Heracleia
HERACLEIA(Ἡράκλεια). I. In Europe.
HERACLEIAa town or fortress of Athamania of uncertain site. (Liv. 38.2.)
HERACLEIAan ancient place of Pisatis in Elis, but a village in the time of Pausanias, was distant 40 or 50 stadia from Olympia. It contained medicinal waters issuing from a fountain sacred to the Ionic nymphs, and flowing into the neighbouring stream called Cytherus or Cytherius, which is the brook near the modern village of Bruma. (Strab. 8. p. 356; Paus. 6.22.7; Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 129; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. 2. p. 72.)
HERACLEIA(Ἡράκλεια: Eth. Ἡρακλήϊος, Heracliensis or Heracleensis: Policoro), a city of Magna Graecia, situated in Lucania on the gulf of Tarentum, but a short distance from the sea, and between the rivers Aciris and Siris. It was a Greek colony, but founded at a period considerably later than most of the other Greek cities in this part of Italy. The territory in which it was established had previously belonged to the Ionic colony of Siris, and after the fall of that city [SIRIS] seems to have become the subject of contention between the neighbouring states. The Athenians, we know, had a claim upon the territory of Siris (Hdt. 8.62), and it was probably in virtue of this that their colonists the Thurians, almost immediately after their establishment in Italy, advanced similar pretensions. These were, however, resisted by the Tarentines; and war ensued between the two states, which was at length terminated by an arrangement that they should found a new colony in the disputed district, which, though in fact a joint settlement, should be designated as a colony of Tarentum. The few remaining inhabitants of Siris were added to the new colonists, and it would appear that the settlement was first established on the ancient site of Siris itself, but was subsequently transferred from thence, and a new city founded about 24 stadia from the former, and nearer the river Aciris, to which the name of Heracleia was given. Siris did not cease to exist, but lapsed into the subordinate condition of the port or emporium of Heracleia. (Strab. 6. p. 264.) The foundation of the new city is placed by Diodorus in B.C. 432, fourteen years after the settlement of Thurii; a statement which appears to agree well with the above narrative, cited by Strabo from Antiochus. (Antiochus, ap. Strab l. c. ; Diod. 12.36; Liv. 8.24.) Diodorus, as well as Livy, calls it simply a colony of Tarentum: Antiochus is the only writer who mentions the share taken by the Thurians in its original foundation. Pliny erroneously regards Heracleia as identical with Siris, to which it had succeeded; and it was perhaps a similar misconception that led Livy, by a strange anachronism, to include Heracleia among the cities of Magna Graecia where Pythagoras established his institutions. (Liv. 1.18; Plin. Nat. 3.11. s. 15.) The new colony appears to have risen rapidly to power and prosperity, protected by the fostering care of the Tarentines, who were at one time engaged in war with the Messapians for its defence. (Strab. 6. p. 281.) It was probably owing to the predominant influence of Tarentum also that Heracleia was selected as the place of meeting of the general assembly (πανήγυρις) of the Italiot Greeks; a meeting apparently originally of a religious character, but of course easily applicable to political objects, and which for that reason Alexander, king of Epirus, sought to transfer to the Thurians for the purpose of weakening the influence of Tarentum. (Strab. 6. p. 280.)
But beyond the general fact that it enjoyed great wealth and prosperity,--advantages which it doubtless owed to the noted fertility of its territory,--we have scarcely any information concerning the history of Heracleia until we reach a period when it was already beginning to decline. We cannot doubt that it took part with the Tarentines in their wars against the Messapians and Lucanians, and it appears to have fallen gradually into a state of almost dependence upon that city, though without ever ceasing to be, in name at least, an independent state. Hence, when Alexander, king of Epirus, who had been in. vited to Italy by the Tarentines, subsequently became hostile to that people [TARENTUM], he avenged himself by taking Heracleia, and, as already mentioned, transferred to the Thurians the general assemblies that had previously been held there. (Liv. 8.24; Strab. 6. p. 280.) During the war of Pyrrhus with the Romans, Heracleia was the scene of the first conflict between the two powers, the consul Laevinus being totally defeated by the Epirot king in a battle fought between the city of Heracleia and the river Siris, B.C. 280. (Plut. Pyrrh. 16, 17; Flor. 1.18.7
It is a striking instance of the carelessness of the Roman epitomisers, and their consequent worthlessness as geographical authorities, that Florus places this battle apud Heracleam et Campaniae flumen Lirim, mistaking the river Siris for the Liris; and the same blunder occurs in Orosius, who says, apud Heracleam Campaniaeurbem, fluviumque Lirim; for which last the editors substitute Sirim,though the mistake is evidently that of the author, and not of the copyist.
