Locri | ||
---|---|---|
Comune | ||
Città di Locri | ||
|
||
Location of Locri in Italy | ||
Coordinates: 38°14′N 16°16′E / 38.233°N 16.267°E | ||
Country | Italy | |
Region | Calabria | |
Province / Metropolitan city | Reggio Calabria (RC) | |
Frazioni | Moschetta, San Fili, Baldari | |
Government | ||
• Mayor | Giuseppe Lombardo (from 2011) | |
Area | ||
• Total | 25 km2 (10 sq mi) | |
Population (30 April 2010) | ||
• Total | 12,845 | |
• Density | 510/km2 (1,300/sq mi) | |
Demonym(s) | Locresi | |
Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |
• Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | |
Postal code | 89044 | |
Dialing code | 0964 | |
Patron saint | St. Catherine | |
Saint day | November 24 | |
Website | Official website |
Locri is a town and comune (municipality) in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, southern Italy. The name derives from the ancient Greek town Locris.
Epizephyrian Locris (from Greek Ἐπιζεφύριοι Λοκροί; from ἐπί epi, "on", Ζέφυρος (Zephyros, "West Wind, and the plural of Λοκρός, Lokros, "a Locrian," thus "The Locrians upon the West Wind"). was founded about 680 BC on the Italian shore of the Ionian Sea, near modern Capo Zefirio, by the Locrians, apparently by Opuntii (East Locrians) from the city of Opus, but including Ozolae (West Locrians) and Lacedaemonians. Its Latin name, Locri, is the plural of the Latin Locrus, which was used both to mean an inhabitant of Locris and the eponymous ancestor of the Locrians. Strabo suggests that it was the Ozolae who were the main founders.
Due to fierce winds at an original settlement, the settlers moved to the present site. After a century, a defensive wall was built. Outside the city there are several necropoleis, some of which are very large.
Epizephyrian Locris was one of the cities of Magna Graecia. Its renowned lawgiver Zaleucus decreed that anyone who proposed a change in the laws should do so with a noose about their neck, with which they should be hanged if the amendment did not pass. Plato called it "The flower of Italy", due to the local peoples' characteristics. Locris was the site of two great sanctuaries, that of Persephone — here worshipped as the protector of fertile marriage — and of Aphrodite.