Listed 38 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "TRAPANI Province SICILY" .
SELINOUS (Ancient city) SICILY
DREPANON (Ancient city) SICILY
Drepanum or Drepana (To Drepanon,, Ptol., Diod. xxiii. 9, but ta Repana,
Pol.; Steph. B.; Dionys.; Diod. xxiv, &c., and this seems the best authenticated
form: Eth. Drepanitanus: Trapani), a city of Sicily, with a promontory and port
of the same name, at the NW. extremity of the island, immediately opposite to
the Aegates. The city did not exist until a comparatively late period, but the
port and promontory are mentioned in very early times: the latter evidently derived
its name from the resemblance of its form to that of a sickle (drepane), whence
late mythographers described it as the spot where the sickle of Cronus or Saturn
was buried. (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 707; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 869.) The port was only
a few miles from the foot of Mt. Eryx, and hence it is mentioned in connection
with the Trojan legends that were attached to this part of Sicily. Virgil makes
it the scene of the death of Anchises, and of the funeral games celebrated by
Aeneas in his honour. (Virg. Aen. iii. 707, v. 24, &c.; Dionys. i. 52; Serv. ad
Aen. ll. cc.) But with this exception we find no mention of the name previous
to the First Punic War: it probably served as a port to the neighbouring city
of Eryx, and was a was one dependency of that place; but in the earlier part of
the war just named (about B.C. 260) the Carthaginian general Hamilcar proceeded
to fortify the promontory of Drepanum, and founded a town there, to which he transferred
a great part of the inhabitants of Eryx. (Diod. xxiii. 9, Exc. H. p. 503; Zonar.
viii. 11.) Hence the statement of Florus (ii. 2) and Aurelius Victor (de Viris
Illustr. 39), both of whom mention Drepanum among the cities of Sicily taken by
the dictator Atilius Calatinus at an earlier period of the war, must be erroneous.
The result proved the wisdom of the choice; from the goodness of its harbour,
and its proximity to Africa, Drepana became a place of great importance, and continued
throughout the remainder of the war to be one of the chief strongholds of the
Carthaginians. In B.C. 250, indeed, Drepana and Lilybaeum were the only two points
in the island of which that people retained possession; and hence the utmost importance
was attached by them to their maintenance. (Pol. i. 41; Zonar. viii. 16.) During
the long protracted siege of Lilybaeum by the Romans, it was at Drepana that Adherbal
established himself with the Carthaginian fleet, to watch the operations of the
besiegers, and it was off this port that he totally defeated the Roman consul
P. Claudius, and destroyed almost his whole fleet, B.C. 249. (Pol. i. 46, 49-51;
Diod. xxiv. 1, Exc. H. p. 507). Not long after this, when Hamilcar Barca made
himself master of the city of Eryx, he removed all the remaining inhabitants from
thence to Drepana, which he fortified as strongly as possible, and of which he
retained possession till the end of the war. It was, however, in B.C. 242 besieged
by the Roman consul Lutatius Catulus; and it was the attempt of the Carthaginians
under Hanno to effect its relief, as well as that of the army under Hamilcar,
that brought on their fatal defeat off the islands of the Aegates, B.C. 241. (Pol.
i. 59, 60; Diod. xxiv. 8, 11, Exc. H. p. 509; Zonar. viii. 17; Liv. xxviii. 41.)
From this time the name of Drepana appears no more in history, but
it seems to have continued to be a flourishing commercial town, though apparently
eclipsed by the superior prosperity of the neighbouring Lilybaeum, which throughout
the Roman period was the most considerable city in this part of Sicily. Cicero
and Pliny both mention it as a municipal town; and the Itineraries and Tabula
prove that it still retained its name and consideration in the fourth century
of the Christian era. (Cic. Verr. iv. 1. 7; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4.
§ 4; Itin. Ant. pp. 91, 97; Tab. Peut.) The modern city of Trapani has succeeded
to the ancient importance of Lilybaeum, and is now the most populous and flourishing
city in the west of Sicily, as well as a strong fortress. Great part of its wealth
is derived from the manufacture and export of coral, of which there are extensive
fisheries on the coast: these are alluded to by Pliny as already existing in his
time (xxxii. 2. s. 11). Some vestiges of the ancient mole are the only remains
of antiquity which it presents; but the site is undoubtedly the same with that
of the ancient city, upon a low sandy peninsula, which has been artificially converted
into an island by the ditch of the modern fortifications. (Smyth's Sicily, pp.
237-241; Parthey, Wanderungen durch Sicilien, p. 75, &c.) Immediately off the
harbour of Trapani is a small island called Colombara, which appears to have been
known in ancient times also as Columbaria Insula. It is mentioned by Zonaras (viii.
161) under the name of Peleias nesos.
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
EGESTA (Ancient city) SICILY
Segesta (Segesta: Eth. Segestanos, Segestanus: Ru. near Calatafimi),
a city of Sicily in the NW. part of the island, about 6 miles distant from the
sea, and 34 W. of Panormus. Its name is always written by the Attic and other
contemporary Greek writers Egesta (Egesta: Eth. Egestaios, Thuc. &c.), and it
has hence been frequently asserted that it was first changed to Segesta by the
Romans, for the purpose of avoiding the ill omen of the name of Egesta in Latin.
(Fest. s.v. Segesta, p. 340.) This story is, however, disproved by its coins,
which prove that considerably before the time of Thucydides it was called by the
inhabitants themselves Segesta, though this form seems to have been softened by
the Greeks into Egesta. The origin and foundation of Segesta is extremely obscure.
The tradition current among the Greeks and adopted by Thucydides (Thuc. vi. 2;
Dionys. i. 52; Strab. xiii. p. 608), ascribed its foundation to a band of Trojan
settlers, fugitives from the destruction of their city; and this tradition was
readily welcomed by the Romans, who in consequence claimed a kindred origin with
the Segestans. Thucydides seems to have considered the Elymi, a barbarian tribe
in the neighbourhood of Eryx and Segesta, as descended from the Trojans in question;
but another account represents the Elymi as a distinct people, already existing
in this part of Sicily when the Trojans arrived there and founded the two cities.
A different story seems also to have been current, according to which Segesta
owed its origin to a band of Phocians, who had been among the followers of Philoctetes;
and, as usual, later writers sought to reconcile the two accounts. (Strab. vi.
p. 272; Thuc. l. c.) Another version of the Trojan story, which would seem to
have been that adopted by the inhabitants themselves, ascribed the foundation
of the city to Egestus or Aegestus (the Acestes of Virgil), who was said to be
the offspring of a Trojan damsel named Segesta by the river god Crimisus. (Serv.
ad Aen. i. 550, v. 30.) We are told also that the names of Simois and Scamander
were given by the Trojan colonists to two small streams which flowed beneath the
town (Strab. xiii. p. 608); and the latter name is mentioned by Diodorus as one
still in use at a much later period. (Diod. xx. 71.)
It is certain that we cannot receive the statement of the Trojan origin
of Segesta as historical; but whatever be the origin of the tradition, there seems
no doubt on the one hand that the city was occupied by a people distinct from
the Sicanians, the native race of this part of Sicily, and on the other that it
was not a Greek colony. Thucydides, in enumerating the allies of the Athenians
at the time of the Peloponnesian War, distinctly calls the Segestans barbarians;
and the history of the Greek colonies in Sicily was evidently recorded with sufficient
care and accuracy for us to rely upon his authority when he pronounces any people
to be non-Hellenic. (Thuc. vii. 57.) At the same time they appear to have been,
from a very early period, in close connection with the Greek cities of Sicily,
and entering into relations both of hostility and alliance with the Hellenic states,
wholly different from the other barbarians in the island. The early influence
of Greek civilisation is shown also by their coins, which are inscribed with Greek
characters, and bear the unquestionable impress of Greek art.
The first historical notice of the Segestans transmitted to us represents
them as already engaged (as early as B.C. 580) in hostilities with the Selinuntines,
which would appear to prove that both cities had already extended their territories
so far as to come into contact with each other. By the timely assistance of a
body of Cnidian and Rhodian emigrants under Pentathlus, the Segestans at this
time obtained the advantage over their adversaries. (Diod. v. 9.) A more obscure
statement of Diodorus relates that again in B.C. 454, the Segestans were engaged
in hostilities with the Lilybaeans for the possession of the territory on the
river Mazarus. (Id. xi. 86.) The name of the Lilybaeans is here certainly erroneous,
as no town of that name existed till long afterwards; but we know not what people
is really meant, though the presumption is that it is the Selinuntines, with whom
the Segestans seem to have been engaged in almost perpetual disputes. It was doubtless
with a view to strengthen themselves against these neighbours that the Segestans
took advantage of the first Athenian expedition to Sicily under Laches (B.C. 426),
and concluded a treaty of alliance with Athens. (Thuc. vi. 6.) This, however,
seems to have led to no result, and shortly after, hostilities having again broken
out, the Selinuntines called in the aid of the Syracusans, with whose assistance
they obtained great advantages, and were able to press Segesta closely both by
land and sea. In this extremity the Segestans, having in vain applied for assistance
to Agrigentum, and even to Carthage, again had recourse to the Athenians, who
were, without much difficulty, persuaded to espouse their cause, and send a fleet
to Sicily, B.C. 416. (Thuc. vi. 6; Diod. xii. 82.) It is said that this result
was in part attained by fraud, the Segestans having deceived the Athenian envoys
by a fallacious display of wealth, and led them to conceive a greatly exaggerated
notion of their resources. They, however, actually furnished 60 talents in ready
money, and 30 more after the arrival of the Athenian armament. (Thuc. vi. 8, 46;
Diod. xii. 83, xiii. 6.)
But though the relief of Segesta was thus the original object of the
great Athenian expedition to Sicily, that city bears little part in the subsequent
operations of the war. Nicias, indeed, on arriving in the island, proposed to
proceed at once to Selinus, and compel that people to submission by the display
of their formidable armament. But this advice was overruled: the Athenians turned
their arms against Syracuse, and the contest between Segesta and Selinus was almost
forgotten in the more important struggle between those two great powers. In the
summer of B.C. 415 an Athenian fleet, proceeding along the coast, took the small
town of Hyccara, on the coast, near Segesta, and made it over to the Segestans.
