Comune di Taranto
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Puglia
Province	Taranto (TA)
Mayor
Elevation	15 m
Area	217 km²
Population
- Total (as of 2001)	201,349
- Density	973/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	40°28′N 17°14′E
Gentilic	Tarantini or Tarentini
Dialing code	099
Postal code	74100
Frazioni	Talsano, Lido Azzurro, Lama, San Vito
Patron	San Cataldo
- Day	May 10
Website: www.comune.taranto.it

Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, southern Italy. It is the capital of Province of Taranto and is an important military and commercial port. Emblem of the city of Taranto. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy. ... The Regions of Italy were granted a degree of regional autonomy in the 1948 constitution, which states that the constitutions role is: to recognize, protect and promote local autonomy, to ensure that services at the State level are as decentralized as possible, and to adapt the principles and laws... Apulia is a region of Italy (called Puglia in Italian), bordering on Molise to the north-west, Campania to the south-west, Basilicata to the south, the Adriatic Sea to the east and the Ionian Sea to the south-east. ... In Italy, the province (in Italian: provincia) is an administrative division of an intermediate level, between municipality (comune) and region (Regione). ... Taranto (It. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Time zones of Europe: Light colours indicate countries not observing daylight saving Central European Time (CET) is one of the names of the time zone that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. ... Central European Time West Africa Time British Summer Time* Irish Summer Time* Western European Summer Time* Category: ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with ethnonym. ... Here are a list of area codes in Italy. ... A frazione, in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other subdivisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere. ... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... This article is about the Italian region. ... Taranto (It. ...

Taranto (NASA).

It is the third largest continental city of southern Italy: according to the 2001 census, it has population of 201,349. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (423x639, 184 KB) Taranto vista dal satellite - ITALY/TARANTO, COAST ISS005-E-7074 - http://eol. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (423x639, 184 KB) Taranto vista dal satellite - ITALY/TARANTO, COAST ISS005-E-7074 - http://eol. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Taranto is an important commercial and military port. It has well-developed steel and iron foundries, oil refineries, chemical works, some shipyards for building warships, and food-processing factories.

Taranto history dates back to the 8th century BC when it was founded as a Greek colony. The ancient city was situated on a peninsula, protected by a helm; the modern city has been built over the ancient Greek necropolis. (2nd millennium BCE - 1st millennium BCE - 1st millennium) Ruins of the training grounds at Olympia, Greece. ... A peninsula in Croatia A peninsula (from the latin words paene insula, almost island) is a geographical landform consisting of an extension of a body of land from a larger body of land, surrounded by water on three sides. ... View of the Etruscan necropolis of Banditaccia, in Cerveteri, Italy. ...

The islets of S. Pietro and S. Paolo (St. Peter and St. Paul) protect the bay, called Mar Grande (Big Sea), where the commercial port is located. Another bay, called Mar Piccolo (Little Sea), is formed by the old city, and there fishing is flourishing; Mar Piccolo is a military port with a strategic importance. Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering animals not classifiable as insects which breathe in water or pass their lives in water. ...

The swing bridge is the symbol of Taranto.

At the end of the 19th century, a channel was excavated to allow the military ships to enter Mar Piccolo harbour, and the ancient Greek city become an island. In addition, the islets and the coast are strongly fortified. Because of the presence of these two bays, Taranto is also called “the city of the two seas”. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x760, 100 KB) Summary The swing bridge is the symbol of Taranto. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x760, 100 KB) Summary The swing bridge is the symbol of Taranto. ...

The Greek colonists from Sparta called the city Taras (Τάρας), after the mythical hero Taras, while the Romans, who connected the city to Rome with an extension of the Appian way, called it Tarentum. Coordinates 37°4′ N 22°26′ E Country Greece Periphery Peloponnese Prefecture Laconia Population 18,184 source (2001) Area 84. ... A coin of the ancient Magna Graecia city of Taras, with Taras riding a dolphin. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban... The path of the Via Appia and of the Via Appia Traiana. ...

Taranto is also famous for the British attack on the Regia Marina base during the World War II, known as the Battle (or Night) of Taranto. The Italian Regia Marina (literally: Royal Navy) dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian... Combatants United Kingdom Italy Commanders Lumley Lyster Inigo Campioni Strength 21 bombers 6 battleships Casualties 2 bombers destroyed 1 battleship sunk 2 battleships damaged 1 cruiser damaged The naval Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11 November – 12 November 1840 during World War II. The Royal Navy...

History

Main article: History of Taranto

The history of Taranto dates back to the 8th century BC when it was founded as a Greek colony. ...

Origins

Ancient coin from Taranto, with the eponym Taras hero riding a dolphin.

