mommsen, Inscr. R. N. 6276; Ritschel, Mon. Epigr. pp.
11, 12.) But the most frequented place of passage for crossing the, strait to
Messana was, in ancient as well as in modern times, not at Rhegium itself, but
at a spot about 9 miles further N., which was marked by a column, and thence known
by the name of COLUMNA RHEGINA. (Itin. Ant. pp. 98, 106, 111; Plin. iii. 5. s.
10; he Hpeginon stulis, Strab. v. p. 257.) The distance of this from Rhegium is
given both by Pliny and Strabo at 12 1/2 miles or 100 stadia, and the latter places
it only 6 stadia from the promontory of Caenys or Punta del Pezzo. It must therefore
have been situated in the neighbourhood of the modern village of Villa San Giovanni,
which is still the most usual place of passage. But the distance from Rhegium
is overstated by both geographers, the Punta del Pezzo itself being less than
10 miles from Reggio. On the other hand the inscription of La Polla (Forum Popilii)
gives the distance from the place of passage, which it designates as Ad Statuam,
at only 6 miles. (Mommsen, Inscr. R. N. 6276.) Yet it is probable that the spot
meant is really the same in both cases, as from the strong current in the straits
the place of embarkation must always have been nearly the same.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SKYLAKION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Scylacium or Scylletium (Skulletion, Steph. B., Strab.; Skulakion,,
Ptol.: Eth. Skulletikos: Squillace), a town on the E. coast of Bruttium, situated
on the shores of an extensive bay, to which it gave the name of Scylleticus sinus
(Strab.vi. p. 261.) It is this bay, still known as the Gulf of Squillace, which
indents the coast of Bruttium on the E. as deeply as that of Hipponium or Terina
(the Gulf of St. Eufemia) does on the W., so that they leave but a comparatively
narrow isthmus between them. (Strab. l. c.; Plin. iii. 10. s. 15.) According to
a tradition generally received in ancient times, Scylletium was founded by an
Athenian colony, a part of the followers who had accompanied Menestheus to the
Trojan War. (Strab. l. c.; Plin. l. c.; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 553.) Another tradition
was, however, extant, which ascribed its foundation to Ulysses. (Cassiod. Var.
xii. 15; Serv. l. c.) But no historical value can be attached to such statements,
and there is no trace in historical times of Scylletium having been a Greek colony,
still less an Athenian one. Its name is not mentioned either by Scylax or Scymnus
Chius in enumerating the Greek cities in this part of Italy, nor is there any
allusion to its Athenian origin in Thucydides at the time of the Athenian expedition
to Sicily. We learn from Diodorus (xiii. 3) that it certainly did not display
any friendly feeling towards the Athenians. It appears, indeed, during the historical
period of the Greek colonies to have been a place of inferior consideration, and
a mere dependency of Crotona, to which city it continued subject till it was wrested
from its power by the elder Dionysius, who assigned it with its territory to the
Loerians. (Strab. vi. p. 261.) It is evident that it was still a small and unimportant
place at the time of the Second Punic War, as no mention is found of its name
during the operations of Hannibal in Bruttium, though he appears to have for some
time had his head quarters in its immediate neighbourhood, and the place called
Castra Hannibalis must have been very near to Scylacium. In B.C. 124 the Romans,
at the instigation of C. Gracchus, sent a colony to Scylacium, which appears to
have assumed the name of Minervium or Colonia Minervia. (Vell. Pat. i. 15; Mommsen,
in Berichte der Sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1849, pp. 49-51.)
The name is written by Velleius Scolatium; and the form Scolacium is found also
in an inscription of the reign of Antoninus Pius, from which it appears that the
place must have received a fresh colony under Nerva. (Orell. Inscr. 136; Mommsen,
l. c.). Scylacium appears to have become a considerable town after it received
the Roman colony, and continued such throughout the Roman Empire. (Mel. ii. 4.
§ 8; Plin. iii. 10. s. 15; Ptol. iii. 1. § 11.) Towards the close of this period
it was distinguished as the birthplace of Cassiodorus, who has left us a detailed
but rhetorical description of the beauty of its situation, and fertility of its
territory. (Cassiod. Var. xii. 15.)
The modern city of Squillace is a poor place, with only about 4000
inhabitants, though retaining its episcopal see. It stands upon a hill about 3
miles from the sea, a position according with the description given by Cassiodorus
of the ancient city, but it is probable that this occupied a site nearer the sea,
where considerable ruins are said still to exist, though they have not been described
by any modern traveller.
The Scylleticus sinus (Skulletikos kolpos), or Gulf of Squillace,
was always regarded as dangerous to mariners; hence Virgil calls it navifragum
Scylaceum. (Aen. iii. 553.) There is no natural port throughout its whole extent,
and it still bears an evil reputation for shipwrecks. The name is found in Aristotle
as well as Antiochus of Syracuse, but would seem to have been unknown to Thucydides;
at least it is difficult to explain otherwise the peculiar manner in which he
speaks of the Terinaean gulf, while relating the voyage of Gylippus along the
E. coast of Bruttium. (Thuc. vi. 104; Arist. Pol. vii. 10; Antioch. ap. Strab.
vi. p. 254.)