; Zonar. 8.4; Ores. 4.1.)Heracleia was certainly at this time in alliance with the Tarentines and Lucanians against Rome; and it was doubtless with the view of detaching it from this alliance that the Romans were induced shortly afterwards (B.C. 278) to grant to the Heracleians a treaty of alliance on such favourable terms that it is called by Cicero prope singulare foedus.(Cic. pro Balb. 22, pro Arch. 4.) Heracleia preserved this privileged condition throughout the period of the Roman republic; and hence, even when in B.C. 89 the Lex Plautia Papiria conferred upon its inhabitants, in common with the other cities of Italy, the rights of Roman citizens, they hesitated long whether they would accept the proffered boon. (Cic. pro Balb. 8) We have no account of the part taken by Heracleia in the Social War; but from an incidental notice in Cicero, that all the public records of the city had been destroyed by fire at that period, it would seem to have suffered severely. (Cic. pro Arch. 4) Cicero nevertheless speaks of it, in his defence of Archias (who had been adopted as a citizen of Heracleia), as still a flourishing and important town, and it appears to have been one of the few Greek cities in the S. of Italy that still preserved their consideration under the Roman dominion. (Strab. 6. p. 264; Cic. l. c.4, 5; Mel. 2.4.8; Plin. Nat. 3.11. s. 15.) Its name is unaccountably omitted by Ptolemy; but its existence at a much later period is attested by the Itineraries. ( Itin. Ant. p. 113; Tab. Peut. ) The time and circumstances of its final extinction are wholly unknown; but the site is now desolate, and the whole neighbouring district, once celebrated as one of the most fertile in Italy, is now almost wholly uninhabited.
The position of the ancient city may nevertheless be clearly identified; and though no ruins worthy of the name are still extant, large heaps of rubbish and foundations of ancient buildings mark the site of Heracleia near a farm called Policoro, about three miles from the sea, and a short distance from the right bank of the Aciris or Agri.Numerous coins, bronzes, and other relics of antiquity have been discovered on the spot; and within a short distance of the site were found the bronze tables commonly known as the Tabulae Heracleenses, one of the most interesting monuments of antiquity still remaining. They contain a long Latin inscription relating to the municipal regulations of Heracleia, but which is in fact only a copy of a more general law, the Lex Julia Municipalis, issued in B.C. 45 for the regulation of the municipal institutions of the towns throughout Italy. This curious and important document, which is one of our chief authorities for the municipal law of ancient Italy, is engraved on two tables of bronze, at the back of which is found a long Greek inscription of much earlier date, but of very inferior interest. The Latin one has been repeatedly published (Murat. Inscr. vol. 2. p. 582; Haubold, Mon. Legal. pp. 98--133, &c.), and copiously illustrated with legal commentaries by Dirksen (8vo. Berlin, 1817--1820) and Savigny (in his Vermischte Schriftenvol. iii.). Both inscriptions were published, with very elaborate commentaries and disquisitions on all points connected with Heracleia, by Mazocchi (2 vols. fol. Naples, 1754,1755).
Heracleia is generally regarded as the native country of the celebrated painter Zeuxis, though there is much doubt to which of the numerous cities of the name that distinguished artist really owed his birth. [ Biogr. Dict. art. ZEUXIS.But the flourishing state of the arts in the Lucanian Heracleia (in common with most of the neighbouring cities of Magna Graecia) is attested by the beauty and variety of its coins, some of which may deservedly be reckoned among the choicest specimens of Greek art; while their number sufficiently proves the opulence and commercial activity of the city to which they belong. (Eckhel, vol. 1. p. 153; Millingen, Numismatique de l'Anc. Italie, p. 111.) COIN OF HERACLEIA IN LUCANIA.
