Taranto coat of arms

The coat of arms of the province of Taranto is represented by a scorpion that holds a crown, of the Ionian Principality, in its five tips chelas; on its back there are three lilies painted. On 24 th February 1927 there was its official recognition and the decree was signed by Vittorio Emauele III and Benito Mussolini.

The coat of arms of the province and the one of the city are interlaced. Such an important role of Taranto in the ancient and modern history has not allowed to have independent events from those of the province. This moral and political leadership was recognized more than 80 years ago, on 23 rd September 1923, during the Founding of the Province as it was necessary a bud of the Terra d'Otranto that was leaded by Lecce.

Some years later, and always to bud, Brindisi was founded in 1927.

According to a legend, people from Taranto was suggested about the idea of the scorpion by Pyrrhus, the mythical king of Epirus . It happened during the years of the war between the Magna Graecia megalopolis and Rome . Pyrrhus really wanted to have a principality in the south of Italy in order to have more chances against Rome and Carthage , and he agreed a lot the people of Taranto 's invitation to go just to help them. He landed in Puglia with 25.000 soldiers, and won the Romans in Heraclea in 280 b. C. and this victory became famous as "the victory as Pyrrhus did". But, even though he won, he had great losses. Later, he reached Rome scaring all the populations he encountered. But this is another story. The important fact is that Pyrrhus, looking at the city from the wall all around the city, had the impression that it had a scorpion shape. He told this to the people of Taranto suggesting the symbol of the coat of arms; it also had a psychological meaning: allied countries and enemies have would known that Taranto was become as dangerous as a scorpion.

The people of Taranto liked the idea and put the scorpion in their coat of arms. It remained with that symbol over 17 centuries. The oldest usage in Taranto of it has been dated in '400.

But in 1589 Pyrrhus' scorpion was considered obsolete and a new image took place. It is clear thanks to the title page of "De antiquitate et varia terentinoum fortuna" by Giovin Giovine, published in that year for the archbishop Brancaccio. On that title page, in fact, there is a composed coat of arms: there is an old crowned man on a dolphin; he holds a three-pronged fork in his right hand and a similar scorpion's shield in the left one. The man is Taras , eponym of Taranto , Neptune 's son, Satyria the nymph's god and of the sea. This image is almost the same of the one that is on the golden coins of the period when, Taranto , reached its highest glories. The Giovin Giovine's coat of arms is a sort of compromise between the new and the old one, but the latter became widespread in few time. It is due to the fact that Taras represented the glory of a city suspended between history and myth, and its image could represent an its image without time. On the contrary, the scorpion, that became the coat of arms at the beginning of the long decay, seemed to represent the caducity of the historical events: Phyrrus and people from Taranto's exploits had nothing in common with the Falanto and people from Parteni's ones; there was no idea of the Sublime that concerned the Archita and Phytagoras' visions or the division between the gods and the heroes that made Taranto became a great city. Between a coat of arms that represented the human events and one that was the Divine's symbol, the people from Taranto choose the second one.

The official first usage of this new coat of arms was in 1665 when in the cathedral in Taranto the building of the S an Cataldo big cupola was ended: on the right side of the altar was made a sculpture of the new coat of arms with Taras .

But new periods came: at the Magna Graecia and Phytagorical Taranto succeeded, in 1089, the valorous crusader Boemond's Principality. Over the centuries, that principality, had would lived again the period of the "polis", becoming an important civil and military point of reference for the whole territory of the south of Italy . It happened above all in the XV century, when Raimondello Orsini Del Balzo , prince of Taranto 's son, came to the throne. But if Raimondello, after a youthful wondering and wars, became the most powerful and important governor in the south of Italy , was above all due to his wedding with Maria d'Enghien , countess of Lecce , who gave many wide territories to him and this allowed him to get an high authority. The properties of both of them, joined together, were concerned with the whole actual provinces of Taranto , Brindisi and Lecce ; it was in that period that they started talking about the Terra d'Otranto as an homogeneous and historical entity. In this land there was the sum of millennium events that influenced the whole Mediterranean Basin and the aspirations that Magna Graecia had in common with Messapians, later called Ionians and nowadays called Salentini (from Salento).

Over the centuries there was an assignation of these populations' particular tasks; the cities had a different history and development from each other, but the common identification would have been saved. Furthermore, that wide land that took place with the weddings between Raimondello and Maria, and became an authoritative State with their son Giovanni Antonio, could not go on in being governed by a monopolizing power. Even because there was a wide difference among the sources of the various cities. The intellectual and rural Lecce had different needs from the ones of the sailor and merchant Taranto . From this point of view there was the need of the independence that came, as already told, in 1923 .

So, there was, immediately, the problem about the coat of arms.

Taranto had always had, over all its existence, the political dimension of a State based on the city, and now it was ready to become a city based on the province. It was impossible to not consider this reality. For this reason the old coat of arms, the one suggested by Pyrrhus, was taken again even though, this time, with different motivations: there was not the need of a terrifying symbol anymore. It would have represented the continuity of an historical and ideal civilization. As it was as Taranto , Taras , Falanto and Archita's city and, at last, the perfection of the Number, would have never ended to live.

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