Taranto was founded in 706 BC by Dorian immigrants as the only Spartan colony, and its origin is peculiar: the founders were partheniae, sons of unmarried Spartan women and perioeci (free men, but not citizens of Sparta); these unions were decided by the Spartans to increase the number of soldiers (only the citizens of Sparta could become soldiers) during the bloody Messenian wars, but later they were nullified, and the sons were forced to leave. Phalanthus, the parthenian leader, went to Delphi to consult the oracle: the puzzling answer designated the harbour of Taranto as the new home of the exiles. The Partheniae arrived in Apulia, and founded the city, naming it Taras after the son of the Greek sea god, Poseidon, and of a local nymph, Satyrion. According to other sources, Heracles founded the city. Another tradition indicates Taras as the founder of the city; the symbol of the Greek city (as well as of the modern city) is Taras riding a dolphin. Taranto increased its power, becoming a commercial power and a sovereign city of Magna Graecia, ruling over the Greek colonies in southern Italy. Image File history File links Tarentum. ... Image File history File links Tarentum. ... A coin of the ancient Magna Graecia city of Taras, with Taras riding a dolphin. ... Centuries: 9th century BC - 8th century BC - 7th century BC Decades: 750s BC 740s BC 730s BC 720s BC 710s BC - 700s BC - 690s BC 680s BC 670s BC 660s BC 650s BC Events and trends 708 BC - Spartan immigrants found Taras (Tarentum, the modern Taranto) colony in southern Italy. ... Coordinates 37°4′ N 22°26′ E Country Greece Periphery Peloponnese Prefecture Laconia Population 18,184 source (2001) Area 84. ... In Ancient Greece, the Partheniae or Parthenians (in Greek / hoi Partheníai , literally “sons of virgins”, i. ... Former Spartan slaves, now free (possibly from escape). ... Messenia (Greek: , in Modern Greek Messinia; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a prefecture in the Peloponnese, a region of Greece. ... This article covers the history of Sparta from its founding to the present, concentrating primarily on the Spartan state during the height of its power from the 6th to the 4th century BCE. // Tradition relates that Sparta was founded by Lacedaemon, son of Zeus and Taygete, who called the city... The amphitheatre, seen from above. ... The word sibyl comes (via Latin) from the Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. ... Neptune reigns in the city centre, Bristol, formerly the largest port in England outside London. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) For other uses, see Heracles (disambiguation). ... Magna Graecia around 280 b. ... Colonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city, not from a territory-at-large. ...

Taranto as a Center of Ancient Art

Taras was also the center of a thriving decorated Greek pottery industry during the Fourth Century B.C. Most of the South Italian, Greek vessels known as Apulian ware were made in different workshops in the city. Krater (mixing bowl), 6th century BC, National Archaeological Museum, Athens The pottery of ancient Greece is one of the most tangible and iconic elements of ancient Greek art. ... South Italian is a designation for ancient Greek pottery fabricated in Magna Graecia during the Fourth Century B.C. There are four regions which produced South Italian ware: Apulia, Lucania, Paestum, and Campania. ...

Unfortunately none of the names of the artists have survived, so modern scholars have been obliged to give the recognizable artistic hands and workshops nicknames based on the subject matter of their works, museums which possess the works, or individuals who have distinguished the works from others. Some of the most famous of the Apulian vase painters at Taras are now called: the Iliupersis Painter, the Lycurgus Painter, the Gioia del Colle Painter, the Darius Painter, the Underworld Painter, and the White Sakkos Painter, among others.

The wares produced by these workshops were usually large elaborate vessels intended for mortuary use. The forms produced included volute kraters, loutrophoroi, paterai, oinochoai, lekythoi, fish plates, etc. The decoration of these vessels was red figure (with figures reserved in red clay fabric, while the background was covered in a black gloss), with overpainting (sovradipinto) in white, pink, yellow, and maroon slips. A loutrophoros is a distinctive type of Greek pottery characterized by its elongated neck. ... The word patera has various meanings: A patera was a broad, shallow dish used for drinking, primarily in a ritual context such as a libation. ... An oenochoe, also spelt oinochoe, is a wine jug and a key form of Greek pottery. ... Theseus and the Marathonian bull, white-ground lekythos, ca. ... Hellenistic fish plate, museum of Scotland A fish plate is a Greek pottery vessel used by western, Hellenistic Greeks during the Fourth Century B.C. Although invented in Fifth-Century B.C. Athens, most of the corpus of surviving fish plates originate in South Italy, where Fourth-Century B.C... Red-figure pottery is a style of Greek pottery in which the figure outlines, details and the background are painted black, while the figure itself is not painted. ...

Often the style of the drawings are very florid, and frilly, as was already the fashion in Fourth-Century Athens. Distinctive South Italian features also begin to appear. Many figures are shown seated on rocks. Floral motifs become very ornate, including spiraling vines and leaves, roses, lilies, poppies, sprays of laurel, acanthus leaves, etc. Often the subject matter consists of naiskos scenes (scenes showing the statue of a deceased person in a naos, a miniature temple or shrine). Most often the naiskos scene occupies one side of the vase, while a mythological scene occupies the other. Images depicting many of the Greek myths are only known from South Italian vases, since Athenian ones seem to have had more limited repertoires of depiction.

