Vasto (Greek: Ἱστόνιον; Latin: Histonium, Istonium, and Histonios; formerly also, Guastaymonis, Il Vasto, and Il Vasto d'Ammone) is a town and comune on the Adriatic coast of the Province of Chieti in southernAbruzzo, Italy. The population is now just over 40,000.
According to tradition, the town was founded by Diomedes, the Greek hero. The earliest archaeological relics date to 1300 BC, evidence of the first settlements. Histonium was one of the chief towns of the Frentani, situated on the coast of the Adriatic, about 9 km south of the promontory called Punta della Penna. The city is noticed by all the geographers among the towns of the Frentani, and we learn from the Liber Coloniarum that it received a colony, apparently under Julius Caesar.
