Sybaris
Encyclopedia
Sybaris was an ancient city in Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia
Magna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Crotone, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north...

 on the western shore of the Gulf of Taranto
Gulf of Taranto
The Gulf of Taranto is a gulf of the Ionian Sea, in southern Italy.The Gulf of Taranto is almost square, 140 km long and wide, and is delimited by the capes Santa Maria di Leuca and Colonna...

. The wealth of the city during the 6th century BC was so great that the Sybarite
Sybarite
Sybarite may refer to:*Greek Sybarites, from Sybaris, an ancient Greek city in what is now southern Italy*Sybarite , the alias of New York electronic musician Xian Hawkins...

s became synonymous with pleasure and luxury. The modern town of Sibari lies near the ruins of the Greek city; it is a frazione
Frazione
A frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...

of the comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of Cassano allo Ionio
Cassano allo Ionio
Cassano allo Ionio is a small town and comune in province of Cosenza of Calabria, southern Italy, known in Roman times as Cassanum. It lies in fertile region in the concave recess of a steep mountain, 60 km NE from the town of Cosenza, 10 km W of the archaeological site of...

, in the province of Cosenza
Province of Cosenza
The Province of Cosenza is a province in the Calabria region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Cosenza.It has an area of 6,650 km², and a total population of 733,797 . It is the biggest Calabrian Province...

.

Geography

Sybaris was situated close to the sea and lay between the Crathis (Crati) and Sybaris (Coscile) rivers. The river Sybaris (from which the town derives its name) feeds into the Crati about 5 km from its mouth, but in antiquity pursued an independent course into the ocean. It lies on a plain that in antiquity was renowned for its fertility.

The Greek Geographer Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

 claimed that Greek colonists named the river Sybaris after a fountain of the same name at Bura in Achaia: According to some sources it had the property of making the horses that drank its water shy. It is a stream of considerable size. Its sources are in the Apennines near Morano
Morano Calabro
Morano Calabro is a town and comune in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy.-Geography:The municipality borders with Castrovillari , Mormanno, Rotonda, San Basile, Saracena, Terranova di Pollino and Viggianello.-Campotenese:Its frazione , the village of Campotenese, is...

, it flows beneath Castrovillari
Castrovillari
Castrovillari is a town and comune in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy. As of 2010 its population was of 22,586..-History:...

, and receives several minor tributary streams before it joins the Crathis.

History

Sybaris was most likely the earliest of all the Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 colonies in this part of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and was founded according to Scymnus Chius, as early as 720 BC. It was an Achaean
Achaeans (tribe)
The Achaeans were one of the four major tribes into which the people of Classical Greece divided themselves. According to the foundation myth formalized by Hesiod, their name comes from Achaeus, the mythical founder of the Achaean tribe, who was supposedly one of the sons of Xuthus, and brother of...

 colony, and its Oekist (founder) was a citizen of Helice in Achaia; but they were accompanied by a number of Troezen
Troezen
Troezen is a small town and a former municipality in the northeastern Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Troizinia, of which it is a municipal unit....

ian citizens. However the Achaeans eventually drove out the Troezenians. But according to legend the city was founded by the son of Oïlean Ajax
Ajax the Lesser
Ajax was a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris. He was called the "lesser" or "Locrian" Ajax, to distinguish him from Ajax the Great, son of Telamon. He was the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War. He is a significant figure in Homer's Iliad and is also...

;

By the sixth century BCE Sybaris had amassed great wealth and a huge population, as a result of the rich farming land nearby and its policy of admitting settlers of other nations to its citizenry, a practise which was shunned by other Greek colonies. During this period Sybaris' wealth and power was greatly envied and admired by the rest of the Hellenic world. It minted its own coinage and its innovations include perhaps the world's first primitive yet effective street-lighting system and the concept of intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

. The latter notion was developed, according to Athenaeus
Athenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...

' "Banquet of the Learned" (Deipnosophistae
Deipnosophistae
The Deipnosophistae may be translated as The Banquet of the Learned or Philosophers at Dinner or The Gastronomers...

), to ensure that cooks could exclusively profit from their signature dishes for a whole year.
Sybaris was also a dominant power in the region. We are told that the Sybarites ruled over 25 subject cities, and could bring into the field 300,000 of their own citizens, although this is probably an exaggeration. Most of the subject cities were probably Oenotrian
Oenotrians
The Oenotrians were an ancient Italic people of unknown origin who inhabited a territory from Paestum to southern Calabria in southern Italy...

 towns in the interior, but we know that Sybaris had extended its dominion across the peninsula to the Tyrrhenian Sea
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....

, where it founded the colonies of Poseidonia
Paestum
Paestum is the classical Roman name of a major Graeco-Roman city in the Campania region of Italy. It is located in the north of Cilento, near the coast about 85 km SE of Naples in the province of Salerno, and belongs to the commune of Capaccio, officially also named...

 (Paestum), Laüs
Laüs
Laüs or Laus or Laos , 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 frazione of Marcellina in the comune of Santa Maria del Cedro, Province of Cosenza, Calabria...

 (Laus), and Scidrus
Scidrus
Scidrus , was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Lucania, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Pyxus and Laüs.-History:It is mentioned only by Herodotus , from whom we learn that it was, as well as Laüs, a colony of Sybaris, and was one of the places to which the surviving inhabitants of that city...

