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The Otranto channel is only 105 kilometers wide and it represents the shortest way to
reach the Italian peninsula for ships coming from the Aegean. The harbors along the
coast of Calabria provided Greek and Roman seafarers with shelter and materials for the
ships, water, food supplies, and a safe resting place for the crews.
At the end of the 14 th century A.D., written accounts record the journeys of
Simone Lecavella and Pellegro Maraboto, who traveled, respectively, from Alexandria
and Messembria in the Black Sea to Genoa. 60 With a quick glance at Fig. 14 it is
apparent that the only real difference between the route they took and that of the
Athenian fleet in Thucydides’ account is the ability of the ships to skip the Gulf of
Tarentum, sailing rather in a straight line from Santa Maria di Leuca (the ancient
Iapygian Promontory) to Capo Colonna with only one stop in Roccella before reaching
the Strait. Before lateen sails were in use, vessels were more subject to the vicissitudes
of winds and currents, but the evidence indicates that ancient seafarers followed the
same route as Lecavella and Maraboto.
Strategically located where the flat Ionian shoreline is interrupted by a number of
small, wind-sheltered bays created by the three promontories of Capo Colonna, Capo
Cimiti, and Capo Rizzuto, the area to the south of Croton was a natural haven for
seamen in danger. Many of them likely found shelter, but some probably lost their ships,
if the winds changed unexpectedly. This may be precisely what happened to the five
ancient naves lapidariae that sank in this area.
60 Horden and Purcell 2000, 140.
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