Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Various locations for wider area of: "SIRACUSA Province SICILY" .
LEONTINI (Ancient city) SICILY
Palicorum lacus (he ton Palikon limne: Lago di Naftia), a small volcanic
lake in the interior of Sicily, near Palagonia, about 15 miles W. of Leontini.
It is a mere pool, being not more than 480 feet in circumference, but early attracted
attention from the remarkable phenomena caused by two jets of volcanic gas, which
rise under the water, causing a violent ebullition, and sometimes throwing up
the water to a considerable height. On this account the spot was, from an early
period, considered sacred, and consecrated to the indigenous deities called the
Palici, who had a temple on the spot. This enjoyed the privileges of an asylum
for fugitive slaves, and was much resorted to also for determining controversies
by oaths; an oath taken by the holy springs, or craters as they are called, being
considered to possess peculiar sanctity, and its violation to be punished on the
spot by the death of the offender. The remarkable phenomena of the locality are
described in detail by Diodorus, as well as by several other writers, and notwithstanding
some slight discrepancies, leave no doubt that the spot was the same now called
the Lago di Naftia, from the naphtha with which, as well as sulphur, the sources
are strongly impregnated. It would, however, seem that in ancient times there
were two separate pools or craters, sometimes termed fountains (krenai), and that
they did not, as at the present day, form one more considerable pool or lake.
Hence they are alluded to by Ovid as Stagna Palicorum ; while Virgil notices only
the sanctuary or altar, pinguis et placabilis ara Palici. (Diod. xi. 89; Steph.
Byz. s. v. Palike; Pseud.-Arist. Mirab. 58; Macrob. Sat. v. 19; Strab. vi. p.
275; Ovid, Met. v. 406; Virg. Aen. ix. 585; Sil. Ital. xiv. 219; Nonn. Dionys.
xiii. 311.) The sacred character of the spot as an asylum for fugitive slaves
caused it to be selected for the place where the great servile insurrection of
Sicily in B.C. 102 was first discussed and arranged; and for the same reason Salvius,
the leader of the insurgents, made splendid offerings at the shrine of the Palici.
(Diod. xxxvi. 3, 7.)
There was not in early times any other settlement besides the sanctuary
and its appurtenances, adjoining the lake of the Palici; but in B.C. 453, Ducetius,
the celebrated chief of the Siculi, founded a city close to the lake, to which
he gave the name of Palica (Palike), and to which he transferred the inhabitants
of Menaenum and other neighbouring towns. This city rose for a short time to considerable
prosperity; but was destroyed again shortly after the death of Ducetius, and never
afterwards restored. (Diod. xi. 88, 90.) Hence the notices of it in Stephanus
of Byzantium and other writers can only refer to this brief period of its existence.
(Steph. B. l. c.; Polemon, ap. Macrob. l. c.) The modern town of Palagonia is
thought to retain the traces of the name of Palica, but certainly does not occupy
the site of the city of Ducetius, being situated on a lofty hill, at some distance
from the Lago di Naftia. Some remains of the temple and other buildings were still
visible in the days of Fazello in the neighbourhood of the lake. The locality
is fully described by him, and more recently by the Abate Ferrara. (Fazell. de
Reb. Sic. iii. 2; Ferrara, Campi Flegrei della Sicilia, pp. 48,105.)
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
SYRACUSSES (Ancient city) SICILY
Island off Syracuse.
Perseus Project Index. Total results on 27/4/2001: 81
Anapus (Anapos). (Anapo), one of the most celebrated and considerable
rivers of Sicily, which risesabout a mile from the modern town of Buscemi, not
far from the site of Acrae; and flows into the great harbour of Syracuse. About
three quarters of a mile from its mouth, and just at the foot of the hill on which
stood the Olympieium, it receives the waters of the Cyane. Its banks for a considerable
distance from its mouth are bordered by marshes, which rendered them at all times
unhealthy; and the fevers and pestilence thus generated were among the chief causes
of disaster to the Athenians, and still more to the Carthaginians, during the
several sieges of Syracuse. But above these marshes the valley through which it
flows is one of great beauty, and the waters of the Anapus itself are extremely
limpid and clear, and of great depth. Like many rivers in a limestone country
it rises all at once with a considerable volume of water, which is, however, nearly
doubled by the accession of the Cyane. The tutelary divinity of the stream was
worshipped by the Syracusans under the form of a young man (Ael. V. H. ii. 33),
who was regarded as the husband of the nymph Cyane. (Ovid. Met. v. 416.) The river
is now commonly known as the Alfeo, evidently from a misconception of the story
of Alpheus and Arethusa; but is also called and marked on all maps as the Anapo.
(Thuc. vi. 96, vii. 78; Theocr. i. 68; Plut. Dion. 27, Timol. 21; Liv. xxiv. 36;
Ovid. Ex Pont. ii. 26; Vib. Seq. p. 4; Oberlin, ad loc.; Fazell. iv. 1, p. 196.)
It is probable that the Palus Lysimeleia (he limne he Lusimeleia kaloumene)
mentioned by Thucydides (vii. 53), was a part of the marshes formed by the Anapus
near its mouth. A marshy or stagnant pool of some extent still exists between
the site of the Neapolis of Syracuse and the mouth of the river, to which the
name may with some probability be assigned.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Asinarus or Assinarus (Asinaros, Diod. Plut. Assinaros, Thuc.), a small river on the E. coast of Sicily, between Syracuse and Helorus; memorable as the scene of the final catastrophe of the Athenian armament in Sicily, and the surrender of Nicias with the remains of his division of the army. (Thuc. vii. 84, 85; Diod. xiii. 19; Plut. Nic. 27.) It is clearly identified by the circumstances of the retreat (as related in detail by Thucydides), with the river now called the Falconara, but more commonly known as the Fiume di Noto, from its proximity to that city. It rises just below the site of the ancient Neetum (Noto Vecohio), and after flowing under the walls of the modern Noto, enters the sea in a little bay called Ballata di Noto, about 4 miles N. of the mouth of the Helorus (F. Abisso). Being supplied from several subterranean and perennial sources it has a considerable body of water, as described by Thucydides in the above passage. A curious monument still extant near Helorum is commonly supposed to have been erected to commemorate the victory of the Syracusans on this occasion; but it seems too far from the river to have been designed for such an object. Plutarch tells us (Nic. 28), that the Syracusans instituted on the occasion a festival called Asinaria; and it is said that this is still celebrated at the present day, though now converted to the honour of a saint. (Smyth's Sicily, p. 179; Fazell. de Reb. Sic. iv. 1. p. 198; Cluver. Sicil. p. 184.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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