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The relevance of the mountains gained importance after the fall of the Roman
Empire, when local inhabitants abandoned the coast, which had become increasingly
unsafe due to the reappearance of piracy, and withdrew to the more easily defensible
peaks of the interior. The Gothic Wars, during Justinian’s reign (A.D. 527-565), struck a
mortal blow to the economy of Calabria’s coastal cities, which had been ravaged by
enemy armies for decades. 24 Significant exceptions were Rhegium and Croton, whose
harbors were used extensively by the Byzantines to retain communication between the
two sides of the Empire. The coastal installations of the deserted Greek colonies were
mostly abandoned and disappeared between the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., when
Calabria became similar to a fortress isolated from the external world. 25 As Catherine
Delano Smith notes, harbor installations represent some of the most fragile human
constructions, especially when they are port-canals or nautical installations built, in the
absence of a natural bay open to the sea, “at the meeting point of two of the most
unstable of all the geomorphological environments, the shore and the river channel.” 26
This was probably the situation for Calabria in Greek and Roman times, before local
inhabitants fled its coastline and abandoned maritime facilities, which eventually silted
up and disappeared from view.
24 De Leo 1992, 118-25.
25 Brasacchio 1977, 115-7.
26 Delano Smith 1979, 327.
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