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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.
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
Now S. Eufemia; a town on the west coast of Bruttium, from which the Sinus Terinaeus derived its name.
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.
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