Greek Cities in Italy and Sicily

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Text originally published in 1931 under the same title.

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Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

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GREEK CITIES IN ITALY AND SICILY

BY

DAVID RANDALL-MACIVER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

DEDICATION 6

PREFACE 7

LIST OF PLATES 9

LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS 9

I — CUMAE 10

II — PAESTUM 15

III — VELIA 23

IV — HIPPONION AND MEDMA 28

V — LOCRI AND CAULONIA 34

IV — CROTON 45

VII — CIRO, SYBARIS, METAPONTUM, TARENTUM 55

VIII — PAOLA TO SYRACUSE 63

IX — HISTORY OF SYRACUSE 69

I. THE BEGINNINGS OF SYRACUSE—GELON, HIERON I 69

II. DISSENSIONS IN SICILY. THE ATHENIAN EXPEDITION 72

III. THE RISE AND CAREER OF DIONYSIOS THE ELDER 77

X — HISTORY OF SYRACUSE (Contd.) 83

I. DION—THE PHILOSOPHER-PRINCE 83

II. TIMOLEON THE LIBERATOR 87

III. FROM AGATHOKLES TO HIERON II 92

IV. ROMAN INTERVENTION—HIERON II 94

XI — TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF SYRACUSE 97

XII — CHRONOLOGY OF THE BUILDINGS IN SYRACUSE 112

Periods before Gelon 112

Period of Gelon 112

Period of the Athenian Siege 114

Period of Dionysios I 114

The period from Timoleon to Hieron II 116

XIII — GELA AND KAMARINA 118

XIV — AKRAGAS 126

XV — SELINUS—SEGESTA—ENNA 143

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 154

DEDICATION

To

PAOLO ORSI

in token of gratitude and admiration

PREFACE

MY IDEA in writing this book has been to supply a need which others must have felt besides myself. The scholarly visitor to Lower Italy and Sicily has up till now been obliged to take his choice between travelling with a large, though always inadequate, library and travelling with nothing more than a Baedeker. There existed no single volume in which he could find all those details of topography and local archaeology which are the first interest of any man who retains a love for classical literature and a feeling for the romance of Greek history.

A beginning, indeed, was made by F. Lenormant, whose La Grande Grèce remains to this day a standard authority. But this work is already fifty years old, and is no longer adequate as a treatment of the whole subject. An immense amount has been discovered since Lenormant wrote, and during the last thirty years Italian archaeologists have made remarkable progress in the identification and exploration of Greek sites which were still only empty names to the past generation. Nevertheless, these discoveries have been almost confined to Calabria; we have learned little more of the coasts of the Gulf of Taranto. Consequently, as there is virtually no fresh material for Sybaris and Tarentum, I have made no attempt to replace the eloquent chapters in which the gifted French scholar has described these places. Everyone with a taste for literature will wish to read these chapters of Lenormant for himself, and my aim has been not to rewrite a classic but only to supplement it with an account of new discoveries made since it was written.

For Sicily the case is somewhat similar, though Freeman’s great work is sufficiently recent to have embodied all but the very latest research. But here also the methodical exploration of Gela, Akragas, and Selinus has radically altered the views held thirty years ago. The stay-at-home scholar as well as the traveller needs to be informed of these discoveries if his knowledge of Sicilian history is to be up to date. This is the reason that these sites have been selected for special treatment.

It is unnecessary to offer any excuse for the long chapters on Syracuse. Not only is it the most interesting of all Greek sites in the western world, but the topography of Syracuse is indispensable for the understanding of some of the greatest episodes in ancient history. Though my account does not add a great deal to what is implicitly contained in Freeman, yet its concentration and conciseness will make it more immediately practical for the reader to whom it is addressed. The same purpose justifies my short historical sketches.

A brief reference to two questions of technique in writing may save unnecessary reflections by impatient reviewers. The spelling of ancient names, which vary in two classical and several modern languages, raises a serious problem for a writer who wishes equally to avoid pedantry and inaccuracy. It is almost impossible to be invariably consistent, but I have tried as far as possible to adhere to the Greek standard when writing of Sicily, while willing to allow numerous Latinisms in the spelling of names handed down by Latin writers in Lower Italy. A household word like Syracuse or Groton is naturally left in its familiar form. Probably few thoughtful critics will quarrel with my practice, which conforms to that already established by the best English traditions.

