SALAPIA
Foggia, Apulia, Italy.
An ancient
city on the Adriatic coast N of Trinitapolis, near the
Salapina palus (Luc. 5.377) Lago di Salpi, today
largely drained. According to legend, it was founded by
Diomedes or by Elpias of Rhodes (Vitr. 1.14.12;
Strab.
14.654). Others attribute Trojan origins to the city
(Lycoph. 1129). The city was not, however, colonized
by the Greeks in the historic period. As an important
center of Daunia with its own mint (the name Salapinon
or Salpinon are found on bronze coins), it participated
actively in the second Punic war. In 214 B.C. Hannibal
seized the city and set up his winter quarters there, but
M. Claudius Marcellus reoccupied it in 210 (
Livy 24.20;
26.38). During the social war (
App. BCiv. 1.51), the
city was destroyed, and it gradually disappeared because
the lagoon was becoming a swamp. The ruins of the
ancient town are found along the road which leads from
Zapponeta to the district of Torre Pietra.
According to Vitruvius (bc. cit.), the old city was
abandoned, made unhealthy because of malaria, and the
inhabitants in the 1st B.C. moved ca. 6.4 km away to a
healthier place, where a harbor was developed by joining
the Lago di Salpi with the sea. The new Salapia was a
Roman municipium and is mentioned by the writers of
land survey as a colony (Grom. Vet. 210.261). Significant traces have recently been brought to light in the zone called Monte di Salpi, where it is believed that the second city rose.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. Smith,
Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Geography, II (1857) 879 (E. H. Bunbury);
RE 1.2 (1920) 2007-9;
EAA 6 (1965) 1072 (N. Degrassi); M. D. Marin in
Atti VIII Convegno Studi Magna Grecia (1968) 242; S. F. Tiné, ibid. 233ff.
F. G. LO PORTO
