LOCRI, or LOCRI EPIZENEMIDII, a town of the Greek Locrians in Italy, on the S.E. coast of the Bruttian peninsula. Ephorus ascribes its foundation to the Locri Oputii; Strabo to the Locri Ozolæ. The former opinion is the more prevalent among ancient writers. The name Locri Epizenemidii favours Strabo's supposition that this settlement was the offshoot of a Locrian settlement at Cape Zephyrium (Capo di Bruzzano). The date of its foundation is uncertain. No less obscurity involves the early history of the Locri until about B.C. 660, when their famous lawgiver, Zaleucus, published his code of laws, supposed to be the earliest written legislative system ever given to any Grecian state. So enduring was the beneficial effect of these institutes, that even in the time of Demosthenes, Locri is cited as an ensample of good government. The next important event in its history is the battle at the River Sagra, in which 10,000 Locrians and a few Rhegian auxiliaries defeated, with great carnage, an army of 130,000 Crotonians. From a very early period of their history the Locrians were bound by a firm alliance to the Greek city of Syracuse. Nor did their fidelity to that state cease until its tyrant, Dionysius the Younger, took refuge in their city, seized upon their citadel, cruelly oppressed them, and was finally expelled. They were allies of the Romans against Pyrrhus; but after the battle of Cannæ, in 216 B.C., revolted to the Carthaginians, and did not resume the yoke of Rome until 205 B.C. From this period Locri seems to have gradually declined in importance; and after the sixth century, there is no note in any author of its existence. About 5 miles from the modern city Gerace, travellers have discovered its site, containing, among other remains, the fragments of a Doric edifice, supposed to be the temple of Proserpine. Among the celebrated natives of Locri were the poets Erasippus and Xenocritus; the philosophers Acron, Echecrates, and Timæus, said to have been the instructors of Plato in Pythagoreanism; the cithara-player Eumonus; and the famous boxer Euthymus.