Global InformationHistory of Tursi information
The history of Tursi, a town in Southern Italy, likely originated in the early Middle Ages, as most historians agree, with the fifth-century barbarian invasions by the Goths in southern Italy.[1]
However, in particular, the historian Placido Troyli derives the origin of the city, as a direct thread, from the decay of Pandosia,[2] the Assyriologist François Lenormant identifies it, in Roman times, as the ancient Turiostum of the Tabula Peutingeriana,[3] the historian Antonio Nigro indicates it as founded by the Goths of Odoacer towards the end of the 5th century,[4] while Lorenzo Giustiniani, on the other hand, states that Tursi was founded by the Saracens only in the 9th century.[5] The latter thesis is also confirmed by archaeologist Lorenzo Quilici, who precisely indicates the period; namely, when Arab pressure in the Agri Valley culminated with the conquest of Grumento, Stigliano and the founding of Castelsaraceno, around the year 872.[6]
However, all of them agree on the Gothic construction of the castle in the early 5th century and the later Saracen rule, attributing the present-day Rabatana town center to the latter. In fact, in the hilly area of “Murata,” adjacent to the castle, many tombs, without any grave goods, covered by huge slabs, have been found, indicating the area as already inhabited prior to the construction of the castle,[7] and Giacomo Racioppi argues that there was already an oppidum in the area[8] and therefore that Tursi was older than its current toponym.
What is certain is that the territory was inhabited from the early Iron Age by the Oenotrians to whom is attributed the founding of Pandosia,[9] renamed by the Ionians during the Hellenic colonization of Italy.[10]
- ^ G. Antonini (1745, p. 120).
- ^ P. Troyli (1747, p. 431, tomo I, par. 2).
- ^ F. Lenormant (1881, I p. 196).
- ^ A. Nigro (1851, pp. 45–51).
- ^ L. Giustiniani (1797, p. 273).
- ^ L. Quilici (1967, pp. 203–204).
- ^ R. Bruno (1977, p. 19).
- ^ G. Racioppi (1889, p. 54).
- ^ D. Romanelli (1815, volume 1 pp. 214-215).
- ^ V. Buonsanto (1819, p. 58).