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Locri Epizephyrii

Locri
Comune
Città di Locri
Coat of arms of Locri
Coat of arms
Locri is located in Italy
Locri
Locri
Location of Locri in Italy
Coordinates: 38°14′N 16°16′E / 38.233°N 16.267°E / 38.233; 16.267
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.


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