In regard to bibliography I have not cared to load the margin with innumerable references to Greek or Latin authors, or even to well-known modern works. But I have thought it useful to cite the original source for all statements as to recent discoveries. The great majority of the references are to the official publications of the Accademia dei Lincei and the less well-known series issued by the youthful and energetic Societa Magna Grecia. To each of these institutions I am indebted for various illustrations, and to the Società Magna Grecia for much kind assistance.

It is to the immense activity and remarkable ability of Senator Professor Paolo Orsi that we owe by far the greater number of the discoveries which are here recorded. I take the opportunity, therefore, of making some small acknowledgement of my obligations to that distinguished scholar by dedicating to him a volume in which he plays the principal role as explorer.

D. R.-M.

ROME

2 Jan. 1931

LIST OF PLATES

SYRACUSE. TEMPLE OF ATHENA, NOW CATHEDRAL. Photograph, Alinari

I. CUMAE ABOUT 1800 A.D. From old engravings in Mon. Ant., Vol. XXII

II. PAESTUM. TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE AND TEMPLE OF CERES. Photographs, Anderson

III. PAESTUM. THE SO-CALLED ‘BASILICA’. Photograph, Anderson

IV. VELIA. GENERAL VIEW OF THE SITE. Società Magna Grecia

V. HIPPONION. THE WALLS AND TOWERS. Società Magna Grecia

VI. MEDMA. TERRACOTTA HEADS. Not. Scavi, 1913, Suppl.

VII. LOCRI. TERRACOTTA STATUE OF ONE OF THE DIOSKOUROI. Bolletino d’Arte, 1927

VIII. LOCRI. TERRACOTTA PLAQUE OF HADES AND PERSEPHONE. Società Magna Grecia

IX. CROTON. THE COLUMN OF THE TEMPLE OF HERA LACINIA. Società Magna Grecia

X. METAPONTUM. TEMPLE CALLED TAVOLE PALATINE. Photograph by Mr. Percival Hart

XI. METAPONTUM. COLOURED DECORATIONS OF THE TEMPLE. Società Magna Grecia

XII. SYRACUSE. COINS AND MEDALS. By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum

XIII. SYRACUSE. DRAWBRIDGE OF FORT EURYALOS. Photograph, Alinari

XIV. SYRACUSE. PAPYRUS GROWING IN RIVER ANAPOS. Photograph, Alinari

XV. SYRACUSE. VIEW OF ORTYGIA, ISTHMUS AND TWO HARBOURS. Photograph, Dalle Nogare & Armetti

XVI. SYRACUSE. TEMPLE OF ATHENA CHANGED INTO CATHEDRAL. Photograph, Alinari

XVII. SYRACUSE. THE GREEK THEATRE. Photograph, Alinari

XVIII. AKRAGAS. TEMPLES OF ‘JUNO LACINIA’ AND OF ‘HERAKLES’

XIX. AKRAGAS. THE TEMPLE OF ‘CONCORD’. Photograph, F. Galifi Crupi, Taormina

XX. SELINUS. RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF HERA. Photograph, Alinari

XXI. SELINUS. METOPE FROM TEMPLE E.

XXII. SEGESTA. VIEW OF THE TEMPLE. Photograph, F. Galifi Crupi, Taormina

LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS

MAP OF SOUTH ITALY

MAP OF SICILY

SYRACUSE. PLAN OF ALL THE PRINCIPAL SITES

AKRAGAS. PLAN OF THE OLYMPIEION

AKRAGAS. PLAN OF THE CITY AND WALLS

I — CUMAE

WHERE the little river Liris runs into the Gulf of Gaeta, seventy miles south of Rome, may be placed the natural boundary between central and southern Italy. As the train leaves the rugged Monti Lepini and the outskirts of the Pomptine marshes, we pass from the sphere of Rome and her immediate neighbours into a new world and a new atmosphere. History has accentuated the line of division. South of the two jutting promontories, Capo Circeo on the west and Monte Gargano on the east, is a country of which the fortunes have always been connected not so much with the mainland of Europe as with the Mediterranean. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies only perpetuated into modern times a division already several thousand years old. Except under the Roman Empire the south has always had its own rulers; before the Spaniards it was the Normans, and before the Romans it was the Greeks, who ruled in turn from Gaeta or Naples to the Gulf of Taranto and the Straits of Messina, but never established themselves north of the Circean promontory.

