Coin from Sybaris, c. 550-510 BC.

Sybaris (Greek: Σύβαρις; Italian: Sibari) was a celebrated city of Magna Graecia on the western shore Gulf of Taranto, a short distance from the sea, between the rivers Crathis (Crati) and Sybaris (Coscile). (Strab. vi. p. 263; Diod. xii. 9.) The last of these, from which it derived its name, at the present day falls into the Crati about 5 km from its mouth, but in ancient times undoubtedly pursued an independent course to the sea. Sybaris was apparently the earliest of all the Greek colonies in this part of Italy, being founded, according to the statement of Scymnus Chius, as early as 720 BCE. (Scymn. Ch. 360; Clinton, F. H. vol. i. p. 174.) The site is located within the limits of the present-day commune of Cassano allo Ionio, in the province of Cosenza (Calabria), Italy. Image File history File links SNGANS_841. ... Image File history File links SNGANS_841. ... Magna Graecia around 280 b. ... The Gulf of Taranto (Italian: Golfo di Taranto, Latin: Sinus Tarentinus) is a gulf of the Ionian sea, in southern Italy. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). ... ... Commune can refer to various things: commune (subnational entity) of various European and African countries Commune in France. ... Cassano allo Ionio is a town in province of Cosenza of Calabria, Italy, known in Roman times as Cassanum. ... Cosenza (It. ... Calabria, formerly Brutium, is a region in southern Italy which occupies the toe of the Italian peninsula south of Naples. ...

History

Sybaris was an Achaean colony, and its Oekist was a citizen of Helice in Achaia; but with the Achaean emigrants were mingled a number of Troezenian citizens. The Achaeans, however, eventually obtained the preponderance, and drove out the Troezenians. (Strab. l. c.; Arist. Pol. v. 3.) The Sybarites indeed appear to have sought for an origin in heroic times; and Solinus has a story that the first founder of the city was a son of Ajax Oïleus (Solin. 2. § 10); but this is evidently mere fiction, and the city was, historically speaking, undoubtedly an Achaean colony. It rose rapidly to great prosperity, owing in the first instance to the fertility of the plain in which it was situated. Its citizens also, contrary to the policy of many of the Greek states, freely admitted settlers of other nations to the rights of citizenship, and the vast population of the city is expressly ascribed in great measure to this cause. (Diod. xii. 9.) The statements transmitted to us of the power and opulence of the city, as well as of the luxurious habits of its inhabitants, have indeed a very fabulous aspect, and are without doubt grossly exaggerated, but there is no reason to reject the main fact that Sybaris had in the sixth century BCE attained a degree of wealth and power unprecedented among Greek cities, and which excited the admiration of the rest of the Hellenic world. We are told that the Sybarites ruled over 25 subject cities, and could bring into the field 300,000 of their own citizens (Strab. l. c.), a statement obviously incredible. The subject cities were probably for the most part Oenotrian towns in the interior, but we know that Sybaris had extended its dominion across the peninsula to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where it had founded the colonies of Poseidonia (Posidonia), Laüs (Laus), and Scidrus. The city itself was said to be not less than 50 stadia in circumference, and the horsemen or knights who figured at the religious processions are said to have amounted to 5000 in number (Athen. xii. p. 519), which would prove that these wealthy citizens were more than four times as numerous as at Athens. This article is about the ancient people of the Achaeans. ... Helike (huh-LEE-kee) was an ancient Greek city that sank c. ... This article is about the modern Greek district Achaea. ... Troezen (TREE-zun) is a city in Argolis located southwest of Athens and a few miles south of Methana. ... Gaius Julius Solinus, Latin grammarian and compiler, probably flourished during the first half of the 3rd century. ... Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian, born at Agyrium in Sicily (now called Agira, in the province of Enna). ... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) The 6th century BC started on January 1, 600 BC and ended on December 31, 501 BC. // Overview Monument 1, an Olmec colossal head at La Venta The 5th and 6th centuries BC were a time of empires, but more importantly, a... Tyrrhenian Sea. ... Paestum overview. ... Laüs or Laus or Laos (Greek:), was an ancient city on the west coast of Lucania, at the mouth of the river of the same name, which formed the boundary between Lucania and Bruttium; the site of Laüs is in the commune of Santa Maria del Cedro, Province... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, Athína IPA: ) is the capital and largest city of Greece and the birthplace of democracy. ...

