selves under the protection of the Romans. This afforded the Tarentines an excuse for attacking the city, of which they made themselves masters, and thus brought upon themselves the vengeance of Rome. At the close of the Tarentine war, Thúrium became a Roman dependancy. It suffered very severely in the second Punic war, and, having been almost depopulated, was occupied by a Roman colony (B. c. 190). The city of Locri Epizephy'rii was inhabited by the people of the same name. The original colonists were sent out by the Locri O'zolæ (B. c. 683); but these were joined by a great variety of settlers, chiefly from western Greece. Zaleúcus, one of their own citizens, became the legislator of the Locrians, and his wise institutions remained unchanged for nearly two centuries. The constitution appears to have been a judicious mixture of aristocracy and democracy. The Locrians continued to be honorably distinguished by their peaceful condition, quiet conduct, and good manners, until Diony'sius II., tyrant of Syracuse, having been expelled by his subjects, sought refuge in Lócri, which was the native country of his mother (B. c. 357). His insolence, his licentiousness, and the excesses of his followers, brought the state to the verge of ruin; and, when he returned to Syracuse (B. c, 347), the Locrians revenged their wrongs on his unfortunate family. When Pyrrhus invaded Italy, he placed a garrison in Locri (B. c. 277); but the Locrians rose in revolt, and put the intruders to the sword. The king of Epírus, in revenge, stormed and plundered the city. After his return home, it submitted to the Romans, and was one of the places that suffered most severely in the second Punic war.

Rhégium was colonized jointly by the Chalcidians and Messenians (B. c. 668); but the chief power was possessed by the Messenian aristocracy. This oligarchy was subverted by Anaxiláus (B. c. 494), and an absolute despotism established. After some time the Rhegians recovered their freedom, and attempted to secure tranquillity by adopting from the Thurians the constitution of Charon'das. Thenceforward Rhégium enjoyed tranquillity and happiness, until it was captured and destroyed by Dionys'ius I., of Syracuse (B. c. 392). It was partially restored by Dionys'ius II.; but, during the wars of Pyrrhus in Italy, it was still so weak as to require the protection of a Roman garrison. A legion, raised in Campánia, was sent to Rhégium, under the command of Décius Jubel'lus. These soldiers having been used to a life of hardship, began soon to envy the luxurious ease and wealth of the citizens they had come to protect, and they formed a perfidious plan for their destruction (B. c. 281). They forged letters from the Rhegians to Pyrrhus, offering to put that monarch in possession of the city, and, under this pretence, they put the principal part of the citizens to death, and drove the rest into exile. The Roman senate was not slow in punishing this atrocious outrage; they sent an army against the guilty Campanians, who had been reinforced by several bands of profligate plunderers, and, after a severe struggle, obtained possession of the city. The survivors of the wicked legionaries were beaten with rods, and beheaded in bands of fifty at a time; and a few Rhégians who survived were reinstated in possession of their estates, liberties, and laws. But the city was too weak to maintain its independence, and it became thenceforth subject to Rome.

CHAPTER XIV.

HISTORY OF SICILY.

SECTION I.-Geographical Outline.

THE fertile island of Sicily was known by various names to the an cients. It was called Triquet'ra, or Trinac'ria,from its triangular shape; Sicania and Sicilia from the Sic'ani and Sic'uli, Italian hordes who peopled a great part of the country. Its three extreme promontories were named Pelórum (Faro), Pachy'num (Passaro), and Lilybæ'um (Bocco); the first of these faces Italy, the second Greece, and the third Africa. From the narrowness of the strait opposite Pelorum, it has been supposed that Sicily was broken off from Italy by some convulsion of nature; and the Greek city Rhégium, which stood on the Italian side of the strait, derives its name from this common opinion.* The strait is remarkable for the rapidity of its current, and for the rock Scylla, and whirlpool Charyb'dis, the passage between which was accounted very dangerous. These places are frequently described by the Latin poets. Ovid thus alludes to the opinion of Italy having been joined to Sicily near the city of Zan'cle, or Messana :

"So Zan'cle to the Italian earth was tied,

And men once walked, where ships at anchor ride;

Till Neptune overlooked the narrow way,

And in disdain poured in the conquering sca."

