REGGIO
Several sources deal with the foundation of Reggio and of its relative events, all of them are unanimous in giving the birth of the colony to people coming from Calcide, in the isle of Eubea. According to Strabone the people from Calcide (Calcidians) due to a famine, were offered to the Delphic Apollo for a tithe and.it was by the wish of the oracle that would have landed in Italy from Delphi and would have founded the colony bringing with them other fellow citizens. But, according to Antioch, it was the Zanclesi to call on the Calcidesi and imposed Antimnesto as Eciste.
In the foundation of the colony also some Messenians would have taken part from Peloponnesus, whom were refugees from their home land and to whom the Apollonian oracle would have said to them to start out with the calcidians colonists (from Calcide).
On the name Reggio (the old Rhegion) Strabone reports the existence of two different etymologies: the preferable one is "fracture" such name was given due to violent earthquakes that detached Sicily from Italy, the other, derives from the Latin word regius.
As far as the concerning for the chronology on the foundation of Reggio, from the Strabone account we extract the link with the first messenic twenty year war which dating is probable around 743- 724; however, we can place the birth of Reggio around the year 730-720 b. C. According to Dionysius from Alicarnasso the colonist founded the city after having chased off the barbarians who lived in the area, most likely were, from Sicily: the chosen area was at north between the Annunziata stream and the Calopinace river (ancient name Apsia) in the south.
In the V century Reggio's was bordering on the Ionic side with Locri along the Halex river, while on the Tyrrhenian side it should have been along the Metauros River (the current Petrace).
In the battle of Sagra, between Locri and Crotone around the middle of the VI century B.C. , Reggio took side with Locri : according to Trogo-Giustino, ten thousand Locresi together with Reggini would have faced one hundred and thirty thousand Crotoniati defeating them.
The presence of Reggio beside the LOCRESI was motivated with the preoccupation by the citizens in an eventual expansion of Crotone way up to the city borders, already pressed by the Locresi on the Tyrrhenian side.
According to Herodotus e Diodoro in the year 494 B.C. Anassilao , a distinguished representative of the Messene component in Reggio, became a tyrant: in the beginning he convinced a group of Samian exiled in the West to occupy Zancle; but these preferred to come to an agreement with the Tyrant of Gela Hippocrates accepting the dominion. After the death of Hippocrates in the year (491) Anassilao occupied Zancle, chasing away the Samian, and renaming it Messana; later he attacked Locri having success, as documented by the votive dedications on arms consecrated in Olympia's sanctuary. After the historic victory at Imera against the Carthaginians in the year (480 B.C.), Gelone, the tyrant from Syracuse took also the control of Reggio, forcing Anassilao to recognize the supremacy of Syracuse, up to the point where one of his daughters married Gerone, Gelone's brother and successor. On Gelone's death (478 B.C) Anassilao tried to regain his previous politics against Locri (477-476) but was stopped by Gerone.
At Anassilao's death in 476, his son Micito tried very hard to give Reggio an autonomous role compared to Syracuse; only after one decade, in the year 461, Reggio came to the fall of its tyranny with the expulsion of Anassilao' s sons.
The monetization of the city is dated around the year 510 B.C it proposed the anddrosopo bull surmounted by a locust probably the personification of the Apsia river; in the V century there were minted coins portraying a lion mask and a calfs head with the inscription "Reginon". In the period of the tyrant Anassilao, there was a new emission of coins: a tetra gram on one side there is a bearded man who drives a cart pulled by a mule on the opposite side a running hare.
In the 427B.C. Reggio strictly allied with Athens, came in defence of the city of Leontini and Camerina threatened by Syracuse. Furthermore, when Athens moved against Syracuse in the 415, Reggio let the Athenian army to encamp on the outskirt of the city supplying it with provisions and other vital products.
Diodoro, refers that in the year 398B.C. the tyrant of Syracuse Dionysius I proposed to the citizens of Reggio to marry one of their female citizen in return of territorial expansions, but they strongly refused.
In the year 390 - 89 Dionysius invaded Reggio, but the attack failed due to an immediate aid from the italioti allied; in the year 388 once again the town is besieged and, after eleven months of heroic resistance had to surrender undergoing the terrible vengeance by tyrant. Reggio was reconstructed by Dionysius II and renamed "Febea". In the year 351 b. C. the city became independent after having expelled the last garrisons in Syracuse; but soon just like all the other colonies in the magna Grecia directly menaced by the Lucan expantion and of the Brettii had to ask Rome for help.
Rome imposed massive military presence from Campania, but these abused the population of Reggio,(279B.C.) they were punished by the consul Fabrizio Luscino; it followed a new garrison with new abuses and again would have been punished by the consul G. C1epsina in the year 270.
By this time it became a confederate roman city. In the year 215 and in the year 211B.C. there were two attempts by the Cartaginesi to take possess of Reggio: one conducted by Annone and the other by Hannibal but both failed due to the strong presence of roman garrisons.
In the year 89 B.C. the city became "municipio" adopting the name of "Rhegium Iulium”.
The history of "Rhegium Iulium"has been more than once hit by damaging earthquakes:a first time in 91B.C, a second time in Tiberius era around the 17B.C.; a third time maybe around the 362-364 A.C.
LITERARY SOURCES
Diodoro, XI, 48, 2; XIV, 40; 100; 107-108; 111-112.
Dionisio di Alicarnasso, Excerpta, XIX, 2.
Erodoto, VI, 22; 23, 2; 24; VII, 165; 170, 4.
Flegonte di Tralle, FGrHist 257 F 36.
Giustino, VP, IV, 2, 4; XX, 2-3; XXI, 3, 2.
Livio, XXIV 1, 2 e 12; XXVI 12, 2.
Pausania, IV, 4, 1; 23, 6.
Polibio, IX 7, 16.
Pseudo-Aristotele, Oeconom., II, 1349 b.
Pseudo-Scimno, vv. 311-12.
Scholia ad Pindar., Pythica II, 36 c, 38.
Solino, II, 10.
Strabone, VI, I, 6 C 257; VI, I, 10 C 261; VIII, 4, 9 C 362.
Tucidide, III, 86, 2; IV, 24; 25, 3; VI, 4, 5-6; 44; 103, 2; VII, 14, 3.
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