(Thuc. vi. 62; Diod. xiii. 6.) The latter people are again mentioned on more than
one occasion as sending auxiliary troops to assist their Athenian allies (Thuc.
vii. 57; Diod. xiii. 7); but no other notice occurs of them. The final defeat
of the Athenians left the Segestans again exposed to the attacks of their neighbours
the Selinuntines; and feeling themselves unable to cope with them, they again
had recourse to the Carthaginians, who determined to espouse their cause, and
sent them, in the first instance, an auxiliary force of 5000 Africans and 800
Campanian mercenaries, which sufficed to ensure them the victory over their rivals,
B.C. 410. (Diod. xiii. 43, 44.) But this was followed the next year by a vast
armament under Hannibal, who landed at Lilybaeum, and, proceeding direct to Selinus,
took and destroyed the city. (Ib. 54-58.) This was followed by the destruction
of Himera; and the Carthaginian power now became firmly established in the western
portion of Sicily. Segesta, surrounded on all sides by this formidable neighbour,
naturally fell gradually into the position of a dependent ally of Carthage. It
was one of the few cities that remained faithful to this alliance even in B.C.
397, when the great expedition of Dionysius to the W. of Sicily and the siege
of Motya seemed altogether to shake the power of Carthage. Dionysius in consequence
laid siege to Segesta, and pressed it with the utmost vigour, especially after
the fall of Motya; but the city was able to defy his efforts, until the landing
of Himilco with a formidable Carthaginian force changed the aspect of affairs,
and compelled Dionysius to raise the siege. (Id. xiv. 48, 53-55.) From this time
we hear little more of Segesta till the time of Agathocles, under whom it suffered
a great calamity. The despot having landed in the W. of Sicily on his return from
Africa (B.C. 307), and being received into the city as a friend and ally, suddenly
turned upon the inhabitants on a pretence of disaffection, and put the whole of
the citizens (said to amount to 10,000 in number) to the sword, plundered their
wealth, and sold the women and children into slavery. He then changed the name
of the city to Dicaeopolis, and assigned it as a residence to the fugitives and
deserters that had gathered around him. (Diod. xx. 71.)
It is probable that Segesta never altogether recovered this blow;
but it soon resumed its original name, and again appears in history as an independent
city. Thus it is mentioned in B.C. 276, as one of the cities which joined Pyrrhus
during his expedition into the W. of Sicily. (Diod. xxii. 10. Exc. H. p. 498.)
It, however, soon after fell again under the power of the Carthaginians; and it
was probably on this occasion that the city was taken and plundered by them, as
alluded to by Cicero (Verr. it. 33); a circumstance of which we have no other
account. It continued subject to, or at least dependent on that people, till the
First Punic War. In the first year of that war (B.C. 264) it was attacked by the
consul Appius Claudius, but without success (Diod. xxiii. 3. p. 501); but shortly
after the inhabitants put the Carthaginian garrison to the sword, and declared
for the alliance of Rome. (Ib. 5. p. 502; Zonar. viii. 9.) They were in consequence
besieged by a Carthaginian force, and were at one time reduced to great straits,
but were relieved by the arrival of Duilius, after his naval victory, B.C. 260.
(Pol. i. 24.) Segesta seems to have been one of the first of the Sicilian cities
to set the example of defection from Carthage; on which account, as well as of
their pretended Trojan descent, the inhabitants were treated with great distinction
by the Romans. They were exempted from all public burdens, and even as late as
the time of Cicero continued to be sine foedere immunes ac liberi. (Cic. Verr.
iii. 6, iv. 33.) After the destruction of Carthage, Scipio Africanus restored
to the Segestans a statue of Diana which had been carried off by the Carthaginians,
probably when they obtained possession of the city after the departure of Pyrrhus.
(Cic. Verr. iv. 3. 3) During the Servile War also, in B.C. 102, the territory
of Segesta is again mentioned as one of those where the insurrection broke out
with the greatest fury. (Diod. xxxvi. 5, Exc. Phot. p. 534.) But with the exception
of these incidental notices we hear little of it under the Roman government. It
seems to have been still a considerable town in the time of Cicero, and had a
port or emporium of its own on the bay about 6 miles distant (to ton Aigesteon
emporion, Strab. vi. pp. 266, 272; Segestanon emporion, Ptol. iii. 4. § 4). This
emporium seems to have grown up in the days of Strabo to be a more important place
than Segesta itself: but the continued existence of the ancient city is attested
both by Pliny and Ptolemy; and we learn from the former that the inhabitants,
though they no longer retained their position of nominal independence, enjoyed
the privileges of the Latin citizenship. (Strab. l. c.; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol.
iii. 4. § 15.) It seems, however, to have been a decaying place, and no trace
of it is subsequently found in history. The site is said to have been finally
abandoned, in consequence of the ravages of the Saracens, in A.D. 900 (Amico,
ad Fazell. Sic. vii. 4. not. 9), and is now wholly desolate; but the town of Castella
Mare, about 6 miles distant, occupies nearly, if not precisely, the same site
as the ancient emporium or port of Segesta.
The site of the ancient city is still marked by the ruins of a temple
and theatre, the former of which is one of the most perfect and striking ruins
in Sicily. It stands on a hill, about 3 miles NW. of Calatafimi, in a very barren
and open situation. It is of the Doric order, with six columns in front and fourteen
on each side (all, except one, quite perfect, and that only damaged), forming
a parallelogram of 162 feet by 66. From the columns not being fluted, they have
rather a heavy aspect; but if due allowance be made for this circumstance, the
architecture is on the whole a light order of Doric; and it is probable, therefore,
that the temple is not of very early date. From the absence of fluting, as well
as other details of the architecture, there can be no doubt that it never was
finished,--the work probably being interrupted by some political catastrophe.
This temple appears to have stood, as was often the case, outside the walls of
the city, at a short distance to the W. of it. The latter occupied the summit
of a hill of small extent, at the foot of which flows, in a deep valley or ravine,
the torrent now called the Fiume Gaggera, a confluent of the Fiume di S. Bartolomeo,
which flows about 5 miles E. of Segesta. The latter is probably the ancient Crimisus,
celebrated for the great victory of Timoleon over the Carthaginians, while the
Gaggera must probably be the stream called by Diodorus (xx 71) the Scamander.
Two other streams are mentioned by Aelian (V. H. ii. 33) in connection with Segesta,
the Telmessus and the Porpax; but we are wholly at a loss to determine them. Some
vestiges of the ancient walls may still be traced; but almost the only ruins which
remain within the circuit of the ancient city are those of the theatre. These
have been lately cleared out, and exhibit the praecinctio and sixteen rows of
seats, great part in good preservation. The general form and arrangement are purely
Greek; and the building rests at the back on the steep rocky slope of the hill,
out of which a considerable part of it has been excavated. It is turned towards
the N. and commands a fine view of the broad bay of Castella Mare. (For a more,
detailed account of the antiquities of Segesta. see Swinburne's Travels, vol.
ii. pp. 231-235; Smyth's Sicily, pp. 67, 68; and especially Serra di Falco, Antichita
della Sicilia, vol. i. pt. ii.) Ancient writers mention the existence in the territory
of Segesta of thermal springs or waters, which seem to have enjoyed considerable
reputation (ta therma hudata Aigestaia, Strab. vi. p. 275; therma loutra ta Egestaia,
Diod. iv. 23). These are apparently the sulphureous springs at a spot called Calametti,
about a mile to the N. of the site of the ancient city. (Fazell. Sic. vii. 4.)
They are mentioned in the Itinerary as Aquae Segestanae sive Pincianae (Itin.
Ant. p. 91); but the origin of the latter name is wholly unknown.
The coins of Segesta have the figure of a dog on the reverse, which
evidently alludes to the fable of the river-god Crimisus, the mythical parent
of Aegestus, having assumed that form. (Serv. ad Aen. i. 550, v. 30; Eckhel, vol.
i. 234.) The older coins (as already observed) uniformly write the name SEGESTA,
as on the one annexed: those of later date, which are of opper only, bear the
legend EGESTAION (Eckhel, l. c. p. 236).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ERYX (Ancient city) SICILY
Eryx (Erux: Eth. Erukinos, Erycinus: S. Giuliano), the name of a city
and mountain in the W. of Sicily, about 6 miles from Drepana, and two from the
sea-coast. The mountain (Mons Eryx, Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; but Mons Erycus, Cic.
Verr. ii. 4. 7; Tac. Ann. iv. 43), now called Monte S. Giuliano, is a wholly isolated
peak, rising in the midst of a low undulating tract, which causes its elevation
to appear much more considerable than it really is, so that it was regarded in
ancient as well as modem times as the most lofty summit in the whole island next
to Aetna (Pol. i. 55; Mel. ii. 7. § 17; Solin. 5. § 9), though its real elevation
does not exceed 2184 English feet. (Smyth's Sicily, p. 242.) Hence we find Eryx
alluded to by Virgil and other Latin poets as a mountain of the first order of
magnitude, and associated with Athos, Aetna, &c. (Virg. Aen. xii. 701; Val. Flacc.
ii. 523.) On its summit stood a celebrated temple of Venus or Aphrodite, founded,
according to the current legend, by Aeneas (Strab. xiii. p. 608; Virg. Aen. v.
759), from whence the goddess derived the surname of Venus Erycina, by which she
is often mentioned by Latin writers. (Hor. Carm. i. 2. 33; Ovid, Heroid. 15. 57,
&c.) Another legend, followed by Diodorus, ascribed the foundation both of the
temple and city to an eponymous hero named Eryx, who was said to have received
Hercules on his visit to this part of Sicily, and contended with that hero in
a wrestling match, but was vanquished by him. This Eryx was a son of Aphrodite
and Butes, a king of the country, and is hence repeatedly alluded to by Virgil
as a brother of Aeneas, though that poet does not refer to him the foundation
of the city. (Died. iv. 23, 83; Virg. Aen. v. 24, 412, &c.; Serv. ad loc.) The
legends which connected it with Aeneas and a Trojan chief named Elymus evidently
pointed to what we learn from Thucydides as an historical fact, that Eryx as well
as Segesta was a city of the Elymi, a Sicilian tribe, which is represented by
almost all ancient writers as of Trojan descent. (Thuc. vi. 2; Strab. xiii. p.
608.) It does not appear to have ever received a Greek colony, but became gradually
Hellenised, like most other cities of Sicily, to a great extent; though Thucydides
still speaks of the Elymi, including the people of Eryx and Segesta, as barbarians.
Nothing is known of its history previous to that period, but it seems probable
that it followed for the most part the lead of the more powerful city of Segesta,
and after the failure of the Athenian expedition became a dependent ally of the
Carthaginians. In B.C. 406, a sea-fight took place between a Carthaginian and
a Syracusan fleet off the neighbourhood of Eryx, in which the latter was victorious.
(Diod. xiii. 80.) On occasion of the great expedition of Dionysius to the W. of
Sicily, in B.C. 397, Eryx was one of the cities which joined the Syracusan despot
just before the siege of Motya, but it was speedily recovered by Himilco in the
following year. (Id. xiv. 48, 55 ) It again fell into the hands of Dionysius shortly
before his death (Id. xv. 73), but must have been once more recovered by the Carthaginians,
and probably continued subject to their rule till the expedition of Pyrrhus (B.C.