Soon after the siege of Troy it is likely that adventurous Greeks, of whom Odysseus is the type, passed the Straits of Messina and came prospecting up the western coasts of Italy. But these left no permanent settlements. Though we need not disbelieve the statement that earlier landings were made at Procida and Ischia, yet the first traces of definite colonization are those found at Cumae in the middle of the eighth century. The foundation of Cumae has been closely dated by the exploration of its cemeteries, and all attempts to ascribe any fantastic antiquity to it are wholly baseless. If the date of its birth is placed as 740 B.C., in agreement with the archaeological evidence, then Cumae was, as Strabo calls it, the earliest of the Greek colonies whether in Sicily or on the mainland. And so it may be regarded as the farthest outpost of Magna Graecia, and the principal gate by which Greek civilization and commerce passed into the northern world of Italy and Provence.

Little now remains of Cumae, or Kyme, the colony planted by Greeks who came from Chalcis in Euboea. Its most enduring monument is in the poetry of Virgil and the legends of early Rome. But the site deserves a visit for the quiet charm of its surroundings, and for the vivid sense that it conveys of the conditions encountered by the Greek pioneers when they first landed in their New World. It was chosen primarily for defence. The hill on which the city stands rises 250 feet above the sea, bounded by steep cliffs which needed only moderate reinforcement by artificial walls. At the bottom, where a belt of scrub pine and ilex now stands, the sea came up and washed the very foot of the cliffs; but there was no sheltered anchorage for ships on this open shore. It suggests the precarious nature of their foothold that the colonists were satisfied with this position, which gave them so little facility for shipping, though it afforded them the fullest protection against the aborigines on the landward side. It was not until the sixth century that they felt able to avail themselves of the excellent harbour of Pozzuoli by founding the colony of Dicaearchia in that sheltered bay.

The site of Cumae can be most easily reached by taking the Ferrovia Cumana, which starts from the hill not far from Parker’s Hotel in Naples. From Baia it is a short drive or a very pleasant walk to the entrance, which is now much more formal than it was a few years ago. Then only a footpath, seldom trodden by any visitor, led through the vineyards and the olives to the deserted acropolis; but now there is a broad, paved way and an entrance duly protected by officials. All this change is in honour of Virgil and the two thousandth anniversary of his birth.

From the entrance we can make our way in a few minutes to the highest point, where once there stood the great temple of Apollo. No traces of it now remain—the buildings now visible are of much later date—but terracotta reliefs belonging to its decoration have been discovered in digging. The temple of Apollo shown to Pausanias was a restoration built on the same site in Roman days. On the next hill below this stood the temple of Zeus, venerated in Oscan and in Roman times; here also there was once an earlier shrine, dedicated to Olympian Zeus, the principal god of Chalcis, the mother-city of Cumae. The view from either of these points out over the sea and down towards Ischia or up towards Gaeta and Capo Circeo is of an indescribable beauty.

The old Neapolitan antiquary, de Jorio, writing a little over a hundred years ago, described walls surrounding the highest part of the acropolis on the north-east in terms which show that there were considerable remains in his day. His statements are corroborated by the engravings of Morghen, made at the beginning of the nineteenth century. These walls must have been the walls of the Roman municipium, of which a good many traces can still be seen. A few courses of real Greek building, probably the original fortification which protected the colonists against a fierce attack of the natives in 520 B.C., can be detected on the south side of the acropolis, where the principal gate of the city stood. And here also, half-way up the cliff-face, is the most romantic point in Cumae, the grotto of the Sibyl, that ‘antrum immane’ celebrated in Virgil’s poem. It has lately been excavated and cleared from end to end, so that it is about as picturesque as a railway tunnel. But it will always live in literature, and those who never saw it when it still had an atmosphere of mystery and romance may obtain a very good idea of it from old engravings. The intricate history of the legend deserves some brief description, for the Sibyl of Cumae has been an important figure in much real literature and art. This was partly due to the interest in Virgil’s Aeneid, partly to the belief of Jews and early Christians that this pagan seeress had testified to the coming of the Messiah. This is the reason for which Giotto and Ghiberti ranked her among the prophets of the Old Testament, Michelangelo showed her in the Sistine Chapel, and Raphael painted her on the arch of S. Maria della Pace.

