Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/217

 LOCRI. siderable detail ; but Procopius seems to attest its continued existence in the 6th century {B. G. i. 15), and it is probable that it owed its complete de- struction to the Saracens. Its very name was for- gotten in the middle ages, and its site became a matter of dispute. This has however been com- ])]etely established by the researches of modern travellers, who have found the remains of the ancient city on the sea-coast, near the modern town of Gerace. (Cluver, Ital.-^. 1301; Eomanelli, vol. i. p. 152 ; Cramer, vol. ii. p. 411 ; Riedesel, Voyage dans la Grande Gi-ece, p. 148.) The few ruins that ''till remain have been care- fully examined and described by the Due de Luynes. (Ann. d. Inst. Arch. vol. ii. pp. 3 — 12.) The site (.f the ancient city, which may be distinctly traced by the vestiges of the walls, occupied a space of near two miles in length, by less than a mile in breadth, extending from the sea-coast at Tori'e di Gerace (on the left bank of a small stream called the Fiume di S. Jlario), to the first heights or ridges of the Apennines. It is evidently to these heights that Strabo gives the name of Mount Esopis ('Ecrai;ris), on which he places the first foundation of the city. (Strab. vi. p. 259.) The same heights are separated by deep ravines, so as to constitute two separate summits, both of them retaining the traces of ancient fortifications, and evidently the " two citadels not far distant from each other " noticed by Livy in his account of the capture of the city by Scipio. (Liv. xxix. 6.) The city extended from hence down the slopes of the hills towards the sea, and had unquestionably its port at the mouth of the little river S. Ilario, though there could never have been a harbour there in the modern sense of the term. Numerous fragments of ancient masonry are scattered over the site, but the only distinct vestiges of any ancient edifice are those of a Doric temple, of which the basement alone now remains, but several columns were standing down to a recent period. It is occupied by a f;irm-house, called the Casino deW Imperatore, about a mile from the sea, and appears to have stood without the ancient walls, so that it is not improbable the ruins may be the remains of the celebrated temple of Proserpine, which we know to have occupied a similar position. (Liv. xxix. 18.) The ruins of Locri are about five miles distant from the modern town of Gerace, which was previously supposed to occupy the site of the ancient city (Cluver, I. c. ; Barr. de Sit. Calahr. iii. 7), and 15 miles from the Capo di Bruzzano, the Zephyrian promontor}'. The Locrians are celebrated by Pindar {01. x. 18, xi. 19) for their devotion to the Muses as well as for their skill and courage in war. In accordance with this character we find mention of Xenocritus and Era- sippus, both of them natives of Locri, as poets of some note ; the lyric poetess Theano was probably also a native of the Epizephyrian Locri. (Schol. ad Find. 01. xi. 17; Boeckh, ad 01. x. p. 197.) The Pythagorean philosophy also was warmly taken up and cultivated there, though the authorities had refused to admit any of the political innovations of that philosopher. (Porphyr. Vit. Pyth. 56.) But among his followers and disciples several were natives of Locri (Iambi. Vit. Pyth. 267), the most eminent of whom were Timaeus, Echecrates, and Acrion, from whom Plato is said to have imbibed his knowledge of the Pythagorean tenets. (Cic. de Fin. V. 29.) Nor was the cultivation of other arts neglected. Eunomus, a Locrian citizen, was cele- LOCRIS. 201 brated for his skill on the cithara ; and the athlete Euthymus of Locri, who gained several prizes at Olympia, was scarcely less renowned than Milo of Crotona. (Strab. vi. pp. 255, 260 ; Paus. vi. 6. §§4-11.) The territory of Locri, during the flourishing period of the city, was certainly of considerable extent. Its great augmentation by Dionysius of Syracuse has been already mentioned. But previous to that time, it was separated from that of lihegium on the SW. by the river Halex or Alice, while its northern limit towards Caulonia was probably the Sagras, generally identified with the Alaro. The river Buthrotus of Livy (xxix. 7), which appears to have been but a short distance from the town, was probably the Novito, about six miles to the N. Thucydides mentions two other colonies of Locri (besides Hipponium and iIedma already noticed), to which he gives the names of Itone and Melae, but no other trace is found of either the one or the other. (Thuc. v. 5.) [E. H. B.] COIN OF THE LOCRI EriZEPHYRH. LOCRIS (AoKpi's: Eth. AoKpoi; in Latin also Locri, but sometimes Locrenses). The Locri were an ancient people in Greece, and were said to have been descended from the Leleges. This was the opinion of Aristotle; and other writers supposed the name of the Locrians to be derived from Locrus, an ancient king of the Leleges. ( Aristot. ; Hes. ap. St7-ab.i. p. 322 ; Scymnus Ch. 590; Dicaearch. 71 ; Plin. iv. 7. s. 12.) The Locrians, however, must at a very early period have become inter- mingled with the Hellenes. In the Homeric poems they always appear as Hellenes; and, according to some traditions, even Deucalion, the founder of the Hellenic race, is said to have lived in the Locrian town of Opus or Cynus. (Pind. 01. ix. 63, seq.; Strab. ix. p. 425.) In historical times the Locrians were divided into two distinct tribes, differing from one another in customs, habits, and civilisation. Of these the eastern Locrians, called the Opuntii and Epicnemidii, dwelt upon the eastern coast of Greece, opposite the island of Euboea; while the western Locrians dwelt upon the Corinthian gulf, and were separated from the former by Mount Parnassus and the whole of Doris and Phocis. (Strab. ix. p. 425.) The eastern Locrians are alone mentioned by Homer; they were the more ancient and the more civilised : the western Locrians, who are said to have been a colony of the fomier, are not mentioned in history till the time of the Peloponnesian War, and are even then represented .as a semi- barbarous people. (Thuo. i. 5.) We may conjecture that the Locrians at one time extended from sea to sea, and were torn asunder by the immigration of the Phocians anil Dorians. (Niebuhr, Lectures on Ancient Ethno- graphy, vol. i. p. 123.) 1. LocKi Epicnemidii and Opuntii ('Ettik- vrnxiSioi, 'OirowTioi), inhabited a narrow slip upon the eastern coast of Greece, from the pass of Ther- mopylae to the mouth of the river Cephissus.