Volume 1
A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith.
- Date:
- 1873
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
83/1140 (page 61)
![are also mentioned by Pliny among the “ populi sti- pendiarii ” of Sicily; and the name of the city is found both in Ptolemy and the Itineraries, but its subsequent history and the period of its destruction are unknown. Great doubt exists as to the site of Aetna. Strabo tells us (vi. p. 273) that it was wear Centvnripi, and was the place from whence travellers usually as- cended the mountain. But in another passage (ib. p. 268) he expressly says that it was only 80 stadia from Cat ana. The Itin. Ant. (p. 93) places it at 12 M. P. from Catana, and the same distance from Centuripi; its position between these two cities is further confirmed by Thucydides (vi. 96). But notwithstanding these unusually precise data, its exact situation cannot be fixed with certainty. Si- cilian antiquaries generally place it at Sf a Maria di Licodia, which agrees well with the strong position of the city, but is certainly too distant from Catana. On the other hand S. Nicolo delV Arena, a convent just above Nicolosi, which is regarded by Cluverius as the site, is too high up the mountain to have ever been on the high road from Catana to Centuripi. ilannert, however, speaks of ruins at a place called Castro, about 2^ miles N. E. from Paternb, on a hill projecting from the foot of the mountain, which he regards as the site of Aetna, and which would cer- tainly agree well with the requisite conditions. He does not cite his authority, and the spot is not de- seribed by any recent traveller. (Cluver. Sicil. p. 123; Amic. Lex. Topogr. Sic. vol. iii. p. 50; Mannert, Ital. vol. ii. p. 293.) There exist coins of Aetna in considerable numbers, but principally of copper; they bear the name of the people at full, AITNAIHN. Those of silver, which are very rare, are similar to some of Catana, but bear only the abbreviated legend AITN, [E. H. B.] com OF AETNA. • AETNA (A^tvtj), a celebrated volcanic mountain of Sicily, situated in the NE. part of the island, adjoining the sea-coast between Tauromenium and Catana. It is now called by the peasantry of Sicily Mongibello, a name compounded of the Italian Monte, and the Arabic Jihel, a moimtain; but is still well- known by the name of Etna. It is by far the loftiest mountain in Sicily, rising to a height of 10,874 feet above the level of the sea, while its base is not less than 90 miles in circumference. Like most volcanic mountains it forms a distinct and isolated mass, having no real connection with the mountain groups to the N. of it, from which it is separated by the valley of the Acesines, or Alcantara; while its limits on the W. and S. are defined by the river Symaethus (the Simeto or Giarrettd), and on the E. by the sea. The volcanic phenomena which it presents on a far greater scale than is seen elsewhere in Europe, early attracted the attention of the ancients, and there is scarcely any object of physical geography of which we find more numerous and ample notices. It is certain from geological considerations, that the first eruptions of Aetna must have long preceded the historical era; and if any reliance could be placed on the fact recorded by Diodorus (v. 6), tliat the Sicanians were compelled to abandon their original settlements in the E. part of the island in conse- quence of the frequency and violence of these out- bursts, we should have sufiicient emdence that it was in a state of active operation at the earliest period at which Sicily was inhabited. It is difficult, however, to believe that any such tradition was really pre- served ; and it is far more probable, as related by Thu- cydides (vi. 2), that the Sicanians wei-e driven to the W. portion of the island by the invasion of the Si- celians, or Sicuh: on the other hand, the silence of Homer concerning Aetna has been frequently urged as a proof that the mountain was not then in a state of volcanic activity, and though it would be absurd to infer from thence (as has been done by some au- thors) that there had been no previous eruptions, it may fairly be assumed that these phenomena were not veiy frequent or violent in the days of the poet, othenvise some vague rumour of them must have reached him among the other marvels of “ the far west.” But the name at least of Aetna, and pro- bably its volcanic character, was known to Hesiod (Eratosth. ap. Strab. i. p. 23), and from the time of the Greek settlements in Sicily, it attracted genei-al attention. Pindar describes the phenomena of the mountain in a manner equally accurate and poetical — the streams of fire that were vomited forth fi*om its inmost recesses, and the rivers (of lava) that gave forth only smoke in the daytime, but in the darkness assumed the appearance of sheets of crimson fire rolling down into the deep sea. (^Pyth. i. 40.) Aes- chylus also alludes distinctly to the “ rivers of fire, devouring with their fierce jaws the smooth fields of the fertile Sicily.” (Prom. V. 368.) Great eruptions, accompanied with streams of lava, were not, however, frequent. We learn from Thucydides (iii. 116) that the one which he records in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian war (b. c. 425) was only the third which had taken place since the establishment of the Greeks in the island. The date of the earliest is not mentioned; the second (which is evidently the one more particularly referred to by Pindar and Aeschylus) took place, according to Thucydides, 50 years before the above date, or b. c. 475; but it is placed by the Parian Chronicle in the same year with the battle of Plataea, b. c. 479. (Harm.Par.68, ed. C. Muller.) The next after that of b.c. 425 is the one recorde^J by Diodorus in B. c. 396, as having occurred shortly be- fore that date, which had laid waste so considerable a part of the tract between Tauromenium and Catana, as to render it impossible for the Carthaginian general Mago to advance with his army along the coast. (Diod. xiv. 59; the same eruption is noticed by Orosius, ii. 18.) From this time we have no account of any great outbreak till b. c. 140, when the moun- tain seems to have suddenly assumed a condition of extraordinary activity, and we find no less than four violent eruptions recorded within 20 years, viz. in b.c. 140, 135, 126, 121; the last of which inflicted the most serious damage, not only on the territory but the city of Catana. (Oros. v. 6, 10, 13; Jul. Obseq. 82, 85, 89.) Other eruptions are also mentioned as accompanying the outbreak of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, b. c. 49, and immediately pre- ceding the death of the latter, b. c. 44 (Virg. G. i. 471; Liv. ap. Serv. ad Virg. 1. c.; Petron. de B. C. 135; Lucan, i. 545), and these successive outbursts appear to have so completely devastated the whole tract on the eastern side of the mountain, as to have rendered it uninhabitable and almost impassable from](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24872441_0001_0083.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
