Sybaris

Origins

Achaean colonists from the northern Peloponnese, led by Is of Helike, founded Sybaris around 720 BCE on the plain between the Crathis and Sybaris rivers, near the Gulf of Taranto. The fertile plain and routes across the Calabrian isthmus to the Tyrrhenian Sea gave it rapid growth.

Rule and society

Sybaris became one of the largest Greek cities in the West. Strabo says it ruled four native peoples and twenty-five subject towns and could field an enormous army. It founded Poseidonia and other colonies, and its traders worked closely with Miletus and the Etruscans. Later Greek writers delighted in tales of Sybarite excess, which gave English the word 'sybarite'. Around 510 BCE a popular leader, Telys, seized power and expelled the wealthy.

Decline and legacy

When Croton sheltered the Sybarite exiles, war followed. In 510 BCE Croton's army, led by the athlete Milo, defeated Sybaris, and the victors are said to have diverted the Crathis over the ruins. Attempts at refoundation led to the Panhellenic colony of Thurii in 444 BCE nearby.