Map 47 Sicilia Compiled by R.J.A
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Map 47 Sicilia Compiled by R.J.A. Wilson, 1997 Introduction The island of Sicily has a long tradition of antiquarian interest, and books and articles have been written on its topography since the sixteenth century. Some of the older works, such as Fazello (1558), Cluverius (1619), D’Orville (1764), and especially Houel (1782), still repay study. In more recent times, Sicily is fortunate to have had published, in Manni (1981), a systematic listing of all place names and other toponyms which occur in the ancient sources, although his identification with modern sites on the ground is not always reliable (cf. Wilson 1985). Another invaluable tool of research is Nenci and Vallet’s BTCGI (1977- ). In the last fifty years especially, there has been an explosion of archaeological research, the results of which can be followed in the quadrennial reports to the Palermo conferences appearing in Kokalos, as well as in other important conference volumes such as those on the area of the Elymi in western Sicily (Nenci 1992; 1997), or through the periodic reviews of Sicilian archaeological work published in ArchRep (most recently Wilson 1987; 1995). Also very useful are two volumes reporting on recent work by the Palermo Soprintendenza (Di Stefano 1993b; 1997). Yet despite all this scholarly interest and activity, many topographical questions remain unanswered. With regard to physical geography, coastline changes since antiquity are believed to have been minor, but little geomorphological work has been undertaken, with the exception of a pioneering survey of the south-east coastline (Basile 1988; Lena 1988). This has demonstrated a rise in sea level since antiquity affecting, among other places, the coastal topography of Syracuse itself. We also know that the ancient shoreline on the north coast at Himera was some 650 ft inland from the modern one (Allegro 1992, 146), a shift too small to show on the map, and that the sea level has risen nearly two ft since antiquity in the Stagnone di Marsala, thus flooding the ancient causeway which linked Motya to the Sicilian mainland, and turning the peninsula of Aigithallos into an island, the modern Isola Grande (Famà 1995). Elsewhere, in the absence of detailed information, the coastline shown is the same as the modern one, because the changes detectible since antiquity, such as the silting-up of harbors at Akragas/Agrigentum, Camarina, Helorus and Selinus, are too limited to show at this scale. In the extreme south-east, however, an attempt has been made to show ancient harbors in areas which are now marsh or inland lagoon; but further geomorphological work is needed here for more precise mapping, and the coastline shown may not be reliable in detail. For a very different reason–the eruption of Mount Etna in 1669–the ancient harbor of modern Catania has also disappeared; the Castello Ursino, until then on the sea, is now a quarter-mile inland. There are also likely to have been some physical changes, especially of water courses, in the major plain of Catania’s hinterland. Here, for example, we know that until 1621 the R. Gornalunga had a separate mouth from the R. Simeto (ancient Symaethus), of which it is now a tributary. Its separate mouth and lower ancient course are thus shown with approximate linework, immediately south of the Symaethus (G4); its ancient name remains unknown. There has likewise been very little work done on the road system. Although the sources have been extensively reviewed, archaeological fieldwork is still in its infancy (Interdonato 1988 makes a start). The island is peculiar in having produced only a single certain milestone, on the Pan(h)ormus-Agrigentum road (Di Vita 1955). Even the Via Pompeia (Cicero, II in Verrem 5.169) has not been certainly identified, since opinion is divided over whether this refers to the east coast trunk route, or the road running along the north coast. Roads have been shown as certain where the coastal strip between mountains and sea is so restricted that the modern and ancient alignments must surely coincide; otherwise, wherever a route has not been traced by detailed fieldwork on the ground, it has been marked as approximate. Local topography has been taken into account, following river valleys, trazzere (field tracks, sometimes on the course of the royal coach roads of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries), and in part modern roads. Particular uncertainty attaches to the Agrigentum-Pan(h)ormus road (despite its milestone), since none of the nucleated centers listed along its line by ItAnt has been identified with certainty on the ground. Equally uncertain are the courses of the two alternative routes between Agrigentum and Philosophiana given by the same itinerary. The map marks Petiliana on the more southerly of the two, on the