Alalia, the Battle that Changed History, through November 3, 2019 at the Musei Di Maremma in Vetulonia, Italy

Alalia, the Battle that Changed History, through November 3, 2019 at the Musei Di Maremma in Vetulonia, Italy. 

The naval Battle of Alalia took place between 540 BCE and 535 BCE off the coast of Corsica between Greeks and an allied fleet of Etruscans and Carthaginians.  The Punic-Etruscan fleet of 120  pentekonters (ships with 48 oars and two steering rudders) defeated a Greek force of Phocaean ships while emigrating to the western Mediterranean and the nearby colony of Alalia (now Aléria).   Although the Greeks drove the allied fleet off, they lost almost two-thirds of their own fleet, a Cadmean victory according to Herodotus. Realizing they could not withstand another attack, the Greeks evacuated Corsica, and initially sought refuge in Rhegion in Italy. A legend describes how Greek prisoners were stoned to death at Caere by the Etruscans, while the Carthaginians sold their prisoners into slavery.  The exhibit features 150 objects on loan from the museums of Aléria, Oristano, Sassari, Nuoro, Florence, Tuscany, and the National Etruscan Museum of the Villa Giulia in Rome. 


mage: Vase fragment with painting of a pentekonter, a galley with 48 rowers and 2 men operating the steering rudders.  Courtesy of the Musei Di Maremma.

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