3.6 Metaponto

Metaponto, as Sybaris and Croton, was considered a colony of the Achaeans of the Peloponnese. After recalling the tradition that the city was colonized by Nestor of Pylos and his companions to return from the Trojan War, Strabo refers to Antiochus of Syracuse to narrate its foundation in historical.

The version of Antiochus the foundation of Metaponto could be a reflection of the struggle that Turi and Taranto fought among themselves for possession of Siris between the 443 and the 433, precisely in the years when Antiochus wrote his story. On the other hand the aims of Sybaris and Metapontum on Siritide not only goes back to the fifth century, but at a time when Siri was destroyed by the three city Achaean coalition (Sybaris, Metaponto and Crotone). The bed Bradano, that separates today Puglia and Lucania from that in the time of Augustus marked the border between the third and the fourth region of, so already to Antiochus marked the end of Italy itself, and the beginning of Iapigia. Indeed, it seems that it was considered a dividing line already at an age very remote, even prior to the colonization of the Achaean and Lacone, if it is true that in Metaponto ended the Oenotria. The origin of the Achaean historical Metaponto is established by a series of concordant testimonies. Il Pseudo-Scimno, after talking to Crotone, Pandosia the tour, the latter being considered the heir of Sybaris, Metaponto recalls, adding that all of these cities were founded by the Achaeans of the Peloponnese. That this was the origin of Metaponto is implied in the story that Justin is the destruction of Siri by Metapontines, of Sybaris and Croton. And similarly, in a passage of Livy, when we talk about the common origin of Metapontines and Turi, and once again the latter are considered to be the successors of the Sybarites. But the most valuable evidence seems to be that of Bacchylides, who composed an ode in honor of the young metapontino Alessidamo, winner of a wrestling match in Delphi: in this ode is alluded to twice the Achaean origin of Metaponto. The chronology of Eusebius places the foundation of Metaponto and that of the Pandosia 773-772 a.C. But this indication is in stark contrast to the tradition that was founded after Sybaris Metaponto and Taranto. In fact, that the foundation of Pandosia is combined with that of Metaponto makes unacceptable the date 773-772 a.C., Giacchè Pandosia in Brutio can not be founded first of Croton and Sybaris. A grain of truth appears in the version of Antiochus that the colonization of Metaponto should be placed in the last years of the eighth century or at the beginning of the seventh century BC. the work of Leucippus, metapontine depicted on coins with his head covered by a Corinthian helmet and with the legend "Leucippus".