278). On that occasion it was occupied by a strong garrison, which, combined with
its natural strength of position, enabled it to oppose a vigorous resistance to
the king of Epeirus. It was, however, taken by assault, Pyrrhus himself leading
the attack, and taking the opportunity to display his personal prowess as a worthy
descendant of Heracles. (Diod. xx. 10, Exc. H. p. 498.) In the First Punic War
we find Eryx again in the hands of the Carthaginians, and in B.C. 260 their general
Hamilcar destroyed the city, removing the inhabitants to the neighbouring promontory
of Drepanum, where he founded the town of that name. (Id. xxiii. 9.) The old site,
however, seems not to have been wholly deserted, for a few years later we are
told that the Roman consul L. Junius made himself master by surprise both of the
temple and the city. (Id. xxiv. 1; Pol. i. 55; Zonar. viii. 15.) The former seems
to have been well fortified, and, from its position on the summit of the mountain,
constituted a military post of great strength. Hence probably it was that Hamilcar
Barca, suddenly abandoning the singular position he had so long held on the mountain
of Ercte, transferred his forces to Eryx, as being a still more impregnable stronghold.
But though he surprised and made himself master of the town of Eryx, which was
situated about half-way up the mountain, he was unable to reduce the temple and
fortress on the summit, the Roman garrison of which was able to defy all his efforts.
Meanwhile Hamilcar maintained his position in the city, the remaining inhabitants
of which he transferred to Drepana; and though besieged or blockaded in his turn
by a Roman army at the foot of the mountain, he preserved his communications with
the sea, and was only compelled to abandon possession of Eryx and Drepana when
the great naval victory of Lutatius Catulus over the Carthaginians forced that
people to sue for peace, B.C. 241. (Pol. i. 58; Diod. xxiv. 8. p. 509; Liv. xxi.
10, xxviii. 41.)
From this time the town of Eryx sinks into insignificance, and it
may even be doubted whether it was ever restored. Cicero alludes to the temple,
but never notices the town; and Strabo speaks of it as in his day almost uninhabited.
Pliny, indeed, enumerates the Erycini among the municipal communities of Sicily;
but the circumstance mentioned by Tacitus, that it was the Segestans who applied
to Tiberius for the restoration of the temple, would seem to indicate that the
sanctuary was at that time dependent, in a municipal sense, on Segesta. (Cic.
Verr. ii. 8, 47; Strab. v. p. 272; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Tac. Ann. iv. 43.) No
trace of the subsequent existence of the town of Eryx is found; the remaining
inhabitants appear to have settled on the summit of the hill, where the modern
town of S. Giuliano has grown up on the site of the temple. No remains of the
ancient city are extant; but it appears to have occupied the site now marked by
the convent of Sta. Anna, about half-way down the mountain. (Smyth's Sicily, p.
243.)
The temple, as already mentioned, was generally connected by popular
legend with the Trojan settlements in this part of Sicily; if any value can be
attached to these traditions, they would point to its being an ancient seat of
Pelasgic worship, rather than of Phoenician origin, as supposed by many writers.
Even those authors who represent it as founded before the time of Aeneas relate
that it was visited by that hero, who adorned it with splendid offerings. (Diod.
iv. 83; Dionys. i. 53.) It is certain that the sanctuary had the good fortune
to be regarded with equal reverence by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks,
and Romans. As early as the time of the Athenian expedition to Sicily (B.C. 415),
we learn from Thucydides that it was rich in vessels and other offerings of gold
and silver, of which the Segestans made use to delude the Athenian envoys into
a belief of their wealth. (Thuc. vi. 46.) The Carthaginians appear to have identified
the Venus Erycina with the Phoenician goddess Astarte, and hence showed her much
reverence; while the Romans paid extraordinary honours both to the goddess and
her temple, on account of their supposed connection with Aeneas. They were, indeed,
unable to prevent their Gaulish mercenaries from plundering the temple at, the
time of its capture by Junius (Pol. ii. 7); but this appears to have been the
only occasion on which it suffered, and its losses were quickly repaired, for
Diodorus speaks of it as in a flourishing and wealthy condition. The Roman magistrates
appointed to the government of Sicily never failed to pay a visit of honour to
this celebrated sanctuary; a body of troops was appointed as a guard of honour
to watch over it, and seventeen of the principal cities in Sicily were commanded
to pay a yearly sum of gold for its adornment. (Diod. iv. 83; Strab. v. p. 272;
Cic. Verr. ii. 8) Notwithstanding this, the decay of the city, and declining condition
of this part of Sicily generally, appears to have caused the temple also to be
neglected: hence in A.D. 25 the Segestans applied to Tiberius for its restoration,
which that emperor, according to Tacitus, readily undertook ut consanguineus,
but did not. carry into effect, leaving it to Claudius to execute at a later period.
(Tac. Ann. iv. 43; Suet. Claud. 25.) This is the latest mention of it that occurs
in history; and the period of its final decay or destruction is unknown. At the
present day the site is occupied by a castle, converted into a prison; a small
portion of the substructions, built of very large and massive stones (whence they
have been erroneously called Cyclopian), is all that remains of the ancient edifice;
but some fine granite columns, still existing in other parts of the town, have
doubtless belonged originally to the temple. It has been already mentioned that
the temple itself was surrounded by fortifications, so as to constitute a strong
fortress or citadel, quite distinct from the city below: a coin struck by C. Considius
Nonianus 1 (in the first century B.C.) represents the temple itself, with this
fortified peribolus, enclosing a considerable portion of the mountain on which
it stands; but little dependence can be placed on the accuracy of the delineation.
There was also a temple at Rome dedicated to Venus Erycina, which stood just outside
the Colline Gate (Strab. v. p. 272); but the representation on the coin just cited
is evidently that of the original Sicilian temple. The coins of the city of Eryx
have types allusive to the worship of Venus, while others present a close analogy
to those of Agrigentum, indicating a connection between the two cities, of which
we find no explanation in history. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 208; Torremuzza, Num. Sic.
pl. 30.)
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
LILYBAEUM (Ancient city) SICILY
Lilybaeum (Lilubaion: Eth. Lilubaites, Lilybaetanus: Marsala), a city
of Sicily, situated on the promontory of the same name, which forms the extreme
W. point of the island, now called Capo Boeo. The promontory of Lilybaeum is mentioned
by many ancient writers, as well as by all the geographers, as one of the three
principal headlands of Sicily, from which that island derived its name of Trinacria.
It was the most westerly point of the island and that nearest to Africa, from
which it was distant only 1000 stadia according to Polybius, but Strabo gives
the distance as 1500 stadia. Both statements, however, exceed the truth ; the
real distance from Cape Bon, the nearest point of the coast of Africa, being less
than 90 geog. miles, or 90 stadia. (Pol. i. 42 ; Strab. ii. p. 122, vi. pp. 265,
267; Mel. ii. 7; Plin.iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol.iii. 4. § 5; Diod. v. 2, xiii. 54; Steph.
B. s. v.; Dionys. Per. 470.) The headland itself is a low but rocky point, continued
out to sea by a reef of hidden rocks and shoals, which rendered the navigation
dangerous, though there was a safe port immediately adjoining the promontory.
(Pol. l. c.; Virg. Aen. iii. 706.)
Diodorus tells us distinctly that there was no town upon the spot
until after the destruction of Motya by Dionysius of Syracuse, in B.C. 397, when
the Carthaginians, instead of attempting to restore that city, settled its few
remaining inhabitants on the promontory of Lilybaeum, which they fortified and
converted into a stronghold. (Diod. xiii. 54, xxii. 10.) It is, therefore, certainly
a mistake (though one of which we cannot explain the origin) when that author,
as early as B.C. 454, speaks of the Lilybaeans and Segestans as engaged in war
on account of the territory on the banks of the river Mazarus (Id. xi. 86). The
promontory and port were, however, frequented at a much earlier period: we are
told that the Cnidians under Pentathlus, who afterwards founded Lipara, landed
in the first instance at Lilybaeum (Id. v. 9); and it was also the point where,
in B.C. 409, Hannibal landed with the great Carthaginian armament designed for
the attack of Selinus. (Id. xiii. 54.) Diodorus tells us that on the promontory
was a well (phrear), from whence the city took its name: this was obviously the
same with a source or spring of fresh water rising in a cave, now consecrated
to St. John, and still regarded with superstitious reverence. (Fazell. de Reb.
Sic. vii. 1; Smyth's Sicily, p. 228.)
It is clear that the new city quickly rose to prosperity, and became
an important stronghold of the Carthaginian power, succeeding in this respect
to the position that Motya had previously held. Its proximity to Africa rendered
it of especial importance to the Carthaginians in securing their communications
with Sicily, while the danger which would threaten them if a foreign power were
in possession of such a fortress, immediately opposite to the gulf of Carthage,
led them to spare no pains for its security. Hence Lilybaeum twice became the
last bulwark of their power in Sicily. In B.C. 276 it was besieged by Pyrrhus,
who had already reduced all the other cities of Sicily, and expelled the Carthaginians
from all their other strongholds. But they continued to throw in supplies and
reinforcements by sea to Lilybaeum, so that the king, after a siege of two months,
was compelled to abandon the enterprise as hopeless. (Diod. xxii. 10. Exc. Hoesch.
pp. 498, 499.) But it is the memorable siege of Lilybaeum by the Romans in the
First Punic War which has given to that city its chief historical celebrity. When
the Romans first commenced the siege in the fifteenth year of the war, B.C. 250,
they were already masters of the whole of Sicily, with the exception of Lilybaeum
and Drepanum; and hence they were able to concentrate all their efforts and employ
the armies of both consuls in the attack of the former city, while the Carthaginians
on their side exerted all their energies in its defence. They had just before
removed thither all the inhabitants of Selinus (Diod. xxiv. 1. p. 506), and in
addition to the citizens there was a garrison in the place of 10,000 men. (Pol.
i. 42.) The city appears to have occupied the whole of the promontory, and was
fortified on the land side by a wall flanked with towers and protected by a deep
ditch. The Romans at first attacked this vigorously, but all their efforts were
frustrated by the courage and activity of the Carthaginian commander Himilco;
their battering engines were burnt by a sally of the besieged, and on the approach
of winter the consuls were compelled to convert the siege into a blockade. This
was easily maintained on the land side, but the Romans in vain endeavoured to
exclude the besieged from succours by sea. A Carthaginian fleet under Hannibal
succeeded in making good its entrance into the port; and the skilful Carthaginian
captains were able to elude the vigilance of the Roman cruisers, and keep up free
communications with the besieged. The Roman consuls next tried to block up the
entrance of the port with a mound, but this was soon carried away by the violence
of the waves; and soon after, Adherbal, the Carthaginian commander-in-chief, who
lay with a large fleet at Drepanum, totally defeated the Roman fleet under the
consul P. Claudius, B.C. 249. This disaster was followed by the almost total loss
of two Roman fleets in succession by shipwreck, and these accumulated misfortunes
compelled the Romans to abandon the very attempt to contest the dominion of the
sea. But though they could not in consequence maintain any efficient blockade,
they still continued to hem in Lilybaeum on the land side, and their armies continued
encamped before the city for several years in succession. It was not till the
tenth year of the siege that the victory of C. Lutatius Catulus at the Aegates,
B.C. 241, compelled the Carthaginians to conclude peace, and to abandon the possession
of Lilybaeum and Drepanum, which up to that time the continued efforts of the
Romans had failed in wresting from their hands. (Pol. i. 41-54, 59-62; Diod. xxiv.
