Listed 24 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "BASILICATA Region ITALY" .
GRUMENTO (Ancient city) BASILICATA
Grumentum (Groumenton: Eth. Grumentinus: Saponara), a city of Lucania,
and one of the chief towns situated in the interior of that province. From its
inland position it is evident that it was never a Greek settlement, and there
is little doubt that it was a native Lucanian town; but no mention occurs of it
in history previous to the Second Punic War. Its name is first found in B.C. 215,
when the Carthaginian general Hanno was defeated under its walls by Tib. Sempronius
Longus (Liv. xxiii. 37): and again in B.C. 207, when Hannibal himself, having
broken up from his winter quarters in Bruttium and marched into Lucania, established
his camp at Grumentum, where he was encountered by the consul C. Claudius Nero,
and sustained a slight defeat (Id. xxvii. 41, 42). Grumentum appears to have been
at this time one of the Lucanian cities that had espoused the Carthaginian cause,
and was there. fore at this time in the possession of Hannibal, but must have
been lost or abandoned immediately after. We hear no more of it till the period
of the Social War (B.C. 90), when it appears as a strong and important town, in
which the Roman praetor Licinius Crassus took refuge when defeated by M. Lamponius,
the Lucanian general. (Appian, B.C. i. 41.) But it would seem from an anecdote
related by Seneca and Macrobius that it subsequently fell into the hands of the
allies, and withstood a long siege on the part of the Romans. (Senec. de Benef.
iii. 23; Macrob. i. 11.)
It now became a Roman municipium, but seems to have continued to be
one of the few flourishing or considerable towns in the interior of Lucania. Strabo,
indeed, terms it a small place (mikra katoikia, vi. p. 254), and the Liber Coloniarum
includes it among the towns of Lucania which held the rank of Praefecturae only.
(Lib. Col. p. 209.) But we learn from an inscription that it certainly at one
time enjoyed the rank of a colony; and other inscriptions, in which mention is
made of its local senate and various magistrates, as well as the ruins of buildings
still remaining, sufficiently prove that it must have been a place of consideration
under the Roman Empire. (Mommsen, Inscr. R. N. pp. 19-22; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15;
Ptol. iii. 1. § 70.) The Itineraries attest its existence down to the fourth century,
and we learn from ecclesiastical records that it was an episcopal see as late
as the time of Gregory the Great; but the time of its destruction is unknown.
The site of Grumentum, which was erroneously placed by Cluverius at
Chiaromonte, on the left bank of the Sinno or Siris, was first pointed out by
Holstenius. Its ruins are still visible on the right bank of the river Agri (Aciris),
about half a mile below the modern town of Saponara: they include the remains
of an amphitheatre, with many walls and portions of buildings of reticulated masonry,
and the ancient paved street running through the midst of them. Numerous inscriptions
have also been discovered on the site, as well as coins, gems, and other minor
objects of antiquity. (Cluver. Ital. p. 1279; Holsten. Not. ad Cluver. p. 288;
Romanelli, vol. i. pp. 399, 400; Mommsen, l. c. p. 19.) The position thus assigned
to Grumentum - which is clearly identified by early ecclesiastical records - agrees
well with the distances given in the Itineraries, especially the Tabula, which
reckons 15 M. P. from Potentia to Anxia (still called Anzi), and 18 from thence
to Grumentum. (Itin. Ant. p. 104; Tab. Pent.) Many of the other distances and
stations in this part of the country being corrupt or uncertain, the point thus
gained is of the highest importance for the topography of Lucania. At the same
time its central position, near the head of the valley of the Aciris, sufficiently
accounts for its importance in a military point of view.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
HERAKLIA (Ancient city) ITALY
Heracleia (Herakleia: Eth. Herakleios, Heracliensis or Heracleensis:
Policoro), a city of Magna Graecia, situated in Lucania on the gulf of Tarentum,
but a short distance from the sea, and between the rivers Aciris and Siris. It
was a Greek colony, but founded at a period considerably later than most of the
other Greek cities in this part of Italy. The territory in which it was established
had previously belonged to the Ionic colony of Siris, and after the fall of that
city seems to have become the subject of contention between the neighbouring states.
The Athenians, we know, had a claim upon the territory of Siris (Herod. viii.
62), and it was probably in virtue of this that their colonists the Thurians,
almost immediately after their establishment in Italy, advanced similar pretensions.
