Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T09:15:25.229Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sybaris—Legend and Reality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

N. K. Rutter
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

On 14 December 1968 the following report from New York appeared on the front page of the Guardian: ‘An American-Italian team of archaeologists has found the long-lost site of Sybaris, known throughout the ancient world for its wealth and the luxurious life of its citizens. The discovery of the city was announced last night at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. F. G. Rainey, director of the University's museum, and Professor Giuseppe Foti, superintendent of antiquities at Calabria, said that the city, which disappeared around 510 B.c. after a civil war, had been found “beyond reasonable doubt”…’ When the excavation of Sybaris starts in earnest, it is expected to produce material of the first importance for the study of Greek colonial history in the archaic period. In view of the general interest that the excavation will arouse, it is worth summarizing what is known about Sybaris, to explain both the considerable efforts that have been made to find the site of the city, and the potential importance of its discovery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , October 1970 , pp. 168 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 168 note 1 cf. Aristotle, Politics 1326b.

page 168 note 2 xii. 9. 1.

page 169 note 1 xii. 9. 2–10. 1.

page 169 note 2 v. 44. 1.

page 170 note 1 Deipnosophistae xii. 520c.Google Scholar

page 170 note 2 Hdt. vi. 21. 1.Google Scholar

page 170 note 3 Strabo vi. 1. 13 (263).Google Scholar

page 170 note 4 Hdt. v. 45. i.Google Scholar

page 170 note 5 vi. 127. 1.

page 170 note 6 Wasps 1259Google Scholar; 1427 ff.

page 170 note 7 vi. 1. 13 (263).

page 170 note 8 Cf. esp. xii. 519b ff.

page 170 note 9 A full summary of the literary evidence is given by Dunbabin, T. J., The Western Greeks (Oxford, 1948), 75–83.Google Scholar I repeat some of the salient points here, but prefer to emphasize discoveries made since Dunbabin wrote.

page 170 note 10 Strabo vi. 1. 14 (264).Google Scholar

page 171 note 1 xii. 9. 2.

page 171 note 2 Strabo v. 4. 7 (246).Google Scholar

page 171 note 3 Gelon, , Diod. xi. 72. 3Google Scholar; Dionysius, , Diod. xiv. 7. 4, 15. 3, 78. 1–3.Google Scholar

page 171 note 4 Thuc. vi. 17. 2.Google Scholar

page 172 note 1 Not. Sc. 1936, 77–84Google Scholar; Metropoli e Colonie di Magna Grecia (Naples, 1964=Atti of the Taranto Congress, 1963), 177–81; Atti Soc. Magna Grecia, N.S. vi–vii (1965–1966), 3–17Google Scholar; Archaeological Reports, xiii (1966–1967), 38–9.Google Scholar

page 172 note 2 Stoop, W. M. and Caratelli, G. Pugliese, Atti Soc. Magna Grecia N.s. vi–vii (1965–1966), 10–17Google Scholar, pl. iv, and 209–14; Ferri, S., Studi Class, e Orient, xiv (1965), 319–20Google Scholar; Guarducci, M., Rend. Line, xx (1965), 392–5Google Scholar; Gentili, B., PdP 1968, 222–4.Google Scholar

page 172 note 3 HN2 70–1.Google Scholar

page 172 note 4 HN2 83–4Google Scholar; Kraay, C. M. and Hirmer, M., Greek Coins (London, 1966). pl. 76, no. 214.Google Scholar

page 173 note 1 HN2 73–4Google Scholar; Kraay, and Hirmer, , op. cit., pl. 76, nos. 215, 216.Google Scholar

page 173 note 2 The inscription illustrated, edited, and discussed by Kunze, E., Olympia VII Bericht (1961), 207–10Google Scholar and pl. 86. 2; text and brief discussion by Bengtson, H., Die Verträge der griechisch-römischen Welt, ii (1962), 15Google Scholar, no. 120; see also: Zancani-Montuoro, P., Rend. Linc. xvii (1962), 11–18Google Scholar and pl. 1; Guarducci, , vol. cit. 199–210Google Scholar; J. and Robert, L., Rev. Ét. Gr. lxxvi (1963), 137–8Google Scholar, no. 106; SEG xxii (1967), 107–8, no. 336.Google Scholar

page 173 note 3 Zancani-Montuoro, loc. cit.

page 173 note 4 For a discussion of Sybaris II, see Kraay, , NC 1958, 14–16.Google Scholar

page 173 note 5 xi. 90. 3–4.

page 173 note 6 By Mattingly, H. B., Atti I° Convegno Cent. Internat. St. Num. Nap., 04 1967 (Rome, 1969), 210–11.Google Scholar

page 173 note 7 BMC Italy 395Google Scholar; Kraay, and Hirmer, , op. cit. 305Google Scholar and pl. 79, no. 224.

page 174 note 1 HN2 169.Google Scholar

page 174 note 2 Noe, S. P., A Bibliography of Greek Coin Hoards2 (New York, 1937), no. 182.Google Scholar

page 174 note 3 Atheoaeus xii. 522a, 522d.Google Scholar

page 174 note 4 vi. 21.

page 174 note 5 Ap. Athenaeus xii. 519b=F. Gr. Hist. I 205, fr. 60.Google Scholar

page 175 note 1 Vallet, G., Rhégion et Zancle (Paris, 1958), 139 ff. and esp. 163–5.Google Scholar

page 175 note 2 Kraay, NC 1958, 13 ff.Google Scholar

page 176 note 1 Rainey, F., Ill. Lond. News 8 12 1962, 928–31Google Scholar; 15 Dec. 1962, 972–4.

page 176 note 2 The most recent account of work in the plain of Sybaris, published after this article was finished, is less hopeful about the archaeological prospects there—see Rainey, F., AJA Ixxiii (1969), 261–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar But one fact of considerable importance has emerged: Thurii seems to have been built over the southern section of the city of Sybaris.