The most remarkable cities on the eastern coast of Sicily were Zan'. cle, or Messána (Messina), deriving its first name from the old Sicilian word Zan'clos signifying a reaping-hook, to which its curved shore bears some fanciful resemblance; and its second from the Messenian exiles, who conquered the city: Tauromin'ium (Taormina), on the river Tauromin'ius (Cantara), near which was the coast called Cop'ria, or "the dunghill," from the number of wrecks cast upon it by the whirlpool of Charyb'dis: Cat'ana, a Chalcidian colony on the river Aménes (Judicello): Morgan'tium, a city of the Italian Sic'uli, near the mouth of the Sigma'thus (La Jaretta): Leontíni, a flourishing Chalcidian colony Hyb'la, celebrated for its honey, founded by the Sicanians, and subsequently colonized by the Megarians: and Syracuse, the ancient capital of the island.

Syracuse contained within its walls, which were eighteen miles in circumference, four very considerable cities united into one, like Lon• From pnyvv, to break.

don, Westminister, Southwark, and Lambeth. Acradína, the largest of the four, contained the principal public buildings, such as the Prytanéum, the palace of justice, and the temple of Jupiter Olympius. Ty'che, which stood between Acradína and the hill Epip'olæ, contained the Gymnasium for the exercise of youth, and several temples, especially one dedicated to Fortune, from which this division of the city derived its name. The third quarter, called Orty'gia, was an island, connected with the other parts by a bridge; it contained two beautiful temples, one sacred to Diana, and the other to Minerva, the tutelary deities of Syracuse. Neap'olis, or the new city, was the latest erected: it contained the temples of Céres and Proserpine, and the statue of Apollo Temen'ites, celebrated by Cicero as the most valuable monument of Syra

cuse.

Near Syracuse was a steep hill named Epip'olæ, defended in the later ages by a fort called Lab'dalon. On this hill was the famous prison called Latom'iæ, on account of its being partly excavated from the living rock. It was a cave one hundred and twenty-five paces long and twenty feet broad, constructed by order of Dionys'ius the tyrant, who imprisoned there those whom he suspected of being opposed to his usurpation. A winding tube, constructed on the model of the human ear, ascended from the cavern to a private apartment, where the tyrant used to sit and listen to the conversation of his unhappy captives.

The celebrated fountain of Arethúsa, now dried up, arose in the is'land of Orty'gia. The poets fabled that the Al'pheus, a river of E'lis, in the Peloponnésus, rolled its waters either through or under the waters of the sea, without mixing with them, as far as the fountain of Arethúsa; which gave occasion to the following lines of Virgil:

Thy sacred succor, Arethúsa, bring,

To crown my labor; 'tis the last I sing;
So may thy silver streams beneath the tide,
Unmixed with briny seas, securely glide!

On the African side of Sicily stood Camarína, between the rivers ·O'anus (Frascolari) and Hip'paris (Camarana): it was anciently a very wealthy city; but its inhabitants having drained a marsh by which the city was protected, the enemies found easy access, and destroyed it; hence Ne moveas Camarinam, "Remove not Camarina," has passed into a proverb. Following the line of coast westward, we meet Géla (Terra Nova), now in ruins, and Ag'ragas or Agrigen'tum (Girgenti), between the rivers Ag'ragas (San Biaggio) and Hyp'sa (Drago). It was anciently the rival of Syracuse: and we may judge of its former strength and splendor from the following description given of it by the historian Polybius: "It exceeds most of the Sicilian cities in strength, beauty, and situation, and magnificent edifices. Though erected at the distance of eighteen hundred furlongs from the sea, it can conveniently import all kinds of provision and munitions of war. From its natural strength, increased judiciously by fortifications, it is one of the most impregnable places in the island. Its walls are built upon a rock, rendered inaccessible by art. The river, from which the city takes its name, protects it on the south, and it is covered by the Hyp'sa on the • From rúxn, fortune. From Maas, a stone, and repvw, to cut.

west; on the east it it is defended by a fortress, built on the brink of a precipice, which serves instead of a ditch." The citadel, called Om'phale, which stood at the mouth of the Ag'ragas, was more ancient than the city itself.

The other cities on the African side were Mino'a Heracléa (Castel Bianco), deriving its first name from a Cretan, and its second from a Lacedæmonian colony, on the banks of the Haly'cus (Platani); and Selínus (Terra delle Pulci), on the river Selinus (Madiuni), founded by a colony from Megʻara.

On the coast opposite Italy were the cities Lilybæ'um (Marsala), celebrated in ancient times for its excellent harbor; Drep'anum (Trapani), deriving its name from a fancied resemblance of its coast to a scythe;" E'ryx (Trepano del Monte), on a mountain of the same name; Seges'ta, or Eges'ta, now in ruins, supposed to have been founded by a Trojan colony, who named the streams that watered their territory the Scaman'ler and the Sim'ois, in memory of the rivers of their native land; the former of these is now Il fiume di San Bartolomeo, the latter a rivulet without a name; Panor'mus (Palermo), the present capital of Sicily, originally founded by the Phoenicians, between the Oróthus (Amiraghio) and the Leutherus (Baiaria). In the neighborhood of Panor'mus was a mountain fortress called É'reta (Monte Pelegrino): Himæ'ra, Alæ'sa, and Agathyr'na, are now in ruins.