For more information please read A.D. Trendall's Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily. For information on Apulian Vase Painters: http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=741 ; http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=300

Main sights

Notable people

These historical figures have had a relationship with the city. Not all of them were actually born in Taranto.

• Archytas of Tarentum, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, strategist and commander-in-chief of the army of Taranto;
• Philolaus, mathematician and philosopher.
• Aristoxenus, peripatetic philosopher, and writer on music and rhythm;
• Leonidas of Tarentum, poet;
• Lysis of Tarentum, philosopher;
• Rhinthon (c. 323–285 BC), dramatist;
• Livius Andronicus, poet;
• Titus Quinctius Flamininus, propraetor of Tarentum;
• Pacuvius, tragic poet, died in Tarentum in 130 BC;
• Cataldus, archibishop of Taranto, saint, and patronus;
• Bohemond of Taranto, key military leader on the First Crusade
• Gil Cardinal Albornoz, archibishop of Taranto in 1644;
• Giovanni Paisiello, composer;
• Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Napoleonic army general and novelist, died in Taranto;
• Etienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald (1765 - 1840), duke of Taranto and marshal of France;

Archytas Archytas (428 BC - 347 BC) was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, strategist and commander-in-chief. ... Philolaus (circa 480 BC – circa 405 BC) was a Greek mathematician and philosopher. ... Aristoxenus of Tarentum (4th century BC) was a Greek peripatetic philosopher, and writer on music and rhythm. ... Lysis of Tarentum (died ca. ... Rhinthon (c. ... Lucius Livius Andronicus (284-204 BC), was a Greek who became a Roman Dramatist and epic Poet, who gave Romans their first chance to read Greek classics in their own language. ... Titus Quinctius Flamininus (c. ... // Definition According to Cicero, Praetor was a title which designated the consuls as the leaders of the armies of the state. ... Marcus Pacuvius (c. ... Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC 150s BC 140s BC - 130s BC - 120s BC 110s BC 100s BC 90s BC 80s BC Years: 135 BC 134 BC 133 BC 132 BC 131 BC - 130 BC - 129 BC 128 BC... Founded 706 BC as Taras () Region Apulia Mayor Rossana Di Bello Area  - City Proper  217 km² Population  - City (2001)  - Density (city proper) 201,349 973/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Latitude Longitude 40°28 N 17°14 E www. ... Bohemund I of Antioch (c. ... // Events February to August - Explorer Abel Tasmans second expedition for the Dutch East India Company maps the north coast of Australia. ... Paisiello at the clavichord, by Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1791. ... Pierre Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos, a French official and army general, was born on October 18, 1741 in Amiens, France and died in Taranto, Italy on September 5, 1803. ... Etienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald Etienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald (November 17, 1765 - September 7, 1840), duke of Taranto and marshal of France, was born at Sedan, France. ...

Citations

Horace to Septimius Odes - Plate

"Dearest of all to me is that nook of earth
which yields not to Hymettus for its honey, nor for its olive to green Venafrum;
where heaven grants a long springtime and warmth in winter,
and in the sunny hollows Bacchus fosters a vintage noble as the Falernian."
Horace - To Septimius (Odes, II , 6-10)

Image File history File links Horace_Taranto_Plate. ... Image File history File links Horace_Taranto_Plate. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. ... Septimius or Septiminus was proclaimed Roman emperor in 271 in Dalmatia. ... Ode (Classical Greek: ) is a form of stately and elaborate lyrical verse. ...

Miscellaneous

• Star of David: "A David's shield has recently been noted on a Jewish tombstone at Tarentum, in southern Italy, which may date as early as the third century of the common era."
• Tarentum was included in the hit PC game Rome: Total War as the governing settlement for Apulia as well as the capital of the Roman Faction of Brutii

The Star of David The Star of David in the oldest surviving complete copy of the Masoretic text, the Leningrad Codex, dated 1008. ...

Sources and external links

• Official site
• Satellite map, Google Maps
• Culture Centre Filonide
• Tarentum
• Tourism in Taranto

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Taranto

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Wikimedia Commons logo by Reid Beels The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ...

Puglia · Comuni of the Province of Taranto

Avetrana | Carosino | Castellaneta | Crispiano | Faggiano | Fragagnano | Ginosa | Grottaglie | Laterza | Leporano | Lizzano | Manduria | Martina Franca | Maruggio | Massafra | Monteiasi | Montemesola | Monteparano | Mottola | Palagianello | Palagiano | Pulsano | Roccaforzata | San Giorgio Ionico | San Marzano di San Giuseppe | Sava | Statte | Taranto | Torricella