Smindyrides, a citizen of Sybaris, who was one of the suitors for the daughters of Cleisthenes of Sicyon, is said by Herodotus to have surpassed all other men in refined luxury. (Herod. vi. 127.) It was asserted that on this occasion he carried with him a train of 1000 slaves, including cooks, fishermen, etc. (Atlien. vi. p. 273; Diod. viii. Fr. 19.) It is unnecessary to repeat here the tales that are told by various writers, especially by Athenaeus, concerning the absurd refinements of luxury ascribed to the Sybarites, and which have rendered their very name proverbial. (Athenae. xii. pp. 518-521; Diod. viii. Fr. 18-20; Suid. s. v. Συθαριτικαῖς.) They were particularly noted for the splendour of their attire, which was formed of the finest Milesian wool, and this gave rise to extensive commercial relations with Miletus, which produced a close friendship between the two cities. (Timaeus, ap. Athen. xii. p. 519; Herod. vi. 21.) As an instance of their magnificence we are told that Alcimenes of Sybaris had dedicated as a votive offering in the temple of the Lacinian Juno a splendid figured robe, which long afterwards fell into the power of Dionysius of Syracuse, and was sold by him for 120 talents. (Pseud. Arist. Mirab. 96; Athen. xii. p. 541.) Sybaris also minted its own coins. Cleisthenes (also Clisthenes or Kleisthenes) was the tyrant of Sicyon, who aided in the war against Cirra that destroyed that city in 595 BC. He organized a competition with his daughter Agarista as a prize; the two main competitors for her were the Alcmaeonid Megacles, and Hippocleides. ... Bust of Herodotus at Naples Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: , Herodotos) was a historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. ... Athenaeus (ca. ... Miletus (Greek: Μίλητος transliterated Miletos) was an ancient city on the western coast of Anatolia (in what is now the Aydin Province of Turkey), near the mouth of the Maeander River. ... Timaeus (c. ... IVNO REGINA (Queen Juno) on a coin celebrating Julia Soaemias. ... This page is about Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse. ... A talent is an ancient unit of mass. ...

Notwithstanding these details concerning the wealth and luxury of Sybaris, we are almost wholly without information as to the history of the city until shortly before its fall. Herodotus incidentally refers to the time of Smindyrides (about 580-560 BCE) as the period when Sybaris was at the height of its power. At a later period it seems to have been agitated by political dissensions, with the circumstances of which we are very imperfectly acquainted. It appears that the government had previously been in the hands of an oligarchy, to which such persons as Smindyrides and Alcimenes naturally belonged; but the democratic party, headed by a demagogue named Telys, succeeded in overthrowing their power, and drove a considerable number of the leading citizens into exile. Telys hereupon seems to have raised himself to the position of despot or tyrant of the city. The exiled citizens took refuge at Crotona; but not content with their victory, Telys and his partisans called upon the Crotoniats to surrender the fugitives. This they refused to do, and the Sybarites hereupon declared war on them, and marched upon Crotona with an army said to have amounted to 300,000 men. They were met at the river Traeis by the Crotoniats, whose army did not amount to more than a third of their numbers; notwithstanding which they obtained a complete victory, and put the greater part of the Sybarites to the sword, continuing the pursuit to the very gates of the city, of which they easily made themselves masters, and which they determined to destroy so entirely that it should never again be inhabited. For this purpose they turned the course of the river Crathis, so that it inundated the site of the city and buried the ruins under the deposits that it brought down. (Diod. xii. 9, 10; Strabo vi. p. 263; Herod. v. 44; Athenae. xii. p. 521; Scymn. Ch. 337-360.) This catastrophe occurred in 510 BCE, and seems to have been viewed by many of the Greeks as a divine vengeance upon the Sybarites for their pride and arrogance, caused by their excessive prosperity, more especially for the contempt they had shown for the great festival of the Olympic Games, which they are said to have attempted to supplant by attracting the principal artists, athletes, etc., to their own public games. (Scymn. Ch. 350-360; Athen. l. c.) Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 620s BC - 610s BC - 600s BC - 590s BC - 580s BC - 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC Events and trends 589 BC - Apries succeeds Psammetichus II as king of Egypt. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 610s BC 600s BC 590s BC 580s BC 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC 540s BC 530s BC 520s BC 510s BC Events and trends 568 BC - Amtalqa succeeds his brother Aspelta as king of Kush. ... Croton or Crotona (present-day Crotone), in the toe of the Italian peninsula, was an Achaean colony from c. ... the Greek georgapher Strabo, in a 16th‑century engraving. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC Events and Trends Establishment of the Roman Republic March 12, 515 BC - Construction is completed on the... The five Olympic rings were designed in 1913, adopted in 1914 and debuted at the Games at Antwerp, 1920. ...