These were, however, resisted by the Tarentines; and war ensued between the two
states, which was at length terminated by an arrangement that they should found
a new colony in the disputed district, which, though in fact a joint settlement,
should be designated as a colony of Tarentum. The few remaining inhabitants of
Siris were added to the new colonists, and it would appear that the settlement
was first established on the ancient site of Siris itself, but was subsequently
transferred from thence, and a new city founded about 24 stadia from the former,
and nearer the river Aciris, to which the name of Heracleia was given. Siris did
not cease to exist, but lapsed into the subordinate condition of the port or emporium
of Heracleia. (Strab. vi. p. 264.) The foundation of the new city is placed by
Diodorus in B.C. 432, fourteen years after the settlement of Thurii; a statement
which appears to agree well with the above narrative, cited by Strabo from Antiochus.
(Antiochus, ap. Strab l. c.; Diod. xii. 36; Liv. viii. 24.) Diodorus, as well
as Livy, calls it simply a colony of Tarentum: Antiochus is the only writer who
mentions the share taken by the Thurians in its original foundation. Pliny erroneously
regards Heracleia as identical with Siris, to which it had succeeded; and it was
perhaps a similar misconception that led Livy, by a strange anachronism, to include
Heracleia among the cities of Magna Graecia where Pythagoras established his institutions.
(Liv. i. 18; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15.) The new colony appears to have risen rapidly
to power and prosperity, protected by the fostering care of the Tarentines, who
were at one time engaged in war with the Messapians for its defence. (Strab. vi.
p. 281.) It was probably owing to the predominant influence of Tarentum also that
Heracleia was selected as the place of meeting of the general assembly (paneguris)
of the Italiot Greeks; a meeting apparently originally of a religious character,
but of course easily applicable to political objects, and which for that reason
Alexander, king of Epirus, sought to transfer to the Thurians for the purpose
of weakening the influence of Tarentum. (Strab. vi. p. 280.)
But beyond the general fact that it enjoyed great wealth and prosperity,
- advantages which it doubtless owed to the noted fertility of its territory -
we have scarcely any information concerning the history of Heracleia until we
reach a period when it was already beginning to decline. We cannot doubt that
it took part with the Tarentines in their wars against the Messapians and Lucanians,
and it appears to have fallen gradually into a state of almost dependence upon
that city, though without ever ceasing to be, in name at least, an independent
state. Hence, when Alexander, king of Epirus, who had been in. vited to Italy
by the Tarentines, subsequently became hostile to that people, he avenged himself
by taking Heracleia, and, as already mentioned, transferred to the Thurians the
general assemblies that had previously been held there. (Liv. viii. 24; Strab.
vi. p. 280.) During the war of Pyrrhus with the Romans, Heracleia was the scene
of the first conflict between the two powers, the consul Laevinus being totally
defeated by the Epirot king in a battle fought between the city of Heracleia and
the river Siris, B.C. 280. (Plut. Pyrrh. 16, 17; Flor. i. 18. § 71 ; Zonar. viii.
4; Ores. iv. 1.)
Heracleia was certainly at this time in alliance with the Tarentines
and Lucanians against Rome; and it was doubtless with the view of detaching it
from this alliance that the Romans were induced shortly afterwards (B.C. 278)
to grant to the Heracleians a treaty of alliance on such favourable terms that
it is called by Cicero prope singulare foedus. (Cic. pro Balb. 22, pro Arch. 4.)
Heracleia preserved this privileged condition throughout the period of the Roman
republic; and hence, even when in B.C. 89 the Lex Plautia Papiria conferred upon
its inhabitants, in common with the other cities of Italy, the rights of Roman
citizens, they hesitated long whether they would accept the proffered boon. (Cic.
pro Balb. 8) We have no account of the part taken by Heracleia in the Social War;
but from an incidental notice in Cicero, that all the public records of the city
had been destroyed by fire at that period, it would seem to have suffered severely.