[E.H.B]HERACLEIAsurnamed MINOA (Ἡράκλεια Μίνῳα : Eth. Ῥαχλώτης, Heracliensis), in Sicily, an ancient Greek city, situated on the south coast of the island, at the mouth of the river Halycus, between Agrigentum and Selinus. Its two names were connected with two separate mythological legends in regard to its origin. The first of these related that Hercules, having vanquished the local hero Eryx in a wrestling match, obtained thereby the right to the whole western portion of Sicily, which he expressly reserved for his descendants. (Diod. 4.23; Hdt. 5.43; Paus. 3.16.5.) He did not. however, found a town or settlement; but, somewhat later, Minos, king of Crete, having come to Sicily in pursuit of Daedalus, landed at the mouth of the river Halycus, and founded there a city, to which he gave the name of Minoa; or, according to another version of the story, the city was first established by his followers, after the death of Minos himself. Heraclides Ponticus adds, that there was previously a native city on the spot, the name of which was Macara. (Diod. 4.79, 16.9; Heracl. Pont. § 29.) The two legends are so distinct that no intimation is given by Diodorus of their relating to the same spot, and we only learn their connection from the combination in later times of the two names. The first notice of the city which we find in historical times represents it as a small town and a colony of Selinus, bearing the name of Minoa (Hdt. 5.46); but we have no account of its settlement. It was in this state when Dorieus the Spartan (brother of Cleomenes I.) came to Sicily, with a large body of followers, with the express view of reclaiming the territory which had belonged to his ancestor Hercules. But having engaged in hostilities with the Carthaginians and Segestans, he was defeated and slain in a battle in which almost all his leading companions also perished. Euryleon, the only one of the chiefs who escaped, made himself master of Minoa, which now, in all probability, obtained for the first time the name of Heracleia. (Hdt. 5.42--46.) This is not, indeed, expressly stated by Herodotus, who gives the preceding narrative, but is. evidently implied in his statement at the beginning of it, that Dorieus set out for the purpose of founding Heracleia, combined with the fact that Diodorus represents him as having been its actual founder. (Diod. 4.23.) Hence there seems no reason to suppose (as has been suggested) that Heracleia and Minoa were originally distinct cities, and that the name of the one was subsequently transferred to the other. From the period of this new settlement (B.C. 510) it seems to have commonly borne the name of Heracleia, though coupled with that of Minoa for the sake of distinction. (Ἡρακλείαν τὴν Μινώαν, Plb. 1.25; Heraclea, quam vocant Minoa,Liv. 24.35.)
Diodorus tells us that the newly founded city of Heracleia rose rapidly to prosperity, but was destroyed by the Carthaginians, through jealousy of its increasing power. (Id. 4.23.) The period at which this took place is uncertain. It was probably related by Diodorus in his 10th book, which is now lost: at least he makes no mention of any such event on occasion of the great expedition of Hamilcar, in B.C. 480, to which epoch we might otherwise have referred it; while, from the absence of all notice of Heracleia during the subsequent century, and the wars of Dionysius with the Carthaginians, it seems certain that it did not then exist, or must have been in a very reduced condition. Indeed, the next notice we find of it (under the name of Minoa), in B.C. 357, when Dion landed there, represents it as a small town in the Agrigentine territory, but at that time subject to Carthage. (Diod. 16.9; Plut. Dion.25.) Hence it is probable that the treaty between Dionysius and the Carthaginians which had fixed the Halycus as the boundary of the latter, had left Heracleia, though on its left bank, still in their hands: and, in accordance with this, we find it stipulated by the similar treaty concluded with them by Agathocles (B.C. 314), that Heracleia, Selinus, and Himera should continue subject to Carthage, as they had been before.(Diod. 19.71.) From this time Heracleia reappears in history, and assumes the position of an important city; though we have no explanation of the circumstances that had raised it from its previous insignificance. Thus we find it, soon after, joining in the movement originated by Xenodicus of Agrigentum, B.C. 307, and declaring itself free both from the Carthaginians and Agathocles; though it was soon recovered by the latter, on his return from Africa. (Id. 20.56.) At the time of the expedition of Pyrrhus it was once more in the hands of the Carthaginians, and was the first city taken from them by that monarch as lie advanced westward from Agrigentum. (Diod 22.10. Exc. H. p. 497.) In like manner, in the First Punic War, it was occupied by the Carthaginian general Hanno, when advancing to the relief of Agrigentum, at that time besieged by the Roman armies, B.C. 260. (Id. 23.8. p. 502; Plb. 1.18.) Again, in B.C. 256, it was at Heracleia that the Carthaginian fleet of 350 ships was posted for the purpose of preventing the passage of the Roman fleet to Africa, and where it sustained a great defeat from the consuls Regulus and Manlius. (Plb. 1.25--28, 30; Zonar. 8.12.) It appears, indeed, at this time to have been one of the principal naval stations of the Carthaginians in Sicily; and hence in B.C. 249 we again find their admiral, Carthalo, taking his post there to watch for the Roman fleet which was approaching to the relief of Lilybaeum. (Id. 1.53.) At the close of the war Heracleia, of course, passed, with the rest of Sicily, under the Roman dominion; but in the Second Punic War it again fell into the hands of the Carthaginians, and was one of the last places that still held out against Marcellus, even after the fall of Syracuse. (Liv. 24.35, 25.27, 40, 41.)
