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MORGANTINA (Ancient city) SICILY
Morgantia, Murgantia, or Morgantium (Morgantion, Strab.; Morgantine,
Diod.: Eth. Morgantinos. The name is variously written by Latin writers Murgantia,
Murgentia, and Morgentia; the inhabitants are called by Cicero and Pliny, Murgentini),
a city of Sicily, in the interior of the island, to the SW. of Catana. It was
a city of the Siculi, though Strabo assigns its foundation to the Morgetes, whom
he supposes to have crossed over from the southern part of Italy. (Strab. vi.
pp. 257, 270.) But this was probably a mere inference from the resemblance of
name; Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.), who is evidently alluding to the same tradition,
calls Morgentium, or Morgentia (as he writes the name), a city of Italy, but no
such place is known. Strabo is the only author who notices the existence of the
Morgetes in Sicily; and it is certain that when Morgantium first appears in history
it is as a Siculian town. It is first mentioned by Diodorus in B.C. 459, when
he calls it a considerable city (polin axiologon, Diod. xi. 78): it was at this
time taken by Ducetius, who is said to have added greatly to his power and fame
by the conquest; but after the fall of that leader, it became again independent.
We next hear of it in B.C. 424, when, according to Thucydides, it was stipulated,
at the peace concluded by Hermocrates, that Morgantia (or Morgantina, as he writes
the name) should belong to the Camarinaeans, they paying for it a fixed sum to
the Syracusans. (Thuc. iv. 65.) It is impossible to understand this arrangement
between two cities at such a distance from one another, and there is probably
some mistake in the names.1 It is certain that in B.C. 396, Morgantia
again appears as an independent city of the Siculi, and was one of those which
fell under the arms of Dionysius of Syracuse, at the same time with Agyrium, Menaenum,
and other places. (Diod. xiv. 78.) At a later period it afforded a refuge to Agathocles,
when driven into exile from Syracuse, and it was in great part by the assistance
of a body of mercenary troops from Morgantia and other towns of the interior,
that that tyrant succeeded in establishing his despotic power at Syracuse, B.C.
317. (Justin. xxii. 2; Diod. xix. 6.) Morgantia is repeatedly mentioned during
the Second Punic War. During the siege of Syracuse by Marcellus it was occupied
by a Roman garrison, and great magazines of corn collected there; but the place
was betrayed by the inhabitants to the Carthaginian general Himilco, and was for
some time occupied by the Syracusan leader Hippocrates, who from thence watched
the proceedings of the siege. (Liv. xxiv. 36, 39.) It was ultimately recovered
by the Roman general, but revolted again after the departure of Marcellus from
Sicily, B.C. 211; and being retaken by the praetor M. Cornelius, both the town
and its territory were assigned to a body of Spanish mercenaries, who had deserted
to the Romans under Mericus. (Id. xxvi. 21.)
Morgantia appears to have still continued to be a considerable town
under the Roman dominion. In the great Servile insurrection of B.C. 102 it was
besieged by the leaders of the insurgents, Tryphon and Athenion; but being a strong
place and well fortified, offered a vigorous resistance; and it is not clear whether
it ultimately fell into their hands or not. (Diod. xxxvi. 4, 7. Exc. Phot. pp.
533, 534.) Cicero repeatedly mentions its territory as one fertile in corn and
well cultivated, though it suffered severely from the exactions of Verres. (Cic.
Verr. iii. 18. 43) It was therefore in his time still a municipal town, and we
find it again mentioned as such by Pliny (iii. 8. s. 14); so that it must be an
error on the part of Strabo, that he speaks of Morgantium as a city that no longer
existed. (Strab. vi. p. 270.) It may, however, very probably have been in a state
of great decay, as the notice of Pliny is the only subsequent mention of its name,
and from this time all trace of it is lost. The position of Morgantia is a subject
of great uncertainty, and it is impossible to reconcile the conflicting statements
of ancient writers. Most authorities, however, concur in associating it with the
Siculian towns of the interior, that border on the valleys of the Symaethus and
its tributaries, Menaenum, Agyrium, Assorus, &c. (Diod. xi. 78, xiv. 78; Cic.
Verr. l. c.; Sil. Ital. xiv. 265); and a more precise testimony to the same effect
is found in the statement that the Carthaginian general Mago encamped in the territory
of Agyrium, by the river Chrysas, on the road leading to Morgantia. (Diod. xiv.
95.) The account of its siege during the Servile War also indicates it as a place
of. natural strength, built on a lofty hill. (Diod. xxxvi. l. c.) Hence it is
very strange that Livy in one passage speaks of the Roman fleet as lying at Morgantia,
as if it were a place on the sea-coast ; a statement wholly at variance with all
other accounts of its position, and in which there must probably be some mistake.
(Liv. xxiv. 27.) On the whole we may safely place Morgantia somewhere on the borders
of the fertile tract of plain that extends from Catania inland along the Simeto
and its tributaries; and probably on the hills between the Dittaino and the Gurna
Longa, two of the principal of those tributaries; but any attempt at a nearer
determination must be purely conjectural. There exist coins of Morgantia, which
have the name of the city at full, MOPPHANTINON this is unfortunately effaced
on the one figured in the preceding column.
1 It has been suggested that we should read Katanaiois for Kamarinaiois:
but the error is more probably in the other and less-known name. Perhaps we should
read Motukanen for Morgantinen lia the district of Motyca immediately adjoined
that of Camarina.