(Cic. pro Arch. 4) Cicero nevertheless speaks of it, in his defence of Archias
(who had been adopted as a citizen of Heracleia), as still a flourishing and important
town, and it appears to have been one of the few Greek cities in the S. of Italy
that still preserved their consideration under the Roman dominion. (Strab. vi.
p. 264; Cic. l. c. 4, 5; Mel. ii. 4. § 8; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15.) Its name is unaccountably
omitted by Ptolemy; but its existence at a much later period is attested by the
Itineraries. (Itin. Ant. p. 113; Tab. Peut.) The time and circumstances of its
final extinction are wholly unknown; but the site is now desolate, and the whole
neighbouring district, once celebrated as one of the most fertile in Italy, is
now almost wholly uninhabited.
The position of the ancient city may nevertheless be clearly identified;
and though no ruins worthy of the name are still extant, large heaps of rubbish
and foundations of ancient buildings mark the site of Heracleia near a farm called
Policoro, about three miles from the sea, and a short distance from the right
bank of the Aciris or Agri. Numerous coins, bronzes, and other relics of antiquity
have been discovered on the spot; and within a short distance of the site were
found the bronze tables commonly known as the Tabulae Heracleenses, one of the
most interesting monuments of antiquity still remaining. They contain a long Latin
inscription relating to the municipal regulations of Heracleia, but which is in
fact only a copy of a more general law, the Lex Julia Municipalis, issued in B.C.
45 for the regulation of the municipal institutions of the towns throughout Italy.
This curious and important document, which is one of our chief authorities for
the municipal law of ancient Italy, is engraved on two tables of bronze, at the
back of which is found a long Greek inscription of much earlier date, but of very
inferior interest. The Latin one has been repeatedly published (Murat. Inscr.
vol. ii. p. 582; Haubold, Mon. Legal. pp. 98-133, &c.), and copiously illustrated
with legal commentaries by Dirksen (8vo. Berlin, 1817-1820) and Savigny (in his
Vermischte Schriften vol. iii.). Both inscriptions were published, with very elaborate
commentaries and disquisitions on all points connected with Heracleia, by Mazocchi
(2 vols. fol. Naples, 1754,1755).
Heracleia is generally regarded as the native country of the celebrated
painter Zeuxis, though there is much doubt to which of the numerous cities of
the name that distinguished artist really owed his birth. [Biogr. Dict. art. Zeuxis.
But the flourishing state of the arts in the Lucanian Heracleia (in common with
most of the neighbouring cities of Magna Graecia) is attested by the beauty and
variety of its coins, some of which may deservedly be reckoned among the choicest
specimens of Greek art; while their number sufficiently proves the opulence and
commercial activity of the city to which they belong. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 153;
Millingen, Numismatique de l'Anc. Italie, p. 111.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
METAPONTO (Town) ITALY
Metapontum or Metapontium (Metapontion: Thuc., Strab., and all Greek
writers have this form; the Latins almost universally Metapontum: Eth. Metapontinos,
Paus., Steph. B., and on coins; but Herod. has Metapontios; in Latin, Metapontinus:
Ru. near Torre di Mare), an important city of Magna Graecia, situated on the gulf
of Tarentum, between the river Bradanus and the Casuentus. It was distant about
14 miles from Heraclea and 24 from Tarentum. Historically speaking, there is no
doubt that Metapontum was a Greek city founded by an Achaean colony; but various
traditions assigned to it a much earlier origin. Strabo ascribes its foundation
to a body of Pylians, a part of those who had followed Nestor to Troy (Strab.
v. p. 222, vi. p. 264); while Justin tells us it was founded by Epeius, the hero
who constructed the wooden horse at Troy; in proof of which the inhabitants showed,
in a temple of Minerva, the tools used by him on that occasion. (Justin, xx. 2.)
Another tradition, reported by Ephorus (ap. Strab. p. 264), assigned to it a Phocian
origin, and called Daulius, the tyrant of Crisa near Delphi, its founder. Other
legends carried back its origin to a still more remote period. Antiochus of Syracuse
said that it was originally called Metabus, from a hero of that name, who appears
to have been identified with the Metapontus who figured in the Greek mythical
story as the husband of Melanippe and father of Aeolus and Boeotus. (Antioch.
ap. Strab. l. c.; Hygin. Fab. 186; Eustath. ad Dionys. Per. 368; Diod. iv. 67.)
