Sybaris

Sybaris was a major city of Magna Graecia, founded c. 720 BC by Achaean and Troezenian settlers on the Gulf of Taranto in modern Calabria. It grew into the wealthiest Greek colony of the Archaic world, with a population possibly reaching 300,000, and its inhabitants became so famed for luxury that 'sybarite' entered common language. In 510 BC, rival Kroton destroyed the city completely. It was later refounded as Thurii in 444/443 BC with Athenian colonists. The ruins, rediscovered in 1932, are housed in the National Sybaritic Archaeological Museum at Casa Bianca in Terranova da Sibari.