I PARCHI LETTERARI® IN CALABRIA “JOURNEYS TO THE FUTURE OF MEMORY” - I PARCHI LETTERARI IN THE MARQUISATE OF CROTONE: CROTONE

Crotone, the capital city of the province, is located along the Ionian coast, near the Esaro River outlet. The modern city has extended west from the Medieval village where the ancient Hellenic acropolis was located and where the robust Renaissance castle still stands today.
Besides the castle that was erected in 1541 by the viceroy don Pedro di Toledo to defend the inhabitants against Saracen attacks, Crotone is also home to the cathedral, which also dates to the 16th Century and some churches and Baroque buildings. There are very few remnants of the ancient city, the expanse and monumental wealth of which are mainly testified to by literary documents.

Crotone boasts an ancient Magna-Graecian tradition, it was home to philosophers, mathematicians and illustrious figures such as Pythagoras, Philolaus, Alcmeon and Milo. It was founded around 710 B.C. by the Acheans. There are a number of legends regarding the birth of the city. A collection by Ovid recounts that Hercules, who wanted to punish Lacinius who had stolen his cattle, mistakenly killed his friend Kroton, who he buried along the shore of the Esaro and founded the city to honour his name. Strabo and Antiochus of Syracuse recount that the Acheans, who were supposed to establish a city because it had been ordered by the Oracle at Delphi, sent Myskellos of Rhype to choose the site, which, as the archaeologist Lenormant reports, visited Crotone, but was enchanted by the area surrounding Sibari. When he returned, he decided to go to Sibari, but the Oracle reminded him to obey the divine orders and the expedition ended up in Crotone. Another legend attributes the settlement of Crotone to the Greek warriors who fled Troy, and another to the hero Crotone, the brother of Alkinoös, the king of the Phaiakians, in honour of his name. Other sources narrate that Kroton was supposed to have founded a city where rain would fall from a serene sky. His mother’s tears were supposed to be the rain from the calm heavens and the city that was founded took his name.

After a relatively peaceful co-existence, among the Magna-Graecian cities, towards the middle of the 6th Century B.C., conflicts began that would lead to the battle between Athens and Sparta.
Kroton began a long struggle with other colonies, especially Locri and Sibari, with alternating success. During the period of Pythagoras, who lived in Crotone for a long time (ca. 530-510 B.C.) and whose ideas were readily exploited by the city’s ruling oligarchic party, the city reached its maximum expansion, destroyed Sibari (510 B.C.) and replaced it as Magna Graecia’s hegemonic city.
The city was famous for its healthy climate, for its beautiful women and for the fertile countrysides and the physical strength of its men, which included the multi-Olympic champion Milo, and surpassing all other Greek cities for its number of Olympic champions. A proverb said “the last of the Crotons comes before the first of the Greeks”. The coast was very different than it is today, along the tract of sea from ancient Enotria (present day Cirò, home to the nectar of the Gods, the wine that was given as an award to the winners of the Olympic games of Athens) and the present day Le Castella. A few miles from the shore some islands of imposing beauty jutted out from the sea, but have since been swallowed up by the waters.

However, the city would soon fall, due to bitter internal struggles and it slowly lost its importance until it was conquered by Rome. During the Medieval period, Crotone was an important strategic point for the Byzantines and the Normans. Federico II restored the port and Charles I of Anjou gave it as a fiefdom to the Ruffo family (1284), who preserved it until 1444. In those centuries, the city and the countdom met with a certain prosperity, thanks to the agricultural and mercantile activities. During the 16th and 17th Centuries, Crotone declined due to internal strife and malaria; it was taken over by the Kingdom of Naples until the Unification of Italy. In 1928, the city changed its Medieval name of Cotrone to the classic name of Crotone.

Among the figures from the city of Crotone, one stands out above all… scientist and medicine man, legislator and oligarch, miracle worker and philosopher, better still the inventor of the term philosophy, magician and orator, liberator of the city and its music, the innovator of Greek rationalism and heir to the esoteric knowledge of the Orient, founder of mathematics.
In short: Pythagoras.