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TEMESA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Temesa or Tempsa (Temeoe and *te/mya, Strab.; Temese, Steph. B.; Tempsa,
Ptol.: Eth. Temesaios, Tempsanus), an ancient city on the W. coast of Bruttium,
a little to the N. of the Gulf of Hipponium, or Golfo di Sta Eufemia, Strabo tells
us that it was originally an Ausonian city, but subsequently occupied by a colony
of Aetolians who had accompanied Thoas to the Trojan War. (Strab. vi. p. 255.)
Many writers appear to have supposed this to be the Temesa mentioned by Homer
in the Odyssey on account of its mines of copper (Odyss. i. 184); and this view
is adopted by Strabo; though it is much more probable that the place alluded to
by the poet was Temesa in Cyprus, otherwise called Tamasus. (Strab. l. c.; Steph.
B. s. v.; Schol. ad Hom. Odyss. l. c.) We have no account of Temesa having received
a Greek colony in historical times though it seems to have become to a great extent
Hellenised, like so many other cities in this part of Italy. At one period, indeed,
we learn that it was conquered by the Locrians (about 480-460 B.C.); but we know
not how long it continued subject to their rule. (Strab. l. c.) Neither Scylax
nor Scymnus Chius mention it among the Greek cities in this part of Italy; but
Livy says expressly that it was a Greek city before it fell into the hands of
the Bruttians (Liv. xxxiv. 45). That people apparently made themselves masters
of it at an early period of their career, and it remained in their hands till
the whole country became subject to the dominion of Rome. (Strab. l. c.) During
the Second Punic War it suffered severely at the hands, first of Hannibal, and
then of the Romans; but some years after the close of the war it was one of the
places selected by the Romans for the establishment of a colony, which was sent
thither at the same time with that to Crotona, B.C. 194 (Liv. xxxiv. 45.) But
this colony, the members of which had the privileges of Roman citizens, does not
appear to have been numerous, and the town never rose to be a place of importance.
Its copper mines, which are alluded to by several writers (Ovid, Met. xv. 706;
Stat. Silv. i. l. 42), had ceased to be productive in the days of Strabo (Strab.
vi. p. 256). The only mention of Tempsa which occurs in Roman history is in connection
with the great servile insurrection under Spartacus, when a remnant of the servile
force seem to have established themselves at Tempsa, and for a time maintained
possession of the town. (Cic. Verr. [p. 1124] v. 15,16.) Its name is afterwards
found in all the geographers, as well as in the Tabula, so that it must have subsisted
as a town throughout the Roman Empire. (Strab. l. c.; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Ptol.
iii. 1. § 9; Tab. Peut.) Pausanias expressly tells us it was still inhabited in
his day; and Pliny also notices it for the excellence of its wine. (Paus. vi.
6. § 10; Plin. xiv. 6. s. 8.) The period of its destruction is unknown; but after
the fall of the Roman Empire the name wholly disappears, and its exact site has
never been determined. The best clue is that afforded by the Tabula (which accords
well with the statements of Pliny and Strabo), that it was situated 10 miles S.
of Clampetia. If this last town be correctly placed at Amantea, the site of Tempsa
must be looked for on the coast near the Torre del Piano del Casale, about 2 miles
S. of the river.Savuto, and 3 from Nocera. Unfortunately none of the towns along
this line of coast can be fixed with anything like certainty. (Cluver. Ital. p.
1286; Romanelli, vol. i. p. 35.)
Near Temesa was a sacred grove, with a shrine or sanctuary of the
hero Polites, one of the companions of Ulysses, who was said to have been slain
on the spot, and his spectre continued to trouble the inhabitants, until at length
Euthymus, the celebrated Locrian athlete, ventured to wrestle with the spirit,
and having vanquished it, freed the city from all further molestation. (Strab.
vi. p. 255; Paus. vi. 6. § § 7-11; Suid. v. Euthumos.)
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TERINA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Terina (Terina, but Tereina Lycophr.: Eth. Terinaios, Terinaeus),
a city on the W. coast of the Bruttian peninsula, near the Gulf of St. Eufemia,
to which it gave the name of Terinaeus Sinus. All writers agree in representing
it as a Greek city and a colony of Crotona (Scymn. Ch. 307; Steph. B. s. v.; Scyl.
p. 4. § 12; Strab. vi. p. 256; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Solin. 2. § 10), but we have
no account of the time or circumstances of its foundation. It was regarded as
the burialplace of the Siren Ligeia, a tradition which evidently pointed to the
existence of a more ancient town on the spot than the Greek colony. (Lycophr.
Alex. 726; Steph. B. s. v.) The name of Terina is scarcely mentioned in history
during the flourishing period of Magna Graecia; but we learn from an incidental
notice that it was engaged in war with the Thurians under Cleandridas (Polyaen.
Strat. ii. 10. § 1) - a proof that it was at this time no inconsiderable city;
and the number, beauty, and variety of its coins sufficiently attest the fact
that it must. have been a place of wealth and importance. (Millingen, Numism.
de l'Italie, p. 53.) Almost the first notice of Terina is that of its conquest
by the Bruttians, an event which appears to have taken place soon after the rise
of that people in B.C. 356, as, according to Diodorus, it was the first Greek
city which fell into their hands. (Diod. xvi. 15.) It was recovered from them
by Alexander, king of Epirus, about 327 B.C. (Liv. viii. 24), but probably fell
again under their yoke after the death of that monarch. It was one of the cities
which declared in favour of Hannibal during the Second Punic War; but before the
close of the war that general found himself compelled to abandon this part of
Bruttium, and destroyed Terina, when he could no longer hold it. (Strab. vi. p.
