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LOCRI

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 857 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LOCRI , an See also:

ancient See also:city of Magna Graecia, See also:Italy. The See also:original settlers took See also:possession of the Zephyrian promontory (See also:Capo Bruzzano some 12 M. N. of Capo Spartivento), and though after three or four years they transplanted themselves to a site 12 M. farther See also:north, still near the See also:coast, 2 M. S. of Gerace Marina below the See also:modern Gerace, they still retained the name of Locri Epizephyrii (Aoicpol of itrq'eg5upcoc), which served to distinguish them from the Ozolian and Opuntian Locri of See also:Greece itself (see preceding See also:article). The See also:foundation of Locri goes back to about 683 B.C. It was the first of all See also:Greek communities to have a written See also:code of See also:laws given by See also:Zaleucus in 664 B.C. From Locri were founded the colonies of Meisma and Heiponium (Hipponium). It succeeded in repelling the attacks of Croton (See also:battle on the See also:river Sagras, perhaps sometime in the 6th See also:century), and found in See also:Syracuse a support against Rhegium: it was thus an active adversary or Athenian aggrandisement in the See also:west. See also:Pindar extolls its uprightness and love of the heroic muse of beauty, of See also:wisdom, and of See also:war, in the loth and zzth Olympian Odes. See also:Stesichorus (q.v.) was indeed of Locrian origin. But it owed its greatest See also:external prosperity to the fact that See also:Dionysius I. of Syracuse selected his wife from Locri: its territory was then increased, and the See also:circuit of its walls was doubled, but it lost its freedom. In 356 B.C. it was ruled by Dionysius II.

From the battle of See also:

Heraclea to the See also:year 205 (when it was captured by P. See also:Cornelius Scipio See also:Africanus Maior, and placed under the See also:control of his See also:legate Q. Pleminius), Locri was continually changing its See also:allegiance between See also:Rome and her enemies; but it remained an ally, and was only obliged like other Greek coast towns to furnish See also:ships. In later See also:Roman times it is often mentioned, but was apparently of no See also:great importance. It is mentioned incidentally until the 6th century A.D., but was destroyed by the See also:Saracens in 915. Excavations in 1889–1890 led to the See also:discovery of an Ionic See also:temple (the Doric See also:style being usual in Magna Graecia) at the north-west See also:angle of the See also:town—originally a See also:cella with two naves, a closed pronaos on the E. and an See also:adytum at the back (W.), later converted into a See also:hexastyle peripheral temple with 34 painted terra-See also:cotta columns. This was then destroyed about 400 B.C. and a new temple built on the ruins, heptastyle See also:peripteral, with no intermediate columns in the cella and opisthodomos, and with 44 columns in all. The figures from the See also:pediment of the twin Dioscuri, who according to the See also:legend assisted Locri against See also:Crotona, are in the See also:Naples museum(see R. Koldewey and O. Puchstein, Griechische Tempel in Unteritalien and Sicilien, See also:Berlin, 1899, pp. 1 sqq.). Subsequent excavations in 1890–1891 were of the greatest importance, but the results remained unpublished up to 1908.

From a See also:

short See also:account by P. Orsi in Atli del Congresso Storico, vol. v.'(Archeologia) Rome, 1004, p. 201, we learn that the exploration of the environs of the temple led to the discovery of a large number of archaic terra-cottas, and of some large trenches, covered with tiles, containing some 14,000 scyphoi arranged in rows. The See also:plan of the city was also traced; the walls, the length of which was nearly 5 m., consisted of three parts—the fortified castles (Opoi'pia) with large towers, on three different hills, the city proper, and the See also:lower town—the latter enclosed by See also:long walls See also:running down to the See also:sea. In the Roman See also:period the city was restricted to the See also:plain near the sea. Since these excavations, a certain amount of unauthorized See also:work has gone on, and some of the remains have been destroyed. In the course of these excavations some prehistoric See also:objects have been discovered, which confirm the accounts of See also:Thucydides and See also:Polybius that the Greek settlers found the See also:Siculi here before them. (T.

End of Article: LOCRI

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