Editing Crotone (section)

==History==

The promontory of Kroton was inhabited by indigenous populations, perhaps [[Oenotrians]] and Japigi, in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2019-10-03|author=Francesco Placco|date=2018-04-22|title=La leggenda di Melise|url=https://briganteggiando.it/2018/04/22/la-leggenda-di-melise/|website=Briganteggiando}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> 

===Foundation===

Kroton's ''[[oikistes]]'' (founder) was [[Myscellus]], from the city of [[Rhypes]] in [[Achaea (ancient region)|Achaea]] in the northern [[Peloponnese]], after consulting the [[Delphic Oracle]] who announced:<ref> Diod. 8. 17</ref><ref> Strabo 6. 262</ref>

:''Cross the vast sea and next to the Esaro (river) you will found Kroton.''

The Achaeans were motivated, like others of the [[Greek colonisation]], by the lack of cultivatable land in their mountainous region and by population pressure.

Although the Greek foundation of Kroton was thought to be 710 BC,<ref>Dionysius, Roman Antiquities 2.59</ref> it is likely that Myscellus made three founding expeditions to Kroton,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-17 |title=Lorenzo Braccesi - Miscello e le tre spedizioni a Crotone (1998) |url=https://www.gruppoarcheologicokr.it/biblioteca/lorenzo-braccesi-miscello-e-le-tre-spedizioni-a-crotone-1998/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Gruppo Archeologico Krotoniate (GAK) |language=it-IT}}</ref> the first in ca. 733 in the company of [[Archias of Corinth]] at the head of an Achaean-Spartan venture (when they founded [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]]), but which did not result in a stable urban settlement. The second was in 720-709 at the head of an Achaean colonial expedition,<ref>Antiochus FGrHist 555 F 10</ref> hoping to settle in the Sybaris area. The third time in ca. 708 when, at the head of a similar expedition, he founded Kroton.

Archaeology has shown that colonisation in the second half of the 8th century BC had an impact on the settlement organisation and on the economic and social structure of the indigenous communities: in the Kroton area most of the existing settlements disappeared, while grave goods from the Carrara necropolis highlight a widespread practice of mixed marriages between Greeks and indigenous women, since the first generation of settlers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Celsi |first=Giuseppe |date=2020-03-15 |title=Ercole, Miscello, Apollo Pizio e la fondazione di Crotone |url=https://www.gruppoarcheologicokr.it/ercole-miscello-apollo-pizio-e-la-fondazione-di-crotone/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Gruppo Archeologico Krotoniate (GAK) |language=it-IT}}</ref>

===Greek era===

It soon became one of the most flourishing cities of [[Magna Graecia]] reaching a population between 50,000 and 80,000 around 500 BC.<ref name="Jarde2013">{{cite book|author=Jarde, A.|title=The Formation of the Greek People|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5aEWAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA217 |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-19586-0 |page=217}}</ref> During its early history Croton expanded its influence over the [[Bruttian]] peninsula founding possibly [[Caulonia_(ancient_city)|Caulonia]] in the second half of the 7th century BC.<ref>Pseudo-Scymnus, Periodos to Nicomedes 318–319</ref>

The victory of [[Locri]] and [[Reggio Calabria|Rhegium]] over Croton in the [[battle of the Sagra]] in middle of the sixth century BC<ref>Wonder, John W. (2012). "The Italiote League: South Italian Alliances of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC". Classical Antiquity. 31 (1). p 139 doi:10.1525/CA.2012.31.1.128 </ref> interrupted the expansion of the city.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vattuone|first=Riccardo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uU0bAAAAYAAJ&q=battaglia+della+sagra|title=Storici greci d'Occidente|date=2002|publisher=Il mulino|isbn=978-88-15-09098-0|language=it}}</ref>

The walls of the city were 12 miles long and enclosed a vast area.<ref>Livy 24.3</ref> 

