TARAN'TO (anc. Ta-rentum), a town of s. Italy, in the province of Lecce, is situ ated on a rocky islet, formerly an isthmus, between the Mare Piccolo (Little Sea), an extensive harbor on the e. or landward side of the town, and the Mare Grande (Great Sea), or gulf of Taranto, on the west. The natural channel between the two "seas" has been spanned by a long bridge of seven arches, rendering the Mare Piccolo quite useless as a harbor, and forcing ships to anchor in the outer roads, which are much exposed to s. and s.w. winds. The principal buildings are a cathedral dedicated to St. Cataldo, a native of Raphoe in Ireland, who was first bishop of Taranto; a fine episco pal palace; a castle and fortifications,_erected by Charles V., and commanding both seas; and two hospitals. The streets are as narrow and dark as those of• an oriental city. Taranto has manufactures of velvets, linens, and cottons, but little commerce. The Mare Piccolo, however, is still famous (as of yore) for its immense abundance of shell-fish, and a considerable portion of the population (which in 1872 amounted to 27,546) derives its subsistence from the oyster and mussel fisheries.
Ancient Tarentum, however, was a far more famous and splendid city than 'its mod ern representative. Founded by a body of Spartan emigrants about 708 B.c., it grew and prospered for centuries in happy obscurity. Its territory was not perhaps very fer tile, but its pasturage was of the finest, and its olive groves were unsurpassed. Yet it was not these things that ultimately made it the sovereign city of Magna Grmcia; this rank it attained through the supreme excellence of its harbor (the Mare Piccolo), ample and secure beyond all the other harbors of lower Italy. Gradually it became the chief
emporium of the Grseco-Italian trade, and long after all the rest of the colonial cities in Magna Grsecia had fallen iuto decay, Tarentum was " blooming alone " in undiminished prosperity. We may pass over its earlier history, noticing only the fact, that in the 4th c. B.C., it had for its strategos, or general (seven times), the philosopher and geometer Archytas, under whom it became the headquarters of the Pythagorean sect, and was honored with a visit from Plato, who was the guest of Archytas during his residence there. But while in the very acme of its greatness, it provoked a quarrel with Rome (q.v.), 281 B.C., in which, though aided by the gallantry of Pyrrhus (q.v.), king of Epirus, it was utterly crushed, after a struggle of less than ten years; and though its natural advantages hindered it from sinking into such absolute insignificance as other cities of Magna Grcia, it was never after a place of great importance. Under the empire it was quite overshadowed by Brundusium on the Adriatic, but rose again during the Gothic wars, and passed into the hands of the Saracens and Greeks, from the latter of whom it was wrested by Robert Guiscard, the Norman, in 1063. Since then, it has shared the fortunes of the kingdom of Naples. Few relics of the classic Tarentum are extant, the chief being bits of an amphitheater, a circus, and traces of some of the tem ples.