Whether there may have really been a settlement on the spot more ancient
than the Achaean colony, we have no means of determining; but we are told that
at the time of the foundation of this city the site was unoccupied; for which
reason the Achaean settlers at Crotona and Sybaris were desirous to colonise it,
in order to prevent the Tarentines from taking possession of it. With this view
a colony was sent from the mother-country, under the command of a leader named
Leucippus, who, according to one account, was compelled to obtain the territory
by a fraudulent treaty. Another and a more plausible statement is that the new
colonists were at first engaged in a contest with the Tarentines, as well as the
neighbouring tribes of the Oenotrians, which was at length terminated by a treaty,
leaving them in the peaceable possession of the territory they had acquired. (Strab.
vi. pp. 264, 265.) The date of the colonisation of Metapontum cannot be determined
with certainty; but it was evidently, from the circumstances just related, subsequent
to that of Tarentum, as well as of Sybaris and Crotona: hence the date assigned
by Eusebius, who would carry it back as far as B.C. 774, is wholly untenable;
nor is it easy to see how such an error can have arisen. (Euseb. Arm. Chron. p.
99.) It may probably be referred to about 700-690 B.C.
We hear very little of Metapontum during the first ages of its existence;
but it seems certain that it rose rapidly to a considerable amount of prosperity,
for which it was indebted to the extreme fertility of its territory. The same
policy which had led to its foundation would naturally unite it in the bonds of
a close alliance with the other Achaean cities, Sybaris and Crotona; and the first
occasion on which we meet with its name in history is as joining with these two
cities in a league against Siris, with the view of expelling the Ionian colonists
of that city. (Justin, xx. 2.) The war seems to have ended in the capture and
destruction of Siris, but our account of it is very obscure, and the period at
which it took place very uncertain. It does not appear that Metapontum took any
part in the war between Crotona and Sybaris, which ended in the destruction of
the latter city; but its name is frequently mentioned in connection with the changes
introduced by Pythagoras, and the troubles consequent upon them. Metapontum, indeed,
appears to have been one of the cities where the doctrines and sect of that philosopher
obtained the firmest footing. Even when the Pythagoreans were expelled from Crotona,
they maintained themselves at Metapontum, whither the philosopher himself retired,
and where he ended his days. The Metapontines paid the greatest respect to his
memory; they consecrated the house in which he had lived as a temple to Ceres,
and gave to the street in which it was situated the name of the Museum. His tomb
was still shown there in the days of Cicero. (Iambl. Vit. Pyth. 170, 249, 266;
Porphyr. Vit. Pyth. 56, 57; Plut. de Gen. Socr. 13; Diog. Laert. viii. 1, 1, §
40; Liv. i. 18; Cic. de Fin. v. 2.) The Metapontines were afterwards called in
as mediators to appease the troubles which had arisen at Crotona; and appear,
therefore, to have suffered comparatively little themselves from civil dissensions
arising from this source. (Iambl. 262.)
At the time of the Athenian expedition to Sicily, B.C. 415, the Metapontines
at first, like the other states of Magna Graecia, endeavoured to maintain a strict
neutrality; but in the following year were induced to enter into an alliance with
Athens, and furnish a small auxiliary force to the armament under Demosthenes
and Eurymedon. (Diod. xiii. 4; Thuc. vi. 44, vii. 33, 57.) It seems clear that
Metapontum was at this time a flourishing and opulent city; nor have we any reason
to suppose that its decline began until long after. From its position it was secured
from the attacks of Dionysius of Syracuse; and though it must have been endangered
in common with the other Greek cities by the advancing power of the Lucanians,
it does not appear to have taken any prominent part in the wars with that people,
and probably suffered but little from their attacks. Its name is again mentioned
in B.C. 345, when Timoleon touched there on his expedition to Sicily, but it does
not appear to have taken any part in his favour. (Diod. xvi. 66.) In B.C. 332,
when Alexander, king of Epirus, crossed over into Italy at the invitation of the
Tarentines, the Metapontines were among the first to conclude an alliance with
that monarch, and support him in his wars against the Lucanians and Bruttians.
Hence, after his defeat and death at Pandosia, B.C. 326, it was to Metapontum
that his remains were sent for interment. (Justin, xii. 2; Liv. viii. 24.) But
some years later, B.C. 303, when Cleonymus of Sparta was in his turn invited by
the Tarentines, the Metapontines, for what reason we know not, pursued a different
policy, and incurred the resentment of that leader, who, in consequence, turned
his own arms, as well as those of the Lucanians, against them. He was then admitted
into the city on friendly terms, but nevertheless exacted from them a large sum
of money, and committed various other excesses. (Diod. xx. 104.) It is evident
that Metapontum was at this period still wealthy; but its citizens had apparently,
like their neighbours the Tarentines. fallen into a state of slothfulness and
luxury, so that they were become almost proverbial for their effeminacy. (Plut.
