Sybaris

a Greek colony in southern Italy. It was founded by Achaean colonists 720 B. C., and was destroyed by a rival city 510 B. C. It was the largest Greek city in what was known as Magna Grecia. Its walls were several miles in circumference. It exacted tribute from twenty-five cities and ruled four neighboring tribes. The historian Strabo states that in the great war with Crotona in which Sybaris was destroyed, the city put not less than 300,000 men in the field. The enemy destroyed Sybaris finally by damming up a river and turning its current upon the walls of the doomed city. The wealth and luxury of Sybaris are proverbial, giving rise to the epithet, "sybarite."