Hydrus

Hydrus, known as Hydruntum to the Latins and Otranto in modern times, is located on fertile lands considered to be the closest point in Italy to Greece, with passage taking only five hours. It would even be the site of an attempted fifty-mile bridge between Italy and Greece by King Pyrrhus of Epirus, though that project never came to pass. Tradition holds that it was founded by the Cretans, but it quickly fell into the sphere of the Iapygian Messapii.