Editing Matera (section)

== History ==
Before its integration into the modern Italian state, the city of Matera had experienced the rule of the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]], [[Duchy of Benevento|Lombards]], [[Emirate of Bari|Arabs]], [[Byzantine Italy|Byzantine Greeks]], [[Hohenstaufen|Swabians]], [[Kingdom of Naples|Angevins, Aragonese, and Bourbons]].

Although scholars continue to debate the date the dwellings were first occupied in Matera,{{sfn|Toxey|2011|p=36}} and the continuity of their subsequent occupation, the area of what is now Matera is believed to have been settled since the [[Palaeolithic]] (tenth millennium BC). This makes it potentially one of the [[List of oldest continuously inhabited cities|oldest continually inhabited settlements in the world]].<ref>Leonardo A. Chisena, ''Matera dalla civita al piano: stratificazione, classi sociali e costume politico'', Congedo, 1984, p.7</ref> Alternatively, it has been suggested by Anne Toxey that the area has been "occupied continuously for at least three millennia".<ref>{{cite book |author1=Anne Parmly Toxey |editor1-last=Micara |editor1-first=Ludovico |editor2-last=Petruccioli |editor2-first=Attilio |editor3-last=Vadini |editor3-first=Ettore |title=The Mediterranean Medina: International Seminar |date=2016 |publisher=Gangemi Editore spa |isbn=9788849290134 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbhTCwAAQBAJ&q=Matera+paleolithic+cave&pg=PA541 |access-date=April 14, 2019 |language=en |chapter=Recasting Materan Identity: The Warring And Melding Of Political Ideologies Carved In Stone}}</ref>

Built on an entrenched prehistoric village, the town is likely to have Greek origins. In the times of Magna Graecia, Matera shared a close relationship with the Greek cities on the southern coast, becoming a trade and transit route in Roman times.Then the town of Matera was established by the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[Lucius Caecilius Metellus (consul 251 BC)|Lucius Caecilius Metellus]] in 251 BC who called it ''Matheola''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Domenico |first1=Roy Palmer |title=The Regions of Italy: A Reference Guide to History and Culture |date=2002 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780313307331 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZ-PMNC5XOkC&q=Matera+++Romans+in+the+3rd+century+BC,++Matheola |language=en}}</ref> In AD 664, Matera was conquered by the [[Lombards]]{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} and became part of the [[Duchy of Benevento]]. During the seventh and eighth centuries, the nearby grottos were colonised by both [[Benedictine]] and [[Basilian monks|Basilian]] monastic institutions.{{sfn|Toxey|2011|p=32}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horner |first=Mark |date=2024-07-13 |title=Matera, Basilicata Region, Italy - |url=https://www.mark-horner.com/index.php?blog= |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=The Alpha Group - Mark Horner |language=en-US}}</ref> After the Arab conquest of Bari in 840,{{sfn|Bondioli|2018|p=472–5}} Matera came under [[Emirate of Bari|Islamic rule]].{{sfn|Kreutz|1991|p=38}} Emancipated from the old Lombard jurisdiction of the [[gastald]] of [[Acerenza]] in the [[Principality of Salerno]], the town gained regional prominence.{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=178}} 

In the spring of 867, it was burnt by the imperial troops of [[Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Louis II]] as the first key target in [[Louis II's campaign against Bari (866–871)|the emirate's conquest]]; the Chronicle of St. Benedict of Monte Cassino calls it a particularly well-defended site.{{sfn|Kreutz|1991|p=41, 172}}{{sfn|Musca|1964|p=92}}{{sfn|Bondioli|2018|p=487}}{{sfn|Churchill|1979|p=123}} The Franks soon fell out with the Lombards and the Byzantines, exploited the local need for protection from Arab raiding and internal Lombard divisions, to retake Apulia, which became the [[Theme (Byzantine district)|theme]] of [[Longobardia]] in 891/2.{{sfn|Whittow|1996|p=307–9}} Already by 887,{{sfn|von Falkenhausen|1967|p=21}} Matera's local Lombard elite bore Byzantine titles, the monastery of [[San Vincenzo al Volturno]] had to conduct business before the Byzantine judge and town notables of Matera, and the Greeks of Matera made up the Byzantine garrison of Naples.{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=177–8}} The precarious Byzantine rule had to contend with the ambitions of Lombard towns and nobles against the background of frequent incursions from the neighbouring duchy of Capua-Benevento and from Arab Sicily. In 940 Matera was besieged, possibly with local assistance, by the Lombards.{{sfn|von Falkenhausen|1967|p=79}}{{sfn|Kreutz|1991|p=98, 188}}{{sfn|Churchill|1979|p=126}} 

