Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/729

CROTON. tona, to which, aoooiding to Livy (zziv. 3), the final blow was given daring the war of Pyrrhna. The circaiDstanoes of thia are very imperfectly known to us; bat it appears that the Rhegiana made them- aelveB masterB of the city by treachery, pat the Roman garriiKni to the sword, and destroyed great part of the city. (Zonar. viii. 6. p. 127.) It sabse- quently passed into the power of Pyrrhos, but was Borprised and taken by the Roman consul Cornelias Bufinos daring the absence of that monarch in Sicily, B. c. 277. (Id. p. 123 ; Frontin. StnU. iii. 6. § 4.) So reduced was the dty alter all these disasters, that little more than half the extent com- prised within the walls oontinoed to be inhabited. (Liv. xziv. 3.) In the Second Punic War the Bruttians, with the assistance of the Carthaginian general Hanno, suc- ceeded in making themselveB masters of Crotona, with the exception of the citadel, which held out until the defenders were induced by Hanno to sur- render upon terms; the aristocratic party, who had occupied it, being persuaded to migrate to Locri, and a body of Bruttians introduced into the city to fill np the vacancy of its inhabitants. (Liv. xxiv. 2, 3.) The fortifications of Crotona, its port, and the strengtli of its dtadel, still rendered it a place of lome importance in a military point of view, and during the last years of the war it was the principal atronghokl which remained in the hands of Hannibal, who established his chief magazines there, and fixed his head-quarters for three successive winters in its immediate neighbourhood. (Liv. xxix. 36, xxx. 19; Appian. Atmib. 57.) The ravages of this war ap- pear to have completed the decay of Crotona; so that a few years afterwards, in b. c. 194, a colony of Roman citizens was sent thither to recruit its ex- Iiausted population. (Liv. xxxiv. 45.) From this period Crotma sank into the condition of an ob- acnre provincial town, and is not again mentioned in histocy until after the fall of the Ronoan Empire. Its pwt, however, appears to have been always in some degree frequented as a pUoe of passage to Greece (Cic. ad Att, ix. 19) ; and an inscription atill gives it the title of a colony in Imperial times (Mommsen, Inter, IL Neap. 73), though neither Pliny nor Ptolemy acknowledges it as such. The Jiaroe of Crotona again appears in the wars of Beli- aarius and Narses against the Goths (Procop. B. G, iii. 28, iv. 26); it was one of the few cities which at that time still retained some consideration in this part of Italy, and continoed under the sovereignty of the Byzantine Emperors till it passed with the rest of the modem Calabria into the hands of the Nor- mans. The modem city of Cotrone is but a poor place, though possessing about 5000 inhabitants, and a well<fi)rtined dtadd. This fortress undoubtedly occupies the same situatioD as the andent arx, on a rock projecting into the sea (Liv. xxiv. 3), and af- fording in consequence some degree of shelter to tiie port. But the importance of the latter, though frequently mentioned as one of the sources of the prasperi^ of Crotona, must not be overrated. Po- lybius expressly tells us that it was no good harbour, but only a Stpivhs tpftoSf or station <whero ships could ride in sunmier (Pol. x. 1), and that its value arose from the absence of all harbours along this part of the Italian coast The andent dty spread itself out in the pUun to the W. and N. of the citadd ; in the days of its prosperity it extended far across the river Aesarus, which in consequence flowed thioogh the middle of the dty; but as early as the CROTON. 711 Second Panic War, the town had shrank so much that the Aesarus formed its northern limit, and flowed on the outside of its walls. (Liv. xxiv. 3.) It is now about a mile to the N. of the modem town. We have scarcely any topographical information concerning the andent dty, and there are no ruins of it remaining. Many fragments of masonry and an- cient edifices are said to have been still in existence till about the middle of last century, when they were employed in the constroction of a mole for the pro- tection of the port. Livy tells us that the walls of Crotona in the days of its greatness enclosed an ex- tent of 12 miles in dreumferenoe; and though its population was not equal to that of Sybaris, it was stUl able to send into the field an army of 100,000 men. Even in the time of Dionysius of Syracuse, when it had akeady declined much from its former prosperity, Crotona vras still able to furnish a fleet of 60 ships of war. (Diod. xiv. 100.) But in the Second Punic War the whole number of dtizens of all ages had dwindled to less than 20,000, so that they were no longer able to defend the whole extent of Uieir walls. (Liv. xxiii. 30.) . - - <!^4fy^^>-L<. l*^ * Crotona was cdebrated in andent times for the ' ' healthiness of its situation. An old legend repre- ^^J^ sented Arehias, the founder of Syracuse, as having chosen wealth for his dty, while Myscellos preferred health (Strab. vi. p. 269 ; Steph. B. v. Svpdirov- aay) : according to uiother tale, Myscellos, when he fint visited Italy, preferred the situation of Sybaris, but was commanded by the oracle to adhere to the spot fint indicated to hun. (S^rab. vi. p. 262.) To the fitvourable position of the dty in this respect was ascribed the superiority of its citizens in athletic exercises, which was so remarkable that on one occasion they bore away the seven fint prizes in the footrace at the Olympic games. (Strab. I. c. ; Cic de Inv. ii. 1.) Among thdr athletes Milo was the most cdebrated for his gigantic strength and power of body. {Biogr. Diet art. MUo.) To the same caase was attributed the remarkable personal beauty for which their youths and mudens were distin- guished. (Cic. /. c.) The system of truning which produced these results was probably closely connected with the medical school for which Crotona was pi o> eminent in the days of Herodotus, the physicijuis of Crotona being regarded at that time as unquestion- ably the first in Greece (Herod, iii. 131), and at a later period the school of Crotona still maintained its reputation by the side of those of Cos sad Cnidua (Grote's Greece, vol. iv. p. 539). Among the most eminent of the physicians of Crotona we may notice Alcnueon, to whom the first introduction of anatomy was ascribed, and Democedes, who was for some time physidan at the court of Darius, king of Penia. (Herod, iii. 129—138.) The great influ- ence exerdsod by Pythagoras during his residence at Crotona naturally nused up a numerous school of his disdples, many of whom perished in the political revolution that put an end to their power in that city, while the rest were dispersed and driven into exile: a long list of Pythagorean philosophers, natives of Crotona, is preserved to us by lamblichus ( VitPyth. 167) ; but the only two names of real eminence among them are those of Alcmaeon, already mentioned, and Philolaus, whom however lamblichus represents as belonging to Tarentum. (Diog. Laert viii. 5, 7.) The territory of Crotona in the days of its pros- perity was extensive, stretching from sea to sea : on the N. it was bounded by the river Hylias (Thuc vii. 35), while to the S. it probably extended to the 2z4 A