Italy, Paestum - 02
by AM FineArtPrints
Title
Italy, Paestum - 02
Artist
AM FineArtPrints
Medium
Painting - Painting
Description
Italy, Paestum - 02 by Andrea Mazzocchetti
Paestum, the Latin name of the term Paistom with which it was defined after its conquest by the Lucanians, is an ancient city of Magna Grecia called by the founders Poseidonia in honor of Poseidon, but very devoted to Hera and Athena. The extension of its inhabited area is still well recognizable today, enclosed by its Greek walls, as modified in the Lucanian and then Roman times. In the past it was also known as Pesto.
The main literary source on the foundation of Poseidonia consists of a passage from Strabone, which relates it to the polis of Sybaris. The interpretation of this passage has long been discussed by scholars. On the basis of the archaeological evidence collected so far, the most valid hypothesis seems to be that according to which the foundation of the colony would take place in two stages: at the first plant, consisting of the construction of a fortification ("teichos") along the coast, mass arrival of the settlers and the actual foundation ("oikesis") of the city.
On the basis of archaeological data, a reconstruction of the picture that led to the birth of the city can be attempted. Towards the middle of the seventh century BC, the city of Sybaris began to establish a series of sub-colonies along the Tyrrhenian coast, with commercial functions: among them are Laos and a port, the most northerly, near the mouth of the Sele, where a sanctuary dedicated to Hera was founded, probably with an emporic significance. The Sibarites arrived in the Sele plain through internal roads that connected it to the Ionian Sea.
Thanks to an intense commercial traffic that took place both by sea - coming into contact with the Greek, Etruscan and Latin world - and by land - trading with the local populations of the plain and the Italian in the inner valleys - in the second half of the seventh century BC the settlement quickly developed and then had to give rise to Poseidonia, an event which was certainly accelerated by a specific urbanization project. A necropolis, discovered in 1969 just outside the city walls, containing only Greek vases of Corinthian invoice, certifies that the polis must have been alive already around the year 625 BC.
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August 21st, 2018
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