CROTO, or CROTONA, in Ancient Geography, a noble city of the Brutti, founded by an Achean colony 759 years before the Augustan age, and situated 150 stadia to the north of Lacinium, and in the neighbourhood of Metapontum, in the bay of Tarentum. Pythagoras, after his long peregrinations in search of knowledge, fixed his residence at this place, which some authors think was his native one, at least that of his parents, supposing him to have been born in the isle of Samos, and not at any town of the name of Crotona in Italy. This incomparable sage spent the latter part of his life in training up disciples to the rigid exercise of sublime moral virtue, and in instructing the Crotonites in the true arts of government, such as alone can inspire happiness, glory, and independence.
Under the influence of this philosophy, the Crotonites inured their bodies to frugality and hardships, and their minds to self-denial and patriotic disinterestedness. Their virtues were the admiration of Greece, where it became a current proverb, that the last of the Crotonites was the first of the Greeks. In one Olympiad seven of the victors in the games were citizens of Crotona; and the name of Milo is almost as famous as that of Hercules. The vigour of the men and the beauty of the women were ascribed to the climate, which was believed to be endowed with qualities peculiarly favourable to the human system.
Of all the colonies sent out from Greece, this alone furnished succour to the mother country when invaded by the Persians; and by its avenging arms the Sybarites were punished for their shameful degeneracy. But the victory proved fatal to the conquerors; for riches, and all their pernicious attendants, insinuated themselves into Crotona, and soon contaminated the purity of its principles. Not long afterwards, the Locrians, who were less corrupted, defeated them on the banks of the Sagra, and reduced the republic to great distress and penury. This reverse restored the remaining Crotonites to their pristine vigour of mind, and enabled them to make a brave though unsuccessful resistance when attacked by Dionysius of Syracuse. They suffered much in the war with Pyrrhus, and, by repeated misfortunes, decreased in strength and numbers, from age to age, down to that of Hannibal, when they could not muster twenty thousand inhabitants. This small population being incapable of manning the extensive works erected in the days of prosperity, Crotona was taken by the Carthaginians, and its citizens were transported to Locri. The Romans sent a colony thither about two centuries before Christ. In the Gothic war this city rendered itself conspicuous by its fidelity to Justinian, and Totila besieged it long in vain.