v49_0008 - CALABRIA - TARENTUM Diobole

CALABRIA - TARAS

(380-345 BC)

Architas, Strategus

From 380 BC, the destinies of Taranto found themselves in the hands of Archytas of Taranto (460-360 BC), Pythagorean philosopher, friend of Plato, mathematician, astronomer, politician and general who was placed seven times at the head of his city. It is given for the inventor of the screw, the pulley, the rattle and the kite. Horace dedicated an ode to him. The pan-Hellenic foundation of Thurium in 443 BC had given rise to a conflict which was to oppose Taranto to Athens for more than thirty years. The two rival cities had ended up founding Héraclée, nevertheless under Tarentine influence. The Tarentines ended up imposing themselves on the towns of Métaponte and Siris. Archytas, in the first half of the fourth century BC, became the strategist of the Italiote confederation whose capital was Heraclea and which included, in addition to Tarentum, Metaponto and Thurium, Crotona, Velia and Naples. This period of Tarentine hegemony ended with the death of Archytas and was the starting point for the interventions of mercenary generals such as Archidamos of Sparta, Alexander the Molossus or Pyrrhus of Epirus..