Apophth. Lac. p. 233.)
It seems certain that the Metapontines, as well as the Tarentines,
lent an active support to Pyrrhus, when that monarch came over to Italy; but we
do not find them mentioned during his wars there; nor have we any account of the
precise period at which they passed under the yoke of Rome. Their name is, however,
again mentioned repeatedly in the Second Punic War. We are told that they were
among the first to declare in favour of Hannibal after the battle of Cannae (Liv.
xxii. 61); but notwithstanding this, we find their city occupied by a Roman garrison
some years later, and it was not till after the capture of Tarentum, in B.C. 212,
that they were able to rid themselves of this force and openly espouse the Carthaginian
cause. (Id. xxv. 11, 15; Pol. viii. 36; Appian, Annib. 33, 35.) Hannibal now occupied
Metapontum with a Carthaginian garrison, and seems to have made it one of his
principal places of deposit, until the fatal battle of the Metaurus having compelled
him to give up the possession of this part of Italy, B.C. 207, he withdrew his
forces from Metapontum, and, at the same time, removed from thence all the inhabitants
in order to save them from the vengeance of Rome. (Id. xxvii. 1, 16, 42, 51.)
From this time the name of Metapontum does not again appear in history
; and it seems certain that it never recovered from the blow thus inflicted on
it. But it did not altogether cease to exist; for its name is found in Mela (ii.
4. § 8), who does not notice any extinct places; and Cicero speaks of visiting
it in terms that show it was still a town. (Cic. de Fin. v. 2; see also Appian,
B.C. v. 93.) That orator, however, elsewhere alludes to the cities of Magna Graecia
as being in his day sunk into almost complete decay; Strabo says the same thing,
and Pausanias tells us that Metapontum in particular was in his time completely
in ruins, and nothing remained of it but the theatre and the circuit of its walls.
(Cic. de Amic. 4; Strab. vi. p. 262; Paus. vi. 19. § 11.) Hence, though the name
is still found in Ptolemy, and the ager Metapontinus is noticed in the Liber Coloniarum
(p. 262), all trace of the city subsequently disappears, and it is not even noticed
in the Itineraries where they give the line of route along the coast from Tarentum
to Thurii. The site was probably already subject to malaria, and from the same
cause has remained desolate ever since.
Though we hear much less of Metapontum than of Sybaris, Crotona, and
Tarentum, yet all accounts agree in representing it as, in the days of its prosperity,
one of the most opulent and flourishing of the cities of Magna Graecia. The fertility
of its territory, especially in the growth of corn, vied with the neighbouring
district of the Siritis. Hence we are told that the Metapontines sent to the temple
at Delphi an offering of a golden harvest (theroschrusoun, Strab. vi. p. 264),
by which we must probably understand a sheaf or bundle of corn wrought in gold.
For the same reason an ear of corn became the characteristic symbol on their coins,
the number and variety of which in itself sufficiently attests the wealth of the
city. (Millingen, Numismatique de l'Italie, p. 22.) We learn also that they had
a treasury of their own at Olympia still existing in the days of Pausanias (Paus.
vi. 19. § 11; Athen. xi. p. 479). Herodotus tells us that they paid particular
honours to Aristeas, who was said to have appeared in their city 340 years after
he had disappeared from Cyzicus. They erected to him a statue in the middle of
the forum, with an altar to Apollo surrounded by a grove of laurels. (Herod. iv.
15 ; Athen. xiii. p. 605, c.) From their coins they would appear also to have
paid heroic honours to Leucippus, as the founder of their city. (Millingen, l.
c. p. 24.) Strabo tells us, as a proof of their Pylian origin, that they continued
to perform sacrifices to the Neleidae. (Strab. vi. p. 264.)
The site and remains of Metapontum have been carefully examined by
the Due de Luynes, who has illustrated them in a special work (Metaponte, fol.