We hear but little of it under the Roman dominion; but it appears to have suffered severely in the Servile War (B.C. 134--132), and in consequence received a body of fresh colonists, who were established there by the praetor P. Rupilius; and at the same time the relations of the old and new citizens were regulated by a municipal law, which still subsisted in the time of Cicero. (Cic. Ver. 2.5. 0) In the days of the great orator, Heracleia appears to have been still a flourishing place (Ib. 5.33); but it must soon after have fallen into decay, in common with most of the towns on the southern coast of Sicily. (Strab. 6. p. 272.) But though not noticed by Strabo among the few places still subsisting on this coast, it is one of the threementioned by Mela; and its continued existence is attested by Pliny and Ptolemy. The latter author is the last who mentions the name of Heracleia: it appears to have disappeared before the age of the Itineraries. (Mel. 2.7.16; Plin. Nat. 3.8. s. 14; Ptol. 3.4.6.)
The site of Heracleia is now wholly deserted, and scarcely any ruins remain to mark the spot; but the position of the ancient city may still be clearly traced. It was situated a few hundred yards to the south of the river Platani (the ancient Halycus), extending nearly from thence to the promontory of Capo Bianco. In Fazello's time the foundations of the walls could be distinctly traced, and, though no ruins remained standing, the whole site abounded with remains of pottery and brickwork. An aqueduct was then also still visible between the city and the mouth of the river; but its remains have since disappeared. The site does not appear to have been examined with care by any modern traveller. (Fazell. de Reb. Sic. 6.2; Smyth's Sicily, p. 216; Biscari, Viaggio in Sicilia, p. 188.)
The Capo Bianco, a conspicuous headland in the immediate neighbourhood of Heracleia, is evidently the one called by Strabo, in his description of the coasts of Sicily, the Heracleian promontory (6. p. 266), which he correctly reckons 20 miles distant from the port of Agrigentum.
[E.H.B]HERACLEIAin Gallia Narbonensis. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 3.5) has preserved a tradition of a town named Heraclea, at the mouths of the Rhone; but he knew no more about-it, and we can add nothing to what he knew. Ukert (Gallien, p. 418) has a few words on this place.
Stephanus (s. v. Ἡράκλεια) in his list of towns named Heracleia mentions one in Celtice. The Maritime Itin., proceeding west. from Forum Julii ( Fréjus), places Sambracitanus Plagia25 M. P. from Forum Julii, and Heraclea Caccabaria 16 M.P. from the Sinus Sambracitanus. D'Anville follows Honore Bouche in placing Heracleia at S. Tropez;but in order to do this he suppresses the number 25 between Forum Julii and Sinus Sambracitanus, and assumes that 16 is the whole distance between Forum Julii and Heracleia. This is a very bad way of proceeding; for, unless he can prove some error in the MSS., he ought to assume that the distances along the coast are most correctly measured in the Itinerary, as they doubtless were. Walckenaer fixes Heracleia at the Pointe Cavalaire. S. Tropezis within the Sinus Sambracitanus. A complete map of this coast is necessary for the purposes of Comparative geography. This Heracleia is one of the Greek towns on the south coast of France.
[G.L]HERACLEIA(Ἡράκλεια). II. In Asia.
HERACLEIA(Ἡράκλεια).
1.A town of Caria of uncertain site. (Strab. 14. p. 658; Steph. B. s. v. ) Ptolemy (Ptol. 5.2.19) describes it by the addition πρὸς Ἀλβανῷ. (Comp. Plin. Nat. 5.29; Suid. and Eudoc. s. v.,where the town has the surname Ἀλβάκη.) This town should not be confounded with the following.