basis of the findspot of a tile stamped 710 MAP 47 SICILIA PETIL. Cosconiana and Calloniana will therefore be situated on the northern route, but that contradicts most previous scholarship (Manni 1981, 153, 161). Altogether, in marking roads a conservative policy has been adopted. Apart from routes indicated by the Roman road itineraries, a Phintias-(H)Enna-Halaesa road is implied by a passing comment of Cicero (II in Verrem 3.192). A road is suspected on the west side of Etna connecting Adranon to the main road; likewise a route across the Madonie range linking the hill towns of Agyrium, Engyon, Capitium and Amestratus, the existence of which is logical but not actually proven. Except for the Adranon road, whose existence is proved by the recorded remains of a Roman bridge, none of these is marked on the map. Many other such routes could have been added in speculative fashion–clearly, roads would have linked many of the hill towns of the interior in archaic, classical and Hellenistic times, for example–but in the absence of specific ancient evidence they are omitted. Identification of the main ancient urban centers, situated on the coast, is not in doubt; they have long been known and recognized. The urbanism of the interior, however, is another matter. Many of the hilltop towns here were gradually given up from the fourth century B.C. onwards, a process accelerated by the pax Romana and continuing into the first century A.D. (Wilson 1985b). As a result, such places do not appear in the itineraries detailing Roman roads, which with few exceptions (such as (H)Enna and Centuripae) passed them by. What we have, therefore, is a large number of urban centers more or less well defined by modern archaeology, and a list of inland towns offered by sources characteristically lacking geographical precision. Matching the two is not easy. The map is conservative, marking an ancient name only when we may be reasonably confident that it is correctly applied to the place in question. Consequently, many such settlements are identified by their modern name only. Ancient town-names which cannot confidently be matched with a known site are listed as Unlocated Toponyms. One further point should be made about the distribution of urban settlement. Because of the lengthy chronological span embraced by the map, there is insufficient scope to represent the very considerable shifts in the pattern of urban settlement over time. Thus the Greek colony of Himera on the north coast, founded in the seventh century B.C. but largely abandoned at the end of the fifth, was succeeded by Thermae Himeraeae ten miles to the west, a new foundation c. 403 B.C., which flourished throughout Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times, and beyond. Both sites appear, therefore; but they never co-existed, although the hot spring at the latter was frequented from classical times at least. More generally, by the middle of the Roman imperial period, Sicily had less than two dozen major urban settlements. Urban aqueducts feature less than might be expected. They existed, to be sure; but, with some notable exceptions, they have as yet been the subject of insufficient fieldwork and publication. The exceptions are those at Thermae Himeraeae, which have received notable treatment in a monograph (Belvedere 1986), and that of Catina, studied by Lagona (1964) and again more recently by Lamagna (1997). For the water supply of Syracusae, however, we have to go back to the splendid topographical research of Cavallari (1883) and Holm over a century ago, who identified four aqueducts of Hellenistic and Roman date there. There is also a hint that Selinus may have had its own aqueduct, but again the research reporting it dates back more than a century (Salinas 1885). It may have been a Roman rural aqueduct, but too little is known about it or its destination for it to feature on the map. The Roman aqueduct(s) of Tauromenium, of which some brick-faced concrete arcading survives above the village of Mongiuffi, remains completely unpublished, and the water supply of most other urban centers of Sicily remains unstudied (but note Crouch 1993 for details on Syracusae, Agrigentum and Morgantina). Lilybaeum is known to have had an aqueduct built in opus quadratum by Domitian in A.D. 84 (CIL 10.7227), but it has never been traced on the ground. Rural aqueducts are little known. The two channels serving the villa at Casale di Piazza Armerina have been traced over too short a distance to feature here (Carandini 1982, 371-73). The same applies to those suspected at Montallegro, possibly serving the settlement at Campanaio (C4), and at S. Venera al Pozzo (G3), where there appears also to have been a siphon (Wilson 1990, 8, 227-28). On the other hand, the indisputably Roman aqueduct serving the road station of Philosophiana, bringing water over a quarter-mile from the west, is marked.