CALABRIA, the name given by the Romans to the peninsula at the south-eastern extremity of Italy, and now given to the peninsula at the south-western extremity. The former district was called by the Greeks Iapygia and Messapia, though these terms were variously used, and sometimes also included all the south-east of Italy, from Lucania to the Garganian promontory. In the time of Augustus, Calabria was the district south and east of a line drawn from the neighbourhood of Tarentum to that of Brundisium, corresponding to the modern Terra d’ Otranto. The principal cities were Tarentum (Taranto), Brundisium (Brindisi), and Hydruntum (Otranto), all of which are ports. The inhabitants were Sallentines and Calabrians or Messapians, both probably of Pre-Hellenic or Pelasgic race; Niebuhr, however, considered the Calabrians to be Oscan intruders distinct from the other tribes.
Ancient Calabria was a country, of low hills with very gentle ascents, having a soil of Tertiary limestone formation, no rivers, and scarcely any small streams, and, during summer, a climate of intolerable heat, but exceedingly fertile, producing the olive and vine....
Owing to its position Calabria was long defended by the Greeks against the Goths, Lombards, and Saracens, and was the last portion of Italy lost by the Byzantine emperors. In the time of the Norman monarchy, in the 11th century, there took place a curious change in the application of the name, the cause and exact date of which are not known with any certainty. An explanation possessing some probability is, however, given. The Byzantines, it is likely, extended the name Calabria to all their possessions in Southern Italy; and when their possessions in the southeastern peninsula became greatly inferior in importance to that in the south-western (Bruttium) they applied the name to the latter instead of the former. It was not, however, till after the Norman Conquest that the name was universally employed in this the modern sense.
In modern times Calabria, until the consolidation of the Italian kingdom, was the name of one of the four provinces into which the continental part of the kingdom of Naples, or of the Two Sicilies, was formerly divided; and it is now the name given to three out of the sixty-nine provinces of the present division of Italy. It is the most southern part of Italy, being bounded on the N. by the province of Basilicata, on the E. by the Gulf of Taranto, on the W. by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and on the S. by the Ionian. It extends from Cape Spartivento (37° 56' N. lat.) to Monte Pollino on the southern border of Basilicata (40° 0' N. lat.)
The territory is well watered, and exceedingly rugged and mountainous; but the summits of the hills are covered with extensive forests of oak, beech, elm, and pine, and towards the coast the branches of the Apennines open up into fertile valleys. Earthquakes and violent storms are very common; and there is extreme heat during the summer season, on the approach of which the wealthier inhabitants migrate annually to the lofty table-land of La Sila, where their flocks are fattened in the extensive pastures. The agriculture of Calabria is in a very rude and barbarous condition, a circumstance which is partly attributable to the extreme fertility of the soil. The principal productions are corn, wine, raw silk, olivp oil of an inferior quality, cotton, rice, liquorice, and saffron. Manna, collected from the manna-ash (Ornus rotundifolia), was at one time a somewhat important article of com merce; but very little is now collected. Oranges, lemons, figs, mulberries, honey, and tobacco are also produced. The horses of Calabria are remarkable for their high spirit and compact form. There are considerable fisheries of the tunny, the swordfish, the anchovy, and mullet.
The three provinces into which Calabria is now divided are Calabria Citeriore, Calabria Ulteriore Seconda, and Calabria Ulteriore Prima.
Calabria Citeriore, or Cosenza, is the most northern of the three provinces, and has an area of 2613 square miles, with a population in 1871 of 440,468. The southern and central districts are covered by the vast forests of La Sila, which furnished timber for the navies of antiquity. The principal rivers are the Crati, which after a course of 60 miles falls into the Gulf of Taranto, and the Neto, which rises in the heart of La Sila, and falls into the Adriatic. The principal towns are Cosenza, Rossano, Paola, and Castrovillari.
Calabria Ulteriore Seconda, or Catanzaro, on the south of Calabria Citra, having a coast line from the Punta dell’ Alice to the Callipari on the east, and from the Savuto to the mouth of the Messina on the west, has an area of 2100 square miles. Population (1871) 412,226. At Catanzaro is a manufactory of silk; at Maida there are some seams of coal, antimony, and alabaster, which might be made available for exports. The principal towns are Catanzaro, Cotrone, Nicastro, and Monteleone.
Calabria Ulteriore Prima, or Reggio, the most southerly province of Italy, contains an area of 1250 square miles, with a population (1871) of 353,608. On the northern frontier are the mines of Lo Stilo, from which the iron is obtained for the Government foundries. The principal towns are Reggio, Gerace, and Palmi. A railway line now runs from Reggio to Taranto, along the coast of the Ionian Sea and the Gulf of Taranto.
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