Paris, 1833). It is remarkable that no trace exists of the ancient walls or the
theatre of which Pausanias speaks. The most important of the still existing monuments
is a temple, the remains of which occupy a slight elevation near the right bank
of the Bradanus, about 2 miles from its mouth. They are now known as the Tavola
dei Paladini. Fifteen columns are still standing, ten on one side and five on
the other; but the two ends, as well as the whole of the entablature above the
architrave and the walls of the cella, have wholly disappeared. The architecture
is of the Doric order, but its proportions are lighter and more slender than those
of the celebrated temples of Paestum: and it is in all probability of later date.
Some remains of another temple, but prostrate, and a mere heap of ruins, are visible
nearly 2 miles to the S. of the preceding, and a short distance from the mouth
of the Bradanus. This spot, called the Chiesa di Sansone, appears to mark the
site of the city itself, numerous foundations of buildings having been discovered
all around it. It may be doubted whether the more distant temple was ever included
within the walls; but it is impossible now to trace the extent of the ancient
city. The Torre di Mare, now the only inhabited spot on the plain, derives its
name from a castellated edifice of the middle ages; it is situated above 1 1/2
mile from the sea, and the same distance from the river Basiento, the ancient
Casuentus. Immediately opposite to it, on the sea-shore, is a small salt-water
basin or lagoon, now called the Lago di Sta. Pelagina, which, though neither deep
nor spacious, in all probability formed the ancient port of Metapontum.
Metapontum was thus situated between the two rivers Bradanus and Casuentus,
and occupied (with its port and appurtenances) a considerable part of the intermediate
space. Appian speaks of a river between Metapontum and Tarentum of the same name,
by which he probably means the Bradanus, which may have been commonly known as
the river of Metapontum. This is certainly the only river large enough to answer
to the description which he gives of the meeting of Octavian and Antony which
took place on its banks. (Appian, B.C. v. 93, 94.)
The coins of Metapontum, as already observed, are very numerous; and
many of the later ones of very beautiful workmanship. Those of more ancient date
are of the style called incuse, like the early coins of Crotona and Sybaris. The
one in the annexed figure has on the obverse the head of the hero Leucippus, the
founder of the city. But the more common type on the obverse is the head of Ceres.
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
GRUMENTO (Ancient city) BASILICATA
A town in the interior of Lucania, on the road from Beneventum to Heraclea.
HERAKLIA (Ancient city) ITALY
A city of Lucania in Italy, and situated between the Aciris
and Siris. It was founded by the Tarentini after the destruction of the ancient
city of Siris, which stood at the mouth of the latter river (B.C. 428). This city
is rendered remarkable in history, as having been the seat of the general council
of the Greek states.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
METAPONTO (Town) ITALY
(Metapontion) and Metapontum. A celebrated Greek city in Lucania,
and on the Tarentine gulf, originally called Metabum (Metabon). It was founded
by the Greeks at an early period, was afterwards destroyed by the Samnites, and
was repeopled by a colony of Achaeans. It fell into the hands of the Romans with
the other Greek cities in the south of Italy in the war against Pyrrhus; but it
revolted to Hannibal after the battle of Cannae, and soon after disappears from
history. Pythagoras died at Metapontium, whither he had transferred his school.
VENUSIA (Ancient city) BASILICATA
Now Venosa; an ancient town of Apulia, south of the river Aufidus, and near Mount Vultur, situated in a romantic country, and memorable as the birthplace of the poet Horace. See Horatius.
Total results on 22/5/2001: 82 for Metapontum, 14 for Metapontium, 23 for Metapontion.
GRUMENTO (Ancient city) BASILICATA
In the upper valley of the Acris (Agri), the city is known to history
as the scene of actions during the second Punic war and social war. The theater
was excavated in 1956-57 and restored in 1964-67. The cavea dates from the 1st
c. A.D.; the scene building was constructed in the 2d c. and was rebuilt in the
4th c. The theater is located between two major N-S streets, which have been exposed
by excavation.
