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ECHETLA (Ancient city) SICILY
Echetla (Echetla: Eth. Echetlates, Steph. B.), a city or fortress
of Sicily, on the confines of the Syracusan territory. It is first mentioned by
Diodorus, who tells us that it was occupied in B.C. 309 (during the absence of
Agathocles in Africa) by a body of troops in the Syracusan service, who from thence
laid waste the territories of Leontini and Camarina. But it was soon after reduced,
notwithstanding the strength of its position, by Xenodicus of Agrigentum, who
restored it to liberty. (Diod. xx. 32.) It is again mentioned by Polybius (i.
15) as a place situated on the confines of the Syracusan territory (as this existed
under Hieron II.), and that of the Carthaginians: it was besieged by the Romans
at the outset of the First Punic War. These are the only notices found of Echetla,
and the name is not mentioned by Cicero or the Geographers. But the above data
point to a situation in the interior of the island, somewhere W. of Syracuse;
hence Fazello and Cluver are probably correct in identifying it with a place called
Occhiala or Occhula, about 2 miles from the modern town of Gran Michele, and 6
miles E. of Caltagirone, where, according to Fazello, considerable ruins were
still visible in his time. The town occupied the summit of a lofty and precipitous
hill (thus agreeing with the expressions of Diodorus of the strong position of
Echetla), and continued tinned to be inhabited till. 1693, when it suffered severely
from an earthquake; and the inhabitants consequently migrated to the plain below,
where they founded the town of Gran Michele. (Fazell. x. 2, pp. 446, 450; Amic.
Lex. Topog. Sic. vol. ii. p. 150; Cluver. Sicil. p. 360. )
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ca. 6.4 km NW of Grammichele in the Terravecchia district are the remains of a substantial town of the 6th-3d c. B.C. The settlement lies at the very edge of the Heraian hills on four defensible hilltops, overlooking the valley of the river Caltagirone where the town's fields must have been. Early Iron Age habitation is indicated by a necropolis in the Madonna del Piano district, an elevated plateau at the foot of the four hills. The settlement belongs to an early phase of the Cassibile culture (ca. 1000-850 B.C.) and is associated with the Ausonian habitation at Lipari and Milazzo by the unusual burials (both pithos and fossa graves). The tombs contain some of the earliest iron yet found in Sicily, in the form of finger rings. Later, chamber tombs were cut into the slopes. Greek occupation of the hilltops began about 600 B.C.; the earliest remains are architectural terracottas. No buildings have been excavated. In the upper slopes of the easternmost hill (Poggio dell'Aquila) were found favissae of a Sanctuary of Persephone; they include a fine series of Severe Style terracotta busts. Another earlier favissa at Madonna del Piano contained a seated terracotta goddess and a fragmentary kouros. These finds indicate a Greek population, perhaps of Chalkidian origin; Leontinoi is the closest city. An indigenous substratum is indicated by Sikel pottery in contemporary tombs. The site has been identified on tenuous evidence as Echetla (Diod. 20.32.1; Polyb. 1.15.10); it was inhabited until 1693, when the town, called Occhiola, was destroyed by earthquake. The finds are mostly in Syracuse; the recently excavated Iron Age material is at present in Lentini.
M. Bell, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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