Rhegion
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The ancient city of Rhegion (Latin Rhegium) (nowadays: Reggio Calabria) was one of the Magna Graecia colonies founded by Chalcidians in 730 BC.
Thucydides wrote that the Delphi oracle was consulted prior to the founding of Rhegion. The Messenians, coming from Messene in the Peloponnesos, were to participate to the foundation by order of Apollo and Artemis.
According to the foundation legend, the settlers were to build their new city "where a woman and a man will embrace each other." Upon their arrival in what was to become Rhegion, near the "Punta Calamizzi" promontory, they found a curious scene: a grape plant intertwined with a ficus tree. The settlers thought that this was the right place to establish their new colony and called it "Rhegion", the oldest city in Calabria.
The city's contemporary name is Reggio Calabria.
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