Croton
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Croton (Crotona): A ancient Greek city on the east coast of Bruttium (now Calabria), on the river Aesarus. It was founded as a colony of Achaean Greeks led by Myscellus of Aegae in c. 710 or 708 B.C. There Pythagoras established his school, which exerted a notable political and moral influence. The nearby temple of Hera Lacinia was the religious shrine of Magna Graecia. Croton’s athletes won fame at the Olympic Games. The height of the city’s prosperity was reached after the army, led by the athlete Milo, destroyed the rival town of Sybaris (510 B.C.). Croton then became involved in wars and soon declined after suffering a major defeat at the hands of the Locrians. It was captured by the Romans in 277 B.C., and received a colony in 195 BC. The place declined and until modern times it never rose above the status of a provincial town. It was called Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, when its name was changed to Crotone.