1, 3, 11, Exc. H. pp. 506 -509, Exc. Vales. p. 565 ; Zonar. viii. 15-17; Oros.
iv. 10.)
Lilybaeum now passed into the condition of a Roman provincial town:
but it continued to be a flourishing and populous place. Its position rendered
it now as important a point to the Romans for the invasion of Africa, as it had
previously been to the Carthaginians for that of Sicily; and hence its name is
one of frequent occurrence during almost all periods of Roman history. Thus, at
the outbreak of the Second Punic War, B.C. 218, Lilybaeum was the station of the
Roman fleet under the praetor M. Aemilius, who defeated a Carthaginian force that
had attempted to surprise that important post. (Liv. xxi. 49, 50.) During the
course of the same war it was the point from whence Roman commanders repeatedly
made predatory descents with small squadrons upon the coast of Africa; and towards
the close of the same memorable contest, B.C. 204, it was from thence that Scipio
sailed with the fleet and army which were destined for the conquest of Africa.
(Liv. xxv. 31, xxvii. 5, xxix. 24.) In like manner it was at Lilybaeum that the
younger Scipio Africanus assembled his fleet and army in B.C. 149, preparatory
to passing over into Africa (Diod. xxxii. 6); and in the Civil Wars Caesar made
it his head-quarters when preparing for his African campaign against Scipio and
Juba, B.C. 47. (Hirt. B. Afr. 1, 2, 37; Appian, B.C. ii. 95.) It was also one
of the chief naval stations of Sextus Pompeius in his war with Augustus, B.C.
36. (Appian, B.C. v. 97, 122; Dion Cass. xlix. 8.) Nor was the importance of Lilybaeum
confined to these warlike occasions: it is evident that it was the habitual port
of communication between Sicily and Africa, and must have derived the greatest
prosperity from the constant traffic which arose from this circumstance. Hence
we find it selected as the habitual place of residence of one of the two quaestors
of Sicily (Pseud. Ascon. in Verr. p. 100); and Cicero, who had himself held that
office at Lily-baeum, calls it splendidissima civitas (Verr. v. 5.) It was one
of the few cities of Sicily which still retained some importance in the time of
Strabo. (Strab. vi. p. 272.) Its continued prosperity under the Roman Empire is
sufficiently attested by inscriptions: from one of these we learn that its population
was divided into twelve tribes; a rare mode of municipal organisation. (Torremuzza
Inscr. Sicil. pp. 7, 15, 49; Orell. Inscr. 151, 1691, 3718.) In another inscription
it bears the title of a colonia: the time when it became such is uncertain; but
probably not till the reign of Hadrian, as Pliny does not mention it among the
five colonies founded by Augustus in Sicily. (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii.
4. § 5; Itin. Ant. pp, 86, 89, 96; Zumpt, de Colon. p. 409.)
After the fall of the Roman Empire Lilybaeum still continued to be
one of the most important cities of Sicily. It is mentioned as such under the
successive dominion of the Goths and Vandals (Procop. B. V. i. 8, ii. 5); and
during the period of the Arabian dominion in Sicily, that people attached so much
value to its port, that they gave it the name of Marsa Alla,- the port of God,
-from whence has come its modern appellation of Marsala. It was not till the 16th
century that this celebrated port was blocked up with a mole or mound of sunken
stones by order of the Emperor Charles V., in order to protect it from the attacks
of the Barbary corsairs. From that period Trapani has taken its place as the principal
port in the W. of Sicily; but Marsala is still a considerable town, and a place
of some trade, especially in wine. (Smyth's Sicily, p. 232.) Very few vestiges
of the ancient city remain, but numerous fragments of sculpture, vases, and other
relics, as well as coins, have been discovered on the site; and some portions
of an ancient aqueduct are still visible. The site of the ancient port, though
now filled with mud, may be distinctly traced, but it is of small extent, and
could never have had a depth of more than 12 or 14 feet.. The rocks and shoals,
which even in ancient times rendered it difficult of approach (Pol. i. 42), would
now effectually prevent it from being used as a port for large vessels. (Smyth,
l. c. pp. 233, 234.)
It is a strong proof of the extent to which Greek culture and civilisation
were diffused throughout Sicily, that, though we have no account of Lilybaeum
being at any time in possession of the Greeks, but, on the contrary, we know positively
that it was founded by the Carthaginians, and continued in their hands till it
passed under the dominion of Rome, yet the coins of Lilybaeum are exclusively
Greek; and we learn from Cicero that it was possible for a man to acquire a knowledge
of the Greek language and literature in that city (Cic. in Caecil. 12).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MOZIA (Island) SICILY
Motya (Motue: Eth. Motuaios: S Pantaleo), a city on the W. coast of
Sicily, between Drepanum and Lilybaeum. It was situated on a small island, about
three quarters of a mile (six stadia) from the mainland, to which it was joined
by an artificial causeway. (Diod. xiv. 48.) It was originally a colony of the
Phoenicians, who were fond of choosing similar sites, and probably in the first
instance merely a commercial station or emporium, but gradually rose to be a flourishing
and important town. The Greeks, however, according to their custom, assigned it
a legendary origin, and derived its name from a woman named Motya, whom they connected
with the fables concerning Hercules. (Steph. B. s. v.) It passed, in common with
the other Phoenician settlements in Sicily, at a later period under the government
or dependency of Carthage, whence Diodorus calls it a Carthaginian colony; but
it is probable that this is not strictly correct. (Thuc. vi. 2 ; Diod. xiv. 47.)
As the Greek colonies in Sicily increased in numbers and importance the Phoenicians
gradually abandoned their settlements in the immediate neighbourhood of the new
comers, and concentrated themselves in the three principal colonies of Solus,
Panormus, and Motya. (Thuc. l. c.) The last of these, from its proximity to Carthage
and its opportune situation for communication with Africa, as well as the natural
strength of its position, became one of the chief strongholds of the Carthaginians,
as well as one of the most important of their commercial cities in the island.
(Diod. xiv. 47.) It appears to have held, in both these respects, the same position
which was attained at a later period by Lilybaeum. Notwithstanding these accounts
of its early importance and flourishing condition, the name of Motya is rarely
mentioned in history until just before the period of its memorable siege. It is
first mentioned by Hecataeus (ap. Steph. B. s. v.), and Thucydides notices it
among the chief colonies of the Phoenicians in Sicily, which still subsisted at
the period of the Athenian expedition, B.C. 415. (Thuc. vi. 2.) A few years later
(B.C. 409) when the Carthaginian army under Hannibal landed at the promontory
of Lilybaeum, that general laid up his fleet for security in the gulf around Motya,
while he advanced with his land forces along the coast to attack Selinus. (Diod.
xiii. 54, 61.) After the fall of the latter city, we are told that Hermocrates,
the Syracusan exile, who had established himself on its ruins with a numerous
band of followers, laid waste the territories of Motya and Panormus (Id. xiii.
63); and again during the second expedition of the Carthaginians under Hamilcar
(B.C. 407), these two cities became the permanent station of the Carthaginian
fleet. (Id. xiii. 88.)
It was the important position to which Motya had thus attained that
led Dionysius of Syracuse to direct his principal efforts to its reduction, when
in B.C. 397 he in his turn invaded the Carthaginian territory in Sicily. The citizens
on the other hand, relying on succour from Carthage, made preparations for a vigorous
resistance; and by cutting off the causeway which united them to the mainland,
compelled Dionysius to have recourse to the tedious and laborious process of constructing
a mound or mole of earth across the intervening space. Even when this was accomplished,
and the military engines of Dionysius (among which the formidable catapult on
this occasion made its appearance for the first time) were brought up to the walls,
the Motyans continued a desperate resistance; and after the walls and towers were
carried by the overwhelming forces of the enemy, still maintained the defence
from street to street and from house to house. This obstinate struggle only increased
the previous exasperation of the Sicilian Greeks against the Carthaginians; and
when at length the troops of Dionysius made themselves masters of the city, they
put the whole surviving population, men, women, and children, to the sword. (Diod.
xiv. 47-53.) After this the Syracusan despot placed it in charge of a garrison
under an officer named Biton; while his brother Leptines made it the station of
his fleet. But the next spring (B.C. 396) Himilcon, the Carthaginian general,
having landed at Panormus with a very large force, recovered possession of Motya
with comparatively little difficulty. (Id. ib. 55.) That city, however, was not
destined to recover its former importance; for Himilcon, being apparently struck
with the superior advantages of Lilybaeum, founded a new city on the promontory
of that name, to which he transferred the few remaining inhabitants of Motya.
(Diod. xxii. 10. p. 498.) From this period the latter altogether disappears from
history; and the little islet on which it was built, has probably ever since been
inhabited only by a few fishermen.
The site of Motya, on which earlier geographers were in much doubt,
has been clearly identified and described by Captain Smyth. Between the promontory
of Lilybaeum (Capo Boeo) and that of Aegithallus (S. Teodoro), the coast forms
a deep bight, in front of which lies a long group of low rocky islets, called
the Stagnone. Within these, and considerably nearer to the mainland, lies the
small island called S. Pantaleo, on which the remains of an ancient city may still
be distinctly traced. Fragments of the walls,, with those of two gateways, still
exist, and coins as well as pieces of ancient brick and pottery-the never failing
indications of an ancient site - are found scattered throughout the island. The
circuit of the latter does not exceed a mile and a half, and it is inhabited only
by a few fishermen; but is not devoid of fertility. (Smyth's Sicily, pp. 235,
236.) The confined space on which the city was built agrees with the description
of Diodorus that the houses were lofty and of solid construction, with narrow
streets (stenopoi) between them, which facilitated the desperate defence of the
inhabitants. (Diod. xiv. 48, 51.)
It is a singular fact that, though we have no account of Motya having
received any Greek population, or fallen into the hands of the Greeks before its
conquest by Dionysius, there exist coins of the city with the Greek legend MOTUAION.
