Taras

(Tarentum, Taranto)

A city in Calabria (as the southeastern [not, as now, the southwestern] section of Italy was called in ancient times), in the Tarantine gulf of the Ionian Sea constituting the Italian `instep.’ Taras stood on a promontory or peninsula—virtually an island in ancient times—crowned by an acropolis, between an inland tidal lagoon (Mare Piccolo) to the east (serving as an inner harbor) and the main outer harbor (Marina Grande) to the west; this outer harbor was protected from the sea by two small islands, and formed the safest and most spacious port on any Italian coast. The neighboring waters contained large clusters of murex mussels, from which purple was extracted for dyeing, with a specially favored tint (tarantinon or tarantinidion), the wool derived from flocks in the fertile hinterland, a territory that also produced pears, figs, grapes, chestnut and famous horses.

The town had a prolonged and active Neolithic and Bronze Age (Apennine, Mycenaean) prehistory. It took its Greek name from the mythical founder of its native (Iapygian), pre-Greek settlement, Taras, whose father the god Poseidon, was said to have sent a dolphin to save his son from shipwreck. The traditional date for the Greek foundation, according to Eusebius, was 706 BC. These colonists were supposedly people from Sparta named Parthenians, who were described as the illegitimate offspring of Spartan women and helots (serfs), though this story was soon contested by rival versions and is now regarded with scepticism. The leader of the group was believed to have been a certain Phalanthus, whose relegation to the mythical status of a local sea-god seems unjustified; it is further recorded that he was soon expelled by his former followers, and took refuge with the natives of Brentesion (Brundusium, Brindisi).

The first Greek colonists settled at Satyrion (Leporano), seven miles southeast of Taras, to which they soon moved, joining a mixed population of Iapygians and Cretans. At the end of the sixth century the ruler of Taras was Aristophilides, whose kingship was apparently based on Spartan models. Soon after 500 the Tarantines won a series of victories over adjacent Italian (Messapian) tribes—who had posed a continuous threat to their territory and agriculture—but c 475/473 they suffered a severe defeat from a Messapian confederacy, as a result of which the aristocratic government of the city was superseded by a democracy.

The decline of Croton (Crotone) in the middle of the century left Taras as the leading Greek center in south Italy, and it was now that a famous new silver coinage was initiated—repeating an earlier type of the mythical founder Taras on his dolphin, with a horse and rider on the reverse—that was to last for more than two hundred years. In 433/2 Taras founded a colony at Heraclea (Poliocoro) in Lucania that became the headquarters of a League of Italiot Greeks, in which the Tarantines played a leading part. The Apulian school of pottery was probably centered at Taras from c 420. This was during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, in the course of which its citizens allied themselves with Syracuse—invaded by the Athenians (415–413)—and provided ships for its fleet. Under the rule of the Pythagorean philosopher Archytas, in the early fourth century, Taras reached the height of its power and prosperity.

Subsequently, however, it came under renewed pressure from the tribes in the interior, and called in foreign mercenary leaders to repel their incursions. King Archidamus II of Sparta was defeated by the Lucanians (338), but Alexander I got the better of them, although, in the process, he fell out with the rulers of Taras (334). After the death of Alexander the Great (323), the sculptor Lysippus of Sicyon arrived at the city and made huge statues of Zeus and Heracles to symbolize its leadership of the local Greek federation. At this period Taras also produced splendid gold jewelry (collected in a recent exhibition), as well as limestone architectural sculptures with human figures, and charming terracotta figurines (developed from an earlier craft), the precursors of those of Athens and Tanagra. In 303 Cleonymus of Sparta repeated the failure of his compatriot Alexander I against the Lucanians. Meanwhile the government of Tarentum (as it was henceforward called in Latin sources), anxious about the Romans' southward expansion, had persuaded them to agree not to send warships into the gulf (c 334): which they did, nevertheless, in order to protect Thurii from Lucanian raiders (282; seeSybaris). At this juncture the Tarentines called in King Pyrrhus of Epirus to help them, but after initial successes he withdrew (275), so that they were compelled to surrender to Rome three years later. Livius Andronicus came to Rome as a Tarentine prisoner of war and played a dominant part in the creation of Latin literature. Rhinthon of Tarentum, the son of a potter, gave a novel and more sophisticated form to local popular farces (phlyakes), which took their material from daily life or from mythology and are depicted on the contemporary local vases.

During the Second Punic War Hannibal captured the city by treachery (213) and then built a cross wall between the harbors as a protection from Roman attacks. But it was recaptured and looted four years later by Quintus Fabius Maximus. In 133 Gaius Gracchus attempted to arrest the decline of Tarentum by the establishment of a Roman colony, thus transforming the place into an Italian town. It was here that Antony and Octavian (the future Augustus) met in 37 to renew the failing Second Triumvirate. Horace describes `Lacedaemonian (Spartan) Tarentum’ as a suitable holiday place for a tired business man. Nero seems to have settled legionary veterans in the city (AD 60). During the later empire it was the capital of the district or province of Apulia and Calabria.

A Doric shrine of Poseidon (Neptune) on the acropolis (c 575 BC) has now been restored. A frieze of the first century may come from a Temple of Eirene (Pax, Peace), and an altar perhaps belonged to a sanctuary of Aphrodite (Venus). Thirty thousand terracottas dating from between the sixth and third centuries were found in a precinct that seems to have housed cults of Persephone (Kore, Proserpina) and Dionysus (Bacchus), and a huge number of additional terracottas, many representing the reclining heroes Taras and Phalanthus, have been recovered near the Mare Piccolo: they are dedications by arriving and departing voyagers.

According to Strabo, the acropolis was walled, yet no trace of these fortifications have survived; but remains of defences encircling the city are to be seen below the present waterline. Neither of the two recorded theaters has been uncovered. Like the Spartans from whom they were descended, the Tarentines buried their dead within the walls, and thousands of graves, dating from the seventh to the second century BC, have been found. Ruins of two Roman baths, two aqueducts and a villa have also come to light.