R. R. Holloway, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
HERAKLIA (Ancient city) ITALY
On the Gulf of Taranto at the mouth of the river Acris (Agri). The
city was colonized from Tarentum in 433-432 B.C. Excavation, however, has shown
that the acropolis (site of the Renaissance castle) was first occupied by Greek
settlers at the end of the 8th c. B.C. Scattered potters' works, identified by
the remains of kilns, have revealed a mixture of Greek and indigenous wares paralleled
by the mixture of burial rites (cremation and inhumation in pithoi) found in the
archaic necropolis. The E Greek character of much of the material of this settlement
makes it possible to interpret it as an outpost of Siris. Following the Tarentine
foundation, Herakleia became the meeting place of the representatives of the Italiote
Greek League and remained so until the 330s B.C. One of the battles between King
Pyrrhos of Epeiros and the Romans was fought in the vicinity in 280 B.C. In the
1st c. B.C., following the slave insurrection of Spartacus, the area occupied
by the city was reduced once again to the acropolis, where a settlement persisted
until the 5th c.
Long famous because of the discovery there of an inscribed text of
the Lex Julia Municipalis and inscribed bronze tablets recording partitioning
of temple properties (found in the river Acris), Herakleia has been the site of
intensive archaeological investigation since 1959. The city is situated on a long
low hill oriented NW-SE with the acropolis at the SE end toward the sea. The rectangular
city plan was laid out at the time of the founding of the Tarentine colony. Three
entire city blocks have been excavated. The city walls, traced largely from air
photographs, belong to the 4th c. B.C. and were strengthened after construction.
There are remains of a coroplastic industry in the form of kilns and dumps of
terracotta figurine fragments and molds. The foundations of a temple of the 4th
c. B.C. have also been uncovered. The excavation of the extramural Sanctuary of
Demeter and Kore has resulted in the discovery of a large group of dedications,
largely miniature vases and terracotta figurines. These, together with the distinguished
group of later 5th c. S Italian red-figure vases from a chamber tomb excavated
in 1963, are displayed in the new museum adjoining the site.
R. R. Holloway, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
INCORONATA (Ancient city) BASILICATA
An ancient center near the town, set on a small, elongated hill overlooking
the river Basento. The settlement, isolated on every side, may be reached only
from the E where it looks out over the sea. It is 6 km from the center of the
Greek colony of Metapontion and W of the line of defense of the Achaean colony.
The site is defended not only by its precipitous position but by an
irregular stone and earthen agger (ca. 1 m wide). Within the fortification line,
on a level stretch that slopes gently upward to the E, are traces of dwellings,
rectangular or circular, with plinths of irregular sandstone rocks coming from
the Basento river. Scattered here and there throughout the area, they are built
of clay mixed with straw and ash and reinforced with tree trunks and branches.
Inside the dwellings, Greek pottery mingled with local ware was found. The oldest
vases are the proto-Corinthian bulging aryballoi and the pyre-shaped vases with
friezes of running dogs. This series of small proto-Corinthian vases is associated
with the series in gray clay. The larger vases are represented by locally produced
amphorae and by black, painted amphorae, probably imported, and by a series of
double-handled Chian orientalizing vases. These have geometric decorations in
imitation of the insular and Rhodian techniques. The local ware comprises large
decorated vases or imported lapygean ware mingled with large dishes, small sacrificial
bowls, and urn-shaped amphorae. The total array of extant pottery suggests coexistence
between Greeks and native peoples, beginning in the second half of the 8th c.
B.C.
In the lowest levels of the site are ceramic fragments dating to the
last years of the Bronze Age or perhaps of the Apennine culture. Even though the
levels are often mixed because of a succession of buildings, this much has become
clear in the chronology which extends until the end of the 7th c. B.C. Thus far,
no other evidence has been found prior to this period. Some vases show traces
of graffiti, among the oldest known to date in the area of Metapontion.
The archaic Greek pottery discovered in this site antedates, in very
large part, the finds thus far made in the lowest levels at Metapontion. Everything
gives the impression of a site which predates the founding of Metapontion, and
which was abandoned toward the end of the 7th c. B.C. Antiochos of Syracuse (Strab.
6.1.15) speaks of another site which existed in the area of Metapontion but which
was abandoned before Metapontion was founded. Perhaps his words should be reconsidered
in this context.
D. Adamesteanu, 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.
METAPONTO (Town) ITALY
On the Gulf of Taranto between the mouths of the Bradanus and Casuentus
rivers (modern Bradano and Basento). Famed for the fertility of its farm land,
Metapontion was settled by Achaean Greeks in 773-772 B.C. according to Eusebius,
but in the late 8th or 7th c. according to modern scholars. It was the last home
and burial place of the philosopher Pythagoras. It supported the Athenian expedition
to Sicily (415 B.C.). The city was abandoned during the second Punic war in 207
B.C.