In the interior of the country were Adʼranum (Aderno), near the foot of Mount Etna; En'na (Custro Janni), sacred to Ceres; and En'gyum (Mandania), near the springs of the Ala'sus (Casonia).

The most remarkable natural object in Sicily is the celebrated volcano of the lofty Mount Etna, covered with eternal snows, though ever burning. It has been described by Sil'ius Italicus:

"Its lofty summits, wondrous to be told,
Display bright flames amid the ice and cold;
Above, its rocks, with flames incessant glow,
Though bound in icy fetters far below;
The peak is claimed by winter as its throne,
While glowing ashes o'er its snows are shown."

The fire which continually burns in the bowels of the mountain made the poets place here the forges of Vulcan and his Cyclopean attendants, and the prison of the giants who rebelled against Jupiter. This fiction is beautifully related by Virgil, in his description of the mountain :

"The port capacious, and secure from wind,
Is to the foot of thund'ring Etna joined.
By turns a pitchy cloud she rolls on high;

By turns hot embers from her entrails fly,

And flakes of mountain-flames that lick the sky.

Oft from her bowels massy rocks are thrown,

And shivered by their force come piecemeal down.
Oft liquid lakes of burning sulphur flow,
Fed from the fiery springs that burn below.
Enceladus, they say, transfixed by Jove,

With blasted limbs came trembling from above;

• From ¿peñavov, a scythe.

And when he fell, the avenging father drew
This flaming hill, and on his body threw ;

As often as he turns his weary sides,

He shakes the solid isle, and smoke the heavens hides."

The Æolian or Vulcanian islands lie off the north coast of Sicily, in the Tuscan sea. The most remarkable are Lip'ara (Lipari) and Stronyg'læ (Stromboli). North of Cape Lilybe'um were the islands called 'gates, or 'gades: they are three in number; Phorban'tia (Levanzo), Ægúsa (Favignano), and Hi'ra (Maretino).

SECTION II.-Historical Notices of the ancient Inhabitants of Sicily.

CHRONOLOGY UNCERTAIN.

THE Cyclopians and Læstrigons are said to have been the first inhabitants of Sicily. It is impossible to trace their origin; we only know that their settlements were in the vicinity of Mount Etna. Their inhumanity toward strangers, and the flames of Etna, were the source of many popular fables and poetic fictions. It was said that the Cy'clops were giants; that they had but one eye, placed in the centre of their forehead; that they fed on human flesh; and that they were employed by Vulcan to forge the thunderbolts of Jove.

Next in antiquity were the Sicanians, probably an Italian horde driven southward by the pressure of the Pelas'gi, though many ancient writers assert that they came from Spain. They finally settled in the western part of the island, and were said to have joined the Trojan exiles in building E'ryx and Egésta.

After the Sic'ani had been for some ages exclusive masters of the island, the Sic'uli, an ancient people of Ausónia, crossed the strait; and having defeated the Sicanians in a sanguinary engagement, confined them in a narrow territory, and changed the name of the island from Sicánia to Sicily. Some centuries after this revolution, Greek colonies began to settle on the Sicilian coast; the principal states that founded settlements in the island were Chal'cis in Eubœ'a, Meg'ara, Corinth, the Dorians from Rhodes and Creté, and the Messenians, driven from their native country by the Spartans. To these may be added two Italian colonies, the Morgétes and the Mamer'tines.

The Sic'uli were first united under one head by a king named 'olus, whose age is uncertain. Their most renowned sovereign was Deucétius, who engaged in a long war with the Syracusans; but having been frequently defeated, he was forced to surrender himself to their mercy. With unusual clemency, the Syracusans granted him liberty and life, and assigned a pension for his support, on condition of his living in the territories of their parent city, Corinth. Having removed this formidable rival, the Syracusans reduced the whole country of the Sic'uli, stormed their chief city, Triquet'ra, and levelled it to the ground. When the Athenians invaded Sicily under the command of Nic'ias, they were joined by the Sic'uli, who gave them very effective assistance. They likewise aided the Carthaginians in their first attempts to gain possession of the island. Having been subsequently induced to join the Syracusans, they were disgracefully betrayed to the