History of Taranto
The origin of the city of Taranto dates from the 8th century BC when it was founded as a Greek colony, known as Taras.
Main article: TarantoTaras gradually increased its influence, becoming a commercial power and a city-state of Magna Graecia and ruling over many of the Greek colonies in southern Italy.
Roman, Lombard, Arab, and Norman Middle era[edit]
Roman and Lombard dominations[edit]
In the wake of the Gothic wars, Taranto was reconquered by the Roman Empire in 540, and was ruled by them until the Lombards (or Longobards) of the Duchy of Benevento captured it in 662.
In spring 663, Basileus Constans II arrived at Taranto with a fleet and an army and defeated the Lombards: it was the first time a Byzantine Emperor from Constantinople had arrived in Italy with an army. Next, he conquered Apulia and went to Rome to meet Pope Vitalian.
After the Emperor got back to Constantinople, a new war between the Byzantines and the Duchy of Beneventum started, which lasted for years. Duke Grimoaldus conquered northern Apulia and his son Romoaldus, in 686, took Taranto and Brindisi from the imperial army.
In the 8th century, North African Muslim Berbers started to raid Taranto and southern Italy; the Saracen menace lasted up to the 11th century.
Arab domination[edit]
The first years of the 9th century were characterized by the internal fights that weakened the Lombard power. In 840, a Lombard prince, who was held prisoner in Taranto, was freed by his partisans, brought to Benevento, and made duke. At the same time, the Saracens took control of Taranto, exploiting the weak Lombard control. Taranto became an Arab stronghold and privileged harbour for forty years. It was from here that ships loaded with prisoners sailed to the Arab ports, where the prisoners were sold in the slave market. In the same 840, an Arab fleet left Taranto, defeated in the Gulf of Taranto a Venetian fleet of 60 ships, summoned by the emperor Theophilus, and entered the Adriatic sea, sacking the coastal cities.
In 850, four Saracen columns departed from Taranto and Bari to sack Campania, Apulia, Calabria and Abruzzi. In 854, Taranto was again the base for an Arab raid, led by Abbas-ibn-Faid, which sacked the Lombard Principality of Salerno. Two Arab fleets arrived to Taranto, in 871 and later in 875, carrying the troops which sacked Campania and Apulia. The situation of southern Italy worried Emperor Basil I, who decided to fight the Arabs and take the harbour of Taranto from themselves.
In 880, two Byzantine armies, led by generals Prokopios and Leo Apostyppes, and a fleet commanded by the admiral Nasar, took Taranto from the Arabs, ending a forty years dominion. Among the first actions taken by Apostyppes was the enslavement and deportation of the Latin-Longobard original inhabitants and the import of Greek colonists, in order to increase the population. Taranto became one of the most important cities in the theme of Longobardia, the Byzantine possession in southern Italy. In 882 the Saracens, having been invited by Duke Radelchis to assist him, captured it and held it for some time.
Return under Byzantine rule[edit]
In 928, a Fatimid fleet under Sabir al-Fata sacked the city, enslaving and deporting to North Africa all the survivors.[9] Taranto had no inhabitants, until the Byzantine re-conquest in 967. The Byzantine emperor Nicephorus II Phocas understood the importance of a strong military presence and harbour in southern Italy, and rebuilt the city. He added several military fortifications, and made Taranto a stronghold of Roman resistance against the uprising Norman power in south Italy. However, the weakness of the Roman local government exposed Taranto to other Saracen raids. In 977, it was attacked by Saracens led by Abn'l-Kàsim, who took many prisoners and sacked the city, burning some parts of Taranto. In 982, Emperor Otto II started his war against Saracens from Taranto, but he was defeated by Abn'l-Kàsim in the Battle of Stilo (Calabria).
Norman conquest[edit]
The 11th century was characterized by a bloody struggle between Normans and Byzantines for the rule over the Tarentine and Bariot lands. In May 1060, Robert Guiscard conquered the city, but in October Taranto was re-occupied by the Byzantine army. After three years, in 1063, the Norman count Geoffrey, son of Petron I, entered in Taranto, but he was obliged to flee from it on the arrival of the Byzantine admiral Michael Maurikas. Taranto was finally conquered by the Normans: the sons of Petron elected the first Norman archbishop, Drogo, in 1071, and prepared a fleet to conquer Durazzo.[10]
From Renaissance to Napoleon[edit]
In March 1502, the Spanish fleet of king Ferdinand II of Aragon, allied to Louis XII of France, seized the port and conquered Taranto.
In 1504 King Ferdinand III valiantly defended this extremity of his kingdom, but had to cede it to the Spanish general Consalvo de Cordoba.
In 1570 Admiral Giovanni Andrea Doria set his fleet of 49 galleys in Mar Grande to repair and supply his ships. Among the people on the fleet was Miguel de Cervantes. The fleet later united with the other parts of the Christian League, and in 1571 defeated the Turkish fleet at Lepanto: also some Tarentine nobles took part in the battle.
In 1647 the insurrection of Masaniello in Naples reached also Taranto. The city joined also the Parthenopaean Republic of 1799, from 8 February to 8 March of that year, though again unluckily.
In 1746 Taranto had 11,526 inhabitants. All of them were packed in the small island, among a high number of religious institutes and churches. Francesco Antonio Calo', a Tarentine nobleman, started in 1765 with two statues the Mysteries of the Holy Week celebrations. They are today the most important and attended event of Taranto.
After the defeat of Ferdinand IV of Naples at Monteregio and the subsequent Peace of Florence, in 1801 the French general Jean-de-dieu Soult occupied with 13,000 soldiers the provinces of Bari, Lecce and the harbour of Taranto. Napoleon wanted to build a stronghold to keep under pression the British base of Malta. On 23 April 1801, 6,000 French soldiers of the Armée d'observation du midi entered in Taranto (20.000 inhabitants at the time) and fortified it in order to obtain "a sort of Gibitrair" (Napoleon). On 25 March 1802, France and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Amiens, which required France to leave South Italy, but after UK declaration of war against France, the Armée d'observation du midi returned to Taranto, under the command of general Laurent Gouvion de Saint Cyr, on 23 May 1803. Among the French officers in Taranto, there is also the novelist Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, artillery general and fortification expert, who died in Taranto on 5 September 1803. On 15 February, Joseph Bonaparte became King of Naples, and on 3 May visited the fortifications of Taranto. The presence of the French troops and defensive works benefited the Tarentine economy.
In 1805 the Russian fleet, allied with the British, remained there for several months.
On March 30, 1806, Bonaparte's decree created Tarente (the French name for the city) one of six hereditary duchés grand-fiefs in the satellite kingdom of Naples, awarded to maréchal MacDonald in 1809 (line extinguished 1912).
With the fall of Napoleon and the defeat of Joachim Murat at the battle of Tolentino, Southern Italy and Taranto returned under the Bourbon dynasty's rule, forming the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Diocese of Taranto". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
