Heraclea

Heraclea was the name of a large number of ancient cities founded by the Greeks. See also List of traditional Greek place names.

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Heraclea (Greek ?Ηράκλεια), an ancient city of Lucania, situated near the modern Policoro, 3 m. from the coast of the Gulf of Taranto, between the rivers Aciris (Agri) and Sinis (Sinni) about 13 m. S.S.W. of Metapontum. It was a Greek colony founded by the Tarentines and Thurians in 432 BC, the former being predominant. It was chosen as the meeting-place of the general assembly of the Italiot Greeks, which Alexander of Epirus, after his alienation from Tarentum, tried to transfer to Thurii. Here Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, defeated the consul Laevinus in 280 BC, after he had crossed the river Sinis (see Battle of Heraclea). In 278 BC, or possibly in 282 BC, probably in order to detach it from Tarentum, the Romans made a special treaty with Heraclea, on such favourable terms that in 89 B.C. the Roman citizenship given to the inhabitants by the Lex Plautia Papiria was only accepted after considerable hesitation. We hear that Heraclea surrendered under compulsion to Hannibal in 212 BC and that in the Social War the public records were destroyed by fire. Cicero in his defence of the poet Archias, an adopted citizen of Heraclea, speaks of it as a flourishing town. As a consequence of its having accepted Roman citizenship, it became a municipium; part of a copy of the Lex Iulia Municipalis of 46 BC (engraved on the back of two bronze tablets, on the front of which is a Greek inscription of the 3rd century BC defining the boundaries of lands belonging to various temples), which was found between Heraclea and Metapontum, is of the highest importance for our knowledge of that law. It was still a place of some importance under the empire; a branch road from Venusia joined the coast road here. The circumstances of its destruction and abandonment was unknown; the site is now marked by a few heaps of ruins. Its medieval representative was Anglona, once a bishopric, but now itself a heap of ruins, among which are those of an 11th-century church.

Greeks: :For other uses of the name "Greek", see Greek (disambiguation)...

List of traditional Greek place names: This is a list of traditional Greek place names. That is, a list of the names of places as they exist in the Greek language. This list includes:...

Greek: The noun Greek refers to:...

Heraclea related Images and Photos (experimental)

Pyrrhus King of Epirus Invades Italy and Inflicts a Thumping Defeat on the Romans at Heraclea