On 25 January 982 the army of [[Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto II]] camped before the walls of Matera on its way from Salerno to Taranto, ostensibly marching against the Arabs.{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=333}}{{sfn|Kreutz|1991|p=122, 198}}{{sfn|Loud|2000|p=26}} In 994 Matera was temporarily captured by the Arabs after a four-month siege.{{sfn|Churchill|1979|p=131}}{{sfn|von Falkenhausen|1967|p=52}}{{sfn|Loud|2000|p=28}}{{sfn|Kreutz|1991|p=123}}{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=338}} The town continued to play a part in Byzantine governance: in June 1019 the [[chartoularios]] Stephanos of Matera assisted in the re-foundation of [[Troia, Apulia|Troia]].{{sfn|von Falkenhausen|1967|p=113, 177}} But civic unrest was also endemic and in 1040 the Byzantine judge Romanos was murdered at Matera by the local auxiliary troops during a wave of assaults on Byzantine officials that swept across the region.{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=454–5}} After the prominent Apulian rebels enlisted the support of the [[Italo-Normans|Normans]] and defeated the new [[katepano]] of Italy at [[Battle of Montemaggiore|Cannae]] in 1041,{{sfn|Loud|2000|p=78–80, 94}}{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=456}} Matera fell within the scope of Norman incursions and struck a deal with the invaders.{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=459}} In retaliation for this, the next katepano [[George Maniakes|Georgios Maniakes]], dispatched to Italy with special powers in April 1042, carried out mass executions in Matera in June, only to launch a rebellion of his own in September.{{sfn|Churchill|1979|p=140}}{{sfn|von Falkenhausen|1967|p=59, 61, 91}}{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=462}} 

After his departure Matera elected [[William Iron Arm]] as its count (1042),{{sfn|Churchill|1979|p=140}}{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=466}} but like other towns it remained in Byzantine hands despite the Norman advances{{sfn|Loud|2000|p=100}} – in 1054 died [[Sico Protospatharios|Sico]], the [[protospatharios]] of Matera.{{sfn|Churchill|1979|p=143}} The city was seized in April 1064 as an independent acquisition by [[Robert, Count of Montescaglioso]], a seditious nephew of [[Robert Guiscard]], who profited from the involvement of his uncle further south.{{sfn|Loud|2000|p=132, 237}}{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=533–4}}{{sfn|Churchill|1979|p=145}} After count Robert died in July 1080, Matera accepted the rule of his brother [[Geoffrey, Count of Conversano|Geoffrey of Conversano]].{{sfn|Loud|2000|p=243}}{{sfn|Churchill|1979|p=149}} Geoffrey's son [[Alexander, Count of Conversano|Alexander]] joined a revolt against [[Roger II, King of Sicily|Roger II]] in 1132, but he fled before the advance of the king to Byzantium and left his son Geoffrey in Matera, whose inhabitants gave the city away to avoid being massacred by the royal troops.{{sfn|Loud|2012|p=91–2, 204–5}} Alexander later took part in the [[Battle of Brindisi (1156)|Byzantine invasion of Italy in 1156]].{{sfn|Murray|2021|p=311}} Lombard aristocrats survived with a reduced status: around 1150, Guaimar (III) of Capaccio, a descendant of Lombard princes, held a sub-fief near Matera from the count of Montescaglioso.{{sfn|Loud|2021|p=200}} Meanwhile, after a period of association with the Byzantine [[metropolis (religious jurisdiction)|metropolis]] of Otranto from 968,{{sfn|von Falkenhausen|1967|p=31, 48, 148}} the episcopal see of Matera was reclaimed by the archbishopric of Acerenza.{{sfn|Gay|1904|p=549}} A new cathedral church of St Eustace was consecrated in May 1082.{{sfn|Churchill|1979|p=151–2}}

After a short communal phase and a series of pestilences and earthquakes, the city became an [[Crown of Aragon|Aragonese]] possession in the fifteenth century, and was given in fief to the barons of the [[House of Tramontano|Tramontano]] family.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} In 1514, however, the population rebelled against the oppression and killed [[Giovanni Carlo Tramontano, Count of Matera|Count Giovanni Carlo Tramontano]]. In the seventeenth century Matera was handed over to the [[Orsini family|Orsini]] and then became part of the [[Terra d'Otranto]], in [[Apulia]]. Later it was capital of the province of Basilicata, a position it retained until 1806, when [[Joseph Bonaparte]] assigned it to [[Potenza]].{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

In 1927, it became capital of the new [[province of Matera]].{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}