Temesa (ancient city)

Temesa was an ancient city on the Tyrrhenian coast of southern Italy, remembered in antiquity chiefly for its copper deposits and its position in Magna Graecia. Its exact site has not been confirmed, though scholars place it near the mouth of the Savuto river, possibly at modern Campora San Giovanni. Control of the city passed successively from its Greek founders to Sybaris, then Croton, then Locri, which conquered it in the fifth century BC, before Rome established a colony there in 194 BC. Temesa also appears in Greek legend, mentioned in Homer's Odyssey as a trading destination and later recorded by Pausanias in the story of the vengeful ghost known as the Hero of Temesa.