The rectangular city plan has been reconstructed on the basis of air
photographs. It is connected to a vast subdivision system of the countryside where
Greek farmsteads, the earliest belonging to the 6th c. B.C., have been excavated.
The original urban nucleus was augmented in the 5th c. to create a new agora in
the area of the Temple of Apollo Lykeios, which previously had been outside the
walls. This area of the city, its NE section, is currently the scene of study
and excavation. The foundations of the Temple of Apollo Lykeios belong to an early
archaic building with an exterior colonnade (9 x 18 columns). It is comparable
in plan to the basilica (Temple of Hera I) at Paestum. The order was Doric. The
temple was modified on various occasions, notably with the addition of pedimental
sculpture in the late 6th c. B.C. but was already in a state of dilapidation in
the 4th c. To the W of the Temple of Apollo are the foundations of a still earlier
temple dating to the end of the 7th c. and to the E are the foundations of a third
temple. North of the city near the Bradanus river and beside the modern Taranto-Reggio
Calabria highway is the Doric temple long known as the Knights' Tables (Tavole
Paladine) but probably dedicated to Hera. It was erected in the late 6th c. B.C.
Of the colonnade (6 x 12 columns), 15 columns are still standing. West of the
temple is the extensive necropolis. Nearby is the antiquarium where material from
the new excavations is displayed. Material from early excavations, including architectural
terracottas from the Temple of Hera and the marble kouros from the Temple of Apollo
Lykeios, is in the museum at Potenza.
R. R. Holloway, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PISTICCI (Town) BASILICATA
An Oenotrian and Lucanian center 30.6 km S of Matera on a hill overlooking
the ancient territory of Metapontion and a large part of the valley of the Basento
river. It is covered by the modern town. The origins of the native settlement
date to Iron Age II, but there are traces of a weak settlement dating to Iron
Age I. In the second half of the 8th c. B.C., the settlement was consolidated
on the NW end of the hill and, so far as can now be determined, gradually expanded
over the remainder of the land extending to the N and E. On the extreme E end,
around and below the mediaeval site of Santa Maria del Casale, is the main necropolis
(6th-5th c.). By this period, the site had been so permeated by the Greeks that
it is to be considered more Greek than native. In this period it took on the appearance
of a phrourion because of its division into parcels from the territory of Metapontion
between the Bradano and Cavone rivers.
The same change can be seen in the other new centers that sprang up
during the Iron Age in the vast Pisticci plain, particularly in the area of San
Leonardo, San Teodoro, and San Basilio. At the end of the 6th c. and during the
5th c. B.C., all these new settlements were overspread by the coastal civilization
and, more exactly, by the Metapontine civilization.
Contrary to what happened in other centers of the area under the influence
of the Greek coastal colonies, the life of Pisticci and of the other smaller centers,
except the hillside of Incoronata, assumed an ever more lively existence during
the 5th c. B.C. until the end of that century. At that time proto-Italic ceramic
shops probably developed at Pisticci itself or in its territory and their products
spread throughout Lucania.
The tombs of Pisticci are among the richest in bronzes and in Attic
vases dating to the end of the 6th c. and throughout the 5th c. B.C. The tombs
are like those at Metapontion, but their grave gifts are far richer. Helmets and
weapons, certainly products of some native hellenized center, are totally lacking
at Metapontion. The greatest prosperity came during the first quarter of the 4th
c. when the necropolis was filled with vases and bronze objects, either imported
or made in the area. The production of local ceramic ware started at the beginning
of the 8th c. and continued until the end of the 4th c. or the beginning of the
3d c. B.C. Thus far, no trace of life during the Roman period has appeared.
D. Adamesteanu, 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.
VENUSIA (Ancient city) BASILICATA
On the borders of Apulia and Samnium, the city was originally Samnite
and was colonized by the Romans in 291 B.C. Here the consul Terentius Varro and
the survivors of Cannae sought refuge after their defeat by Hannibal (216 B.C.).
The area of the excavations includes a bath complex of the Hadrianic period, the
amphitheater, the Early Christian baptistery and the Romanesque Basilica of the
Holy Trinity in the walls of which are incorporated numerous ancient gravestones
with family portraits in the Roman Republican manner.
R. R. Holloway, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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