2.A town on the confines between Caria and Ionia, which is generally described as πρὸς Λάτμῳ, or ἡ ὑπὸ Λάτμῳ, from its situation at the western foot of mount Latmus, on the Sinus Latmicus. It was a small place in the south-east of Miletus, and south-west of Amazon, and was sometimes designated simply by the name Latmus. In its neighbourhood a cave was shown with the tomb of Endymion. (Scylax, p. 39; Strab. 14. p. 635; Ptol. 5.2.9; Plin. Nat. 5.31; Polyaen. 7.23; Paus. 5.1.4; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 4.57.) Ruins of this town still exist at the foot of mount Latmus on the borders of lake Baffi, which is probably a portion of the ancient Sinus Latmicus, formed by the deposits of the river Maeander. (Comp. Leake, Asia Minor, p. 239; Fellowes, Exc. in As. Min. p. 263, who, confounding the lake of Baffi with that of Myus, considers the ruins of Heracleia to be those of Myus.)
3.A town on the coast of Aeolis, opposite to Hecatonnesi. This town and the neighbouring Coryphantis are called villages of the Mytilenaeans. (Strab. 13. p. 607; Plin. Nat. 5.32, who speaks only of a Heracleotes tracts;Steph. B. s. v.)
4.Surnamed Pontica, on the coast of Phrygia, in the country of the Mariandyni, was a colony of the Megarians, in conjunction with Tanagraeans from Boeotia. (Paus. 5.26.6; Justin. 16.3.) Strabo (12. p. 542) erroneously calls the town a colony of Miletus. It was situated a few miles to the north of the river Lycus, and had two excellent harbours, the smaller of which was made artificially. (Xen. Anab. 6.2. 1; Diod. 14.31; Arrian, Peripl. p. 15; Memnon, p. 52.) Owing to its excellent situation, the town soon rose to a high degree of prosperity, and not only reduced the Mariandyni to subjection, but acquired the supremacy of several other Greek towns in its neighbourhood; so that, at the time of its highest prosperity, it ruled over the whole territory extending from the Sangarius in the west to the Parthenius in the east. A protracted struggle between the aristocracy and the demos (Aristot. Polit. 5.5) at last obliged the inhabitants to submit to a tyrannis. In the reign of Dionysius, one of these tyrants, who was married to a relation of Darius Codomannus, Heracleia reached the zenith of its prosperity. But this state of things did not last long; for the rising power of the Bithynian princes, who tried to reduce that prosperous maritime city, and the arrival of the Galatians in Asia, who were instigated by the kings of Bithynia against Heracleia, deprived the town gradually of a considerable part of its territory. Still, however, it continued to maintain a very prominent place among the Greek colonies in those parts, until, in the war of the Romans against Mithridates, it received its death blow; for Aurelius Cotta plundered and partly destroyed the town (Memnon, 100.54). It was afterwards indeed restored, but remained a town of no importance ( oppidum,Plin. Nat. 6.1; comp. Strab. 12. p. 543; Scylax, p. 34; Ptol. 5.1.7; Marcian. pp. 70, 73; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 2.748, ad Nicand. Alex. 13; Eustath. ad Dionys. Per. 791). Heracleia, which was the birthplace of Heraclides Ponticus and his disciple Dionysius Metathemenus, still exists under the name of Herakieor Erekli. For the history of this important colony see Justin (Justin. 16.3--5; Polsberw, de Rebus Heracleae, Brandenburg, 1833, 8vo. (Niebuhr, Lect. on Anc. Hist. iii. pp. 113, fol.) COIN OF HERACLEIA IN BITHYNIA.
COIN OF HERACLEIA IN BITHYNIA.A town of uncertain site in Lydia, perhaps not far from Magnesia at the foot of mount Sipylus. From this town the magnet derived its name of Heracleus lapis. (Steph. B. s. v.;Hesych. s. v.;Zenob. Prov. 2.22, p. 90, ed. Leutsch.) [L.S]
HERACLEIA(Ἡράκλεια, Strab. 16. p. 751; Plin. Nat. 5.20), a small town on the coast of N. Syria to the N. of Laodicea-ad-Mare ( Ladíkíyéh). Pococke ( Trav. vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 194) has identified it with Meinet Borja, the small town and half-ruined port from which salt and wheat are brought from Cyprus (comp. Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. 1. p. 453), and found, on the small flat point that makes out into the sea, several graves cut into the rock, some stone coffins, and pieces of marble pillars; to the N. he saw some remains of piers built into the sea, of foundations of walls of large hewn stones, and signs of a strong building at the end of the pier. (Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. xv. pt. 1. p. 99.)
[E.B.J]