CROTONA, or CROTON, now Cotrone, a celebrated city of Magna Graecia, at the mouth of the small river AEsarus, in the country of the Bruttii, on the western shore of the Ionian Sea. It was founded in the year 710 b.c. by a colony of Achaeans under the command of Myscellus, in accordance with a decree of the oracle at Delphi. The first well-established fact in its history is its friendship with Sybaris; and till the arrival of Pythagoras the two cities continued advancing in material prosperity and cultivating the arts of war and peace with much success. The Crotoniats regarded Hercules as their tutelary divinity, and were renowned for their skill in all athletic exercises; the Sybarites were distinguished by luxury and effeminacy. The government of Crotona, oligarchical in form, had hitherto been confined to the council of 1000, who traced their descent from the Achaean founders of the city. But a secret society of 300 of the disciples of Pythagoras contrived to guide and even overawe the supreme council, till the people, who were excluded from all share in the government, expelled the Pythagoreans from the city, and established a democracy. Before this revolution, however, the Grotoniats, under the command of the celebrated athlete Milo, had marched against Sybaris, and, though opposed by an army three times their own in number, had taken it and levelled it with the ground. This event is usually dated 510 b.c. Before thirty years had elapsed, the Crotoniats themselves sustained a still more disgraceful defeat from the united forces of the Locrians and Rheggians, which, however, was not attended with such disastrous consequences to their city. During the Athenian invasion of Sicily, Crotona remained neutral; it supplied the Athenians with provisions, but refused to allow ...