The Ancient History of Tarentum

Many of the most powerful ancient cities in the Mediterranean were, in fact, colonies of other powerful cities. For example, the city of Carthage was, in fact, a colony of the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre. Now, mainland Italy wasn't exempt from these colonies. In fact, it was absolutely filled with Greek colonies, specifically located on the foot of Italy in an area called Magna Graecia. Now, a majority of these cities could trace their lineage back to a selection of Greek cities in the Greek peninsula, specifically the city of Corinth. However, one of these cities would, in fact, be able to trace their lineage all the way back to the warlike city of Sparta. This is the history of Tarentum. Now, Tarentum was founded in 706 BC by Spartan colonists. Now, these Spartan colonists were, in fact, the offspring of Spartan women and the Spartan slave class called the Helots. Needless to say, these colonists picked an absolutely brilliant location as Tarentum was, in fact, located right on the heel of Italy. This essentially gave them control over all the trade going up the Italian coast and all the trade heading down towards Greece. As a result, the city began to prosper and it grew extremely wealthy extremely quickly, thus becoming the envy of all the other Greek cities in the area. So, as a result, Tarentum actually found itself at war with these other Greek cities in the surrounding area, specifically the Mespians. Now, to begin with, Tarentum actually began quite well. They defeated the Mespians in an open battle. However, in 475 BC, the Mespians absolutely butchered a Tarentine army. As a knock-on effect, the monarchy which had previously ruled Tarentine was replaced by a not so much unlike the democracy in Athens. Now, the Tarentines actually bounced back quite quickly from this defeat. Indeed, by 433 BC, the territory the city held actually increased. Now, the reason for this sudden growth in influence that Tarentum had was due to the fact that the city of Croton, which had been the dominant Greek city in Magna Graecia, was beginning to decline. Now, the reason for this decline was because Croton was at war with the city of Syracuse. Now, Syracuse had by this time actually made themselves a small little empire and, simply put, Croton couldn't compete with Syracuse. Syracuse had more men that they could draw upon to fill their armies. So, as a result, Tarentum actually made an alliance with this small Syracusean empire and they began to fill the power vacuum that was left by the city of Croton's decline. So, Tarentine territory actually began to increase. However, this once again brought them into conflict not only with the Mespians but also with the local Italian tribes, specifically the Brutii and the Samnites. Now, despite this increase in power, the Tarentines still cannot field a large army that is big enough to compete with the Brutii and Samnites. So, using their vast wealth, they begin to hire large mercenary armies from Greece and the nearby Greek kingdom of Epirus. Indeed, a majority of these Greek mercenary armies were, in fact, led by Epirote kings. One of these Epirote kings we are going to call Alexander the Molossian. Now, the reason why we're calling him the Molossian is because he's actually a relative of Alexander the Great and whilst Alexander was away conquering the Persian empire, Alexander the Molossian was actually fighting in Italy on behalf of the Tarentines. Now, Alexander the Molossian was head of the tribe of Molossia, so that's where he gets the Molossian from. Now that we are able to distinguish between Alexander the Great and Alexander the Molossian, let's get into Alexander the Molossian's career in Italy. So, needless to say, much like many later Epirote campaigns, the Epirotes actually sustain quite heavy losses against the Italians. However, they are constantly victorious. This actually leads to Alexander the Molossian pushing against the Brutii and Samnites and as a result, he eventually dies in battle against the Brutii and Samnites. Without a clear leader of this mercenary army, the Epirotes simply return home and as a result, the Brutii and Samnites begin to reclaim back all the territory that Alexander the Molossian had conquered from them. However, right after this, the Latin tribe of Rome actually conquered the Samnites and Brutii, meaning that now the power of Rome is bordering Magna Glacia and is actually threatening Tarentum itself. So, the Teretines actually go back to Epirus and they actually ask the new Epirote king, Pyrrhus of Epirus, to field a large mercenary army and come over and help them beat back these Italians once again. Pyrrhus agrees to this and he actually fields a massive Epirite army. As well as this, he also has war elephants which are provided to him by his ally, the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy. So, Pyrrhus leads Epirus and heads towards Tarentum and he begins a long and bloody campaign against the Romans. Now, Pyrrhus has quite a large amount of success against the Romans. However, with every victory, he is losing more and more men and the territory he is conquering cannot replace the men that he is losing. As the Romans actually control the large populations of Campania and Lactaeum, they are able to replace their soldiers more quickly than Pyrrhus. This means that the war against Rome is essentially turning into this massive slog where Pyrrhus is constantly being victorious but he's also not able to actually hammer home the victory and attack Rome itself because he does not have enough men to actually attack Rome. Recognizing that this is pretty much a no-win situation, Pyrrhus and the Epirotes actually leave Magna Graecia for the Romans to take and as a result, in 270 BC, Rome actually occupies the city of Tarentum. Now, one thing to remember about the Greeks is they do not like foreign powers crushing their freedom and this is essentially the case with Tarentum and all of Magna Graecia. However, the power of Rome is simply too much for the Magna Graecians to actually along with this Roman authority over their lands until a new leader actually emerges among them. Now, this new leader wouldn't actually be a Greek, he would actually be a Carthaginian and his name was Hannibal Barca. Now, Hannibal marched over the Alps and worked his way down mainland Italy and found himself in a similar situation as what Pyrrhus had found himself a few decades prior to him. He kept on winning every single battle with the Romans, however, the allies he had in Italy couldn't replace his fallen soldiers whilst Rome's allies could. Anyway, thinking that Hannibal is the general that they need to finally break free of the Italians, Tarentum actually sides with Hannibal and it actually becomes an important city for the Carthaginian general. What follows next is that Hannibal actually has to defend Tarentine from the Romans as the Romans launch a massive assault against the city. Remember, Rome actually views Tarentum as having broken an alliance with them so they want to punish the Tarentines. At the same time, Hannibal is finally boxed into a city so there's nowhere that he can ambush them from. As a result, the siege of Tarentum becomes this massive slogging slaughterfest and Hannibal is only able to maintain control of the city's port. Needless to say, the situation in Italy for Hannibal is not going how he would like it and further adding to his problems is that the Romans had actually landed in Africa and had defeated a Carthaginian army so Hannibal has to hightail it back to Africa in order to defend his home city meaning that the cities of Magna Graecia are essentially left wide open for the Romans to recapture and recapture them they do. After this, the Romans don't punish the Tarentines as harshly as you would expect. Instead, they recognize that the Tarentines essentially rebelled against Rome because they thought the Romans were squashing on their freedom so what Rome does is they make them allies of the Roman Republic meaning that Tarentine is a independent state again but they are also subjected to a number of conditions that comes with this Roman alliance. This softer approach towards the Tarentines actually works in the Romans' favor as in 59 BC Tarentum is an official part of the Roman Republic. It's no longer an independent state, it's actually a member of the Roman Republic. Indeed, Roman veterans from the the list goes on Rome was at war with a lot of people at that time are actually given land that was previously in Tarentine territory to settle and live out the rest of their lives on. This essentially is where Tarentine as an independent city comes to an end and it becomes just another city in the Roman Republic. A very prosperous city but its time as an independent city has ended. Thanks for watching and listening to our video. If you like the channel consider subscribing to Ancient History Guy or if you really like the channel head on over to our Patreon feed. There for as little as one dollar a month you can gain access to exclusive documentaries, behind the scenes footage and videos before they're live on YouTube. All sources are listed and linked in the description below. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe. I've been the Ancient History Guy and as always I'll be seeing you later.