BLANDA JULIA. – An ancient city of Magna Graecia, on the Tyrrhenian frontier of Calabria with Lucania. It was a Roman oppidum, mentioned by Livy and Pliny, who disagree about its location.
Mommsen and Lanzoni identified it with the port of Sapri, whereas Nocito, following Barrio, saw its successor in Belvedere Marittimo. Recent archaeological discoveries, however, place it in north-western Calabria, between Praia a Mare and Aieta, on the western slopes of M. Ciavola, where Latin inscriptions from the late Empire have been found. In Christian monuments B. occurs three times. In an inscription from the first half
of the sixth century, its bishop Julianus is mentioned. Since it is not stated that this Julianus was the first bishop of B., it may also be inferred that the diocese dates from the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century.
In 592 the Church of B. was without a shepherd, and St Gregory the Great entrusted its care to Felix, bishop of Agropoli. At the Lateran Synod of 649, a Paschalus episcopus S. Ecclesiae Blandanae also signed. After that year, all trace of it is lost.
B. was destroyed at the end of the seventh century by Lombard raids or perhaps – more probably – by the Saracens. The inhabitants abandoned the coast and withdrew
to the mountains, giving rise there to Tortora and Aieta.