Taranto : Italy
Under the rule of its greatest statesman, strategist and army commander-in-chief, the philosopher and mathematician Archytas, Taranto reached its peak power and wealth; it was the most important city of the Magna Graecia, the main commercial port of southern Italy, it produced and exported goods to and from motherland Greece, it had the biggest army and the largest fleet in southern Italy. However, with the death of Architas in 347 BC, the city started a slow, but ineluctable decline; the first sign of the decreased power was its inability to field an army, since the Tarantines preferred to use their large wealth to hire mercenaries, rather than leave their lucrative trades.
In 343 BC Taranto appealed for aid against the barbarian to its mother city Sparta, in the face of aggression by the Brutian League. In 342 BC, Archidamus III, king of Sparta, arrived in Italy with an army and a fleet to fight the Lucanians and their allies. In 338 BC, during the Battle of Manduria, the Spartan and Tarantine armies were defeated in front of the walls of Manduria (nowadays in province of Taranto), and Archidamus was killed.
In 333 BC, still troubled by its Italic neighbours, the Tarantine called the Epiriotic king Alexander Molossus to fight the Brutti, Samnites, and Lucanians, but he was later (331 BC) defeated and killed in the battle of Pandosia (near Cosenza).
In 320 BC, a peace treaty was signed between Taranto and the Samnites.
In 304 BC, Taranto was attacked by the Lucanians, and asked for the help of Agathocles tyrant of Syracuse, king of Sicily. Agathocles arrived in southern Italy, took control of Brutium (the ancient Calabria), but was later called back in Syracuse.
In 303 BC-302 BC Cleonymus of Sparta established an alliance with Taranto against the Lucanians, and fought against them.