256.) The city never recovered this blow; and though there seems to have been
still a town of the name in existence in the days of Strabo and Pliny, it never
again rose to be a place of any importance. (Strab. l. c.; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10.)
An inscription in which its name appears in the reign of Trajan (Orell. Inscr.
150) is in all probability spurious.
The site of Terina cannot be determined with any certainty; but the
circumstance that the extensive bay now known as the Gulf of Sta Eufemia was frequently
called the Sinus Terinaeus (Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; 6 ho Terinaios kolpos, Thuc.
vi. 104), sufficiently proves that Terina must have been situated in its immediate
proximity. The most probable conjecture is, that it occupied nearly, if not exactly,
the same site as the old town of Sta Eufemia (which was destroyed by a great earthquake
in 1638), about a mile below the modern village of the name, and near the N. extremity
of the gulf to which it gives its name. Cluverius and other antiquarians have
placed it considerably further to the N., near the modern Nocera, where there
are said to be the ruins of an ancient city (Cluver. Ital. p. 1287; Barrius, de
Sit. Calabr. ii. 10. p. 124); but this site is above 7 miles distant from the
gulf, to which it could hardly therefore have given name. There is also reason
to suppose that the ruins in question are those of a town which bore in ancient
times the name of Nuceria, which it still retains with little alteration.
Lycophron seems to place Terina on the banks of a river, which he
names Ocinarus (Okinaros, Lycophr. Alex. 729, 1009); and this name, which is not
found elsewhere, has been generally identified with the river now called the Savuto
(the Sabatus of the Itineraries), which flows by Nocera. But this identification
rests on the position assumed for Terina: and the name of the Ocinarus may be
equally well applied to any of the streams falling into the Gulf of Sta Eufemia.
The variety and beauty of the silver coins of Terina (which belong
for the most part to the best period of Greek art), has been already alluded to.
The winged female figure on the reverse, though commonly called a Victory, is
more probably intended for the Siren Ligeia.
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CALABRIA (Region) ITALY
The peninsula in the southeast of Italy extending from Tarentum to the Promontorium Iapygium, and forming part of Apulia
CONSENTIA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
The chief town of the Bruttii, on the river Crathis; here Alaric died. It is now Cosenza.
IPPONION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Now Bivona; the Roman form of the Greek name Hipponium, a town
situated on the southwest coast of Bruttium, and on a gulf called after it Sinus
Vibonensis, or Hipponiates. It is said to have been founded by the Locri Epizephyrii;
but it was destroyed by the elder Dionysius, who transplanted its inhabitants
to Syracuse. It was afterwards restored; and at a later time it fell into the
hands of the Bruttii, together with the other Greek cities on this coast. It was
taken from the Bruttii by the Romans, who colonized it B.C. 194, and called it
Vibo Valentia. Cicero speaks of it as a municipium; and in the time of Augustus
it was one of the most flourishing cities in the south of Italy.
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KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
or Croton (Kroton). The modern Cotrone. A powerful city of Italy,
in the Bruttiorum Ager, on the coast of the Sinus Tarentinus. Its foundation is
ascribed to Myscellus, an Achaean leader, soon after Sybaris had been colonized
by a party of the same nation, which was about B.C. 710. According to some traditions
the origin of Crotona was much more ancient, and it is said to derive its name
from the hero Croton. The residence of Pythagoras and his most distinguished followers
in this city, together with the overthrow of Sybaris which it accomplished, and
the exploits of Milo and of several other Crotonian victors in the Olympic Games,
contributed in a high degree to raise its fame; and, in consequence, it was commonly
said that the last athlete of Crotona was the first of the other Greeks. This
city was also celebrated for its school of medicine, and was the birthplace of
Democedes, who long enjoyed the reputation of being the first physician of Greece.
About B.C. 510, Crotona sent an army of 100,000 men, commanded by the athlete
Milo, against its powerful rival, Sybaris, by which the latter city was destroyed.
The removal of its rival, however, produced an enervating effect upon Crotona.
As a proof of the remarkable change which took place in the warlike spirit of
this people, it is said that, on their being subsequently engaged in hostilities
with the Locrians, an army of 130,000 Crotoniatae were routed by 10,000 of the
enemy on the banks of the Sagras. Such was, indeed, the loss they experienced
in this battle that, according to Strabo, their city henceforth rapidly declined,
and could no longer maintain the rank it had long held among the Italian republics.
Dionysius the Elder, who was then aiming at the subversion of all the States of
Magna Graecia, having surprised the citadel, gained possession of the town, which,
however, he did not long retain. Crotona was finally able to assert its independence
against his designs, as well as the attacks of the Bruttii; and when Pyrrhus invaded
Italy it was still a considerable city. But the consequences of the war which
ensued with that king proved so ruinous to its prosperity that above one half
of its extent became deserted. Crotona was then occupied by the Bruttii, with
the exception of the citadel, in which the chief inhabitants had taken refuge;
these, being unable to defend the place against a Carthaginian force, soon after
surrendered, and were allowed to withdraw to Locri. Crotona eventually fell into
the hands of the Romans, in B.C. 193, and a colony was established there.
