Calabria
Calabria is a region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. It has 1,832,147 residents as of 2025 across a total area of. Catanzaro is the region's capital.
Calabria is the birthplace of the name of Italy, given to it by the Ancient Greeks who settled in this land starting from the 8th century BC. They established the first cities, mainly on the coast, as Greek colonies. During this period Calabria was the heart of Magna Graecia, home of key figures in history such as Pythagoras, Herodotus and Milo.
In Roman times, it was part of the Regio III Lucania et Bruttii, a region of Augustan Italy. After the Gothic War, it became and remained for five centuries a Byzantine dominion, fully recovering its Greek character. Cenobitism flourished, with the rise throughout the peninsula of numerous churches, hermitages and monasteries in which Basilian monks were dedicated to transcription. The Byzantines introduced the art of silk in Calabria and made it the main silk production area in Europe. In the 11th century, the Norman conquest started a slow process of Latinization.
In Calabria there are three historical ethnolinguistic minorities: the Grecanici, speaking Calabrian Greek; the Arbëreshë people; and the Occitans of Guardia Piemontese. This extraordinary linguistic diversity makes the region an object of study for linguists from all over the world.
Calabria is famous for its crystal clear sea waters and is dotted with ancient villages, castles and archaeological parks. Three national parks are found in the region: the Pollino National Park, the Sila National Park and the Aspromonte National Park.
Etymology
Starting in the third century BC, the name Calabria was originally given to the Adriatic coast of the Salento peninsula in modern Apulia. In the late first century BC, this name came to extend to the entirety of the Salento, when the Roman emperor Augustus divided Italy into regions. The whole region of Apulia received the name Regio II Apulia et Calabria. By this time modern Calabria was still known as Bruttium, after the Bruttians who inhabited the region. Later in the seventh century AD, the Byzantine Empire created the Duchy of Calabria from the Salento and the Ionian part of Bruttium. Even though the Calabrian part of the duchy was conquered by the Lombards during the eighth and ninth centuries AD, the Byzantines continued to use the name Calabria for their remaining territory in Bruttium.Originally the Greeks used Italoi to indicate the native population of modern Calabria, which according to some ancient Greek writers was derived from a legendary king of the Oenotri, Italus.
Over time, the Greeks started to use Italoi for the rest of the southern Italian peninsula as well. After the Roman conquest of the region, the name was used for the entire Italian peninsula and eventually the Alpine region too.
Geography
The region is generally known as the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula, and is a long and narrow peninsula which stretches from north to south for, with a maximum width of. Some 42% of Calabria's area, corresponding to 15,080 km2, is mountainous, 49% is hilly, while plains occupy only 9% of the region's territory. It is surrounded by the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas. It is separated from Sicily by the Strait of Messina, where the narrowest point between Capo Peloro in Sicily and Punta Pezzo in Calabria is only.Three mountain ranges are present: Pollino, La Sila, and Aspromonte, each with its own flora and fauna. The Pollino Mountains in the north of the region are rugged and form a natural barrier separating Calabria from the rest of Italy. Parts of the area are heavily wooded, while others are vast, wind-swept plateaus with little vegetation. These mountains are home to a rare Bosnian Pine variety and are included in the Pollino National Park, which is the largest national park in Italy, covering 1,925.65 square kilometres.
La Sila, which has been referred to as the "Great Wood of Italy", is a vast mountainous plateau about above sea level and stretches for nearly along the central part of Calabria. The highest point is Botte Donato, which reaches. The area boasts numerous lakes and dense coniferous forests. La Sila also has some of the tallest trees in Italy which are called the "Giants of the Sila" and can reach up to in height. The Sila National Park is also known to have the purest air in Europe.
The Aspromonte massif forms the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula bordered by the sea on three sides. This unique mountainous structure reaches its highest point at Montalto, at, and is full of wide, man-made terraces that slope down toward the sea.
Most of the lower terrain in Calabria has been agricultural for centuries, and exhibits indigenous scrubland as well as introduced plants such as the prickly pear cactus. The lowest slopes are rich in vineyards and orchards of citrus fruit, including the Diamante citron. Further up, olives and chestnut trees appear while in the higher regions there are often dense forests of oak, pine, beech and fir trees.
