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PYXOUS (Ancient city) ITALY
Originally Pyxus (Puxous); a town on the west coast of Lucania and on the river Buxentius, was founded by Micythus, tyrant of Messana, B.C. 471, and was afterwards a Roman colony.
A port at the mouth of the Bussento, the only good harbor other than
Sapri on the Golfo di Policastro (sinus terinaeus). In the 6th c. B.C. when it
first appears in history, Pyxous was apparently a dependency of Sybaris and issued
coins of Sybarite type that also bear the name of Siris on the Gulf of Tarentum.
It is possible that an overland route connected these cities. Pyxous may have
collapsed after the fall of Sybaris in 510 B.C., for it is next heard of as a
foundation of Mikythos, tyrant of Messine and Rhegion in 467. The majority of
the colonists planted there is said by Strabo (6.253) to have soon departed, and
we next hear of it as the site of a Roman colony of 300 families in 194 B.C. that
had then to be reinforced with a second draft of colonists in 186 (Livy 32.29.4;
34.42.6; 34.45.2; 39.23.4). Though it seems never to have flourished, it is mentioned
by geographers in the Imperial period, and inscriptions show that it had duovirs
as magistrates and was inscribed in the tribus Pomptina.
All that is known of the ancient city is a stretch of Roman road recently
excavated. The name Buxentum, which Strabo (6.253) says was also given to the
cape, harbor, and river, refers to the abundance of box growing in the vicinity.
L. Richardson, Jr., 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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