13 Facts About Sybaris

1.

Sybaris amassed great wealth thanks to its fertile land and busy port.

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2.

When Sybaris was still populated the Coscile pursued a direct course into the Gulf of Taranto, probably at a short distance to the north.

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3.

Diodorus Siculus describes how Sybaris had amassed great wealth and a huge population as a result of its fertile farming land and its policy of admitting aliens to its citizenry.

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4.

Sybaris calls it the largest city in Italy and states that it had 300, 000 inhabitants.

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5.

Furthermore, he explains that Sybaris was a dominant power in the region which ruled over four tribes and twenty-five subject cities.

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6.

Sybaris extended its dominion across the peninsula to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where it is thought to have founded its colonies Poseidonia, Laus and Scidrus.

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7.

Sybaris sailed from Sybaris to Sicyon in a ship of fifty oars manned by his own slaves and surpassed even Cleisthenes himself in luxury.

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8.

One of the first documented intellectual property laws similar to modern patent laws is thought to have been enacted in the 6th century BC in Sybaris, to protect culinary creations of chefs or bakers for a period of 1 year.

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9.

Sybaris persuaded the Sybarites to exile the 500 richest citizens and confiscate their wealth.

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10.

Sybaris argues that the elements of the story resemble fictional tragedies.

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11.

Sybaris was not completely destroyed, as Diodorus and Strabo claimed, but became a dependent "ally" of Kroton.

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12.

However, according to Timaeus and two scholia Polyzelos was successful in relieving the siege of Sybaris and fled to Acragas later when he was accused of plotting revolution.

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13.

Sybaris altered details of the original accounts, disguised his own contributions as those of past historians and invented new information to fit his argument that luxury leads to catastrophe.

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