Climate
Calabria's climate is influenced by the sea and mountains. The Mediterranean climate is typical of the coastal areas with considerable differences in temperature and rainfall between the seasons, with an average low of during the winter months and an average high of during the summer months. Mountain areas have a typical mountainous climate with frequent snow during winter. The erratic behavior of the Tyrrhenian Sea can bring heavy rainfall on the western slopes of the region, while hot air from Africa makes the east coast of Calabria dry and warm. The mountains that run along the region also influence the climate and temperature of the region. The east coast is much warmer and has wider temperature ranges than the west coast. The geography of the region causes more rain to fall along the west coast than that of the east coast, which occurs mainly during winter and autumn and less during the summer months.Below are the two extremes of climate in Calabria, the warm mediterranean subtype on the coastline and the highland climate of Monte Scuro.
Geology
Calabria is commonly considered part of the "Calabrian Arc", an arc-shaped geographic domain extending from the southern part of the Basilicata Region to the northeast of Sicily, and including the Peloritano Mountains. The Calabrian area shows basement of Paleozoic and younger ages, covered by Neogene sediments. Studies have revealed that these rocks comprise the upper part of a pile of thrust sheets which dominate the Apennines and the Sicilian Maghrebides.The Neogene evolution of the Central Mediterranean system is dominated by the migration of the Calabrian Arc to the southeast, overriding the African Plate and its promontories.) The main tectonic elements of the Calabrian Arc are the southern Apennines fold-and-thrust belt, the "Calabria-Peloritani", or simply Calabrian block and the Sicilian Maghrebides fold-and-thrust belt. The foreland area is formed by the Apulia Platform, which is part of the Adriatic Plate, and the Ragusa or Iblean Platform, which is an extension of the African Plate. These platforms are separated by the Ionian Basin. The Tyrrhenian oceanized basin is regarded as the back-arc basin. This subduction system therefore shows the southern plates of African affinity subducting below the northern plates of European affinity.
The geology of Calabria has been studied for more than a century. The earlier works were mainly dedicated to the evolution of the basement rocks of the area. The Neogene sedimentary successions were merely regarded as "post-orogenic" infill of "neo-tectonic" tensional features. In the course of time, however, a shift can be observed in the temporal significance of these terms, from post-Eocene to post-Early Miocene to post-middle Pleistocene.
The region is seismically active and is generally ascribed to the re-establishment of an equilibrium after the latest deformation phase. Some authors believe that the subduction process is still ongoing, which is a matter of debate.
History
Calabria has one of the oldest records of human presence in Italy, which date back to around 700,000 BC when a type of Homo erectus evolved leaving traces around coastal areas. During the Paleolithic period Stone Age humans created the "Bos Primigenius", a figure of a bull on a cliff which dates back around 12,000 years in the Romito Cave in the town of Papasidero. When the Neolithic period came the first villages were founded around 3,500 BC.Antiquity
According to the Greeks, the region would have been inhabited before colonization by several communities, including the Ausones-Oenotrians, who were the Italians, Morgetes, Sicels, and Chone. It is said that it was from the mythical ruler Italus that Calabria was called “Italy”. The figure of Italus is placed in the first half of the 15th century BC. Antiochus of Syracuse, considered the first historian of the West, depicts him as “A good and wise king, capable of subduing neighboring peoples making use of persuasion and force from time to time”.Around 1500 BC a tribe called the Oenotri, settled in the region. Ancient sources state they were Greeks who were led to the region by their king, Oenotrus. However it is believed they were an ancient Italic people who spoke an Italic language.
During the eighth and seventh centuries BC, Greek settlers founded many colonies on the coast of southern Italy. In Calabria they founded Chone, Cosentia, Clampetia, Scyllaeum, Sybaris, Hipponion, Epizephyrian Locris, Kaulon, Krimisa, Kroton, Laüs, Medma, Metauros, Petelia, Rhégion, Scylletium, Temesa, Terina, Pandosia and Thurii,.
In the year 744 B.C. a group of Chalcidian settlers founded the city of Rhegion at the southern end of the Calabrian peninsula. Soon after, again the Chalcidans founded Zancle on the other side of the strait, securing their dominion over that arm of the sea. Later Chalcidian settlers from Rhegion and Zancle would found Metauros, divided the river of the same name from the Italic city of the Tauri.
In 710 B.C. Ionian colonists founded Sybaris on the fertile plain of the same name at the mouth of the Crati. From this colony would later originate the founding of Paestum, Lao and Scidros. Ionian colonies were , Temesa, Terina, Krimisa, Petelia.