Its inhabitants were famous for their physical strength and for the simple sobriety of their lives. From 588 BC onwards, Croton produced many generations of winners in the [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympics]] and the other [[Panhellenic Games]], the most famous of whom was [[Milo of Croton]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=510}} The physicians of Croton were considered the foremost among the Greeks, and among them [[Democedes]], son of [[Calliphon of Croton|Calliphon]], was the most prominent in the 6th century BC. Accordingly, he travelled around Greece and ended up working in the court of [[Polycrates]], tyrant of Samos. After the tyrant was murdered, Democedes was captured by the Persians and brought to King Darius, curing him of a dislocated ankle. Democedes' fame was, according to Herodotus, the basis for the prestige of Croton's physicians.<ref>Herodotus, ''The Histories'', 3.131: p. 226, Penguin Classics</ref>

Croton formed a league with [[Sybaris]] against [[Siris, Magna Graecia|Siris]] and in the war that ensued after 550 BC Siris was destroyed.<ref>Justin. xx. 2</ref>

[[Pythagoras]] founded his [[Pythagoreanism|school]] at Croton c. 530 BC. Among his pupils were the early medical theorist [[Alcmaeon of Croton]] and the philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer [[Philolaus]]. The Pythagoreans acquired considerable influence with the supreme council of one thousand by which the city was ruled.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=510}} 

Sybaris started to become the rival of Croton under the influence of the Pythagoreans who disliked excess, until 510 BC when Sybaris was shaken by various political events leading to the rule of the tyrant Telys. Many aristocrats were forced to flee to Croton and when Telys asked them to hand over the Sybarite exiles, the Crotonians refused and Sybaris began the war. Croton sent an army of 100,000 men commanded by the wrestler [[Milo of Croton|Milo]] against Sybaris and destroyed it.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}} As a consequence, Croton became the capital of a confederation including the 25 city-states<ref>Strabo, Geography, VI, 1, 13</ref> in the region of Sybaris, as shown by numerous coins minted between 480 and 460 BC.

In 480 BC, Croton sent a ship led by the famous athlete [[Phayllos of Croton|Phayllos]] and armed at his own expense in support of the Greeks at the [[Battle of Salamis]], the only one from the Italian coast.<ref>Herodotus 8.47</ref> Half of a stone anchor block bearing his name was found at Capo Cimiti and currently preserved in the Museum of Capo Colonna.<ref> {{Cite web |last=Celsi |first=Giuseppe |date=2019-11-12 |title=Faillo (Phayllos) di Crotone |url=https://www.gruppoarcheologicokr.it/faillo-di-crotone/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Gruppo Archeologico Krotoniate (GAK) |language=it-IT}}</ref>

It founded the colony of [[Terina (ancient city)|Terina]]<ref>Cerchiai, Luca; Jannelli, Lorena; Longo, Fausto, eds. (2004). The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily. Translated from Italian by the J. Paul Getty Trust. Los Angeles, California: Getty Publications. p 13 ISBN 978-0-89236-751-1</ref> on the Tyrrhenian coast in 480–470 BC. 

[[File:SNGANS 259ff.jpg|thumb|Coin of Croton, c. 480–460 BC]]

Shortly afterwards, however, a bloody revolt led by the oligarch [[Cylon of Croton|Cylon]], during which many Pythagoreans were massacred and Pythagoras himself had to flee to Metapontum, led to the Pythagoreans being driven out and a democracy established.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=510–511}} At the same time, other similar governments also fell and there were massacres and persecutions of Pythagoreans in all the Italian ''poleis''.

