TURIO. — Ancient city of Magna Graecia in the Gulf of Taranto, founded by the survivors of Sibari, a short distance from the ancient and prosperous city.
Pliny places it “inter duos amnes Crathim et Sybarim,” while the Itinerary of Antoninus mentions it as 12 miles from Rossano. Both Pliny and Ptolemy mention it as a maritime city; hence, in all probability, at the locality called “Le Muraglie,” near the present station of T., between Corigliano and Terranova di Sibari, which would be its successor. It grew considerably, to the point of rivaling its city of origin; but the wars of Pyrrhus and Hannibal with the Romans brought about its decline. In 282 B.C. it received a Roman garrison and became a “civitas foederata”; in 194 B.C. a Latin colony of 3,000 persons was established in the territory of Thurio under the name Copia Thurii, which cannot in any way be identified with S. Marco Argentano, in the Crati Valley. From the Social War onward it was a Roman municipality.
It may reasonably be held that T. received the Gospel from the earliest times. However, it has not been proved that the popes St. Telesforo and St. Dionisio were natives of the city. Its hierarchy appears as early as the end of the fifth century; but its existence may be considered established from the Constantinian period. Bishop Giovanni took part in the Roman Synod of 504, and Lanzoni, together with others, thinks that he might have been the recipient of some letters from Pope Gelasio (492–96), for example, that of 13 April 496. In the
Register of St. Gregorio Magno, T. is mentioned several times. Bishop Teofane took part in the Synod of Pope Agatone in 679. He is the last bishop of T. recorded by history. After him, nothing more is known of II. It seems that around the middle of the eighth century T. was destroyed by Lombard incursions, since at that time the two dioceses of Rossano and Cassano appear in the Byzantine sources in place of T.; the territory south of the Cresti went to the former, and the remainder to the latter.