To all the later classical writers, and to the Early Church Fathers and apologists of Christianity, the Cumaean Sibyl was no more than one among a large number of seers and prophetesses, who were venerated at many separate places in the large area of the Roman Empire. Varro enumerates ten distinct Sibyls, and the church writers have followed his authority. But the earlier Greek traditions recognized only one, who was born in Asia Minor, lived before the time of Homer, and foretold the siege of Troy. This was the Sibyl of Marpessus in the Troad. The traveller Pausanias visited Marpessus in the second century A.D. when it had dwindled to a hamlet of sixty souls grouped round the ancient ruins, and he quotes the hexameter lines preserved in the tradition of the inhabitants:

By birth I am half a mortal and half a goddess

For my mother was an immortal nymph but my father was a corn-eating man

By my mother’s side I am Ida-born, but my fatherland was red

Marpessus, sacred to the Mother, and the river Aidoneus.—(FRAZER’S Pausanias, vol. I. X. 12.)

Not far from Marpessus was Alexandria, where the people related that the Sibyl had been keeper of the temple of Sminthian Apollo, and they showed her tomb in the grove of the god. This association with Apollo is a feature in most versions of the legend. Delian hymns made the Sibyl sometimes the wife, sometimes the sister, or again the daughter of the sun-god. Her fame spread so widely that many cities in Greece and Ionia competed for the honour of being her native place. To reconcile their claims it was said that she had travelled from place to place giving oracles. Colophon, Delos, and Delphi were especially named as stages on her pilgrimage. Erythrae, near Chios, a far more important place than little Marpessus, successfully attempted to rob the smaller city of its fame. The Erythraeans suppressed the last of the four hexameters, in which Marpessus was named, and suggested far-fetched etymologies to explain away the references to Mount Ida. This shameless piracy imposed on a great part of the world, so that Erythrae is the city generally mentioned as the Sibyl’s birthplace in those legends of Cumae which were accepted at Rome. For no one seems to have been deceived by the patriotism of one local historian who claimed her as a native-born Cumaean.

Servius, the commentator upon Virgil, knew exactly how the Sibyl came to settle in Italy, more exactly, indeed, than Ovid. He says that when she lived in Erythrae the Sibyl was promised by Apollo as many years of life as the grains of sand which she could hold in her hand, upon the condition that she never looked again upon Erythraean soil. In her new home at Cumae all went well, until one day the Erythraeans sent her a letter sealed in the archaic fashion with a seal of clay. She looked upon this fragment of the forbidden soil and died. The Cumaeans, says Pausanias, showed a small stone urn in the cemetery of Apollo which they said contained her bones.{1}

Varro seems to have had good reason for placing the purchase of the Sibylline books in the time of the last Etruscan king, as the first occasion on which the Roman state officials consulted them was late in the sixth century. The sale must have been a personal and not a public transaction, as there can have been little friendship between Etruscan Rome and Greek Cumae at that precise date. For the Cumaeans were bitter enemies of the Etruscans, and sent a force after the revolution in Rome to crush the last of the royalists at Aricia. This was only a few years after the date indicated by Varro. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the intimate connexion and friendship between republican Rome and Cumae began only about 500 B.C. Politically the two cities were then united by their common hatred of the Etruscans, who were finally expelled from Campania very soon after they had been driven out of Rome. Though Rome was warlike she was amply busy with her immediate neighbours, and had no thought as yet of aggression towards the south. Cumae, on the other hand, was always pacific and threatened no one, being content to live in peace and develop her very extensive commerce.

This fifth century was a time of great prosperity for all Campania. As the principal and most important of a series of Greek stations, extending all the way down the western coast, Cumae received numerous products from all Greece and not only from her mother town of Chalcis. Particularly important was the trade with