Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1123

 TAREXTUM. bridge of seven arches. This was already the case in Strabo's time, though no mention of it is found at the time of the sic^e by Llannibal. Tiie fjeneral form and arrangement of the city cannot be better described than they are by Strabo. He says : " While the whole of the rest of the Tarentine gulf is destitute of ports, there is here a very large and fair port, closed at the entrance by a large bridge, and not less than 100 stadia in circumference. [This is beneath the truth : the Mare Piccolo is more than 16 miles (128 stadia) in circuit.] On the side towards the inner recess of the pore it forms an isthmus with the exterior sea, so that the city lies upon a peninsula; and the neck of the isthmus is so low that ships can easily be drawn over the land from one side to the other. The whole city also lies low, but rises a little tow.irds the citadel. The ancient wall comprises a circuit of great extent; but now the greater part of the .'•pace adjoining the isthmus is deserted, and only that part still subsists which adjoins the mouth of the port, where also the Acropolis is situated. The portion still remaining Ls such as to make up a considerable city. It has a splendid Gymnasium, and a good-sized Agora, in which stands the bronze colossal statue of Jupiter, the largest in existence next to that at Rhodes. In the interval between the Agora and the mouth of the port is the Acropolis, which retains only a few rtmnants of the splendid monuments with which it was adorned in ancient ■'iiies. For the greater part were either destroyed . the Carthaginians when they took the city, or > arried oft' as booty by the Romans, when they made themselves masters of it by assaitlt. Among these is the colossal bronze statue of Hercules in the Capitoi, a work of Lysippus, which was dedicated there as an offering by Fabius Maximus, who took the city." (Strab. vi. p. 278.) In the absence of all extant remains there is very little to be added to the above description. But 1'' lybius, in his detailed narrative of the capture of lit! city by Haimibal, supplies us with some local names and details. The principal gate on the E. side of the city, in the outer line of walls, seems to have been that called the Temenid Gate (oi TruAai TrineviSai. Pol. viii. .30); outside of which was a mound or tumulus called the tomb of Hyacinthus, whose worship had obviously been brought from Sparta. A broad street called the Batheia, or Low Street, led apparently from this gate towards the in- terior of the city. This from its name may be con- jectured to have lain close to the port and the water's edge, while another broad street led from thence to the Agora. (/J. 31.) Another street called the Soteira (SwrsTpa) was apparently on the opposite side of the city from the Batheia, and must therefore have adjoined the outer sea. (76. 36.) Immediately adjoining the Agora was the Museum (^Movrrelov), a public building which seems to have served for festivals and public banquets, rather than for any purposes connected with its name. (/6. 27, 29.) There is nothing to indicate the site of the theatre, alluded to by Polybius on the same occasion, except that it was decidedly within the city, which was not always the case. Strabo does not notice it, but it must have been a building of large size, so as to be adapted for the general assem- blies of the people, which were generally held in it, as was the case also at Syracuse and in other Greek cities. This is particularly mentioned on several occasions; it was there that the Roman ambassadors TARENTUM. 1099 received the insult which finally led to the ruin of the city. (Flor. i. IS. § 3; Val. Max. ii. 2. § 5; Appian, Saimiit. 7.) Livy inaccurately describes the citadel as standing on lofty cliffs ("' praealtis rupibus," xxv. 11): the peninsula on which it stood rises indeed (as observed by Strabo) a little above the rest of the city, and it is composed of a rocky soil; but the whole site is low, and no part of it rises to any considerable ele- vation. The hills also that surround the Mare Pic- colo are of trifling height, and slope very gradually to its banks, as well as to the shore of the outer sea. There can be no doubt that the port of Tarenium, properly so called, was the inlet now called the Mare Piccolo or " Little Sea," but outside this the sea on the S. side of the city forms a bay or roadstead, which affords good shelter to shipping, being par- tially sheltered from the SW. by the two small islands of S. Pietro and S. Paolo, apparently the same which were known in ancient times as the Choerades. (Thuc. vii. 33.) Tarentum was celebrated in ancient times for the salubrity of its climate and the fertility of its terri- tory. Its advantages in both respects are extolled by Horace in a well-known ode (Carni. ii. 6), who says that its honey was equal to that of Hymettus, and its olives to those of Venafrum. Varro also praised its honey as the best in Italy («/>. Macrob. Sat. ii. 12). Its oil and wines enjoyed a nearly equal reputation; the choicest quality of the latter seems to have been that produced at Aulon (Ilor. 1. c; Martial, siii. 125; Plin. xiv. 6. s. 8), a val- ley in the neighbourhood, on the slope of a hill stfU called Monte Melone [Aulon]. But the choicest production of the neighbourhood of Tarentum was its wool, which appears to have enjoyed an acknow- ledged supremacy over that of all parts of Italy. (Plin. xxix. 2. s. 9; Martial, I. c; Varr. R. R. ii. 2. § 18; Strab. vi. p. 284; Colum. vii. 2. § 3.) Nor was this owing solely to natural advantages, as we learn that the Tarentines bestowed the greatest care upon the preservation and improvement of the breed of sheep. (Colum. vii. 4.) Taren- tum was noted likewise for its breed of horses, which supplied the famous Tarentme cavalry, which was long noted among the Greeks. Their territory abounded also in various kinds of fruits of the choicest quality, especially pears, figs, and chestnuts, and though not as fertile in corn as the western shores of the Tarentine gulf, was nevertheless well adapted to its cultivation. At the same time its shores produced abundance of shell-fish of all de- scriptions, which formed in ancient limes a favourite article of diet. Even at the present day the in- habitants of Taranto subsist to a great extent upon the shell-fish produced in the Mare Piccolo in a profusion almost incredible. Its Pectcns or scallops enjoyed a special reputation with the Roman ejii- cures. (Ilor. Sat. ii. 4. 34.) But by far the most valuable production of this class was the Murex, which furnished the celebrated purple dye. Tim Tarentine purple was considered second only to tho Tvrian, and for a long time was the most valuable known to the Romans. (Corn. Nep. ap. Plin. ix. 39. s. 03.) Even in the time of Augustus it con- tinued to enjoy a high reputation. (Ilor. Kp. ii. 1, 207.) So extensive were the manufactories of this dye at Tarentum that considerable mounds are still visible on the shore of the Mare Piccolo, composed whollv of broken shells of this species. (Swinburne's Truvih, vol. i. p. 239.)