Heraclea Lucania

Policoro, Italy

Heraclea was an ancient city of Magna Graecia. The ruins of the city are located in the modern comune of Policoro in Basilicata. It was a Greek colony, but founded at a period considerably later than most of the other Greek cities in this part of Italy. The foundation of the city is placed by Diodorus in 432 BCE. It became famous as the site of the first major battle of the Pyrrhic War in 280 BCE in which king Pyrrhus of Epirus defeated a Roman army on the head of a coalition of Southern Italian Greek city states.

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Founded: 432 BCE
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Italy

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