TERINA
TERINA (
Τερίνα, but
Τέρεινα Lycophr.: Eth.
Τεριναῖος, Eth.
Terinaeus), a city on the W. coast of the Bruttian peninsula, near the
Gulf of St. Eufemia, to which it gave the name of
TERINAEUS SINUS All writers agree in representing it as a Greek city and a colony of Crotona (
Scymn. Ch. 307;
Steph. B. sub voce Scyl. p. 4.12;
Strab. vi. p.256;
Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 10;
Solin. 2.10), but we have no account of the time or circumstances of its foundation.
It was regarded as the burialplace of the Siren Ligeia, a tradition which evidently pointed to the existence of a more ancient town on the spot than the Greek colony. (Lycophr.
Alex. 726;
Steph. B. sub voce The name of Terina is scarcely mentioned in history during the flourishing period of Magna Graecia; but we learn from an incidental notice that it was engaged in war with the Thurians under Cleandridas (Polyaen.
Strat. 2.10.1)--a proof that it was at this time no inconsiderable city; and the number, beauty, and variety of its coins sufficiently attest the fact that it must. have been a place of wealth and importance. (Millingen,
Numism. de l'Italie, p. 53.) Almost the first notice of Terina is that of its conquest by the Bruttians, an event which appears to have taken place soon after the rise of that people in B.C. 356, as, according to Diodorus, it was the first Greek city which fell into their hands. (
Diod. 16.15.)
It was recovered from them by Alexander, king of Epirus, about 327 B.C. (
Liv. 8.24), but probably fell again under their yoke after the death of that monarch.
It was one of the cities which declared in favour of Hannibal during the Second Punic
[p. 2.1131]War; but before the close of the war that general found himself compelled to abandon this part of Bruttium, and destroyed Terina, when he could no longer hold it. (
Strab. vi. p.256.)
The city never recovered this blow; and though there seems to have been still a town of the name in existence in the days of Strabo and Pliny, it never again rose to be a place of any importance. (Strab.
l.c.; Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 10.)
An inscription in which its name appears in the reign of Trajan (Orell.
Inscr. 150) is in all probability spurious.
The site of Terina cannot be determined with any certainty; but the circumstance that the extensive bay now known as the
Gulf of Sta Eufemia was frequently called the SINUS TERINAEUS (
Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 10;
6 ὁ Τεριναῖος κόλπος, Thuc. 6.104), sufficiently proves that Terina must have been situated in its immediate proximity.
The most probable conjecture is, that it occupied nearly, if not exactly, the same site as the
old town of
Sta Eufemia (which was destroyed by a great earthquake in 1638), about a mile below the modern village of the name, and near the N. extremity of the gulf to which it gives its name. Cluverius and other antiquarians have placed it considerably further to the N., near the modern
Nocera, where there are said to be the ruins of an ancient city (Cluver.
Ital. p. 1287; Barrius,
de Sit. Calabr. ii. 10. p. 124); but this site is above 7 miles distant from the gulf, to which it could hardly therefore have given name.
There is also reason to suppose that the ruins in question are those of a town which bore in ancient times the name of Nuceria, which it still retains with little alteration. [
NUCERIA No. 4.]
Lycophron seems to place Terina on the banks of a river, which he names
OCINARUS (
Ὠκίναρος, Lycophr.
Alex. 729, 1009); and this name, which is not found elsewhere, has been generally identified with the river now called the
Savuto (the Sabatus of the Itineraries), which flows by
Nocera. But this identification rests on the position
assumed for Terina: and the name of the Ocinarus may be equally well applied to any of the streams falling into the
Gulf of Sta Eufemia.
The variety and beauty of the silver coins of Terina (which belong for the most part to the best period of Greek art), has been already alluded to.
The winged female figure on the reverse, though commonly called a Victory, is more probably intended for the Siren Ligeia.
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| COIN OF TERINA. |
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