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defirous of perpetuating the memory of this origin of 
Rome, raifed Pallantium in Arcadia to the rank of a mu- 
nicipium, and exempted its inhabitants from every kind 
of tribute. 
The firft book of Dionyfius of HalicarnafTus has been 
confidered by critics in the light of an hiftorical romance. 
His narrative contains fuch a number of inadmiftible cir- 
cumftances, that it would render the voyage of the Pe- 
lafgi to Italy extremely fufpicious, were not that fadl de- 
monftrated of itfelf, and by the language of the Latins, 
the ground-work of which is certainly Greek. 
The Greeks were fo accuftomed to fend colonies to 
Italy, that the Athenians undertook one of thefe emigra¬ 
tions at the beginning of the 85th olympiad. Herodotus, 
then forty years of age, accompanied this expedition. The 
Greeks founded the city of Thurium, where, as it appears, 
the hiftorian ended his life, which occafioned his being 
called Herodotus the Thurian, by Ariftotle and fome 
other writers. 
The great cities of antiquity, which feem to have been 
of Greek origin, or with which the Greeks had the molt 
aiftive intercourse, were, Metapontus, Siris, Crotona, Sy- 
baris, Thurium, Tarentum, and Poftidonia. Metapontus 
•was founded by Epeus, who had been at the fiege of Troy, 
under the command of Neftor. It was fituated on the 
gulf of Tarentum, between Tarentum on the north and 
Siris on the fouth, near the mouth of the Cafuentum, 
now the Bafiento. Thither Pythagoras retired, and there 
he perifhed in a popular commotion excited againit bim- 
felf and his difciples. Torri di Mare is fuppofed to Hand 
on the fite of this city. 
Siris was built by the Sicilians, at the mouth of the ri¬ 
ver Siris, called by the modern Italians Senno or Sino. 
Strabo allures us that it was founded by the Trojans, and 
cites as a proof of this the ftatue of Minerva Ilias, which 
fhut its eyes when the Ionians, having made themfelves 
mailers of this city, drove out the inhabitants who had 
crowded for protection around this image of the goddefs. 
The Ionians changed the name of Siris into Polieum. In 
the fequel, the Tarentines, having expelled the Ionians, 
built the city of Heraclea at a fmall dillance from Po¬ 
lieum. Strabo makes a diftinCtion between thefe two 
places; but Pliny alferts, that Polieum and Heraclea were 
one and the fame town. No traces of either are now re¬ 
maining. 
Crotona was built about 450 years before Chrift, on the 
gulf of Tarentum, twenty miles from Sybaris. Thefe 
two cities, which commerce rendered equally flourilhin^, 
were perpetually at war. Sybaris Hood on the fea-coaft, 
between the two little rivers, Sybaris, now Cochile, on 
the north, and Cratis, the modern Crate, on the fouth. 
Diodorus Siculus relates, that the Sybarites kept on foot 
an army of thirty thoufand men in the wars in which 
they were engaged with the Crotonians. The latter ne- 
verthelefs proved victorious. Milo repulfed the Syba¬ 
rites, and drove them into their capital, which he laid 
liege to and demolilhed. For fifty-eight years Sybaris re¬ 
mained buried in its ruins. Its difperfed inhabitants, at 
length receiving fuccours from Thefialy, during the ar- 
chonlhip of Callimachus at Athens, began to rebuild their 
city on its ancient fite ; but the Crotonians took umbrage 
at their^ proceedings, and deftroyed the new town ; 
fome rums of which are Hill to be feen on the banks 
of the Crati. 
It was in the vicinity of this place that the Athenians 
founded the city of Thurium. This event is mentioned 
by Diodorus Siculus nearly in thefe terms. The Syba¬ 
rites, having been driven from the town which they had 
begun to rebuild, fent ambaffadors to Sparta and Athens, 
to folicit fuccours ; offering habitations to fuch as would 
tmdertake-this expedition. The Lacedemonians rejected 
thefe offers ; but the Athenians equipped ten velfels, un¬ 
der the command of Lampo and Theocritus. The Achai- 
ans and Troezenians joined this colony, on the faith of 
an oracle, which had enjoined them to found a city on 
A L Y. 
the fpot where they fhould find water fufficient for their 
ufe, and where the earth promifed them an abundant fup- 
ply of food. This fleet failed to Italy. The colonilts 
landed near the ruins of Sybaris, where they found the 
fountain of Thuria, and built the city of Thurium whofe 
government was completely democratic. Charondas was 
commiflioned by the Thurians to draw up a code of laws. 
