Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/363

 METArONTUM. these two cities in a league against Siris, with the view of expelling the Ionian colonists of that city. (Justin, XX. 2.) The war seems to have ended in the capture and destruction of Siris, but our account of it is very obscure, and the period at which it took place very uncertain. [Sieis.] It does not appear that Metapontum took any part in the war between Crotona and Sybaris, which ended in the destruction of the latter city ; but its name is fre- quently mentioned in connection with the changes introduced by Pythagoras, and the troubles conse- quent upon them. Metapontum, indeed, appears to have been one of the cities where the doctrines and sect of that philosopher obtained the firmest footing. Kven when the Pythagoreans were expelled from Crotona, they maintained themselves at Metapontum, whither the philosopher himself retired, and where he ended his days. The ]Ietapontines paid the greatest respect to his memory; they consecrated the house in which he had lived as a temple to Ceres, and gave to the street in which it was situ- ated the name of the Museum. His tomb was still shown there in the days of Cicero. (Iambi. Vit. Pyth. 170, 249, 266 ; Porphyr. Vit. Pyth. 56, 57 ; Plut. de Gen. Socr. 13 ; Diog. Laert. viii. 1. § 40 ; Liv. i. 18 ; Cic. de Fin. v. 2.) The ]Ietapontines were afterwards called in as mediators to appease the troubles which had arisen at Crotona ; and ap- pear, therefore, to have suffered comparatively little themselves from civil dissensions arising from this source. (Iambi. 262.) At the time of the Athenian expedition to Sicily, B.C. 415, the Metapontines at first, hke the other states of Magna Graecia, endeavoured to maintain a strict neutrality ; but in the following year were induced to enter into an alliance with Athens, and furnish a small auxiliary force to the armament under Demosthenes and Eurymedon. (Diod. xiii. 4; Thuc. vi. 44, vii. 33, 57.) It seems clear that Ble- tapontum was at this time a flourishing and opulent city; nor hare we any reason to suppose that its decline began until long after. From its position it was secured from the attacks of Dionysius of Syra- cuse; and though it must have been endangered in common with the other Greek cities by the advanc- ing power of the Lucanians, it does not appear to have taken any prominent part in the wars with that people, and probably suffered but little from their attacks. Its name is again mentioned in B. c. 345, when Timoleon touched there on his ex- pedition to Sicily, but it does not appear to have taken any part in his favour. (Diod. xvi. 66.) In B. c. 332, when Alexander, king of Epiras, crossed over into Italy at the invitation of the Tarentines, the Metapontines were among the firet to conclude an alliance with that monarch, and support him in his wars against the Lucanians and Bruttians. Hence, after his defeat and death at Pandosia, b. c. 326, it was to Metapontum that his remains were sent for interment. (Justin, xii. 2 ; Liv. viii. 24.) P)Ut some years later, b. c. 303, when Cleonymus of Sparta was in bis turn invited by the Tarentines, the Jletapontines, for what reason we know not, pursued a different policy, and incurred the resent- ment of that leader, who, in consequence, turned his own arms, as well as those of the Lucanians, against tiiem. He was then admitted into the city on friendly terms, but nevertheless exacted from them a large sum of money, and committed various other excesses. (Diod. xx. 104.) It is evident that Me- tapontum was at this period stil! wealthy ; but its METAPOXTUil. 147 citizens had apparently, like their noiglibours tlin Tarentines, fallen into a state of slothfulness and luxury, so that they were become almost proverbial for their effeminacy. (Plut. Apoplith. Lac. p. 233.) It seems certain that the Jletapontines, as well as the Tarentines, lent an active support to Pyrrhus, when that monarch came over to Italy ; but we do not find them mentioned during his wars there; nor have we any account of the precise period at which they passed under the yoke of Pome. Their name is, however, again mentioned repeatedly in the Second Punic War. We are told that they were among the first to declare in favour of Hannibal after the battle of Cannae (Liv. sxii. 61); but not- withstanding this, we find their city occupied by a Roman garrison some years later, and it was not till after the capture of Tarentum, in b. c. 212, that they were able to rid themselves of this force and openly espouse the Carthaginian cause. (Id. sxv. 1 1, 15; Pol. viii. 36 ; Appian, Annib. 33, 35.) Han- nibal now occupied Metapontum with a Carthaginian garrison, and seems to have made it one of his prin- cipal places of deposit, until the fatal battle of tho ]Ietaurus having compelled him to give up the pos- session of this part of Italy, b. c. 207, he withdrew his forces from Metapontum, and, at the same time, removed from thence all the inhabitants in order to save them from the vengeance of Kome. (Id. xxvii. 1, 16, 42, 51.) From this time the name of Metapontum does not again appear in history ; and it seems certain that it never recovered from the blow thus inflicted on it. But it did not altogether cease to exist ; for its name is found in Jlela (ii. 4. § 8), who does not notice any extinct places ; and Cicero speaks of visiting it in terms that show it was still a town. (Cic. de Fin. V. 2 ; see also Appian, B. C. v. 93.) That orator, however, elsewhere alludes to the cities of Magna Graecia as being in his d.ay sunk into almost com- plete decay ; Strabo says the same thing, and Pau- sanias tells us that Metapontum in particular was in his time completely in ruins, and nothing remained of it but the theatre and the circuit of its walls. (Cic. de Amic. 4 ; Strab. vi. p. 262 ; Pans. vi. 19. § 11.) Hence, though the name is still found in Ptolemy, and the "agcr Metapontinus" is noticed in the Liber Coloniarum (p. 262), all trace of the city subsequently disappears, and it is not even noticed in the Itineraries where they give the line of rout(! along the coast from Tarentum to Thurii. The site was probably already subject to malaria, and from the same cause has remained desolate ever since. Though we hear much less of Metapontum than of Sybaris, Crotona, and Tarentum, yet all accounts agree in representing it as, in the days of its pro- sperity, one of the most opulent and flourishing of the cities of Magna Graecia. The fertility of its territory, especially in the growth of com, vied witJi the neighbouring district of the Siritis. Hence we are told that the Jletapontines sent to the teinjile at Delphi an offering of "a golden liarvest" (^S>4pos Xpvffovv, Strab. vi. p. 264), by which wc must probably understand a sheaf or bundle of corn wrouyht in gold. For tlic same reason an ear of coi-n became the characteristic .symbol on their coins, tlic number and variety of which in itself sufficiently attests the wealth of the city. (Millingen, Nimii.i- matique de Tltalie, p. 22.) Wo learn also that thry had a treasury of their own at Olympia still existing in the days of Pauianias (Pans. vi. 1 9. § 1 1 ; Athcn. xi. ji. 479). Herodotus tells us that they p.-iil par-