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LOKRI EPIZEFIRIOI (Ancient city) ITALY
(Aokroi Epizephurioi). An ancient Greek city in Lower Italy,
situated in the southeast of Bruttium, north of the promontory of Zephyrium, from
which it was said to have derived its surname Epizephyrii, though others suppose
this name was given to the place simply because it lay to the west of Greece.
It was founded by the Locrians from Greece, B.C. 683. The inhabitants regarded
themselves as descendants of Aiax Oileus; and as he resided at the town of Naryx
among the Opuntii, the poets gave the name of Narycia Locri. For the same reason
the pitch of Bruttium is frequently called Narycia. Locri was celebrated for the
excellence of its laws, which were drawn up by Zaleucus soon after the foundation
of the city. Near the town was an ancient and wealthy Temple of Persephone.
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MACALLA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
A town on the eastern coast of Bruttium. Here Philoctetes was said to have been buried.
PANDOSSIA (Ancient city) INOTRIA
A town in Bruttium, near the frontiers of Lucania, situated
on the river Acheron. It was here that Alexander of Epirus fell, B.C. 326, in
accordance with an oracle.
PETELIA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
(Petelia) or Petilia. Now Strongoli; an ancient Greek town on the eastern coast of Bruttium, founded, according to tradition, by Philoctetes. It was taken by Hannibal after a desperate resistance, and by him colonized with Bruttians; but the Romans restored it to its own people.
RIGION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
(Rhegion). Now Reggio; a celebrated Greek town on the coast
of Bruttium, in the south of Italy, was situated on the Fretum Siculum, or the
strait which separates Italy and Sicily. Rhegium was founded about the beginning
of the first Messenian War, B.C. 743, by Aeolian Chalcidians from Euboea and by
Doric Messenians, who had quitted their native country on the commencement of
hostilities between Sparta and Messenia. Even before the Persian Wars Rhegium
was sufficiently powerful to send 3000 of its citizens to the assistance of the
Tarentines, and in the time of the elder Dionysius it possessed a fleet of eighty
ships of war. This monarch, having been offended by the inhabitants, took the
city and treated it with the greatest severity. Rhegium never recovered its former
greatness, though it still continued to be a place of considerable importance.
The Rhegians having applied to Rome for assistance when Pyrrhus was in the south
of Italy, the Romans placed in the town a garrison of 4000 soldiers, who had been
levied among the Latin colonies in Campania.
These troops seized the town in B.C. 279, killed or expelled
the male inhabitants, and took possession of their wives and children. The Romans
were too much engaged at the time with their war against Pyrrhus to take notice
of this outrage; but when Pyrrhus was driven out of Italy they took signal vengeance
upon these Campanians, and restored the surviving Rhegians to their city. Rhegium
was the place from which persons usually crossed over to Sicily, but the spot
at which they embarked was called Columna Rhegina (Torre di Cavallo), and was
100 stadia north of the town.
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SKYLAKION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
(Skulakion), also Scylaceum (Skulakeion), or Scylletium (Skulletion).
Now Squillace. A Greek town on the east coast of Bruttium, situated on the two
adjoining hills at a short distance from the Coast, between the rivers Caecinus
and Carcines. From this town the Scylacius or Scylleticus Sinus (Skulletikos kolpos)
derived its name. It was at one time a dependency of Crotona, but was colonized
by the Romans in B.C. 124, and again under Nerva.
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TEMESA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
or Tempsa. Now Torre del Piano del Casale; a town in Bruttium on the Sinus Terinaeus, was one of the most ancient Ausonian towns in the south of Italy; famous for its copper mines
TERINA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Now S. Eufemia; a town on the west coast of Bruttium, from which the Sinus Terinaeus derived its name.
LOKRI EPIZEFIRIOI (Ancient city) ITALY
Locri. City of southern Italy.
The city of Locri was founded around 680 B. C. by settlers from Ozolian
Locris in central Greece,
on the northern coast of the gulf
of Corinth, who gave their new city the name of their homeland.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
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RIGION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
The city was refounded in 358 BC under the name of Phoebia after its destruction by the Syracuseans in 387 BC.
KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
IPPONION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
A city of the toe of Italy dominating from the S the modern Tyrrhenian
Golfo di S. Eufemio. As a colony of Lokroi Epizephyroi it had the name Hipponion,
which may contain an element of an older name; at all events a connection with
horses is hard to find. Its foundation date is uncertain; no very early material
has been found, and it has even been suggested that it was founded as a consequence
of the destruction of Sybaris in 510 B.C. But Medma, its sister colony, existed
before the middle of the 6th c., and a late 7th c. date for both seems the most
probable.
Hipponion revolted from its mother city in 422 (Thuc. 5.5); prior
to this time owing to protection by the tyrants of Syracuse, it seems to have
flourished (Ath. 12.542a). Being well developed and fortified, it now made a successful
but short-lived bid for independence. A little later (388 B.C.) it took part with
other cities of Italy in the battle of the Helleporus against Dionysios of Syracuse
because Lokri had allied itself with him (Polyb. 1.6.2; Diod. 14.103-7). Following
Dionysios' victory, Hipponion was destroyed and its citizenry moved to Syracuse,
while its lands were given to Lokri (Diod. 14.107). In 379 the Carthaginians,
being at war with Syracuse, helped the Hipponiates rebuild their city (Diod. 15.24).