They are, however, of great rarity, and are apparently imitated from those of
the neighbouring city of Segesta. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 225.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SELINOUS (Ancient city) SICILY
Selinus (Selinous: Eth. Seloountios, Selinuntius: Ru. at Torre dei
Pulci), one of the most important of the Greek colonies in Sicily, situated on
the SW. coast of that island, at the mouth of the small river of the same name,
and 4 miles W. of that of the Hypsas (Belici). It was founded, as we learn from
Thucydides, by a colony from the Sicilian city of Megara, or Megara Hyblaea, under
the conduct of a leader named Pammilus, about 100 years after the settlement of
that city, with the addition of a fresh body of colonists from the parent city
of Megara in Greece. (Thuc. vi. 4, vii. 57; Scymn. Ch. 292; Strab. vi. p. 272.)
The date of its foundation cannot be precisely fixed, as Thucydides indicates
it only by reference to that of the Sicilian Megara, which is itself not accurately
known, but it may be placed about B.C. 628. Diodorus indeed would place it 22
years earlier, or B.C. 650, and Hieronymus still further back, B.C. 654; but the
date given by Thucydides, which is probably entitled to the most confidence, is
incompatible with this earlier epoch. (Thuc. vi. 4; Died. xiii. 59; Hieron. Chron.
ad ann. 1362; Clinton, Fast. Hell. vol. i. p. 208.) The name is supposed to have
been derived from the quantities of wild parsley (selinos) which grew on the spot;
and for the same reason a leaf of this parsley was adopted as the symbol of their
coins.
Selinus was the most westerly of the Greek colonies in Sicily, and
for this reason was early brought into contact and collision with the Carthaginians
and the barbarians in the W. and NW. of the island. The former people, however,
do not at first seem to have offered any obstacle to their progress; but as early
as B.C. 580 we find the Selinuntines engaged in hostilities with the people of
Segesta (a non-Hellenic city), whose territory bordered on their own. (Diod. v.
9). The arrival of a body of emigrants from Rhodes and Cnidus who subsequently
founded Lipara, and who lent their assistance to the Segestans, for a time secured
the victory to that people; but disputes and hostilities seem to have been of
frequent occurrence between the two cities, aud it is probable that in B.C. 454,
when Diodorus speaks of the Segestans as being at war with the Lilybaeans (xi.
86), that the Selinuntines are the people really meant. The river Mazarus, which
at that time appears to have formed the boundary between the two states, was only
about 15 miles W. of Selinus; and it is certain that at a somewhat later period
the territory of Selinus extended to its banks, and that that city had a fort
and emporium at its mouth. (Diod. xiii. 54.) On the other side its territory certainly
extended as far as the Halycus or Salso, at the mouth of which it had founded
the colony of Minoa, or Heracleia, as it was afterwards termed. (Herod. v. 46.)
It is evident, therefore, that Selinus had early attained to great power and prosperity;
but we have very little information as to its history, We learn, however, that,
like most of the Sicilian cities, it had passed from an oligarchy to a despotism,
and about B.C. 510 was subject to a despot named Peithagoras, from whom the citizens
were freed by the assistance of the Spartan Euryleon, one of the companions of
Dorieus: and thereupon Euryleon himself, for a short time, seized on the vacant
sovereignty, but was speedily overthrown and put to death by the Selinuntines.
(Herod. v. 46.) We are ignorant of the causes which led the Selinuntines to abandon
the cause of the other Greeks, and take part with the Carthaginians during the
great expedition of Hamilcar, B.C. 480; but we learn that they had even promised
to send a contingent to the Carthaginian army, which, however did not arrive till
after its defeat. (Diod. xi. 21, xiii. 55.) The Selinuntines are next mentioned
in B.C. 466, as co-operating with the other free cities of Sicily in assisting
the Syracusans to expel Thrasybulus (Id. xi. 68); and there is every reason to
suppose that they fully shared in the prosperity of the half century that followed,
a period of tranquillity and opulence for most of the Greek cities in Sicily.
Thucydides speaks of Selinus just before the Athenian expedition as a powerful
and wealthy city, possessing great resources for war both by land and sea, and
having large stores of wealth accumulated in its temples. (Thuc. vi. 20.) Diodorus
also represents it at the time of the Carthaginian invasion, as having enjoyed
a long period of tranquillity, and possessing a numerous population. (Diod. xiii.
55.)
In B.C. 416, a renewal of the old disputes between Selinus and Segesta
became the occasion of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily. The Selinuntines
were the first to call in the powerful aid of Syracuse, and thus for a time obtained
the complete advantage over their enemies, whom they were able to blockade both
by sea and land; but in this extremity the Segestans had recourse to the assistance
of Athens. (Thuc. vi. 6; Diod. xii. 82.) Though the Athenians do not appear to
have taken any measures for the immediate relief of Segesta, it is probable that
the Selinuntines and Syracusans withdrew their forces at once, as we hear no more
of their operations against Segesta. Nor does Selinus bear any important part
in the war of which it was the immediate occasion. Nicias indeed proposed, when
the expedition first arrived in Sicily (B.C. 415); that they should proceed at
once to Selinus and compel that city to submit on moderate terms (Thuc. vi. 47);
but this advice being overruled, the efforts of the armament were directed against
Syracuse, and the Selinuntines in consequence bore but a secondary part in the
subsequent operations. They are, however, mentioned on several occasions as furnishing
auxiliaries to the Syracusans; and it was at Selinus that the large Peloponnesian
force sent to the support of Gylippus landed in the spring of 413, having been
driven over to the coast of Africa by a tempest. (Thuc. vii. 50, 58; Died. xiii.
12.)
The defeat of the Athenian armament left the Segestans apparently
at the mercy of their rivals; they in vain attempted to disarm the hostility of
the Selinuntines by ceding without further contest the frontier district which
had been the original subject of dispute. But the Selinuntines were not satisfied
with this concession, and continued to press them with fresh aggressions, for
protection against which they sought assistance from Carthage. This was, after
some hesitation, accorded them, and a small force sent over at once, with the
assistance of which the Segestans were able to defeat the Selinuntines in a battle.
(Diod. xiii. 43, 44.) But not content with this, the Carthaginians in the following
spring (B.C. 409) sent over a vast army amounting, according to the lowest estimate,
to 100,000 men, with which Hannibal (the grandson of Hamilcar that was killed
at Himera) landed at Lilybaeum, and from thence marched direct to Selinus. The
Selinuntines were wholly unprepared to resist such a force; so little indeed had
they expected it that the fortifications of their city were in many places out
of repair, and the auxiliary force which had been promised by Syracuse as well
as by Agrigentum and Gela, was not yet ready, and did not arrive in time. The
Selinuntines, indeed, defended themselves with the courage of despair, and even
after the walls were carried, continued the contest from house to house; but the
overwhelming numbers of the enemy rendered all resistance hopeless; and after
a siege of only ten days the city was taken, and the greater part of the defenders
put to the sword. Of the citizens of Selinus we are told that 16,000 were slain,
5000 made prisoners, and 2600 under the command of Empedion escaped to Agrigentum.
(Diod. xiii. 54-59.) Shortly after Hannibal destroyed the walls of the city, but
gave permission to the surviving inhabitants to return and occupy it, as tributaries
of Carthage, an arrangement which was confirmed by the treaty subsequently concluded
between Dionysius and the Carthaginians, in B.C. 405. (Id. xiii. 59, 114.) In
the interval a considerable number of the survivors and fugitives had been brought
together by Hermocrates, and established within its walls. (Ib. 63.)
There can be no doubt that a considerable part of the citizens of
Selinus availed themselves of this permission, and that the city continued to
subsist under the Carthaginian dominion; but a fatal blow had been given to its
prosperity, which it undoubtedly never recovered. The Selinuntines are again mentioned
in B.C. 397 as declaring in favour of Dionysius during his war with Carthage (Diod.
xiv. 47); but both the city and territory were again given up to the Carthaginians
by the peace of 383 (Id. xv. 17); and though Dionysius recovered possession of
it by arms shortly before his death (Id. xv. 73), it is probable that it soon
again lapsed under the dominion of Carthage. The Halycus, which was established
as the eastern boundary of the Carthaginian dominion in Sicily by the treaty of
383, seems to have generally continued to be so recognised, notwithstanding temporary
interruptions; and was again fixed as their limit by the treaty with Agathocles
in B.C. 314. (Id. xix. 71.) This last treaty expressly stipulated that Selinus,
as well as Heracleia and Himera, should continue subject to Carthage, as before.
In B.C. 276, however, during the expedition of Pyrrhus to Sicily, the Selinuntines
voluntarily submitted to that monarch, after the capture of Heracleia. (Id. xxii.
10. Exc. H. p. 498.) During the First Punic War we again find Selinus subject
to Carthage, and its territory was repeatedly the theatre of military operations
between the contending powers. (Id. xxiii. 1, 21; Pol. i. 39.) But before the
close of the war (about B.C. 250), when the Carthaginians were beginning to contract
their operations, and confine themselves to the defence of as few points as possible,
they removed all the inhabitants of Selinus to Lilybaeum and destroyed the city.
(Diod. xxiv. 1. Exc. H. p. 506.)
It seems certain that it was never rebuilt. Pliny indeed, mentions
its name ( Selinus oppidum, iii. 8. s. 14), as if it was still existing as a town
in his time, but Strabo distinctly classes it with the cities which were wholly
extinct; and Ptolemy, though he mentions the river Selinus, has no notice of a
town of the name. (Strab. vi. p. 272; Ptol. iii. 4. § 5.) The Thermae Selinuntiae,
which derived their name from the ancient city, and seem to have been much frequented
in the time of the Romans, were situated at a considerable distance from Selinus,
being undoubtedly the same as those now existing at Sciacca: they are sulphureous
springs, still much valued for their medical properties, and dedicated, like most
thermal waters in Sicily, - to St. Calogero. At a later period they were called
the Aquae Labodes or Larodes, under which name they appear in the Itineraries.
(Itin. Ant. p. 89; Tab. Peut.) They are there placed 40 miles W. of Agrigentum,
and 46 from Lilybaeum; distances which agree well with the position of Sciacca.
This is distant about 20 miles to the E. of the ruins of Selinus.
