Taranto : Italy
The Romans conquered the city in 272 BC, by treachery of the Epiriotic soldiers, and demolished the defensive walls of the city.
Second Punic War
During the Second Punic War, Taranto the Romans heavily garrisoned the city for fear that it might go over to Hannibal. However when a group of Tarantine hostages held at Rome were caught trying to escape and thrown from the Tarpeian Rock as traitors. Probably because of this anti Roman feeling in the city greatly increased. Two members of the pro-Carthage faction in the city enabled Hannibal to enter the city in 212 BC. He was not able to capture the citadel of the city which was defended by roman troops. Because of Hannibal’s failure to capture the citadel, he was not able to use Tarentum as a major port and staging area for the invasion of Italy. The army was forced to portage boats across the city in order to sail from the bay. The city supported his war against Rome, but in 209 BC the commander of the garrison betrayed the city to the Romans. Thirty thousand of the Greek inhabitants were sold as slaves and many works of art were carried off to Rome.
Roman and Byzantine periods
Roman Republic and Empire
In 122 BC a Roman colony was founded next to Taranto, according to the law proposed by Gaius Sempronius Gracchus. The colony was named Neptunia, after the Roman sea god Neptunus, worshipped by the Tarantines. The Roman colony was separate from the Greek city, and populated by Roman colons, but it was later unified to the main centre when Taranto become a municipium, in 89 BC.
In 38 BC Mark Antony, Octavianus and Lepidus signed the Treaty of Tarentum, extending the second triumvirate until 33 BC.
Tarentum had a municipal law, Lex municipii Tarenti [1]; a partial copy inscibed on bronze plates was discovered in 1894 by Luigi Viola, and is now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Naples.
During the late Republic and all the Roman Empire, Taranto was a simple provincial city (Prefecture of Italy, Diocese of Italia suburbicaria, Apulia et Calabria province). Emperor Trajan tried to counter the reduction of the population giving the Tarantine lands to his veterans, but this initiative failed. Taranto followed the story of Italy during the late Empire, with Visigoth attacks and Ostrogoth domination.
