BLANDA, JULIA. - Ancient city of Magna Graecia, on the Tyrrhenian border of Calabria with Lucania. It was a Roman oppidum, mentioned by Livy and by Pliny, who disagree as to its location.
Mommsen and Lanzoni identified it with the port of Sapri, while Nocito, following Barrio, saw its heir in Belvedere Marittimo. But recent archaeological discoveries place it in north-western Calabria, between Praia a Mare and Aieta, on the western slopes of M. Ciavola, where Latin inscriptions of the late empire have been found. In Christian monuments B. occurs three times. In an inscription of the first half of the 6th century its bishopJulianus is mentioned. Since it is not stated that this Julianus was the first bishop of B., one may also infer that the diocese dates from the end of the 3rd century or the beginning of the 4th.
In 592 the Church of B. was without a pastor and St. Gregory the Great entrusted its care to Felix, bishop of Agropoli. At the Lateran Synod of 649 a certain Paschalus episcopus S. Ecclesiae Blandanae also signed. After that year all trace of it is lost.
B. was destroyed at the end of the 7th century by Lombard incursions or perhaps - more probably - by the Saracens. The inhabitants abandoned the coast and withdrew to the mountain, giving rise there to Tortora and to Aieta.
Bibliography8 worksG. Barrio, De Antiquitate et Situ Calabriae, Roma 1737, p. 61; F. Nociti, Notizie storiche sulla città di Belvedere Marittimo, Napoli 1863;
BIBL.: G. Barrio, De Antiquitate et Situ Calabriae, Roma 1737, p. 61; F. Nociti, Notizie storiche sulla città di Belvedere Marittimo, Napoli 1863; M. La Cava, Del sito di B., Leo e Tebe Lucana, ivi 1801; Ughelli, X, 29; CIL, X, 50, 125; Lanzoni, p. 323; B. Cappelli, B. e Tortora, in Brutium, 10 (1931), p. 5; A. Crispo, Antichristi cristiane della Calabria prebizzantina, in Arch. stor. Calabria e Lucania, 14 (1943), pp. 16-18, 215.
Russo, Francesco. “Blanda Julia.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, col. 1716. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/blanda-julia.
MLA
Russo, Francesco. “Blanda Julia.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, col. 1716. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/blanda-julia.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec2_blanda_julia,
author = {Russo, Francesco},
title = {Blanda Julia},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {II},
pages = {1716},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/blanda-julia}
}
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