History of Taranto

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The origin of the city of Taranto dates from the 8th century BC when it was founded as a Greek colony, known as Taras.

Taras gradually increased its influence, becoming a commercial power and a city-state of

Taranto was founded in 706 BC by Dorian immigrants hailing from Sparta. Its origins are peculiar: the founders were Partheniae, sons of unmarried Spartan women and perioeci (free men, but not citizens of Sparta); these unions were decreed by the Spartans to increase the number of soldiers (only the citizens of Sparta could become soldiers) during the bloody First Messenian War, but later they were nullified, and the sons were forced to leave. There are some doubts about Taranto being of Spartan origin.^[1][2]

According to the legend Phalanthus, the Parthenian leader, went to Delphi to consult the oracle and received the puzzling answer that he should found a city where rain fell from a clear sky. After all attempts to capture a suitable place to found a colony failed, he became despondent, convinced that the oracle had told him something that was impossible, and was consoled by his wife. She laid his head in her lap and herself became disconsolate. When Phalanthus felt her tears splash onto his forehead he at last grasped the meaning of the oracle, for his wife's name meant clear sky. The harbour of Taranto in Apulia was nearby and he decided this must be the new home for the exiles. The Partheniae arrived and founded the city, naming it Taras after the son of the Greek sea god, Poseidon, and the local nymph Satyrion. A variation says Taras was founded in 707 BC by some Spartans, who, the sons of free women and enslaved fathers, were born during the Messenian War. According to other sources, Heracles founded the city. Another tradition indicates Taras himself as the founder of the city; the symbol of the Greek city (as well as of the modern city) is Taras riding a dolphin.

In its beginning, Taranto was a monarchy, probably modelled on the one ruling over Sparta; around 492 BC king Aristophilides ruled over the city.^[3]

The expansion of Taranto was limited to the coast because of the resistance of the populations of inner Apulia. In 472 BC, Taranto signed an alliance with

However, the rise of the democratic party did not weaken the bonds of Taranto and her mother-city Sparta. In fact, Taranto supported the Peloponnesian side against Athens in the Peloponnesian War, refused anchorage and water to Athens in 415 BC, and even sent ships to help the Peloponnesians, after the Athenian disaster in Sicily. On the other side, Athens supported the Messapians, in order to counter Taranto's power.

In 432 BC, after several years of war, Taranto signed a peace treaty with the Greek colony of

Under the rule of its greatest statesman, strategist and army commander-in-chief, the philosopher and mathematician Archytas, Taranto reached its peak power and wealth; it was the most important city of the Magna Graecia, the main commercial port of southern Italy, it produced and exported goods to and from motherland Greece and it had the biggest army and the largest fleet in southern Italy. However, with the death of Archytas in 347 BC, the city started a slow, but ineluctable decline. Though the city’s hoplite infantry and cavalry continued to enjoy a notable reputation, its restrictive policies of citizenship meant that Taras could not match the numbers of first the Apulian tribes, then the Samnites, and finally the Romans.

In 343 BC Taranto appealed for aid against the barbarians to its mother city Sparta, in the face of aggression by the Brutian League. In 342 BC, Archidamus III, king of Sparta, arrived in Italy with an army and a fleet to fight the Lucanians and their allies. In 338 BC, during the Battle of Manduria, the Spartan and Tarentine armies were defeated in front of the walls of Manduria (nowadays in province of Taranto), and Archidamus was killed.

In 333 BC, still troubled by their Italic neighbours, the Tarentines called the

Two political parties were present at the time within Taranto. The democrats, led by Philocharis or Ainesias, were dominant; they were against Rome, because they knew that if the Romans entered Taranto, the Greeks would have lost their independence. The second faction in Taranto were the aristocrats, led by Agis; they had lost their power when Taranto had become a democracy, and did not oppose surrendering to Rome as it would increase their own influence in the city, by reducing the power of the democrats. However, the aristocrats did not want to surrender openly to Rome and become unpopular with the population.

At that time, Taranto had the most powerful naval forces in Italy, and hastened to come to an agreement with Rome that stated that Roman ships could not enter into the Gulf of Taranto.

In 282 BC, Rome sent a fleet under Admiral Lucius Valerius, carrying troops to garrison Thurii, but ten ships were caught in a tempest and arrived in the sea off Taranto during a holy day (the festival of Dionysus). This angered the Tarentines, who considered it a hostile act openly in conflict with the pact, which forbade the Gulf of Taranto to Roman ships, and responded by attacking the Roman fleet: the Tarentine navy sunk four Roman ships, and captured a fifth.^[6] According to some historians, Tarentine aristocrats had been asked by the Roman commanders Publius Cornelius and Lucius Valerius to arrest and execute the democrats and their followers during the arrival of the Roman fleet, which would allow the aristocrats to lead the city and sign an alliance with Rome.

The army and fleet of Taranto moved to Thurii and helped the democrats there exile the aristocrats. The Roman garrison placed in Thurii withdrew.

