Paestum

Paestum was a major ancient Greek city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, in Magna Graecia [1]. The ruins of Paestum are famous for their three ancient Greek temples in the Doric order dating from about 550 to 450 BCE that are in an excellent state of preservation [1]. The city walls and amphitheatre are largely intact, and the bottom of the walls of many other structures remain, as well as paved roads [1]. As Pesto or Paestum, the town became a bishopric (now only titular), but it was abandoned in the Early Middle Ages, and left undisturbed and largely forgotten until the eighteenth century [1]. The Greek settlers who founded the city originally named it Poseidonia [1]. It was eventually conquered by the local Lucanians and later the Romans [1]. The Lucanians renamed it to Paistos and the Romans gave the city its current name [1]. The date of Poseidonia's founding is not given by ancient sources, but the archaeological evidence gives a date of approximately 600 BCE [1].