They flourifhed as long as thefe laws were obeyed, and it 
even appears that they deftroyed the city of Crotona; 
but in the fequel their immenfe wealth having plunged 
them into luxury and effeminacy, for which the Sybarites 
had been reproached, they were oppreffed by the Bruttii, 
the Lucanians, and the Tarentines. On the fite which 
this city had occupied, the Romans built a fmall village 
which they named Copia. None of thefe places now exift; 
Crotona, an epifcopal city in Farther Abruzzo, is forty 
leagues diftant from the ancient Crotona. 
All the early hiftorians and geographers fpeak of Ta¬ 
rentum ; but fuch is the difcordance of their ftatements 
refpedling the origin of this city, that it is impoflible to 
fix the precife epoch of its foundation. Antiochus infills 
that it was built by the Cretans; Solinus afcribes its 
foundation to the Heraclides; and Servius attributes it to 
Tara the fon of Neptune. Strabo and Pgufanias look 
upon Tarentum as a colony of Spartans who were con¬ 
ducted to the coafts of Mefapian Japygia fifty-five years 
after the foundation of Rome. We know not at what 
period this city was deftroyed ; but is fuppofed that the 
inhabitants of Calabria, driven from their country when 
Tolila, the king of the Goths, pillaged Rome, rebuilt 
Tarentum. The modern town occupies only one of the 
extremities of the ancient city. No veftiges are to be 
found of its ancient fplendour, its theatre, its public 
buildings, or even of the entrance of its famous port. 
Poflidonia, which the Latins denominated Paeftum, 
was a colony of Sybaris. It is unknown when it was 
founded, at the bottom of the gulf of Salerno, fifty lladia 
from the temple of Juno, ereCted by Jafon. This temple 
flood at the mouth of the Silaro, but was probably de¬ 
ftroyed in the time of Strabo and Pliny ; otherwife they 
would not have difagreed as they do refpedting its fitua- 
tion. The harbour of Poflidonia afforded fuch facilities 
to commerce, as enabled this city to attain to a luxury 
which, after the lapfe of fo many ages, is ftill attefted by 
the magnificence of its ruins. 
It appears that the name of Pelafgi was long given by 
the Italians to all the Greeks who fucceflively migrated to 
Magna Grsecia. This denomination ceafed when the new 
comers had intermarried with the Siculi, the Umbri, and 
the Tyrrhenians, and formed new aflociations under the 
names of Umbrians, Samnites, Latins, Aufones, Vollci, 
Sabines, QEnotrians, Lucanians, Bruttii, See. Thefe com¬ 
munities retained more or lefs refemblance to the inhabi¬ 
tants of Greece, according as the Pelafgi were more or 
lefs numerous among them. The Romans, who pretended 
to be defeendants of the Greeks, confidered them as the 
moll ancient inhabitants of the peninfula; and in confe- 
quence of this prejudice they gave their ancestors the ap¬ 
pellation of Aborigines. 
The names of the Tyrrhenians, Umbri, and other na¬ 
tions whofe eflablifhinent in Italy was fo ancient that 
they were regarded as indigenous in the country, had no 
better fortune than that of the Pelafgi: they were gradu¬ 
ally forgotten. The fame caufes produced the fame effects. 
On the one hand, commercial intercourfe in a country 
bleft with extraordinary fertility, moft happily fituated, 
and enjoying the moft delicious climate, produced new 
focial combinations, in which lefs regard was paid to pri¬ 
mitive origin than to local confiderations: oh the other, 
the fubdivifion of Italy into numberiefs fmall Hates inde¬ 
pendent of each other, contributed to efface the diftindtive 
marks of the ancient colonifts. 
Modern writers Hill expatiate on the opulence of Ta¬ 
rentum, Capua, Locri, Thurium, Adria, Rhegium, and 
of the prodigious commerce carried on by thofe cities. 
Diodorus- 
