The Ruins of old Cirella

Cirella, currently a hamlet of Diamante, 3 km from its urban center with about 1500 inhabitants, boasts remote origins that are lost in prehistory, witnessed by the discovery of fossil and lithic finds belonging to tribal settlements of the Middle Paleolithic, the most ancient period of Stone Age. Around 1200 BC was one of the first cities in the area founded by Ausoni, ancient "Italic" populations of Indo-European descent who settled in central-southern Italy. Around 540 BC, during the second Greek colonization, its site, adjacent to that of Laos , was populated by the Focesi, sheltered there after the conquest of Phocea (545 BC) by Cyrus II the Great King of Persia. During the permanence of Focese, Cirella was a large commercial center, which became very powerful for its exports throughout Magna Graecia and Rome especially after the destruction of Sybaris (510 BC), when it became a very important bridgehead between the Tyrrhenian coast and the ionic one. Evocative are the remains of this Greek colony, located on a hill above the new town.