Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "MONASTERACE MARINA Town 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
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.
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.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
