Location: Calabria Map
A modern small town can not be compared to the ancient Sybaris. It is located on the southern coast of Calabria, not far from Taranto. Greeks found the original city of Sybaris as a colony in 720 BC, but soon the city flourished and expanded quickly. Luxury and wealth of its citizens of Sybaris became so legendary that it gave us word “Sybaritic” today that describes lavish and extravagant lifestyle. In fact Crotone citizen got so jealous at the Sybaris’ wealth that it attacked and sacked beautiful city. A legend states that the horses of the city were taught to dance to music tunes for the sake of the amusement of their riders. Then Crotoniats found out about this weakness they brought musicians along with his army. Then the horses heard the tune they started to dance instead of attacking the enemy army. With the dancing cavalry out of way Crotoniats easily smashed the infantry with less festive horses and finished off the army of the Sybaris. Ruins of the ancient city of Sybaris today are known as park of the horses. Unfortunately much of wealth was stripped and the city with its people sold into slavery did not recover.
Founding and Early Development (c. 720 BC)
Sybaris was founded
around 720 BC (some ancient sources suggest 708 BC, with possible
earlier activity near 750 BC) by Achaean colonists primarily from Helike
in the northern Peloponnese (Achaea). Troezenian settlers from the
northeastern Peloponnese participated initially but were soon expelled
or marginalized as the Achaean population grew dominant. The oikist
(founder) is sometimes named as “Is” (possibly a textual corruption
related to the river or a figure like Sagaris).
This was part of the
second wave of Greek colonization in Magna Graecia, following earlier
Euboean settlements. The Achaeans chose the site for its exceptional
fertility, strategic coastal position, and access to inland routes.
Unlike many colonies driven purely by land scarcity at home, Sybaris
quickly integrated native Italic tribes (Oenotrians and others) by
granting citizenship or control, accelerating growth.
By the late 7th
century BC, Sybaris had already founded important sub-colonies, notably
Poseidonia (modern Paestum) on the Tyrrhenian Sea around 600 BC, as well
as Laus and Scidrus. It controlled overland trade routes across the
peninsula, linking Ionian and Tyrrhenian coasts and fostering profitable
exchange with Etruscans and Ionians—cultures the Sybarites admired for
their shared love of luxury.
Peak of Power, Wealth, and Culture
(7th–6th Centuries BC)
Sybaris became the wealthiest and most
populous Greek city in Italy during the Archaic period. Ancient sources
(Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Athenaeus) describe a population
of 100,000–300,000 (likely exaggerated but indicative of exceptional
size), with the urban area covering about 500 hectares and a
circumference exceeding 9 km. It ruled a “mini-empire” encompassing four
tribes and up to 25 subject cities.
Economic foundations
included:
Highly fertile alluvial plain ideal for wheat, olives,
fruit, and livestock.
A busy port handling trade in agricultural
goods, with overland links to Tyrrhenian colonies.
Early coinage
(from ~530 BC) on the Achaean standard, often featuring a bull
symbolizing prosperity (later shared in alliances).
Cultural
reputation for luxury defined the city. Inhabitants were famed (and
later mocked) for hedonism: lavish public banquets, feasts, and
excesses. Anecdotes include:
Cooks and bakers receiving golden crowns
and year-long “patent” protection for recipes—one of the earliest known
intellectual property laws.
Innovations like roofed streets (to
shield from sun), piped wine from estates to harbors, and bans on noisy
trades (e.g., blacksmiths, carpenters) within city limits.
Elaborate
personal luxury: Smindyrides, a famously decadent citizen, reportedly
traveled with vast retinues of servants, cooks, and even bird-catchers
when courting a Sicyonian princess.
These stories, preserved in
Athenaeus and others, are likely exaggerated for moralistic effect but
reflect genuine prosperity and a culture that prioritized pleasure over
austerity (in contrast to Spartan ideals). Sybaris allied with neighbors
like Metapontum and Kroton (Croton) to conquer Siris in the mid-6th
century BC, further expanding influence. It also controlled a major
sanctuary at Timpone della Motta (Francavilla Marittima), dedicated to
Athena, hosting festivals after seizing it from locals.
Conflict,
Destruction, and Legends (510 BC)
Internal strife and rivalry with
Kroton (another Achaean colony ~100 km south) led to catastrophe. Around
510/509 BC, a popular leader or tyrant named Telys overthrew the
oligarchy, exiling 500 wealthy citizens and seizing their property. The
exiles sought refuge in Kroton; when Telys demanded their handover, war
ensued.
Kroton, reportedly led by the athlete Milo and possibly
influenced by Pythagoras (who urged protecting suppliants), decisively
defeated Sybaris. Ancient figures claim massive armies (Sybaris:
300,000; Kroton: 100,000), but these are hyperbolic. Most Sybarites were
killed or enslaved; the city was razed. Kroton allegedly diverted the
Crathis River to bury the ruins (per Strabo), though modern geology
suggests natural alluviation and subsidence played a larger role—no
clear river-diversion deposits exist.
Colorful legends amplified
the defeat:
Sybarite horses trained to dance to flute music allegedly
deserted when Kroton played the tune in battle.
Divine retribution
for hubris (e.g., ignoring oracles, murdering ambassadors, or
prioritizing luxury over gods).
Survivors fled to colonies like
Laus, Scidrus, and possibly Poseidonia (evidenced by continued bull-coin
motifs). The site became a Krotonian dependency briefly.
