Sybaris

Sybaris, a city of Magna Graecia, on the Gulf of Taranto, between the rivers Crathis (Crati) and Sybaris (Coscile), which now meet 3 miles from the sea, but in ancient times had independent mouths, was the oldest Greek colony in this region.

It was an Achaean colony founded by Isus of Helice about 720 BC, but had among its settlers many Troezenians, who were ultimately expelled. Although the region is now unhealthy, at the time it was very fertile, and following a liberal admission policy, the city became large and wealthy, with a vast subject territory and diverse daughter colonies even on the Tyrrhenian Sea (Posidonia, Laus, Scidrus).

For magnificence and luxury the Sybarites were proverbial throughout Greece, and in the 6th century probably no Hellenic city could compare with its wealth and splendor. Tension between the democrats and oligarchs, in which many of the latter were expelled and took refuge at