The site of the ancient city is now wholly desolate, with the exception
of a solitary guardhouse, and the ground is for the most part thickly overgrown
with shrubs and low brushwood; but the remains of the walls can be distinctly
traced throughout a great part of their circuit. They occupied the summit of a
low hill, directly abutting on the sea, and bounded on the W. by the marshy valley
through which flows the river Madiuni, the ancient Selinus; on the E. by a smaller
valley or depression, also traversed by a small marshy stream, which separates
it from a hill of similar character, where the remains of the principal temples
are still visible. The space enclosed by the existing walls is of small extent,
so that it is probable the city in the days of its greatness must have covered
a considerable area without them: and it has been supposed by some writers that
the present line of walls is that erected by Hermocrates when he restored the
city after its destruction by the Carthaginians. (Diod. xiii. 63.) No trace is,
however, found of a more extensive circuit, though the remains of two lines of
wall, evidently connected with the port, are found in the small valley E. of the
city. Within the area surrounded by the walls are the remains of three temples,
all of the Doric order, and of an ancient style; none of them are standing, but
the foundations of them all remain, together with numerous portions of columns
and other architectural fragments, sufficient to enable us to restore the plan
and design of all three without difficulty. The largest of them (marked C. on
the plan) is 230 feet long by 85 feet broad, and has 6 columns in front and 18
in length, a very unusual proportion. All these are hexastyle and peripteral.
Besides these three temples there is a small temple or Aedicula (marked B.), of
a different plan, but also of the Doric order. No other remains of buildings,
beyond mere fragments and foundations, can be traced within the [p. 958] walls;
but the outlines of two large edifices, built of squared stones and in a massive
style, are distinctly traceable outside the walls, near the NE, and NW. angles
of the city, though we have no clue to their nature or purpose.
But much the most remarkable of the ruins at Selinus are those of
three temples on the hill to the E., which do not appear to have been included
in the city, but, as was often the case, were built on this neighbouring eminence,
so as to front the city itself. All these temples are considerably larger than
any of the three above described; and the most northerly of them is one of the
largest of which we have any remains. It had 8 columns in front and 17 in the
sides, and was of the kind called pseudo-dipteral. Its length was 359 feet, and
its breadth 162, so that it was actually longer than the great temple of Jupiter
Olympius at Agrigentum, though not equal to it in breadth. From the columns being
only partially fluted, as well as from other signs, it is clear that it never
was completed; but all the more important parts of the structure were finished,
and it must have certainly been one of the most imposing fabrics in antiquity.
Only three of the columns are now standing, and these imperfect; but the whole
area is filled up with a heap of fallen masses, portions of columns, capitals,
&c., and other huge architectural fragments, all of the most massive character,
and forming, as observed by Swinburne, one of the most gigantic and sublime ruins
imaginable. The two other temples are also prostrate, but the ruins have fallen
with such regularity that the portions of almost every column lie on the ground
as they have fallen; and it is not only easy to restore the plan and design of
the two edifices, but it appears as if they could be rebuilt with little difficulty.
These temples, though greatly inferior to their gigantic neighbour, were still
larger than that at Segesta, and even exceed the great temple of Neptune at Paestum;
so that the three, when standing, must have presented a spectacle unrivalled in
antiquity. All these buildings may be safely referred to a period anterior to
the Carthaginian conquest (B.C. 409), though the three temples last described
appear to have been all of them of later date than those within the walls of the
city. This is proved, among other circumstances, by the sculptured metopes, several
of which have been discovered and extricated from among the fallen fragments.
Of these sculptures, those which belonged to the temples within the walls, present
a very peculiar and archaic style of art, and are universally recognised as among
the earliest extant specimens of Greek sculpture. (They are figured by Muller,
Denkmaler, pl. 4, 5, as well as in many other works, and casts of them are in
the British Museum.) Those, on the contrary, which have been found among the ruins
of the temple marked E. on the opposite hill, are of a later and more advanced
style, though still retaining considerable remains of the stiffness of the earliest
art. Besides the interest attached to these Selinuntine metopes from their important
bearing on the history of Greek sculpture, the remains of these temples are of
value as affording the most unequivocal testimony to the use of painting, both
for the architectural decoration of the temples, and as applied to the sculptures
with which they were adorned. A very full and detailed account of the ruins at
Selinus is given in the Duke of Serra di Falco's Antichita Siciliane, vol. ii.,
from which the preceding plan is derived. A more general description of them will
be found in Swinburne's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 242-245; Smyth's Sicily, pp. 219-221;
and other works on Sicily in general.
The coins of Selinus are numerous and various. The earliest, as already
mentioned, bear merely the figure of a parsley-leaf on the obverse. Those of somewhat
later date (including the one figured below) represent a figure sacrificing on
an altar, which is consecrated to Aesculapius, as indicated by the cock which
stands below it. The subject of this type evidently refers to a story related
by Diogenes Laertius (viii. 2. § 11) that the Selinuntines were afflicted with
a pestilence from the marshy character of the lands adjoining the neighbouring
river, but that this was cured by works of drainage, suggested by Empedocles.
The figure standing on the coin is the river-god Selinus, which was thus made
conducive to the salubrity of the city.
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
DREPANON (Ancient city) SICILY
(Drepanon, a sickle). Also Drepana (ta Drepana), more rarely Drepane (Trapani), a seaport town in the northwest corner of Sicily, founded by the Carthaginians. It was here that Anchises died, according to Vergil.
EGADI (Island complex) SICILY
Aegates or Aegusae (hai Aigoussai). “Goat Islands.” The name applied to three islands off the west coast of Sicily, between Drepanum and Lilybaeum, near which the Romans gained a naval victory over the Carthaginians, and thus brought the First Punic War to an end, B.C. 241. The islands were Aegusa or Capraria, Phorbantia, and Hiera.
EGESTA (Ancient city) SICILY
Now Alcamo; the later Roman form of the town called by the Greeks
Egesta (Egesta) or Aegesta (Aigesta), in Vergil Acesta; situated in the northwest
of Sicily, near the coast between Panormus and Drepanum. It is said to have been
founded by the Trojans on two small rivers, to which they gave the names of Simois
and Scamander; hence the Romans called it a colony of Aeneas. Its ruins are still
very beautiful, and include the remains of a Doric temple of the sixth century
B.C. .
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LILYBAEUM (Ancient city) SICILY
(Ailubaion). The modern Marsala; a town in the west of Sicily,
with an excellent harbour, situated on a promontory of the same name, opposite
to the Promontorium Hermaeum or Mercurii (Cape Bon) in Africa, the space between
the two being the shortest distance between Sicily and Africa. The town was founded
by the Carthaginians about B.C. 397, and was the strongest fortress possessed
by them in Sicily, having massive walls surrounded by a huge moat forty feet in
depth and some sixty feet wide. It was besieged by the Romans in the First Punic
War, but they failed to take it, and it was only given up to them later as a part
of the concessions made in the final treaty of peace.
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SELINOUS (Ancient city) SICILY
Now Castel Vetrano, one of the most important towns in Sicily,
situated upon a hill on the southwestern coast and upon a river of the same name.
It was founded by the Dorians from Megara Hyblaea, on the eastern coast of Sicily,
B.C. 628. It soon attained great prosperity; but it was taken by the [p. 1438]
Carthaginians in 409, when most of its inhabitants were slain or sold as slaves
and the greater part of the city destroyed. The ruins of the ancient city are
of great extent and magnificence, the temple of Zeus being one of the largest
of which remains still exist.
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EGESTA (Ancient city) SICILY
City of western Sicily,
also called Segesta. According to Thucydides, Egesta was founded by Trojans fleeing
their city after its capture by the Achaeans. The people of this part of Sicily
called themselves the Elymes and maintained closed ties with the Carthaginians.
Yet, toward the middle of the Vth century B. C., Egesta had signed a treaty of
assistance with Athens. It
is this treatise that provided Alcibiades in 415 with one of his main pretexts
to undertake the Sicilian expedition that proved fateful to Athens.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
The main city of the province that bears the same name is at the NW
tip of Sicily; its name (sickle), both in Greek and Latin, derives from the shape
of the narrow tongue of land on which it rises.
Remains of various prehistoric settlements, as early as the paleolithic
period, have been found around Trapani but for the Classical period there is no
archaeological evidence since the city did not mint coinage and no public inscription
has ever been found. For this reason some would deny that Drepana became civitas
during the Roman period.
The ancient sources mention it as the harbor of the Erycinians from
the time of the Dionysian wars (Diod. 15.73); later it became known also as the
trading center of the Erycinians (Diod. 24.11). During the first year of the Punic
war, i.e. ca. 260 B.C., Hamilcar moved part of Eryx's population to "the
sickles" and turned the site into a fortress (Diod. 23.9).
During the summer of 249 B.C. the Romans were defeated by Aderbal
in a naval battle near Drepana but recovered their losses in the naval battle
which Lutatius Catulus won in 241 B.C. near the Egadi islands. Drepana passed
under Roman control, probably as censorian city, but lived meagerly, as shown
by the lack of archaeological finds and by the fact that the site always remained
a complementary base of the stronger Lilybaion.
The city's National Museum Pepoli has a considerable archaeological
collection, including various objects of the Classical period mostly from Eryx,
Selinos, and Motya.
V.Tusa, 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.
EGESTA (Ancient city) SICILY
In the NW part of the island on Monte Barbaro near modern Calatafimi,
the principal city of the Elymi. Still almost totally unknown, this ethnic group,
together with the Phoenicians, were in possession of W Sicily until the island
was unified under Roman control around the middle of the 3d c. B.C. Thucydides
(6.2) says that the Elymi were Trojans who escaped their city's destruction, fled
to Sicily, and there fused with the Sikans whom they found in the area; they were
later joined by some Phokaians. Thucydides' largely legendary narrative reflects
a cultural truth in that, as recent studies seem to confirm, it appears increasingly
probable that the Elymi came from the W Mediterranean. That Monte Barbaro was
previously inhabited is attested by some prehistoric remains; these have been
found in the area of the theater, specifically in the cavea, under which, at the
time of construction, a cave, perhaps with religious connotations, was carefully
preserved with its prehistoric material.
Segesta occupies a prominent place in the history of ancient Sicily
since some of its political maneuvers gave rise to two episodes with important
consequences: the Athenian expedition to Sicily, and the war between Greeks and
Carthaginians in 409 B.C. Throughout its entire existence Segesta may have been
in constant conflict with Selinus, which probably sought an outlet on the Tyrrhenian
Sea. The first encounters between Segesta and Selinus can probably be dated to
580-576 B.C. (Diod. 5.9); the same source (Diod. 11.86) relates another episode
of this struggle in 454. Within the framework of this conflict, falls the episode
of 415 B.C. when Segesta asked for Athenian help and succeeded in promoting the
disastrous expedition to Sicily (Thuc. 6.6; Diod. 12.82). Shortly afterwards Segesta
asked for Carthaginian help (Diod. 13.43), provoking the war that brought about
the destruction of Selinus, Akragas, Gela, and Himera in 409 B.C.