But the destruction of Dionysios' empire in 356 opened the way to the Bruttii,
who moved down from the mountains to attack the Greek cities. Hipponion was one
of the first to fall, sometime between 356 and 345 (Diod. 16.15). Thereafter the
Bruttii held the place and seem, from the evidence of coins and inscriptions,
to have thrived until the Romans sent a Latin colony there in 192 B.C. (Livy 34.53.1;
35.40.5-6). This was composed of 3700 infantry and 300 cavalry under the tresviri
Q. Naevius, M. Minucius, and M. Furius Crassipes; each infantryman received 15
iugera of land, each cavalryman 30. The colony took the name Valentia, later Vibo
Valentia, the first element possibly the Bruttian corruption of the name of Hipponion.
In its Romanized form the city was governed by quattuorviri, responsible
to a senate. It coined its own money and prospered. After the social war it was
inscribed in the tribus Aemilia. We hear of it from time to time in the civil
wars, especially in connection with Octavian war against Sextus Pompey when it
was one of his most important bases of operations. Owing to the proximity of the
great Sila forests, Vibo seems to have been a center of ship-building during the
Empire as well as an important exporter of timber.
During excavations in 1916-17 and 1921, a stretch of the N front of
the fortifications was laid bare for 225 m, and the foundations of two temples
and a sanctuary were brought to light. The walls are of large squared blocks of
calcareous sandstone laid in alternating courses of headers and stretchers, built
solid in the curtains, an average of 2.8 m thick. They are interrupted at regular
intervals of ca. 40 m by semicircular towers mounted on square bases, ca. 10 m
on a side. One tower, at a point where the wall turns, is two-thirds of a circle,
and one guarding a sally port virtually a full circle. In front of the walls was
found a fossa 4.5 m wide, 3.25 m deep. Four periods of construction have been
construed in what is preserved. The earliest, not earlier than the 4th c., is
perhaps best ascribed to the time when Agathokles of Syracuse briefly seized the
city back from the Bruttii in 294 B.C. (Diod. 21.8). The second wall, of rubblework
imbedded in clay mortar with facings of rough stonework, has been ascribed to
the Bruttii. The third, that with the semicircular towers and isodomic curtains,
must then be the wall of the Latin colony of 192; its high sophistication will
permit no earlier date. And the fourth, a repair or remodeling of the third, must
then belong to the 1st c. B.C., the troubled times of the Roman revolution.
Substantial remains of two temples were found. The one on the height
of the Belvedere (or Telegrafo), dominating the sea, was reduced to only a portion
of its foundations, but the plan could be recovered. It was peripteral (37.45
x 20.5 m in over-all dimensions) with a shallow pronaos and a squarish adyton
or opisthodomus. It seems to have been Doric with terracotta revetment of the
roof, notably a lateral sima with lion's-head spouts. Votive material was scarce
but ran from the archaic period to the Hellenistic.
The second temple, also peripteral (27.5 x 18.1 m in over-all dimensions)
was found on the height known as Cofino. The cella was relatively short and can
have been preceded by only a token pronaos. Fragments of the columns and their
bases showed that it was Ionic, and this was confirmed by the style of the lateral
sima in fine limestone. A 5th c. date for this has been proposed.
A third sacred building was discovered at Coltura del Castello on
the presumed acropolis of the city, the substructions of a small temple together
with a mass of figured terracottas; the presence of a large temple nearby was
indicated by fragments of a colossal terracotta gorgoneion, 1.10 m in diameter.
Vibo was some distance from the sea and must have had its port at
the site now known as Porto S. Venere, but little is known about it. At the site
of Torre Galli, ca. 16 km W of Vibo, a necropolis has come to light that shows
a native population in contact with the Greeks from the late 7th c. (Late Protocorinthian
vases) and a gradually increasing hellenization down into the second half of the
6th c., when the graves stop. This makes an illuminating example of the influence
Hipponion exerted and an interesting study in itself.
The Collezione Capialbi in Vibo was formed locally, and the majority
of the material belongs to the site and its dependencies; the Collezione Cordopatri,
also made chiefly at Vibo, is now in the Museo Nazionale at Reggio Calabria.
L. Richardson, Jr., ed.
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Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
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KAVLONIA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
On the E coast between Krotone and Lokroi Epizephyroi near modern
Punta Stilo and the town of Monasterace Marina. Founded from Kroton in the 7th
c. B.C., it became a center of Pythagoreanism and was destroyed by Dionysios I
of Syracuse in 389 B.C. Rebuilt in the 4th c. B.C., it is mentioned in connection
with events of the second Punic war, but by the 1st c. B.C. the site had already
been abandoned.
Excavations conducted early in this century established the perimeter
of the city walls and led to the discovery of houses of the Hellenistic period
and the foundations of a peripteral temple in the Castellone district. There is
an important deposit of architectural terracottas from the acropolis.