It is certain that Sybaris was never restored. The surviving inhabitants took refuge at Laüs and Scidrus, on the shores of the Tyrrhenian sea. An attempt was indeed made, 58 years after the destruction of the city, to establish them anew on the ancient site, but they were quickly driven out by the Crotoniats, and the fugitives afterwards combined with the Athenian colonists in the foundation of Thurii. Thurii, or Thueium, was a city of Magna Graecia on the Gulf of Taranto, near the site of the older Sybaris. ...

At the present day the site is utterly desolate, and even the exact position of the ancient city cannot be determined. Explorations undertaken by the Italian government in 1879 and 1887 failed to lead to a precise knowledge of the site. Only two discoveries were made: an extensive necropolis, some 12 km to the west of the confluence of the two rivers, of the end of the first Iron age, known as that of Torre Mordillo, the contents of which are now preserved at Potenza; a necropolis of about 400 BC – the period of the greatest prosperity of Thurii – consisting of tombs covered by tumuli (locally called timponi), in some of which were found fine gold plates with mystic inscriptions in Greek characters; one of these tumuli was over 2.7 m in diameter at the base with a single burial in a sarcophagus in the center. 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... View of the Etruscan necropolis of Banditaccia, in Cerveteri, Italy. ... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC - 400s BC - 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC Years: 405 BC 404 BC 403 BC 402 BC 401 BC - 400 BC - 399 BC 398 BC... Thurii, or Thueium, was a city of Magna Graecia on the Gulf of Taranto, near the site of the older Sybaris. ...

The whole plain watered by the rivers Coscile and Crati (the ancient Sybaris and Crathis), so renowned in ancient limes for its fertility – it is cited as such by Varro, who tells us that in Sybaritano wheat was said to produce a hundred-fold. (Varr. R. R. i. 44.) – was for long a desolate swampy tract, pestilential from malaria, and frequented only by vast herds of buffaloes, the usual accompaniment in Southern Italy of all such pestiferous regions. The circumstance mentioned by Strabo that the river Crathis had been turned from its course to inundate the city, is confirmed by the accidental mention in Herodotus of the dry channel of the Crathis (παρὰ τὸν ξηρὸν Κρᾶθιν, Herod. v. 44): and this would sufficiently account for the disappearance of all traces of the city. Swinburne indeed tells us that some degraded fragments of aqueducts and tombs were still visible on the peninsula formed by the two rivers, and were pointed out as the ruins of Sybaris, but these, as he justly observes, being built of brick, are probably of Roman times, and have no connection with the ancient city. Keppel Craven, on the other hand, speaks of a wall sometimes visible in the bed of the Crathis when the waters are very low as being the only remaining relic of the ancient Sybaris. (Swinburne's Travels, vol. i. pp. 290--292; Craven's Southern Tour, pp. 217, 218.) Varro was a Roman cognomen carried by: Caius Terentius Varro, the consul Marcus Terentius Varro (known as Varro Reatinus), the scholar Publius Terentius Varro (known as Varro Atacinus), the poet This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

The river Sybaris was said to be so named by the Greek colonists from a fountain of that name at Bura in Achaia (Strab. viii. p. 386): it had the property, according to some authors, of making horses shy that drank of its waters. (Pseud. Arist. Mirab. 169; Strab. vi. p. 263.) It is a considerable stream, and has its sources in the Apennines near Murano, flows beneath Castrovillari, and receives several minor tributary streams before it joins the Crathis. Boura (also Bura, Bouraios, Bourios), was an ancient Greek city that was destroyed in the same way that the contemporary city of Helike was. ... A shop with boats, Murano Murano is usually described as an island in the Venetian Lagoon, although like Venice itself it is actually an archipelago of islands linked by bridges. ... Location of Cosenza province in Italy Castrovillari is town and comune in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1857).