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Spaniardism culminated in Bourbonism, and this, again, reached its climax in the closing years of the eighteenth century, when the conditions of south Italy baffled description. This lazzaroni-period was the debacle of holiness. So true it is that our gods reflect the hearts that make them. The Venerable Fra Egidio, a native of Taranto, is a good example of contemporary godliness.
The Greeks of Tarentum, situated where Taranto is now, called to their aid Pyrrhus, who ruled a part of Alexander's old kingdom. Pyrrhus was a skilful general, and he had with him, besides his foot-soldiers and horsemen, many trained elephants. A charge of these elephants was too much for the Romans, who were already hard pressed by the long spears of the soldiers of Pyrrhus.
The year 410 A.D. was no unfitting moment to break into bullion the figure personifying Manly Worth. "After that," says an old historian, "all bravery and honour perished out of Rome." Cosenza is on a line of railway which runs northward up the Crati valley, and joins the long seashore line from Taranto to Reggio.
Lest the condemned should say too much, he had taken the precaution of having their tongues fastened down with fish-hooks. Thus Charles was momentarily baulked, and he was further baulked by the fact that Giovanna had taken a second husband, in her cousin, Louis of Taranto.
And even so, I have suddenly woke up to the fact that Taranto, my next resting-place, besides possessing an agreeably warm climate, has some passable restaurants. I will pack without delay. Mount Vulture must wait. The wind alone, the Vulturnus or south-easterly wind, is quite enough to make one despair of climbing hills. It has blown with objectionable persistency ever since my arrival at Venosa.
Like the old town of Taranto, Cotrone occupies the site of the ancient acropolis, a little headland jutting into the sea; above, and in front of the town itself, stands the castle built by Charles V., with immense battlements looking over the harbour.
Whereas Taranto, despite its situation, possesses no convenient beach, there are here, on either side of the town, leagues of shimmering sand lapped by tepid and caressing waves; it is a sunlit solitude; the land is your own, the sea your own, as far as eye can reach. One may well become an amphibian, at Cotrone.
He perceived the strength of the central position which France enjoyed on her four coasts; and he now contrived all his dispositions, both naval and political, so as to tempt Nelson away eastwards from Toulon during the concentration of the French fleet in the Channel; and for this purpose he informed the military officers at Toulon that their destination was Taranto and the Morea.
It is an agreeable promenade from the Giadrezze rivulet to Taranto along the shore of this inland sea.
The streets were barer than ever; only in the old town, where high, close walls afforded a good deal of shelter, was there a semblance of active life. But even here most of the shops seemed to have little, if any, business; frequently I saw the tradesman asleep in a chair, at any hour of daylight. Indeed, it must be very difficult to make the day pass at Taranto.
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