METAPONTUM, or Metapontium (the first form is that generally found in Latin writers, but Thucydides, Strabo, and other Greek authors employ the latter form), was a city of Magna Graecia situated on the Gulf of Tarentum, near the mouth of the river Bradanus, and distant about 24 miles from Tarentum and 14 from Heraclea. It was founded by an Achaean colony about 700 b.c., though various traditions existed which assigned it an earlier origin. But according to the only historical account it was a joint foundation from Sybaris and Crotona, to which, as usual in similar cases, was joined a body of fresh settlers from the mother country, under the command of a leader named Leucippus. The object of its establishment was without doubt to strengthen the Achaean element in Magna Graecia, as opposed to the increasing power of the Tarentines, but at the same time to occupy a territory which was remarkable for its fertility. It was to this cause that Metapontum owed the great prosperity to which it attained at an early period, and appears to have continued to enjoy for several centuries, though it never assumed a prominent place in history. It was, however, one of the cities that played a conspicuous part in the political troubles arising from the introduction of the Pythagorean principles into the cities of Magna Graecia, and it was there that the philosopher himself ended his days. His tomb was still shown there in the time of Cicero....
At the time of the Athenian expedition to Sicily (415 b.c. ) Metapontum appears to have been an opulent and powerful city, whose alliance was courted by the Athenians; but they contented themselves with a very trifling support. In 332 b.c., at the time of the expedition of Alexander, king of Epirus, into Italy, it was one of the first cities to espouse his cause, and enter into an alliance with him; and they appear to have in like manner lent an active support to Pyrrhus at a later period. Down to this time, therefore, Metapontum seems to have retained its position as one of the principal cities of Magna Graecia, and there is no evidence of its having suffered materially from the establishment of the Lucanians in its immediate neighbourhood. Nor have we any account of the precise period at which it passed under the dominion of Rome, or the conditions under which it became subject to the great republic. But it was the Second Punic War which gave the fatal blow to its prosperity. After the battle of Cannae in 216 b.c. it was among the first cities in the south of Italy to declare in favour of Hannibal, and after the fall of Tarentum in 212 b.c. it not only received a Carthaginian garrison, but became for some years the headquarters of Hannibal. Hence, when the defeat of Hasdrubal at the Metaurus (207 b.c.) compelled him to abandon this part of Italy, and withdraw into the fastnesses of Bruttium, the whole mass of the inhabitants of Metapontum abandoned their city, and followed him in his retreat.
From this time Metapontum sunk into a poor and inconsiderable town; though it was still existing as such in the days of Cicero, it soon fell into complete decay, and Pausanias tells us that in his time nothing remained of it but a theatre and the circuit of the walls. All remains of these have since disappeared, but the site is still marked by the ruins of a temple, which occupy a slight elevation on the right bank of the river Bradanus, about 2 miles from its mouth. The surrounding plain, so celebrated in ancient times for its fertility, is now desolated by malaria, and almost uninhabited; and the remains of the city itself, between the site of the temple and the sea, are in great part buried in the alluvial deposits of the neighbouring rivers.
Some excavations were carried on upon the spot by the Due de Luynes in 1858, and the results of his researches were published by him in a special work (Métaponte, fol., Paris, 1833).
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