City
Siponto
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Siponto, on the Adriatic coast of Apulia at the foot of Monte Gargano, took its Greek name from the sea. According to the Greek geographer Strabo it was called Sepius after the cuttlefish washed up on its shore, and legend made the hero Diomedes its founder. Rome planted a colony here in 194 BC, and the town prospered as a harbour for Apulian grain, with a sea crossing to Salona in Dalmatia. Then silt from two rivers choked the port, the land turned to fever-ridden marsh, and in 1263 King Manfred gave the last inhabitants a new home in Manfredonia. Ruins remain beside the church of Santa Maria di Siponto.