R. Holloway, ed.
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KRIMISSA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
According to tradition the site was founded by Philoktetes. An indigenous
Iron Age settlement is represented by two small grottos containing skeletons,
pottery, and small bronzes. In the early archaic period a temple dedicated to
Apollo Alius on the Punta d'Alicia was constructed. The pronaos was omitted; instead
the cella began with two columns in antis and had four interior columns along
the central axis. Four columns or posts (2 x 2) stood in the adyton. The terracotta
revetments on the raking cornices carried antefixes and two superimposed architrave
taenias with staggered regulae and guttae. Towards the end of the 5th c. B.C.
or the beginning of the 4th, a peristyle (8 x 19) was added on a slightly higher
level, leaving the cella lower. Most of the architectural terracottas from the
site belong to this last phase and show Tarentine influence. Among the finds is
an acrolithic seated Apollo playing a lyre. Conjectures as to the date range from
the mid 5th c. B.C. into the Hadrianic period, with an early date generally preferred.
This and the other objects are in the National Museum of Reggio Calabria.
J. P. Small, ed.
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KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
On the E coast of the toe of Italy some 246 km NE of Reggio di Calabria,
the city stands on a promontory which forms two defensible ports. In accordance
with the Delphic oracle, Myskellos of Rhypai founded an Achaian colony there (Strab.
6.1.12) in 710 B.C., ten years after the establishment of Sybaris. The city soon
spread into the fertile plains to the S, and in ca. 675 B.C. it initiated the
foundation of another Achaian colony, Kaulonia. In the middle of the 6th c B.C.
Kroton attacked Lokroi with an army of 120,000 men (Just. 20.2-3) but was decisively
defeated at the river Sagra (perhaps the modern Allaro). A period of decline set
in, from which the town was aroused by the arrival from Samos in ca. 530 B.C.
of Pythagoras, who remodeled the constitution. The city became famous as the home
of athletes, doctors, and philosophers. In 510 B.C. Kroton became embroiled in
a war with Sybaris and defeated it in a single battle near the river Krathis.
Kroton now became the most powerful city in S Italy. During the 4th c. B.C. it
suffered from attacks by the Lucanians and Bruttians and became further exhausted
during the campaigns of Pyrrhos. The final blow came when Hannibal made it the
center of his desperate retreat from Italy. In 194 B.C., when the Romans planted
a colony on the site, it ceased to be a place of importance.
No traces of the ancient city remain. The harbor still exists although
much changed by modern construction. The site of the acropolis is marked by the
castle built in A.D. 1541 by Don Pedro di Toledo. Attempts have been made to trace
the city walls, which Livy (24.3.1) says extended 12 Roman miles. It is likely
that the walls ran in a NW direction from the harbor, crossing the Esaro river,
and that the town lay facing the sea, half on one side of the river and half on
the other.
Excavations have taken place in the important Sanctuary of Hera Lakinia,
which stood on a promontory (the modern Capo Colonna) some 10 km to the S. Here
processions and games took place in a yearly assembly of the Italian Greeks. The
interior of the temple contained paintings, the most celebrated of which was a
picture of Hera by Zeuxis. A single Doric column out of 48 now remains, together
with the stereobate in the NE corner; the rest was carried away by Bishop Lucifero
of Crotone at the beginning of the 16th c. The peristyle (hexastyle x 16) had
columns inclining inwards. There was a double colonnade across the E front in
the old Sicilian fashion, and the porches were distyle in antis. The temple was
remarkable for its marble decoration-- roof tiles, interior cornices, and pedimental
sculpture of Parian marble, fragments of which have been found. The present temple
dates to the second quarter of the 5th c. B.C., but an earlier one of the 7th
c. had once stood on the site. Other buildings of the temenos also survive. The
peribolos wall exists and in places rises to a height of 7 m. In the E side is
a monumental propylon, which has been cleared and repaired. Nearby two buildings
have been discovered. One has a central court surrounded by rooms, and on its
exterior runs a portico with stone columns faced with stucco. The other consists
of a corridor dividing two series of rooms. Other edifices include priests' dwellings
and treasuries. Crotone has a museum which contains finds from the area.
W.D.E. Coulson, 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.
LAINUS (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Now connected with the two towns, Laino Castello and Laino Borgo.
Strategically located in the Laos valley, settlement extended from the 9th c.
B.C., represented by an indigenous necropolis, through the 6th and connections
with Sybaris, into the Hellenistic period. In Laino Borgo have been found the
remains of a wall, a kiln, and terracotta figurines from the Hellenistic period.
In the area between S. Primo and S. Gadda are Lucanian tombs from the Hellenistic
period. Thus far no Roman remains have been found. The finds are in the Museo
di Reggio.
J. P. Small, 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.
LOKRI EPIZEFIRIOI (Ancient city) ITALY
The settlement was founded from Lokris in Greece though it is not
certain whether by the Opuntii or by the Ozolai, at the beginning of the 7th c.
B.C. It is in the vicinity of modern Bortigliola, Locri, and Gerace.
The city flourished during the 6th and 5th c., extending its dominion
over territory from the Ionian to the Tyrrhenian seas, including the cities of
Metauroo, Medma, and Hipponion. It defeated Kroton in the battle of the Sagra
shortly after the middle of the 6th c.