Rome sent diplomats to Taranto, but the talks were broken off by the Tarentines: the Roman ambassador, Postumius, was insulted and mocked by Philonides, a member of the popular party. The Senate declared war on Taranto, and the Tarentines decided to call for help from King Pyrrhus of Epirus. In 281 BC, Roman legions, under the command of Lucius Aemilius Barbula, entered Taranto and plundered it. Taranto, with Samnite and Salentine reinforcements, then lost a battle against the Romans. After the battle, the Greeks chose Agis to sign a truce and begin diplomatic talks. These talks were also broken off when 3000 soldiers from Epirus under the command of Cineas entered the town. The Roman consul withdrew and suffered losses from attacks by the Greek ships.^[7]

Pyrrhus decided to help Taranto because he was in debt to them - they had earlier helped him conquer the island of

In 279 BC, Pyrrhus defeated another Roman army in the Battle of Asculum (modern Ascoli Satriano, Foggia), again with many casualties. Most of the men Pyrrhus had brought over from Epirus were disabled or dead, including nearly all of his officers and friends. Recruiting would be impossible, and his allies were unreliable. The Romans, on the other hand, quickly replaced their losses with fresh men, and with every defeat, the Romans were becoming more determined to win. At the same time, Pyrrhus received a proposal from the Sicilian Greek colonies of Syracuse, Leontini, and Agrigentum, to lead them in a war against the Carthaginians, and left Italy for Sicily, suspending the war against Rome, and leaving a garrison in Taranto.

The Tarentines recalled Pyrrhus in 276 BC, and the king gladly returned from his Sicilian adventure. The war against Rome revamped, but this time Pyrrhus was matched by the Romans in the Battle of Beneventum (275 BC) and elected to give up his Italian campaign as Antigonus II of Macedon would not send him reinforcements. After six years, Pyrrhus returned to Epirus, with only 8,500 men: a garrison was left in Taranto, under the command of Pyrrhus' vice-commander Milon.

The Romans conquered the city in 272 BC, by treachery of the Greek soldiers, and demolished the defensive walls of the city. Thirty thousand of the Greek inhabitants were sold as slaves and many works of art were carried off to Rome.

During the

Even in Antiquity it was renowned for its beautiful climate. In ancient times its poets

Tarentum had a municipal law, Lex municipii Tarenti; a partial copy inscribed on bronze plates was discovered in 1894 by Luigi Viola [it], and is now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Naples.

During the late

In the wake of the Gothic wars, Taranto was reconquered by the Byzantine Empire in 540 and was ruled by them until the Lombards (or Longobards) of the Duchy of Benevento captured it in 662.

In spring 663

After the Emperor returned to Constantinople, a new war between the Byzantines and the Duchy of Beneventum started. Duke Grimoaldus conquered northern Apulia and his son Romoaldus, in 686, took Taranto and Brindisi from the imperial army.

In the 8th century, North African Muslim

The first years of the 9th century were characterized by the internal fights that weakened the Lombard power. In 840, a Lombard prince, who was held prisoner in Taranto, was freed by his partisans, brought to

The 11th century was characterized by a bloody struggle between Normans and Byzantines for the rule over the Tarentine and Bariot lands. In May 1060, Robert Guiscard conquered the city, but in October Taranto was re-occupied by the Byzantine army. After three years, in 1063, the Norman count Geoffrey, son of Petron I, entered in Taranto, but he was obliged to flee from it on the arrival of the Byzantine admiral Michael Maurikas. Taranto was finally conquered by the Normans: the sons of Petron elected the first Norman archbishop, Drogo, in 1071, and prepared a fleet to conquer Durazzo.^[10]

Taranto became the capital of a Norman principality, whose first ruler was

Ferdinand I of Naples, also known as King Ferrante, united the Principality of Taranto to the Kingdom of Naples, at the death of his wife, Isabella of Taranto (Clermont). The principality ended, but the kings of Naples continued giving the title of Prince of Taranto to their sons, firstly to the future Alfonso II of Naples, Duke of Calabria, eldest son of Isabella.

In March 1502, the Spanish fleet of king

In 1504 King

In 1570 Admiral

In 1647 the insurrection of

In 1746 Taranto had 11,526 inhabitants. All of them were packed in the small island, among a high number of religious institutes and churches. Francesco Antonio Calo', a Tarentine nobleman, started in 1765 with two statues the Mysteries of the Holy Week celebrations. They are today the most important and attended event of Taranto.

After the defeat of Ferdinand IV of Naples at Monteregio and the subsequent Peace of Florence, in 1801 the French general Jean-de-dieu Soult occupied with 13,000 soldiers the provinces of Bari, Lecce and the harbour of Taranto. Napoleon wanted to build a stronghold to keep under pression the British base of Malta. On 23 April 1801, 6,000 French soldiers of the Armée d'observation du midi entered in Taranto (20.000 inhabitants at the time) and fortified it in order to obtain "a sort of Gibitrair" (Napoleon). On 25 March 1802, France and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Amiens, which required France to leave South Italy, but after UK declaration of war against France, the Armée d'observation du midi returned to Taranto, under the command of general Laurent Gouvion de Saint Cyr, on 23 May 1803. Among the French officers in Taranto, there is also the novelist Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, artillery general and fortification expert, who died in Taranto on 5 September 1803. On 15 February, Joseph Bonaparte became King of Naples, and on 3 May visited the fortifications of Taranto. The presence of the French troops and defensive works benefited the Tarentine economy. In 1805 the Russian fleet, allied with the British, remained there for several months.

On March 30, 1806, Bonaparte's decree created Tarente (the French name for the city) one of six hereditary

With the fall of Napoleon and the defeat of

On 9 September 1860, Taranto became part of the temporary government founded by

Between May and June 1866, the newly formed