Aftermath: Refoundings and Later Settlements
~452 BC: Remaining
Sybarites (with possible Thessalian or Poseidonian aid) attempted to
refound “New Sybaris,” but it was short-lived.
446/445 BC: Kroton
expelled them again.
444/443 BC: Athens, under Pericles, sponsored a
Pan-Hellenic colony. Initial settlers included Sybarites, but conflicts
led to their expulsion. The new city, Thurii, was established nearby
with a democratic constitution (ten tribes). It attracted figures like
Herodotus.
Later history: Thurii thrived until Roman conquest (196 BC
or so), becoming Copia Thurii. It declined and was eventually buried by
silt, like its predecessor. A separate “fourth Sybaris” was founded
farther south on the Traeis (Trionto) River; its ruins were excavated in
1949.
By the Roman period, the plain was a malarial swamp; all
visible traces vanished by the 19th century.
Rediscovery and
Archaeology (20th–21st Centuries)
The exact location was lost for
over 2,000 years due to 4–6+ meters of Crati River silt, subsidence, and
high groundwater. In the 1960s, the University of Pennsylvania Museum
(with Italian collaborators and geophysical experts like the Lerici
Foundation) used innovative methods—cesium/proton magnetometers,
electrical resistivity, core drilling, and test pits—to locate it
“beyond reasonable doubt” near modern Sibari (southeast of Cassano allo
Ionio, Province of Cosenza).
Key finds include:
Architectural
fragments from grand temples.
Pottery layers (Corinthian, Ionian)
dating to the 7th–6th centuries BC.
Evidence of Sybaris, Thurii, and
Copia superimposed on the same grid in places (e.g., Parco del Cavallo
and Stombi quarters).
Excavations remain challenging due to
flooding and waterlogging; work continues under the Soprintendenza per i
Beni Archeologici della Calabria, with recent efforts addressing
groundwater and silt. The nearby Timpone della Motta sanctuary provides
additional context.
The protohistoric settlements are evidenced by some sites in the
area, such as Castiglione di Paludi, where there are the remains of
an Iron Age necropolis, dating back to the 9th-8th century BC.
The remains of the city unequivocally testify to the Hellenistic
rational layout of Hippodamus, with streets that intersect
orthogonally, while almost every trace of the previous city has
disappeared.
In the area of the "Parco del Cavallo" there
are some of the most significant remains, dating back to the Roman
age. It is a district organized into two large plateaus and a
theater.
In the areas "Prolungamento Strada" and "Casa
Bianca" there are other sections. "White House" in particular has a
built area of the fourth century BC, with a circular tower.
Finally, Stombi shows an urban area with mixed settlement, only
partially rebuilt after 510 BC, with some foundations from the
Archaic period, including a modest building, wells and furnaces.
Archaeological explorations in the
first half of the twentieth century were limited to some inspections
by Umberto Zanotti Bianco and, later, also by Paola Zancani
Montuoro, which had allowed to bring to light the remains of ancient
structures (essentially of the Roman age, dating back to Latin
colony of Copia, built on the site of Thurii) in the area of Parco
del Cavallo. Extensive and deep excavation campaigns were made
difficult by the conditions of the marshy ground and by the
outcropping aquifer, such as to require substantial technical
support for the suction and drainage of water. Only at the end of
the sixties of the twentieth century was it possible to launch a
systematic program of excavations in Sybaris and between 1969 and
1974 regular excavation campaigns were carried out, with essays in
the areas of Parco del Cavallo, Stombi, Prolungamento strada and
Casa Bianca.
In addition to the well-known remains of the
Roman age, they brought to light structures dating back to the
archaic and classical ages, therefore referable both to the archaic
Sybaris and to the subsequent settlements up to Thurii. The
materials, for the most part subject to processes of floating and
washout, corresponded to these chronological phases but also allowed
to go back to the last quarter of the eighth century BC. and,
therefore, at the time of the presumed foundation of Sibari, that
is, ~ 720 BC. They found confirmation and, later, were further
supported by the findings made in the areas immediately behind the
plain of Sibari, such as Francavilla Marittima (Timpone della Motta)
and Torre del Mordillo.
In the meantime, the intensification of surface research and
excavations in sites in northern Calabria has made it possible to
give ever greater consistency to the historical hypotheses
formulated on the ancient Sybaris and its "empire". Starting from
the end of the nineties and until today, a mission composed of
archaeologists from various Italian and foreign universities, from
the Italian Archaeological School of Athens and Greek archaeologists
has undertaken a project of regular excavations in Sibari, thanks to
which the archaeological knowledge of the site has expanded
enormously. Furthermore, archaeological research in the localities
located at the limits of the plain of Sibari had considerable
importance: sites such as Francavilla Marittima were known
archaeologically many decades before Sibari itself. In fact,
research conducted in 1879 and again in 1887 had led to the
discovery of a vast necropolis from the Iron Age, with rich
materials even prior to the age of Greek colonization, at the foot
of the hill.
Subsequently, extraordinary discoveries were
also made on the top (among other things, an important archaic Greek
inscription) relating to what in the Archaic and Classical age was a
Greek sanctuary dedicated to a female divinity (Hera, Athena?), But
previously it had been an inhabited area or, according to some
scholars, a place of worship for the local people who lived in the
area of the plain of Sibari before the arrival of the Greeks. The
archaeological finds of the ancient city are now kept in the
National Archaeological Museum of Sibaritide.