a celebrated ancient city of Magna Graecia, near the west shore of the Gulf of Tarentum, between the mouths of the rivers Sybaris and Crathis. It seems to have been the earliest Greek colony in this part of Italy; for it is said to have been founded in 720 B.C., by colonists from Helice in Achaea. Situated as it was in a fertile plain, the new settlement rapidly rose to a high degree of prosperity, and became a large and populous city. Contrary to the custom of most of the Greek states, settlers from other countries were freely admitted at Sybaris; and this was very probably one cause of its size and prosperity. Its wealth and luxury were proverbial, and have probably been much exaggerated by ancient writers. But there is no good reason to doubt that Sybaris had attained, in the sixth century B.C., a greater amount of power and riches than had been reached by any Greek state before. Its territories extended to the opposite shore of the peninsula, where it founded the colonies of Laus, Scidrus, and Posidonia; and, according to Strabo, it was mistress of twenty-five dependent cities, most of them probably towns in the interior. Numerous details are given by ancient writers about the magnificence and luxury of the Sybarites; but besides the intrinsic absurdity of many of these tales, it is a suspicious circumstance that these accounts are given with so much minuteness, while we are told so little of the history of the city, with the exception of these events that led immediately to its fall. One of these wonderful stories relates how Smiclyrides, a citizen of Sybaris, went to court Agarista, daughter of Clisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, followed by a train of more than 1000 of his own personal attendants, including cooks, fishermen, &c. Unfortunately, with all this equipage, he did not find favour with the young lady or her father, although he surpassed and astonished all Greece with his magnificence and luxury. There is probably very little truth in these accounts of Sybaris; and as little in the assertion of Strabo, that it could bring into the field an army of 300,000 of its own citizens.

It seems to have arrived at its greatest prosperity soon after 580 B.C.; but towards the middle of that century political dissensions rose to a violent degree. The government had been for a long time oligarchical, probably in the hands of the wealthier classes; but a democratic party, under a leader called Telys, at length succeeded in gaining the upper hand, and compelled a number of the opposite party to go into exile. The aristocratic city of Crotona afforded a refuge to the fugitives; but Telys and his supporters demanded to have them given up. This demand having been refused, led to a declaration of war against Crotona on the part of the Sybarites. The two armies met near the river Trais, where the Sybarites, though more than three times the number of their enemies, were totally defeated with great loss. The Crotonian army pursued the fugitives to the very gates of Sybaris, which they took without further resistance. Determined to carry out their vengeance to the very last, they laid the city in ruins, and turned the course of the Crathis into it, so that it should never more be inhabited. This happened in 510 B.C.; those who survived its ruin took refuge in the colonies of Laus and Scidrus; and when they attempted, in 452, to rebuild the city, they were driven away by the Crotonians, a little more than five years after. On this they applied for assistance to the Spartans, but without success; afterwards, however, they obtained the aid of the Athenians, who resolved not only to restore these settlers, but to send colonists of their own along with them. The result of this was the foundation of Thurii, near the site of the ancient city; but Sybaris itself never was restored. No traces have yet been discovered of its remains.