It is all that remains of life on this part of the coast; the city had sunk into ruin before the Christian era, and was never rebuilt.

Later, the shore was too dangerous for habitation.

Of all the cities upon the Ionian Sea, only Tarentum and Croton continued to exist through the Middle Ages, for they alone occupied a position strong for defence against pirates and invaders.

A memory of the Saracen wars lingers in the name borne by the one important relic of Metapontum, the _Tavola de' Paladini_; to this my guide was conducting me.
It is the ruin of a temple to an unknown god, which stood at some distance north of the ancient city; two parallel rows of columns, ten on one side, five on the other, with architrave all but entire, and a basement shattered.

The fine Doric capitals are well preserved; the pillars themselves, crumbling under the tooth of time, seem to support with difficulty their noble heads.