. The city itself was said to be no less than 50 stadia in circumference, and it is said that 5000 knights attended its religious processions , which would mean that their number was four times greater than at Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

.
Sybaris was at its height during the time of Smindyrides (c580-560BC), a prominent citizen who Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

 claims surpassed all other men in refined luxury. He was the wealthiest suitor for the daughters of Cleisthenes of Sicyon
Cleisthenes of Sicyon
Cleisthenes was the tyrant of Sicyon from c. 600–570 BC, who aided in the First Sacred War against Kirrha that destroyed that city in 595 BC. He is also told to have organized with success a war against Argos because of his anti-Dorian feelings...

 and was accompanied by a train of 1000 slaves on this occasion Athenaeus
Athenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...

 provides many examples of the opulent wealth for which Sybaris was famous in this period. In particular they were renowned for the splendour of their attire, which was made from the finest Milesian wool, and as such developed extensive commercial relations and a close friendship with Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...

. Another example of Sybaritic luxury is found in the story of Alcimenes of Sybaris, who gave a splendid figured robe as a votive offering to the temple of Lacinian Juno
Juno (mythology)
Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...

 Much later the robe fell into the possession of Dionysius of Syracuse
Dionysius of Syracuse
Dionysius of Syracuse may refer to:*Dionysius I of Syracuse, tyrant of Syracuse from 405 BC to 367 BC.; father of Dionysius II*Dionysius II of Syracuse, tyrant of Syracuse from 367 BC to 357 BC and again from 346 BC to 344 BC.; son of Dionysius I...

 and was sold by him for 120 talents
Talent (weight)
The "talent" was one of several ancient units of mass, as well as corresponding units of value equivalent to these masses of a precious metal. It was approximately the mass of water required to fill an amphora. A Greek, or Attic talent, was , a Roman talent was , an Egyptian talent was , and a...

.

After this period there is very little information on history of the city until shortly before its fall. It appears that in a later period the government, which had previously been in the hands of an oligarchy, was overthrown by a democratic party. This party was headed by a demagogue named Telys who drove a considerable number of the leading citizens into exile. Subsequently Telys seems to have become the despot or tyrant of the city. The exiled citizens took refuge at Crotona; but not content with their victory, Telys and his partisans demanded that the Crotoniats hand over the fugitives. They refused to do so and as a result the Sybarites declared war and marched upon Crotona with an army said to have amounted to 300,000 men. They were met by the Crotoniats at the river Traeis whose army did not amount to more than a third of their numbers. Nevertheless the Crotoniats won resoundingly and slaughtered most of the Sybarites. They continued their pursuit to Sybaris' gates, gained control of the city, and determined to raze it to the ground so it could never be inhabited again. In order to do this they diverted the course of the river Crathis, so that it inundated the site of the city and buried the ruins under its silt deposits. This catastrophe occurred in 510 BC, and seems to have been viewed by many of the Greeks as divine vengeance upon the Sybarites for their pride, arrogance, and excessive prosperity. More specifically it was seen as punishment for the contempt they had shown for the great Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

, which they are said to have attempted to supplant by attracting the principal artists and athletes to their own public games.

It is certain that Sybaris was never rebuilt. The surviving inhabitants took refuge at Laüs and Scidrus, on the shores of the Tyrrhenian sea. Although 58 years after its destruction they did attempt to restore the city, they were quickly driven out by the Crotoniats, and afterwards the exiles joined the Athenian colonists in the foundation of Thurii
Thurii
Thurii , called also by some Latin writers Thurium , for a time also Copia and Copiae, was a city of Magna Graecia, situated on the Tarentine gulf, within a short distance of the site of Sybaris, whose place it may be considered as having taken...

.

Today the site is bare and 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 have been made: an extensive Iron age necropolis
Necropolis
A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead"...

, some 12 km to the west of the confluence of the two rivers, known as Torre Mordillo; and a necropolis from about 400 BC – the period of the greatest prosperity of Thurii – which consisted of tombs covered by tumuli. However in the 18th century Henry Swinburne
Henry Swinburne
Henry Swinburne was an English travel writer.-Life:He was born at Bristol on 8 July 1743, into a Catholic family, and was educated at Scorton school, near Catterick, Yorkshire. He was then sent to the monastic seminary of Lacelle in France. He afterwards studied at Paris, Bordeaux, and in the...

stated that the degraded remnants of aqueducts and tombs on a peninsula between the two rivers were seen as the ruins of Sybaris. Yet he also observes that this is likely false because they were made from brick and therefore most probably from Roman times. Contrastingly Keppel Craven states that a wall which was occasionally visible on the bed of the Crathis when the waters are very low was the only remaining relic of the ancient Sybaris.

Cultural Impact

The word Sybaritic has become a byword for opulent luxury and outrageous pleasure seeking. One story (mentioned in Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755) has a Sybarite sleeping on a bed of rose petals, but unable to get to sleep because one of the petals was folded over. The best known anecdote of the Sybarites is of their defeat in battle. It is said that to amuse themselves the Sybarite cavalrymen trained their horses to dance to pipe music. Armed with pipes, an invading army from nearby Crotonia assailed the Sybarite cavalry with music. The attacking forces easily passed through the dancing horses and their helpless riders, and conquered the city.

External links

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