SIPONTUM
(Siponto) Foggia, Apulia, Italy.
An ancient Daunian city, on the Adriatic coast immediately S of the Gargano promontory. It was founded,
according to a legend common to many nearby cities, by
Diomedes (
Strab. 6.284). As a strategic area and harbor
for Arpi, Alexander of Molossos occupied it in 330 B.C.
The Romans subjugated the town and made it a colony
in 194 B.C. (
Livy 34.45). It seems not to have prospered,
perhaps because of the unhealthy air. Later, however,
favorable climatic conditions did permit a new influx of
colonists (
Livy 39.22), after which the city gained a certain importance in the grain trade (Strab. loc. cit.;
Plin.
3.103; Ptol. 3.1.16; Polyb. 10.1). During the Civil War,
Mark Antony occupied the town in 40 B.C. (App
BCiv.
5.56), and under the Roman Empire it had municipal
magistrates (
CIL IX, 697-699).
The entire area of the city is still to be explored. Recently, sections of the circuit walls of the city have been
brought to light; their date is still to be clarified. In the
area of Siponto limestone stelai of the 7th-6th c. B.C.
have come to light with various pictures either scratched
or painted on in a typically Daunian fashion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. Smith,
Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Geography, II (1857) 1011 (E. H. Bunbury);
K. Miller,
Itineraria Romana (1916) 219;
RE 3.1 (1927)
271-72; S. Fern, “Stele daunie,”
BdA (1962ff); A. Stazio,
“La documentazione archeologica in Puglia,”
Atti V
Convegno Studi Magna Grecia (1965) 234.
F. G. LO PORTO
