Editing Crotone (section)

===Foundation===

Kroton's ''[[oikistes]]'' (founder) was [[Myscellus]], from the city of [[Rhypes]] in [[Achaea (ancient region)|Achaea]] in the northern [[Peloponnese]], after consulting the [[Delphic Oracle]] who announced:<ref> Diod. 8. 17</ref><ref> Strabo 6. 262</ref>

:''Cross the vast sea and next to the Esaro (river) you will found Kroton.''

The Achaeans were motivated, like others of the [[Greek colonisation]], by the lack of cultivatable land in their mountainous region and by population pressure.

Although the Greek foundation of Kroton was thought to be 710 BC,<ref>Dionysius, Roman Antiquities 2.59</ref> it is likely that Myscellus made three founding expeditions to Kroton,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-17 |title=Lorenzo Braccesi - Miscello e le tre spedizioni a Crotone (1998) |url=https://www.gruppoarcheologicokr.it/biblioteca/lorenzo-braccesi-miscello-e-le-tre-spedizioni-a-crotone-1998/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Gruppo Archeologico Krotoniate (GAK) |language=it-IT}}</ref> the first in ca. 733 in the company of [[Archias of Corinth]] at the head of an Achaean-Spartan venture (when they founded [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]]), but which did not result in a stable urban settlement. The second was in 720-709 at the head of an Achaean colonial expedition,<ref>Antiochus FGrHist 555 F 10</ref> hoping to settle in the Sybaris area. The third time in ca. 708 when, at the head of a similar expedition, he founded Kroton.

Archaeology has shown that colonisation in the second half of the 8th century BC had an impact on the settlement organisation and on the economic and social structure of the indigenous communities: in the Kroton area most of the existing settlements disappeared, while grave goods from the Carrara necropolis highlight a widespread practice of mixed marriages between Greeks and indigenous women, since the first generation of settlers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Celsi |first=Giuseppe |date=2020-03-15 |title=Ercole, Miscello, Apollo Pizio e la fondazione di Crotone |url=https://www.gruppoarcheologicokr.it/ercole-miscello-apollo-pizio-e-la-fondazione-di-crotone/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Gruppo Archeologico Krotoniate (GAK) |language=it-IT}}</ref>