According to tradition, the name of the city derives from the name of its founder, Caulon, son of the Amazon Clete. The myth has it that, after the Trojan War, the Achaeans led by Typhon of Aegium landed on the coasts of Calabria and, with the help of the Crotoniati, destroyed the kingdom of Clete.
Only his son Claulon would be saved and rebuild the city. According to Strabo, however, the name of the city derives from aulonia, wallonia, that is deep valley. Francesco De Sanctis, would rather derive it from the word kaulos, or stem, trunk.
About the hypotheses regarding its origin, the sources report two main interpretations. The first, supported by Strabo and Pausanias the Periegeta, attributes to the Achaeans the role of founders, in the person of Typhon of Aegium.
The second hypothesis, proper to more modern authors, instead leans towards the origin as a colony of Kroton. In reality, there is no real dichotomy between the two hypotheses: archaeological research is in fact concordant in identifying in the eighth century BC. the founding period of Kaulon, while the Crotonian influence, corresponding to the heyday, dates back to the 6th century BC.
The city was limited to the south by the river Sagra, on whose banks in the 6th century BC. the famous battle of the Festival took place [8], in which Kaulon, allied with Kroton, was defeated by the poleis of Locri Epizefiri and Rhegion (the ancient Reggio); legend has it that the miraculous intervention of the Dioscuri was decisive in battle.
In the 4th century BC Kaulon was later defeated by the joint forces of the Lucanians and Dionysius I of Syracuse, a defeat which cost in 389 BC. the deportation of its inhabitants to Syracuse and the transfer of the territory to Locri, ally of the tyrant. Rebuilt by Dionysius the Younger, Kaulon was subsequently prey to Hannibal during the second Punic war, then ending definitively in the orbit of Rome by Quinto Fabio Massimo in 205 BC.
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Scavi di Caulonia, l'antica Kaulon
Address: Strada Statale 106 Ionica, 89040 Reggio Calabria
Phone: 0964 732557
Site:
http://atlante.beniculturalicalabria.it/luoghi_della_cultura.php?action=MAPLocation inserted by
Bonometti Paola