Metapont
Metapontium ( ancient Greek Μεταπόντιον Metapóntion , Latin Metapontum ) was a colony founded by Achaean settlers on the Gulf of Taranto as part of the Greek colonization . According to legend, it was founded by Epeios , the builder of the Trojan horse . Only ruins remain of the ancient Metapont. Today's Metaponto is located in the area of the town of Bernalda in the province of Matera , is in the immediate vicinity of the field of ruins and houses the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Metaponto, where, in addition to prehistoric relics from the region, the finds from the time of Magna Graecia can be viewed .
history
Metapontium stood in the shadow of Taranto, about 50 km to the east . Like other Greek cities in southern Italy, it was in military conflict with the Italians . In the late 6th century BC The philosopher Pythagoras of Samos lived in Metaponton; at that time the city was the center of the Pythagorean community . In the 4th century BC It had to deal with the expansion policy of the city of Syracuse under Dionysius I , who wanted to gain hegemony over the Greek cities in Italy ( Magna Graecia ). So Metapontal united with the other cities in the Italiotischen Bund against Dionysius; after the defeat in the Battle of Elleporus , however, the Syracusan position of power was inevitably accepted. After the Roman victory in the Tarentine War in 272 BC. Metapontium belonged to the Roman Empire . At the end of the third century BC, the city was largely deserted. The houses in the abandoned city have been used as quarries since the Middle Ages.
Temple of Hera at Metaponto
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literature
- Joseph Coleman Carter: Discovering the Greek Countryside at Metaponto University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2006.
Individual evidence
- ^ Velleius Paterculus . Historia Romana 1.1.1
- ↑ The archaic and early classical large-scale sculpture of southern Italy and its relationship to the motherland, p. 81 [1]
Coordinates: 40 ° 22 ′ 25 ″ N , 16 ° 48 ′ 24 ″ E