At the time of Dionysios' first campaign into W Sicily (397 B.C.),
Segesta was allied with the Carthaginians (Diod. 14.48); it was later allied with
Agathokles, who in 307 B.C. destroyed it and changed its name to Dikaiopolis,
as if to stress the justice he believed himself to be bringing. Not long afterwards
Segesta resumed its former name and alliance with the Carthaginians, but shifted
to the Roman side at the beginning of the first Punic war (Diod. 13.5). It was
heavily besieged by the Carthaginians, but since the war ended in Roman victory,
Segesta was rewarded: it became a city libera et immunis (Cic. Verr. 3.6.13) and
obtained vast territories, including possibly those of Eryx.
Probably during the Roman period the city was moved N, near modern
Castellammare, in the vicinity of sulphur springs where Roman remains have been
found. This new Segesta is reputed to have been destroyed by the Vandals. At the
site of the ancient city on Monte Barbaro, no excavation has been conducted. The
exact location of the necropolis is unknown, with the exception of a few Hellenistic
graves (3d c. B.C.) found at the foot of Monte Barbaro, on the SW side. In recent
years many sherds have been found on the NE slopes, presumably thrown down from
the ancient city above. They include local incised and painted ware as well as
Greek imports. Some of the Greek sherds carry graffiti in Greek script but in
a language which may derive from an Anatolian source; it must be the Elymian language,
which hitherto has been known only through faint traces of inscriptions on coins.
On this same side of the mountain some rock-cut niches have been found; they are
obviously connected with a cult. In front of them ran a rock-cut road which led
from the city on the summit to an area now called Mango at the foot of the mountain,
where a large sanctuary has recently been identified. The sanctuary consists of
a temenos (83.4 x 47.8 m) which has not yet been entirely excavated but which
contains several structures, including an archaic Doric temple (6th c. B.C.),
rebuilt during the following century. These two centuries represent the life-span
of the sanctuary itself.
Certain clues suggest that, after the city's destruction by Dionysios,
it was probably rebuilt, like Soloeis, according to the Hippodamian system. Unlike
Soloeis, however, Segesta would have been rebuilt on the same site as the earlier
town, as is attested by the two roads previously mentioned which connect the sanctuary
with the plateau on Monte Barbaro. The city was surrounded by a double circuit
of walls, which are still visible in a few stretches including a gate and some
towers. The walls were presumably erected at various times.
The two best-known monuments are the theater and the so-called temple.
The former is within the city, at the extreme NE tip of the plateau from which
one enjoys a vast view expanding as far as the gulf of Castellammare. The theater
is usually dated to the middle of the 3d c. B.C., but it may be earlier, that
is, contemporary with the reconstruction of the city, which must have occurred
during the previous century. It is surrounded by a high circular wall which has
both a delimiting and a retaining function and includes two high analemmata parallel
to the stage building; the lower koilon comprises 20 rows of steps divided into
seven cunei; the upper koilon above the diazoma is no longer preserved. The stage
building is flanked by paraskenia, according to the stage type prevalent in Sicilian
Hellenistic theaters; worthy of note are the two poorly preserved statues of Pan,
which functioned as telamones in the paraskenia.
The so-called temple, outside the city walls to the W, is a peristyle
of the Doric order, with 6 columns on the facade and 14 on the sides, all unfluted;
it is generally dated to the last third of the 5th c. B.C. This building has always
been considered an unfinished temple, but it has recently been suggested on rather
good grounds that the building was conceived solely as a Greek Doric peristyle
meant to delimit a space within which the non-Greek population of Segesta would
have practiced an open-air cult on a temporary altar according to the Oriental
custom. This peristyle rises outside the city walls, to the W.
Segesta had a mint that was among the most notable of ancient Sicily.
V. Tusa, 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 85 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
ERYX (Ancient city) SICILY
Remains of an ancient site on Monte San Giuliano at Erice 12 km NE
of Trapani. Fragments of Neolithic and Bronze Age objects have been found at the
foot of the mountain and at its summit a sanctuary dedicated first to the Phoenician
Astarte and then to Aphrodite and Venus, whom the Romans called "Erycina
ridens." Ancient sources differ on the origins of the cult (Diod. 4.78; Dion.
Hal. 1.53) but all agree that Eryx was founded by the Elymians of W Sicily, who
were centered at Segesta. The Elymians, especially those of Eryx, always maintained
close relations with the Punic Phoenicians both during the various wars against
the Greeks and in peace. The Spartan Dorieus at the end of the 6th c. B.C. managed
to found a Greek center, Heraklea, at the foot of Eryx, but the site was immediately
destroyed by a coalition of Elymians and Phoenicians. During the first Punic war,
in 249 B.C., Eryx was occupied by the Romans for the first time, reconquered by
Hamilcar in 244 B.C. but lost by the Phoenicians after the battle of the Egadi
islands in 241 B.C. when almost all of Sicily passed under Roman domination. Rome
always looked on Eryx with favor since it, like Rome, traced its origin back to
Troy through Aphrodite and Aeneas.
The few remains of the sanctuary, with the exception of sporadic fragments
of the 6th-5th c. B.C., belong to the Roman Imperial period, perhaps when the
temple was rebuilt under the emperor Claudius. Long stretches of the city walls
are well preserved though full of restorations and rebuildings of various periods,
including some of recent date. Recent excavations have revealed that this circuit
of fortifications with its towers and gates, had two distinct building phases.
During the first (8th-mid 6th B.C.) the lower courses were built in the megalithic
technique; to this phase must be attributed the many sherds of painted pottery
typical of various Elymian centers in W Sicily, and specifically of Segesta. During
the second (mid 6th-mid 3d B.C.), that is, from the period of greatest Punic influence
on Eryx to the Roman conquest, the upper courses were built. Punic influence is
well attested by the numerous Phoenician characters inscribed on many blocks of
the walls.
The small Museo Civico houses various objects, almost all found at
Eryx, which attest ot the presence of non-Greek peoples at the site; they consist
mostly of statuettes, amulets, scarabs, terracotta vases which reflect a Cypro-Phoenician
influence during the 6th c. B.C. as well as a persistence of Punic culture until
the Hellenistic-Roman period.
V. Tusa, 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.
MOZIA (Island) SICILY
An ancient Sikel-Greek settlement near San Cataldo on a group of five
small hills. Excavation has clarified the history of this unknown city which,
as some evidence indicates, should perhaps be identified with Motyon, the Akragan
fortified site destroyed by the Sicilian leader Ducetius in 451 B.C. and immediately
reconquered by the Greeks the following year. Excavation has indicated a phase
in the Early Bronze Age. The first Greek vases appear around the second quarter
of the 6th c., perhaps after contact with Akragan colonists. During the 5th c.
B.C. the village assumed the appearance of a small Greek polis, with houses on
terraces, streets on a grid plan, and a sanctuary with a small temple decorated
by painted antefixes of Geloan-Akragan type.
Shortly after mid 5th c. destruction, the city recovered with great
vigor; houses and sanctuary were rebuilt, and the small temple received a new
decoration with molded antefixes. Coins of this period are exclusively Akragan
and the graves of men in the necropolis invariably produce the same funerary gifts:
one krater and one pelike of Attic red-figure ware, an iron dagger, and a bronze
strigil. The city appears to have been repopulated mainly for military reasons
since it was located on the Akragan border; this fact could validate its identification
as Motyon. Excavation has also shown that the city, like others in the same area,
was abandoned at the end of the 5th c. B.C., probably at the time of the Carthaginian
invasion, and was rebuilt in the second half of the 4th c. B.C. as part of the
general program of Sicilian recolonization promoted by Timoleon. Even this city,
however, like the neighboring centers of Gibil Gabib, Sabucina, and Capodarso,
was completely destroyed ca. 311-310 B.C., probably by Agathokles, tyrant of Syracuse.
At the end of the 4th c. A.D., it was again inhabited by a small Christian
community, as shown by the discovery of cist and arched tombs containing lamps
of African type. Of the excavated areas, only the sanctuary has been left uncovered
in the single-level area within the center of the city. It includes a small temple
with temenos and altar, and it is surrounded by rectangular structures, some of
which contained votive offerings. The archaeological finds (vases, bronzes, statuettes,
architectural terracottas) are displayed in the museums of Gela and Agrigento.
P. Orlandini, 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.
SELINOUS (Ancient city) SICILY
An ancient city on the S coast of Sicily, ca. 12 km S of Castelvetrano
and approximately 40 km W of Sciacca. The river Modione (Selino) forms its W border,
the river Cottone (Calici) its E border. The city had for the S part of Sicily
the same function that Himera had for the N: it was an outpost of Greek civilization
against W Sicily which was inhabited by Phoenicians and Elymi. It was founded
by the Megarians who had arrived a century earlier from Megara Nysaia in Greece,
and had founded Megara Hyblaia in the vicinity of modern Augusta. The location
was selected for its strategic position: a hill jutting into the sea between two
rivers, both of which were ideal for debarkation and provided excellent penetration
routes toward the interior.
The colonists from Megara Hyblain were led by the oikistes Pammylos,
who came expressly for this assignment from the mother city in Greece (Thuc. 1.24.2;
Diod. 13.59.4). Disagreement in the sources on the foundation date (Thuc. 628-627
B.C.; Diod. 651 B.C.) has been settled by recent studies and excavations which
specify that Selinus was founded 651-650 B.C. The colonists almost certainly found
the territory occupied by small settlements of indigenous populations, perhaps
of Sikan origin; recent finds indicate the presence of such settlements at least
as early as the beginning of the Bronze Age.
On the strength of its position, Selinus rapidly became a large and
powerful city and the major protagonist in the history of W Sicily, from the 6th
c. until its destruction in 409 B.C. It soon promoted a movement of expansion
to the N, which caused inevitable conflict with the Elymi of Segesta and the Phoenicians
of Motya. This expansion, perhaps during a later phase, pointed also toward the
E, where the colony of Herakleia Minoa was founded (Her. 5.46). Despite its frequent
struggles with the Elymi and the Phoenicians in Sicily, Selinus almost always
managed to stay on good terms with Carthage. This permitted long periods of peace
and the attainment of extraordinary prosperity, such as it must have enjoyed after
Pentathlos' expedition (580 B.C.) and until the first battle of Himera (480 B.C.).
Building activity in this period outstripped that in every other Greek city in
Sicily, and at Olympia the city erected a treasury containing a chryselephantine
statue of Dionysos (Paus. 6.19.6).
Selinus maintained good relationships with Carthage even after the
first battle of Himera when the Carthaginians were defeated by Syracuse and Akragas.
It even housed Giskon, whose father Hamilcar had died at Himera (Diod. 13.43.5).
However, this friendship with Carthage did not prevent Selinus from espousing
the Greek cause on occasion (Diod. 11.68.1) for although the aristocratic party
promoted the alliance with Carthage, the democratic party favored alliance with
the Greeks. These two parties, alternating in political power presumably account
for the city's shifts in international policy.