Lokroi was allied with Sparta, Taras, and Syracuse, and aided Dionysios
I in the struggle against Rhegion and the Italic league. In 356 it welcomed Dionysios
II, sent out from Syracuse, but was soon forced to expel him. During the war between
Rome and Pyrrhos, Lokroi changed sides several times. It surrendered to Hannibal
in 216 and was conquered by Scipio in 205. Included in the orbit of Rome, Lokroi
increasingly diminished in importance until in the course of the 8th and 9th c.,
following the incursion of the Saracens, it ceased to exist.
Not all of the area inside the encircling wall, which dates to the
4th-3d c. B.C., was occupied by buildings. Several stretches of the wall, with
round and square towers, have been found. The outlines of the walls that regulated
the watercourses crossing the city are clear. Neither the location of the port
nor the situation of the acropolis has been identified. An urban complex just
inside the city wall in the locality now called Centocamere, was laid out in large
city blocks separated by roads. It contains remains of water conduits, and in
some places kilns for the production of small terracotta objects. A second nucleus
of habitations has been located in the section of the city now called Caruso,
and this also is characterized by modest buildings with kilns and millstones.
Above the modern road to the hill is the theater, with its tiers resting against
the natural incline of the terrain. Several parts of the steps and the parodoi
were rebuilt by the Romans, with the respective part of the analemma. The plan
of the scena is recognizable, with parascenia, and it is probable that behind
this was a portico.
Not far from the theater, in the locality now called Casa Marafioti,
the remains of a Doric temple have been discovered. It may perhaps be identified
with a temple of Olympian Zeus referred to on bronze tablets found a short distance
from the theater and from the dromos. Belonging to this temple is an akroterion
in terracotta with a horseman and a sphinx below, very similar to contemporaneous
akroterial groups from Marasii.
In the little valley between the hills of the Abbadessa and those
of the Mannella a deposit of votive objects has been found, particularly pinakes
and dedicatory inscriptions. The latter must refer to the Sanctuary of Persephone
(Diod. 27.4.3), which flourished especially during the 6th and 5th c. In the vicinity
is a treasury building. No trace remains of the temple itself, which numerous
clues indicate was on the summit of the hill called Mannella.
Near Marasa a temple has been discovered. It is not certain to which
divinity it was dedicated. In its earliest phase, at the end of the 7th c., it
was an elongated cella subdivided into two naves. Belonging to it are terracotta
slabs with meander motifs. During the 6th c. the cella was embellished by a peristyle,
probably hexastyle. In the last third of the 5th c. there was built on the ruins
of the archaic temple another larger temple (19 x 45.4 m) with a slightly different
orientation. It had a cella, pronaos, opisthodomos, and peristyle in the Ionic
order. It was hexastyle with 17 columns on the long sides, and furnished with
a gutter having leonine heads in stone, and with akroterial decoration in marble,
at the center of which a Nereid between Dioskouroi mounted on horses is sustained
by Tritons.
To the NE of the city in the Lucifero section is a necropolis with
tombs largely from the 6th and 5th c., but with some later burials. A necropolis
from the 7th-6th c. has been found in the Manaci section of the city. Roman tombs
found in the area of the hill indicate a shrinking in the city's area.
F. Parise Badoni, 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.
MATAVROS (Ancient city) CALABRIA
On the Tyrrhenian Sea about 100 km N of Reggio Calabria. A settlement
of Chalkidians of Rhegion was occupied at the beginning of the 6th c. B.C. by
Lokrians in the course of their W expansion. Between the 5th c. and the Roman
period there are few records: the settled life must have moved S of the Petrace
river (ancient Matauros) into the ancient center of Taurianon. The poet Stesichoros
was most likely a citizen of Matauros and from there moved to Himera.
In the area of Due Pompe, excavations have revealed a necropolis,
which was used during three major periods. The oldest period (cremation) comprised
the 7th c. and the first half of the 6th c. B.C., and provides late proto-Corinthian
ware; Ionic ware (Ionic cups B1 and B2); Greco-oriental ware (alabaster on grey
bucchero and glazed figured vases); Attic black-figure ware (a kotyle of the painter
KX). The middle period (inhumation) lasted from the middle of the 6th c. until
the beginning of the 5th c. B.C. The final period (covered tombs) spans the period
from the 2d c. to the 3d c. A.D.
In the area of Masseria Fava, an imperial villa has been partially
excavated, along with its attached bath complex. Occasionally, a cache of Carthaginian
and Neapolitan coins of the Hellenistic period is discovered. Related to the construction
of a temple are the remains of a terracotta equestrian group, perhaps an acroterion
of the Lokrian type, dating to the beginning of the 5th c. B.C. and contemporary
with other terracotta finds.
The city itself, of which nothing is known, is probably covered over
by the present settlement. The finds are preserved in Reggio Calabria and in New
York.
P. Guzzo, 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.
MEDMA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
On the W coast, ca. 43 km N of Reggio Calabria. The history of the
settlement, founded from Lokroi Epizephyrioi, is little known. Remains of several
sanctuaries have been reported from the site, and recent work has revealed remains
of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Especially important is the deposit of terracotta
votive statuettes found at Piano delle Vigne in 1912 and 1913.
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.
RIGION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
According to ancient sources, founded toward the middle of the 8th
c. B.C. by Chalkidian colonists, near the Calopinace river (ancient Apsias) (Diod.