In 743 B.C. Achaean settlers instead founded Kroton, on the point now known as Capo Colonna. Crotonians and Sybarites would later become rivals. But meanwhile, the Crotonians founded the colonies of Caulonia and Scillezio. Around 700 B.C. Crotonian colonists founded Bristacia, current Umbriatico.
Around 680 B.C. colonists who came from the Greek Locris founded Epizephyrian Locris, near present-day Locri. Colonies of the Locrians were Hipponion and Medma.
The Bruttians, similar to the neighboring Lucanians, declared themselves independent of their “cousins” from beyond the Pollino around the 4th century B.C., forming themselves into a confederate state. The capital of the federates was Consentia, present-day Cosenza. It was one of the main cities along with Pandosia, a city whose traces have been lost; some historical references locate it among the municipalities of Castrolibero, Marano Principato, and Marano Marchesato, while other recent archaeological discoveries would locate the city near the present city of Acri, Aufugum, Argentanum, Bergae, Besidiae, and Lymphaeum.
Between 560 and 550 B.C. a decade-long war was fought between Kroton and Epizephyrian Locris, which was resolved by the battle on the Sagra River, which saw the alliance between the people of Reggio and Locri emerge victorious.
In 510 B.C. the Crotonians attacked nearby Sybaris, and faced the Sybarites on the River Trionto, in a clash between 100,000 Crotonians and 300,000 Sybarites. The Dorians won the battle and occupied Sybaris by sacking it for 70 days and diverting the waters of the Crati River onto the ruins of the city.
In 444 B.C. Athenian and Peloponnesian colonists founded, on the site of the destroyed Sybaris, the colony of Turi, at the behest of Pericles in the détente plan related to the Thirty Years' Peace in the Peloponnesian War.
In 338 BC. Locri asked Dionysius of Syracuse for help against the expansion of Reggio and Croton. The Syracusans intervened in the Calabrian peninsula by defeating the Crotonians on the narrowest point of the river Sagra, current Allaro, and occupying Croton for ten years, an event that put an end to the power of the Crotonians; similar fate befell Reggio, which although having resisted the numerous attacks of Dionysius of Syracuse, in 386 BC after eleven months of siege was taken by the Syracusans, and for some years also weakened in its political power.
Rhegion was the birthplace of one of the famed nine lyric poets, Ibycus and Metauros was the birthplace of another, Stesichorus, who was amongst the first lyric poets of the western world. Kroton spawned many victors during the ancient Olympics and other Panhellenic Games. Amongst the most famous were Milon of Croton, who won six wrestling events in six Olympics in a row, along with seven events in the Pythian Games, nine events in the Nemean Games and ten events in the Isthmian Games and also Astylos of Croton, who won six running events in three Olympics in a row. Through Alcmaeon of Croton and Pythagoras, who moved to Kroton in 530 BC, the city became a renowned center of philosophy, science and medicine. The Greeks of Sybaris created "Intellectual Property." The Sybarites founded at least 20 other colonies, including Poseidonia, Laüs and Scidrus. Locri was renowned for being the town where Zaleucus created the first Western Greek law, the "Locrian Code" and the birthplace of ancient epigrammist and poet Nossis.
The Greek cities of Calabria came under pressure from the Lucanians who conquered the north of Calabria and pushed further south, taking over part of the interior, probably after they defeated the Thurians near Laus in 390 BC. A few decades later the Bruttii took advantage of the weakening of the Greek cites caused by wars between them and took over Hipponium, Terina and Thurii. The Bruttii helped the Lucanians fight Alexander of Epirus, who had come to the aid of Tarentum, which was also pressured by the Lucanians. After this, Agathocles of Syracuse ravaged the coast of Calabria with his fleet, took Hipponium and forced the Bruttii into unfavourable peace terms. However, they soon seized Hipponium again. After Agathloces' death in 289 BC the Lucanians and Bruttii pushed into the territory of Thurii and ravaged it. The city sent envoys to Rome to ask for help in 285 BC and 282 BC. On the second occasion, the Romans sent forces to garrison the city. This was part of the episode which sparked the Pyrrhic war.
With the passage of time the name Italy was consolidated in common usage beginning to define the inhabitants of the city-states of the Mezzogiorno first as Italiotes, then Italics with the arrival of the Romans, who would later include Cisalpine Gaul.