In 409 B.C. Selinus was destroyed by Carthage (Diod. 13.54-59) in
a battle that marked the end of the city's power. The Syracusan general Hermokrates
tried to recapture it soon afterwards, and for this purpose hastily rebuilt the
city walls (Diod. 13.63.3), but he failed. From then on Selinus lived poorly under
Carthaginian political control until, during the first Punic war, in the middle
of the 3d c. B.C., it was again destroyed and definitely abandoned. Small groups
of people settled there both in Christian-Byzantine times and in the Arab period;
afterwards the name itself was lost, and the site came to be known as Casale degli
Idoli or Terra di Pulci. The site was identified by Fazello (De Rebus Siculis
[Palermo 1558] 146ff).
The archaeological investigation of Selinus began during the early
1800's when the three famous metopes were found in the area of Temple C. Since
that time investigation has continued but no excavation has been carried out in
the area of the ancient city. The city as a whole comprises the following zones:
A) the acropolis; B) the ancient city; C) Temples on the E hill; D) Malophoros
Sanctuary; E) the necropoleis.
A) The acropolis. The Megarian colonists leveled the hill before building
the first structures and surrounding them with a circuit wall of which traces
have been found. Later on (perhaps late 6th-early 5th c. B.C.), building on the
acropolis was augmented and surrounded by the fortifications that are still visible
today, including the sloping stretch near the modern entrance to the ruins. After
the defeat in 409 B.C., the surviving inhabitants retreated within the acropolis.
To this last phase (4th-3d c. B.C.) belong the houses visible today as well as
the urban system, which probably utilized some of the earlier streets or repeated
the alignment of some earlier buildings, but the city plan at present evident
on the acropolis should, as a whole, be attributed to the Carthaginian phase of
the city. The structures belonging to this period present all the characteristics
of Punic settlements at that time: ladder masonry, sacred areas of the Punic type
in every block, symbols of Tanit on the house floors, coins and movable objects
found on the dirt-paved streets and in the houses; an earlier building was perhaps
dismantled and its material re-employed in the new constructions.
Since the acropolis is still largely unexcavated, it is difficult
to distinguish clearly between what predated and what followed the Carthaginian
occupation. Starting from the S, the first identifiable structure is Temple O,
of which only the foundations remain. It is quite similar, even in dimensions,
to Temple A a short distance to the N; it is hexastyle with pronaos and opisthodomos
in antis. Temple A is peripteral, with 6 by 14 columns; its stylobate measures
40.23 by 16.23 m. It can be dated, together with Temple O, between 490 and 480
B.C. On the E side the altar connected with the temple has recently been uncovered;
both temples were utilized as a fortress during the mediaeval period; to this
purpose they were joined, and could provide a well-fortified tower projecting
on the S side.
On the axis of Temple A, 34 m to the E, lies a T-shaped structure
fronted by a porch (13.1 x 5.6 m); it is a propylon leading into the sacred area
of Temples A and O and dates after 480 B.C.
Crossing the road that runs E-W, one enters an area containing the
ruins of perhaps the earliest sacred buildings on the acropolis, with the exception
of the small Temple B, perhaps dedicated to Empedokles, the Akragan philosopher
and scientist who, according to Diogenes Laertius (8.70), had drained the Selinuntine
marshes. It is a small building (8.4 x 4.6 m) of the Hellenistic period (perhaps
as early as the 4th c.), a tetrastyle prostyle aedicula with pronaos and cella
located on a natural rise of the terrain and accessible on the E by means of nine
steps. Its entablature carried traces of color.
Temple C, built on the highest point of the acropolis during the first
half of the 6th c. B.C., 15 hexastyle peripteral with 17 columns on the sides;
14 columns of the N side were re-erected in 1925-26 together with portions of
the entablature. The early date of this building is attested not only by its very
elongated plan, but also by the fact that monolithic columns were at first employed
on the S and E sides; moreover the columns taper from bottom to top. The stylobate
measures 63.7 x 24 m; the cella building comprised an adyton, a long and narrow
cella, and a pronaos. The triglyph frieze carried carved metopes and was surmounted
by a cornice revetted with polychrome terracotta slabs; two gorgoneia, also of
painted terracotta, decorated both pediments of the temple, one of which has been
reconstructed at full scale in the Palermo Museum. On the temple roof, the ridge
pole was covered by the kalypteres also of polychrome terracotta. Of the two large
altars the earlier lies to the SE; the later is in front of the temple to the
E. The area in front of Temple C must have been the Hellenistic agora. Just to
the N is Temple D, built around the middle of the 6th c. B.C. It is hexastyle
peripteral, with 13 columns on the sides and a stylobate of 56 by 24 m. Its plan
includes a prostyle porch, pronaos, cella, and adyton. Near the SE corner are
the remains of a sacrificial altar, diagonal to the temple axis. Not far from
the NE corner of Temple D are the foundations of a rectangular structure whose
early archaic date can be inferred from its very elongated plan.
The whole acropolis is surrounded by walls that represent the largest
fortification complex in the whole of Greek Sicily, second only to the Euryalos
castle in Syracuse. Since the walls of Selinus have never been studied in their
entirety, the following description is based on superficial observation. Various
repairs can easily be recognized, and the most important are the work of Hermokrates;
to his rebuilding also should be attributed the two round towers on the N and
W, which reused materials from earlier temples. Blocks from the same buildings
were, however, reused in several other places and in greatest number within the
small N chambers. This demonstrates that at least some temples had collapsed after
the battle in 409, a fact hinted at by Diodoros' description of the battle itself
(13.54-59). Only two gates survive, the one to the W and the more important one
on the N side, which connected the acropolis with the city. There are many postern
gates, both on the E and W sides, several of them blocked. Several square towers
dot the circuit of the walls on all sides; one of them has recently yielded two
archaic metopes probably reused by Hermokrates.
B) Ancient city. To the N of the acropolis, on the hill called Manuzza,
stood the city proper, also surrounded by walls of which only traces remain; its
street pattern has recently been identified through aerial photography. There
have been no excavations.
C) Temples on the E Hill. At a certain moment in the city's history,
for reasons as yet unknown, the Selinuntines built three temples on the hill to
the W of the city and acropolis, beyond the river Cottone. These must have been
built about the middle of the 6th c. B.C. since this is the date given to the
earliest of the three temples, Temple F. This building, the smallest of the three,
has a stylobate measuring 61.83 by 24.43 m and lies between the other two. It
was hexastyle with 14 columns on the sides; its plan includes a pronaos, cella,
and adyton, but no opisthodomos. Its metopes, like all the others, are now in
the Palermo Museum.
To the S lies Temple E; it belongs to the best phase of Doric construction,
the phase that is usually called developed Doric and is generally dated 480-460
B.C. It is hexastyle peripteral with 15 columns to the side and was probably set
within a temenos, as suggested by a recently discovered wall. Its plan comprises
pronaos, cella, adyton, and opisthodomos in antis, its stylobate measures 67.82
by 25.33 m; in the adyton stands the base for the cult statue of the patron deity,
probably Hera. The pronaos frieze carried sculpted metopes, four of which are
in the Palermo Museum. The building has been recently restored.
Temple G is one of the largest temples of antiquity: its stylobate
measures 110.36 by 50.10 m and its columns are 16.27 m high with a diameter of
3.41 m. The building was never completed, probably because it was still unfinished
at the time of the city's destruction in 409 B.C.; it must have been started at
the beginning of that century. Either because the length of the period it was
under construction allowed for various changes and modernizations or because its
proportions favored the expression of the architects' imagination, this temple
presents peculiarities not found in other Doric temples. It was hypaethral since
the central nave was left unroofed; the vast cella had three doors corresponding
to the three inner naves formed by two rows of ten monolithic columns in two tiers.
The stone to build this temple came from the quarries of Cusa, which are ca. 9
km NW of Selinus as the crow flies. These quarries are still in the condition
in which they were when the work was suspended and one finds there some partly
cut column drums that correspond in dimensions to the columns of Temple G; the
stone, moreover, is the same.
D) Sanctuary of the Malophoros. Scarcely more than a km separates
the acropolis and the city from this structure, which lies to the W beyond the
river Modione (Selinos). The dedication of the sanctuary is indicated by various
inscriptions and by several thousand terracotta statuettes depicting a goddess
with a pomegranate. The sanctuary is quadrangular (50 x 60 m) with a precinct
wall encompassing several interior structures. The main building is shaped like
a megaron and is dedicated to the major divinity, the Malophoros, perhaps to be
equated with Demeter; in front of it lies a large rectangular altar. Within the
peribolos is a smaller shrine dedicated to Zeus Meilichios where the famous twin
stelai depicting a god and a goddess were uncovered; they belong to the Punic
phase. There is also a Hekataion. This is obviously a sanctuary dedicated to the
chthonian deities. The temenos was entered through the propylaia, which seem to
have been remodeled during the Punic period; at that time the sanctuary was still
in use, and even later, during the Byzantine phase, when the main megaron was
adapted to a new function. The earliest evidence from this site goes back to the
middle of the 7th c. B.C., and is thus contemporary with the earliest finds from
the acropolis at Selinus, but here the aspect both of the buildings and of the
divinities worshiped suggest that this sanctuary served not only for Greek Selinus
but also for other neighboring centers inhabited by peoples of different origins.
Near the sanctuary a spring, which is still flowing, may have been
the reason for the erection of the temenos in this area.
E) Necropoleis. The cemeteries attributed to Selinus lie E and W of
the river Modione. Those to the E are the necropoleis of Galera-Bagliazzo and
Buffa; those to the W, Manicalunga-Timpone Nero, Bresciana, and Pipio. There are
several tens of thousands of graves, both cremation and inhumation: built graves,
tile graves (a cappuccina), earth cists. The cemeteries E of the Modione may be
dated as early as the mid 7th c. B.C.; those to the W, no earlier than the 6th.
The latter extend as far as 5 km from the city, with the added obstacle of the
river crossing and therefore may belong to another settlement not yet found.
This was the only Greek city of Sicily to have decorated its temples
with sculptures (Palermo Museum). They belong to at least four periods, extending
from the end of the 7th to the middle of the 5th c. B.C. Although they are all
Classical Greek sculptures, certain aspects are obviously local and prevent exact
classification within any of the known categories. A clear example of what might
be called Sicilian, is the bronze statue of the so-called Ephebe, which dates
to the beginning of the 5th c. B.C.
It has been hazarded that the temples were dedicated to the following
divinities: Shrine of the small metopes to Apollo, Leto, and Artemis. For the
three temples replacing this small temple--Temple C to Apollo, Temple A to Leto,
and Temple O to Artemis; Temple G is attributed to Zeus; Temple F to Athena; Temple
E to Hera, and Temple D to Aphrodite.
Selinus had its own mint and some coins carry the device of the wild
celery, which gave the city its name.
V. Tusa, 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 403 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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