8.23.2) in an area called Pallontion (Dion. Hal. 19.2). The city expanded N between
the right bank of the Calopinace and the Santa Lucia. The ancient urban plan is
long and narrow on a sloping plateau between the ridges of the Aspromonte hills
along the straits of Messina. Its limits have been ascertained by the remains
of the circuit wall and by the presence of the necropolis.
Although the area of the settlement expanded in the course of time,
what is known of the circuit wall dates from the period of expansion between the
end of the 5th c. and the beginning of the 4th c. B.C. Nothing remains of the
wall in the S sector and on that side the determining date, for the area outside
the city, is given by the presence of the necropolis. In the E sector a section
of crude-brick wall must be attributed to a building outside the wall rather than
to a preceding phase of the walls. Some parts of the N sector are known, where
the extent of the urban area has been ascertained. The W sector is almost entirely
known as it is limited by the coastline. The wall construction shows a double
ring, joined by transverse elements and a filling of the intervening area with
earth and rubble. The lower sections were large sandstone blocks, with brick above.
The exact location of the gates is unknown, but there must have been one at either
end of the major urban axis, at least one toward the Aspromonte hills, and two
on the seaside.
Probably the acropolis was in the high area of today's city in the
district of Reggio Campi-Cimitero. The site of the Greek agora, and later the
forum of the Roman era, corresponds to the present-day Piazza Italia and there
the principal public buildings were constructed. No evidence remains of the street
system, and the continual rebuilding of the city on the same site and occasional
earthquakes have made archaeological evidence scarce. Yet, in the NE sector, a
large sacred area from the archaic and Classical periods has been identified.
Interesting architectural terracotta elements have come from the area as well
as votive materials) from the districts of Griso-Laboccetta, Sandicchi, and Taraschi-Barilla).
Recent excavations have brought to light traces of a small temple and of other
structures that point to the existence of a sanctuary. In the vicinity, the remains
of an odeon have also been discovered. The stereobate of another temple has been
partially unearthed beneath the modern prefecture. An inscription from the Roman
period (CIL X, 1) attests the existence of a temple of Isis and Serapis, and another
(CIL X, 6) mentions the templum Apollinis maioris. The latter inscription also
mentions a prytaneum, while inscriptions provide a record of various other buildings.
The most interesting of the inscriptions, dating to 374, mentions a porticoed
basilica and a bath building. The excavations have brought to light ruins of bath
buildings, private homes, and perhaps also public buildings. These ruins, interesting
primarily because of their Late Empire mosaics, also include honorary column bases
and other materials, particularly in the vicinity of Piazza Italia. Among other
finds of special interest are those pertaining to the water supply of the city,
particularly the cisterns.
Outside the city, necropoleis have been identified in the districts
of Santa Lucia, Santa Caterina, and Pentimeli to the N, and Modena and Ravagnese
to the S. Outside the walls toward the sea, a sanctuary of Artemis has also been
discovered. Near it, the Athenian forces encamped at the time of the Sicilian
expedition of 415 B.C. (Thuc. 6.44.3). The worship of that divinity at Rhegion
has been attested by other sources. From the Classical sources it is known that
the city was endowed with a fine harbor, which would therefore have had to be
situated at the mouth of the Apsias river.
The city's territory was not large by comparison with the sphere of
influence of other cities of Magna Graecia. Naturally limited by the mass of the
Aspromonte hills and by the sea, it reached on the Tyrrhenian side as far as the
Metauros river (in the archaic period perhaps even a little beyond) and on the
Ionian side it ended at the territory of the Lokrians. At that point, in consequence
of historic changes, the line of demarcation was formed at times by the Caecinos
river and at times by the Halex river.
The Museo Nazionale di Reggio Calabria contains enormous documentation
for the civilization of Magna Graecia, particularly material which concerns the
territory of ancient Bruttium.
A. De Franciscis, 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 3 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TERINA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
The city was founded by Kroton at the beginning of the 5th c. B.C.
Later it passed under several different rules until it was destroyed during the
second Punic war. Most recent studies identify the ancient site with unexcavated
remains in the abbey of S. Eufemia Vecchia; but others with Nocera Terinese. Terina
is best known for its coinage (480-400 B.C.).
J. P. Small, 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.
TORRE DEL MORDILLO (Archaeological site) CALABRIA
A Hellenistic city on the plain of Sybaris. Some 18 km from the sea
at the juncture of the Esaro and Coscile rivers, it controlled ancient trade routes
across this part of the Italian peninsula. There are at least two and probably
three destruction levels, the first possibly at the end of the 8th c. with the
arrival of the Greek colonists to found Sybaris. A second period of destruction
(at the turn of the 4th-3d c.) called for the leveling and grading of the site,
completely destroying the stratification. The city was rebuilt early in the 3d
c. on a grid system over and with the debris of earlier levels.
The archaeological evidence points to continued occupation, to extents
as yet unknown, from Neolithic times to the last decade of the 3d c. B.C. when
it was destroyed by assault and siege, whether by Hannibal or Rome is as yet unknown.
Recent finds are in the museum at Sybaris Station and in the National Museum in
Reggio Calabria. There is fragmentary evidence for a building of some pretension,
probably a temple of the late 6th or early 5th c. Although some preliminary reports
have been published, the major publication is still in press.
O. C. Colburn, 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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