Strabone (Amasia, nel Ponto, circa 64 a.C. – Amasia, 24 d.C.), di formazione greca ma vissuto in piena epoca romana, fu uno dei più grandi geografi e storici del mondo antico, animato da un profondo interesse per la conoscenza dei luoghi, dei popoli e delle tradizioni.
Grazie ai suoi viaggi in Asia Minore, Egitto, Grecia e Italia, raccolse un’enorme quantità di informazioni, che confluirono nella sua opera più importante, la Geografia, un vasto lavoro in diciassette libri che descrive l’intero mondo conosciuto all’epoca.
L’intento di Strabone non è soltanto quello di delineare carte e distanze, ma anche di raccontare come i paesaggi si intreccino con la storia e con i costumi dei popoli che li abitano.
Per l’autore, il paesaggio è la chiave per comprendere il carattere stesso delle civiltà: il mare, le montagne e i fiumi contribuiscono a formare la vita politica, economica e culturale dell’uomo.
Nel libro VI della Geografia, Strabone dedica particolare attenzione all’Italia meridionale e al mare dello Stretto di Messina, luogo carico di mito ma anche di profonde realtà storiche.
Parlando delle coste della Calabria, descrive il promontorio Scilleo – che oggi identifichiamo con Scilla – fornendo una delle più antiche e preziose descrizioni topografiche e storiche del luogo.
Egli testimonia inoltre la stabile presenza umana e l’esistenza di strutture difensive, presentando per la prima volta Scilla come un centro reale e abitato, sede di marinai e di opere fortificate, e non più soltanto come luogo geografico legato al mito.
“Next comes the Scyllaean Promontory, a very lofty rock projecting into the sea like a peninsula, connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus where landing is possible on both sides. Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, fortified it against the Tyrrhenians, establishing there a naval station and thus preventing pirates from crossing the Strait.”
In these lines, Strabo describes with remarkable precision the shape of the promontory of Scilla: a high and imposing rock extending into the sea and connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, allowing access from both sides. This is precisely the morphology that still characterizes the town of Scilla today, dominated by the Ruffo Rock, which rises like a natural peninsula in the heart of the Strait.Yet Strabo goes beyond a simple physical description. The geographer recounts that Anaxilas of Rhegium, a tyrant who lived in the early fifth century BC, fortified the promontory of Scilla and transformed it into a naval base (naustathmos) in order to defend against Tyrrhenian pirates who infested those waters and attempted to cross the Strait.This passage provides unequivocal evidence that already in the fifth century BC Scilla was no longer merely a geographical point, but rather a strategic site—fortified, permanently inhabited, and of military significance: a real place, no longer only the mythical dwelling of the monster described by Homer.Strabo, with the rational approach of a geographer and the careful eye of a historian, demythologizes the legend and restores to Scilla its authentic identity as a harbour and coastal outpost integrated into the defensive system of the ancient Mediterranean.This passage holds extraordinary value for the history of Scilla: it confirms the continuity between myth and reality, recognizing the existence of the site as a permanent settlement and strategic centre already in the Greek world, and represents one of the oldest and most authoritative literary testimonies of historical Scilla.Alongside the account of Polybius, who in the second century BC, in his Histories, had already provided the earliest description of swordfish fishing beneath the Rock of Scilla, Strabo completes the picture by showing that the Scilla of myth was already, in archaic times, a living and populated place—a tangible community equipped with a harbour, walls, and everyday life.The reference to Anaxilas of Rhegium also reveals Scilla’s strategic role in controlling Tyrrhenian sea routes and fostering maritime trade between Magna Graecia and Sicily.The isthmus, described by Strabo as a landing place “on both sides,” suggests the existence of a double natural harbour, an ideal refuge for vessels and a strategic junction between two seas.For these reasons, within the classical geographical tradition, Scilla appears as a place where geography becomes history: a rock shaped by sea and time, transformed from Homer’s legendary cliff into, according to Strabo, a stable, living, documented, and ancient reality. Strabo’s words confirm that more than two thousand five hundred years ago, in the fifth century BC, Scilla was already known, inhabited, and fortified.Its central position within the Strait made it a natural stronghold against piracy and a strategic crossroads for commercial routes and cultural exchanges between East and West.Thanks to Strabo’s testimony, the Scilla of myth becomes the Scilla of history: a real place, with a precise name, a defined geography, and a thriving human community.Knowing that such an authoritative writer of antiquity mentioned it alongside the most important cities of the Mediterranean represents today the oldest and most reliable proof of the continuous life of the city of Scilla, from the age of archaic Greece to the present day.
Giuseppe Ribuffo
