Crotone (, ; or ) is a city and comune in Calabria, Italy.
Founded as the Achaean colony of Kroton ( or ; ), it became a great Greek city, home of the renowned mathematician-philosopher Pythagoras amongst other famous citizens, and one of the most important centres of Magna Graecia.
It was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, when its name was changed to the current one. In 1992, it became the capital of the newly established Province of Crotone.
History
The promontory of Kroton was inhabited by indigenous populations, perhaps Oenotrians and Japigi, in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.
Foundation
Kroton's oikistes (founder) was Myscellus, from the city of Rhypes in Achaea in the northern Peloponnese, after consulting the Delphic Oracle who announced:
Cross the vast sea and next to the Esaro (river) you will found Kroton.
The Achaeans were motivated, like others of the Greek colonisation, by the lack of cultivatable land in their mountainous region and by population pressure.
Although the Greek foundation of Kroton was thought to be 710 BC, it is likely that Myscellus made three founding expeditions to Kroton, the first in ca. 733 in the company of Archias of Corinth at the head of an Achaean-Spartan venture (when they founded Syracuse), but which did not result in a stable urban settlement. The second was in 720-709 at the head of an Achaean colonial expedition, hoping to settle in the Sybaris area. The third time in ca. 708, at the head of a similar expedition founded Achaean Kroton.
From archaeology, the colonisation in the second half of the 8th century BC had an impact on the settlement organisation and on the economic and social structure of the indigenous communities, as in the Kroton area most of the existing settlements disappeared, while grave goods from the Carrara necropolis highlight a widespread practice of mixed marriages between Greeks and indigenous women, since the first generation of settlers.
Greek era
It soon became one of the most flourishing cities of Magna Graecia, with a population between 50,000 and 80,000 around 500 BC.
Its inhabitants were famous for their physical strength and for the simple sobriety of their lives. From 588 BC onwards, Croton produced many generations of winners in the Olympics and the other Panhellenic Games, the most famous of whom was Milo of Croton. The physicians of Croton were considered the foremost among the Greeks, and among them Democedes, son of Calliphon, was the most prominent in the 6th century BC. Accordingly, he travelled around Greece and ended up working in the court of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. After the tyrant was murdered, Democedes was captured by the Persians and brought to King Darius, curing him of a dislocated ankle. Democedes' fame was, according to Herodotus, the basis for the prestige of Croton's physicians.
Then began a period of expansion, although the victory of Locri and Rhegium over Croton in the battle of Sagra in 570 BC, at first interrupted the advance. The walls of the city were 12 miles long and enclosed a vast area. During its early history Kroton expanded its influence over the Bruttian peninsula founding the colony of Terina on the Tyrrhenian coast, and also Caulonia.
Pythagoras founded his school, the Pythagoreans, at Croton c. 530 BC. Among his pupils were the early medical theorist Alcmaeon of Croton and the philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer Philolaus. The Pythagoreans acquired considerable influence with the supreme council of one thousand by which the city was ruled. Sybaris was the rival of Croton until 510 BC, when Croton sent an army of one hundred thousand men, commanded by the wrestler Milo, against Sybaris and destroyed it. Shortly afterwards, however, an insurrection took place, led by a prominent citizen, Cylon, by which the Pythagoreans were driven out and a democracy established.
In 480 BC, Croton sent a ship led by Phayllos in support of the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis, the only one from the Italian coast.
The Sanctuary of Hera Lacinia at Capo Collone 10 km away was built in 480–440 BC. It was used as the federal treasury of the Italiote League until its headquarters were relocated from Croton to Heraclea near Tarentum.
Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, aiming at hegemony in Magna Graecia, captured Croton in 379 BC and held it for twelve years. Croton was then occupied by the Bruttii, with the exception of the citadel, in which the chief inhabitants had taken refuge; these soon after surrendered and were allowed to withdraw to Locri.