Croton then experienced a period of decline. Around this time the [[Italiote league]] was founded to defend itself from the expansionist aims of [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] and from attacks by the Lucanians, with Croton as the hegemon of the league. The meeting place for the league was the [[Temple of Juno Lacinia (Crotone)|Sanctuary of Hera Lacinia]] at Capo Collone 10 km away, which was also used as the federal treasury of the league.<ref>Lomas, K. (1993) Rome and the Western Greeks 350 BC-AD 200: Conquest and Acculteration in Southern Italy (London: Routledge). p 31</ref> The decline was followed by general anarchy, not only in Croton but also in other cities. The intervention of Achaeans brought a truce to the anarchy and the colonies adopted the laws of their original homeland. This calm lasted until [[Dionysius I of Syracuse|Dionysius]], the tyrant of [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]], aiming at hegemony in Magna Graecia, captured Croton in 379 BC and held it for twelve years. Croton was then occupied by the [[Bruttians|Bruttii]], with the exception of the citadel, in which the chief inhabitants had taken refuge; these soon after surrendered and were allowed to withdraw to Locri.<ref> Francesco Costantino Marmocchi, Corso di geografia storica antica, del Medioevo e moderna esposto in 24 studi da F. C. Marmocchi con atlante, V. Batelli e Company, 1845</ref>

In 295 BC, Croton fell to another Syracusan tyrant, [[Agathocles]]. When [[Pyrrhus of Epirus|Pyrrhus]] invaded Italy (280–278, 275 BC), it was still a considerable city, with twelve miles ({{convert|12|mi|abbr=out|disp=output only}}) of walls, but after the [[Pyrrhic War]], half the town was deserted.<ref>Livy 24.3</ref>

===Roman era===

What was left of its population submitted to [[Roman Republic|Rome]] in 277 BC. After the [[Battle of Cannae]] in the [[Second Punic War]] (216 BC), Croton was betrayed to the Brutii by a democratic leader named [[Aristomachus of Croton|Aristomachus]], who defected to the Roman side. [[Hannibal]] made it his winter quarters for three years,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=511}} and the city was not recaptured until 205 or 204 BC after the [[Battle of Crotona|Battles of Croton]].

In 194 BC, it became the site of a Roman colony. Little more is heard of it during the Republican and [[Roman Empire|Imperial]] periods, though the action of one of the more significant surviving fragments of the ''[[Satyricon]]'' of [[Petronius]] is set in Croton, where he mentions the corrupt morals of its inhabitants.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=511}}

===Post-Roman era===

Around 550 AD, the city was unsuccessfully besieged by [[Totila]], king of the [[Ostrogoths]]. At a later date it became a part of the [[Byzantine Empire]]. Around 841, the [[Republic of Venice]] sent a fleet of 60 galleys (each carrying 200 men) to assist the Byzantines in driving the Arabs from Crotone, but it failed.<ref name="Norwich32">J. Norwich, ''A History of Venice'', 32</ref> 

About 870, it was sacked by the [[Saracen]]s, who put to death the bishop and many people who had taken refuge in the cathedral but were not able to occupy the city. Over a hundred years later, [[Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor]], mounted a campaign in southern Italy to reduce the power of the Byzantines. Later, Crotone was conquered by the [[Normans]]. 

In 1806, it was occupied and sacked by the British, and later by the French. Thereafter it shared the fate of the [[Kingdom of Naples]], including the period of Spanish rule of which the 16th-century castle of [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], overlooking modern Crotone, serves as a reminder. Its successor, the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]] was conquered by the [[Kingdom of Sardinia]] in 1860 and incorporated into the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

===Modern era===

Crotone's location between the ports of [[Taranto]] and [[Messina]], as well as its proximity to a source of hydroelectric power, favoured industrial development during the period between the two World Wars. In the 1930s its population doubled. However, after the two main employers, [[Pertusola Sud]] and [[Edison (company)|Montedison]], collapsed by the late 1980s, Crotone was in economic crisis, with many residents losing their jobs and leaving to find work elsewhere.  In 1996, the river [[Esaro (Crotone)|Esaro]] flooded the city, which dealt a further blow to the city's morale. Since that low point, the city has undergone urban renewal and risen in quality-of-life rankings.