Thurii was an ancient Greek city on the Gulf of Taranto, in what is now Calabria in southern Italy. It was founded in 443 BCE on or near the site of Sybaris by settlers sent out under Pericles as a panhellenic colony; its regular street plan is attributed to Hippodamus, Protagoras is said to have drawn up its laws, and according to ancient tradition Herodotus joined the colonists and made it his home. Later allied with Rome and held for a time by Hannibal, it received a Roman colony named Copia in 194 BCE. Silt from the Crathis river eventually left the site inland and it was abandoned; its ruins lie in the Sybaris archaeological park near Sibari.
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Thurii (Magna Graecia) through the eras
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Classical Age
Established around 444/443 BCE under the sponsorship of Pericles' Athens as a deliberately panhellenic foundation near the ruins of fabled Sybaris, Thurii was laid out on a rational grid by Hippodamus of Miletus, the first theorist of town planning, and reportedly given laws by Protagoras. Among its original colonists was Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the 'Father of History,' who is said to have settled here and completed his great 'Histories' of the Persian Wars—so that some ancient sources call him 'Herodotus of Thurii.'
Hellenistic Age
Caught between the native Lucanians and the expanding power of Rome, Thurii repeatedly sought Roman protection and was eventually refounded as the Latin colony of Copia in 193 BCE, its Greek identity fading as southern Italy passed firmly under Roman control.