Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/306

 HESACLEIA. Tbsse were, howmri resisted by the Taientines, and war eusoed between the two states, which was at length tenninated bj an arrangement that they shoold fonnd a new colony in the disputed diiitrict, which, though in fact a joint settlement, shoold be designated as a colony of Tarentmn. The few le- Boaining inhabitants of Sins were added to the new colonists, and it would appear that the settlement was first established on the ancient site of Siris itself, bat was subsequently transferred from thence, and a new city founded about 24 stadia from the former, and nearer the rlTer Aciris, to which the name of Heracleia was given. Siris did not cease to exist, but lapsed into the subordinate condition of the port or emporium of Heracleia. (Strab. ri. p. 264.) The foondatioo of the new city is placed by Diodorus in B. c 432, fourteen years after the settlement of Thurii; a statement which appears to agree well with the above narrative, cited by Strabo from An- tiochns. (Antiochns, af». Strab, L e. ; Died. zlL 36; Liv. viii. 24.) Diodorus, as well as Livy, calls it simply a colony of Tarentum : AnUochus is the only writer who mentions the share taken by the Thu> rians in its original foundation. Pliny erroneously regards Heracleia as identical with Siris, to which it had succeeded; and it was perhaps a similar mis- conception that led livy, by a strange anachronism, to include Heracleia among the cities of Magna Giaecia where Pythagoras established his insti- tations. (Liv.i 18; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15.) The new colony appears to have risen rapidly to power and prosperity, protected by the fostering care of the Tarentines, who were at one time engaged in war with the Messapians for its defence. (Strab. vi. p. 281.) It was probably owing to the predominant influence of Tarentum also that Heracleia was selected aa the place of meeting of the general assembly (wairiiyvpis) of the Italiot Greeks; a meeting appa- rently originally of a religions character, but of coarse easily applicable to political objects, and which for that reason Alexander, king of Epirus, sought to transfer to the Thurians for the purpose of weaken- ing the influence of Tarentum. (Strab. vi. p. 280.) But htjood the general fact that it enjoyed great wealth and prosperity, — advantages which it doubt- less owed to the noted fertility of its temtoiy, — we have scarcely any information concerning the history of Hersdeia until we reach a period when it was al- ready beginning to decline. We cannot doubt that it took part with the Tarentines in their wars against the Messapians and Lncanians, and it appears to have follen gradually into a state of almost depend- ence upon that city, though without ever ceasing to be, in name at least, an independent state. Hence, when Alexander, king of Epirus, who had been in* Tited to Italy by the Tarentines, subsequently became hostile to Uiat people [TaremtumJ, he avenged himself by taking Heracleia, and, as aliisady men- tioned, transferred to the Thurians the general asaemblies that had previously been held there. (Liv. ▼iii. 24 ; Strab. ri. pi 280.) During the war of Pyrrhus with the Romans, Heracleia was the scene of the first conflict between the two powers, the consul Laevinus being totally defeated by the E(»rot king in a battle fought between the city of Heracleia and the river Siris, b.c. 280. (Plot Pyrrh, 16, 17; Ffer. L 18. § 7*; Zonar. viii. 4; Oros. iv. 1.) the Roman epitomisers, and their consequent worth- lessness as geographical authorities, that Florus HERACLEIA. 1047 Heracleia was certainly at this tune hi alliance with the Tarentines and Lucanians against Rome; and it was doubtless with the view of detaching it from this alliance that the Romans were induced shortly afterwards (b. c. 278) to grant to the Hera- deians a treaty of alliance on such favourable terms that it is called by Cicero *' prope smgulare fbedus." (Cic. pro Balb. 22, pro Aiik. 4.) Heracleia pre- served this privileged condition throughout the period of the Roman republic; and hence, even when in b. c. 89 the Lex Plautia Papiria conferred upon its inha- bitants, in ciimmon with the other cities of Italy, the rights of Roman citizens, they hesitated long whether they would accept the proffered boon. (Cic. pro Balb. 8.) We have no account of the part taken by Heracleia in the Social War; but from an incidental notice in Cicero, that all the public records of the dty had been destroyed by fire at that period, it would seem to have suffered severely. (Cic. pro Arch. 4.) Cicero nevertheless speaks of it, in his defence of Archias (who had been adopted as a citizen of Heracleia), as still a flourishing and im- portant town, and it appears to have been one of the few Greek cities in the S. of Italy that still pre- served thdr consideration under the Roman dominion. (Strab. vi. p. 264; Cic /. c 4, 5; Mel. ii. 4. § 8; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15.) Its name is unaccountably omitted by Ptolemy; but its existence at a much kter period is attested by the Itineraries. (Itin, Ant p. 113; Tab, Peut.) The time and circum- stances of its final extinction are wholly unknown; but the site is now desolate, and the whole neigh- bouring district, once celebrated as one of the most fertile in Italy, is now almost wholly uninhabited. The position of the ancient city may nevertheless be clearly identified; and though no ruins worthy of the name are still extant, large heaps of rubbish and foundations of ancient buildings mark the site of Heracleia near a farm called Policoro^ about three miles from the sea, and a short distance from the right bank of the Aciris or Agri, Numerous coins, bronzes, and other reUcs of antiquity have been dis- covered on the spot; and within a short distance of the site wera found the bronze tables commonly known as the Tabulae Heracleenses, one of the most interesting monuments of antiquity still remaining. ^ They contain a long Latin inscription reUting to the municipal regnlations of Heracleia, but which is in fact only a copy of a more general law, the Lex Julia Municipalis, issued in b. c. 45 for the regulation of the municipal institutions of the towns throughout Italy. This curious and important document, which is one of our chief authorities for the municipal law of ancient Italy, is engraved on two tables of bronze, at the back of which is found a long Greek inscrip- tion of much earlier date, but of very inferior in- terest. The Latin one has been repeatedly published (Murat. Imcr, vol. vl p. 582 ; Haubold, Mon, LegaL pp. 98 — 133, &0.), and copiously illustrated with legal commentaries by Dirksen (870. Berlin, 1817 — 1820) and Savigny (in his VermuchUSchrifUn^ vd. iii.). Both inscriptions were published, with very eUborate commentaries and disquisitions on all pkces this battle **apud Heracleam et Campaniae flumen lArim^ mistaking the river Siris for the Liris; and the same blunder occurs in Orosius, who says, " apud Heracleam Campaniae urbem, fluvium- que Lirim"; for which last tlie editors substitute " Suim,** though the mistake is evidently that of the author, and not of the copyist ^ '* ./ ^ / 3x4
 * It is a striking instance of the carelessness of