Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/721

 RHEGTUJI. to abandon the siege. (76. 100.) The next year (b. c. 389) his great victory over the confederate forces of the Italiot Greeks at the river Helorus left him at hberty to prosecute liis designs against Rhegium without opposition: the Ehegians in vain endeavoured to avert the danger by submitting to a tribute of 300 talents, and by surrendering all their ships, 70 in number. By these concessions they obtained only a precarious trace, which Dionysius found a pretext for breaking the very nest year, and laid siege to the city with all his forces. The Rliegians, under the command of a general named Phyton, made a desperate resistance, and were enabled to prolong their defence for eleven months, but were at length compelled to surrender, after having suffered the utmost extremities of famine (b. c. 387). The surviving inhabitants were sold as slaves, their general Phyton put to an ignominious death, and the city itself totally destroyed. (Diod.xiv. 106 — 108, 111, 112 ; Strab. vi. p. 258 ; Pseud.-Arist. Oecon. ii. 21.) There is no doubt that Rhegium never fully re- covered this great calamity ; but so important a site could not long remain unoccupied. The younger Dionysius partially restored the city, to which he gave the name of Phoebias, but the old name soon again prevailed. (Strab. I. c.) It was occupied with a garrison by the despot, but in B.C. 351 it was besieged and taken by the Syracusan commanders Leptines and Callippus, the garrison driven out, and the citizens restored to independence. (Diod. xvi. 45.) Hence they were, a few years later (b. c. 345), among the foremost to promise their assistance to Timoleon, who halted at Rhegium on his way to Sicily, and from thence, eluding the vigilance of the Carthaginians by a stratagem, crossed over to Tau- romenium. (Diod. xvi. 66, 68: Pint. Timol. 9, 10.) From this time we hear no more of Rhegium, till the arrival of Pyrrhus in Italy (b. c. 280), when it again became the scene of a memorable catastrophe. Tiie Ehegians on that occasion, viewing with appre- hension the progress of the king of Epirus, and dis- trusting the Cartliaginians, had recourse to the Roman alliance, and received into their city as a garrison, a body of Campanian troops, 4000 in number, under the command of an officer named Decius. But these troops had not been long in pos- session of the city when they were tempted to follow the example of their countrymen, the Mamertines, on the other side of the strait ; and they took advan- tage of an alleged attempt at defection on the part of the Rhegians, to make a promiscuous massacre of the male citizens, while they reduced the women and children to slavery, and established themselves in the sole occupation of the town. (Pol. i. 7 ; Oros. iv. 3 ; Appian, Samnit. iii. 9 ; Diod. xxii. Exc. II. p. 494, Exc. Vales, p. 562 ; Dion Cass. Fr. 40. 7 ; Strab. v. p. 258.) The Romans were unable to punish them for this act of treachery so long as they were occupied with the war against Pyrrhus; and the Campanians for some years continued to reap the benefit of their crime. But as soon as Pyrrhus had finally withdrawn from Italy, the Romans turned their arms against their rebellious soldiers; and in B. c. 270, being actively supported by Hieron of Syracuse, the consul Genucius succeeded in re- ducing Rhegium by force, though not till after a long siege. Great part of the Campanians perished in the defence ; the rest were executed by order of the Roman people. (Pol. i. 6, 7 ; Oros. iv. 3 ; Dionys. Fr. Mai. xix. 1, sx. 7.) VOL. II. RHEGIUM. 705 Rhegium was now restored to the survivors of its former inhabitants (Pol. i. 7; Liv. xxxi. 31 ; Ap- pian, I. c); but it must have suffered severely, and does not seem to have again recovered its former prosperity. Its name is hardly mentioned during the First Punic War, but in the second the citizens distinguished themselves by their fidelity to the Roman cause, and repeated attempts of Hannibal to make himself master of the city were uniformly repulsed. (Liv. xxiii. 30, xxiv. 1. sxvi. 12, xxix. 6.) From this time the name of Rhegium is rarely men- tioned in history under the Roman Republic ; but we learn from several incidental notices that it con- tinued to enjoy its own laws and nominal liberty as a " foederata civitas," though bound, in common with other cities in the same condition, to furnish an auxiliary naval contingent as often as required. (Liv. xxxi. 31, XXXV. 16, xxxvi. 42.) It was not till after the Social War that the Rhegians, like the other Greek cities of Italy, passed into the condition of Roman citizens, and Rhegium itself became a Roman iIunicipium. (Cic. Verr. iv. 60, Phil. i. 3, pro Arch. 3.) Shortly before this (b. c. 91) the city had suffered severely from an earthquake, which had destroyed a large part of it (Strab. vi. p. 258; Jul. Obseq. 114); but it seems to have, in great measure, recovered from this calamity, and is men- tioned by Appian towards the close of the Republic as one of the eighteen flourishing cities of Italy, which were promised by the Triumvirs to their veterans as a reward for their services. (Appian, B. C. iv. 3.) Rhegium, however, had the good fortune to escape on this occasion by the personal favour of Octavian {lb. 86); and during the war which followed between him and Sextus Pompeius, B. c. 38 — 36, it became one of the most important posts, which was often made by Octavian the head- quarters both of his fleet and army. (Strab. vi. p. 258; Appian, B. C. v. 81,84; Dion Cass, xlviii. 18, 47.) To reward the Rhegians for their services on this occasion, Augustus increased the population, which was in a declining state, by the addition of a body of new colonists ; but the old inhabitants were not expelled, nor did the city assume the title of a Colonia, though it adopted, in gratitude to Augustus, the name of Rhegium Julium. (Strab. I.e.; Ptol. iii. 1. § 9 ; Orell. Inscr. 3838.) In the time of Strabo it was a populous and flourishing place, and was one of the few cities which, like Neapolis and Tarentuni, still preserved some remains of its Greek civilisation. (Strab. vi. jip. 253, 259.) Traces of *his may be observed also in inscriptions, some of which, of tho period of the Roman Empire, present a curious mixture of Greek and Latin, while others have tho names of Roman magistrates, though tho inscriptions themselves are in Greek. (Morisani, Inscr. Reginae, 4to. Neap. 1770, pp. 83, 126, &c. ; Boeckh, C.I. 5760—5768.) Its favourable situation and its importance, as commanding the passage of the Sicilian straits, preserved Rhegium from falling into the same state of decay as many other cities in the south of Italy. It continued to exist as a considerable city through- out the period of the Roman Empire (I'lin. iii. 5. s. 10; Ptol. /. c. ; Itin. Ant. pp. 112, 115, 490), and was the termination of the great highway which led through the southern peninsula of Italy, and formed the customary mode of communication with Sicily. In a. d. 410 Rhegium became tho limit of the progress of Alaric, who after the cap-, ture of Rome advanced through Campania, Lucaniii, z z