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
(Morgantion), Morgantina (Morgantine), Murgantia, Morgentia. A town in Sicily, southeast of Agyrium, and near the Symaethus, founded by the Morgetes, after they had been driven out of Italy by the Oenotrians.
Five km E of the commune of Aidone on a ridge known locally as Serra
Orlando. The city commanded a strategic position controlling the ancient roads
that led from Gela on the S to Messina on the NE and up from Katane on the E.
The original Sikel settlement dates from the third millennium B.C. The name of
the city reflects an influx of the Morgetes from south central Italy ca. 1200
B.C. (Strab. 6.2.4). Greek settlers from the E coast, and later from the S, merged
apparently without conflict with the local inhabitants until Morgantina became
essentially a Greek outpost at the edge of the hinterland to the W. In 459 B.C.
Ducetius, king of the Sikels, sacked the town in his campaign to wrest Sicily
from Greek domination (Diod. Sic. 11.78.5), and in 425 Morgantina was assigned
to the city of Kamarina (Thuc. 4.65.1). In 397 Dionysios of Syracuse brought the
city back into the sphere of Syracusan interests (Diod. Sic. 14.78.7). Agathokles
began an extensive renewal and building program, which continued under Hieron
II of Syracuse, and from the middle of the 3d c. Morgantina prospered as the center
of an extensive grain-producing area. It was also the center of a considerable
production of terracottas. Coincident with Marcellus' capture of Syracuse in 211
B.C. the city was sacked and all but destroyed. A senate decree granted the Hispanic
allies of Marcellus the right to issue their own coinage, but this seems not to
have been exercised until after the middle of the 2d c. Little new building exists
from that period, save for a large macellum in the center of the original agora.
Repairs to the houses converted many rich dwellings into middle class houses--centers
for small industry or makeshift apartments. Cicero (Verr. 2.3.23 §56) speaks of
the injuries to a worthy citizen of the place. Strabo (6.2.4), writing ca. 25
B.C., says that what once was a city is no more. The excavations, begun in 1955
and still continuing, have confirmed this, and the scarcity of coins found of
Julius Caesar and of Augustus are evidence for the extinction of Morgantina. Apparently
there was no final sack; the abandonment is due, rather, to the failure of the
grain market and the general impoverishment of the area.
The walled area of the town measures from E to W 2.4 km by 580 m to
as little as 140 m. Approach from N and S is very steep, but gates on those sides
gave access to the central market area. A W gate gave access to a street that
ran the length of the town. To the E on an isolated hill (Cittadella), whose walls
do not join with those of the rest of the city lay the earlier settlement, almost
an acropolis. A long narrow shrine (dedication unknown) and a substantial series
of foundations for four adjacent square rooms were perhaps the principal monuments,
and in the same area was a small hieron of Persephone and Kore.
The civic center lies not far from the mid-point of the ridge, in
a hollow between two low hills. It was flanked to E and W by stoas (the W one
never completed) and on the N lay a gymnasium with bath and running track, and
a council house. The agora was on two levels, separated by a monumental series
of steps forming a little less than half of a hexagon. On the lower level a course
of stone outlines what must have been a speaker's platform. The steps served both
as a retaining wall to prevent the erosion of the upper area and to accommodate
a standing audience for large popular assemblies. The original plan for a fourth
side of this comitium was curtailed by the presence of the area, described below,
sacred to the underworld gods. South of the W stoa is the theater, seating 2-3000.
On the E side of the agora, continuing the stoa to the southward, is a prytaneion
and a long, narrow building (92.85 x 7.60 m) designed as a granary and conveniently
located near the S gate. A large kiln for brick and tile completes the E side.
Within the agora before it had taken its final form stood a small naiskos, with
an altar, and two or three other small altars. One of these was preserved into
later times and incorporated in a rectangular macellum with shops, dating from
the 2d c. The most important sanctuary, however, was one dedicated to the gods
of the underworld: a circular altar, an abaton for the dedication of offerings,
small vases and lamps, and a small naiskos, together rooms where worshipers might
shelter. Several lead curse tablets were found here, and the sanctuary seems to
have survived well into the 1st c. B.C.
East and W of the agora the town was laid out in a grid pattern, with
blocks averaging 37.5 m by 60.0 m. Several rich houses have been excavated, with
fine cocciopesto or mosaic floors, especially two in the House of Ganymede high
above the granary E of the agora. The mosaic of Ganymede and the Eagle, which
gives the house its name, dates from the middle of the 3d c. B.C. and is one of
the earliest examples of tesselated mosaic known. The House of the Official, in
a shallow valley 250 m W of the agora, shows the Vitruvian division of a Greek
house into separate areas for men and women, with two separate peristyles. The
House of the Arched Cistern on the hill immediately W of the market is also of
the same type.
No temples properly so called have been found. Instead there are at
least four shrines of Demeter and Kore, characterized by an inner room, or adyton,
furnished with a place for ablution. The abundant remains of terracotta figurines
leave no doubt to whom the holy places were dedicated. All these sanctuaries were
violently destroyed in the sack of 211 B.C. and never rebuilt. About 400 m W of
the House of the Official are the remains of a bath of the 3d c. B.C., with circular
rooms covered by domical vaults made of hollow terracotta tubes. The extreme E
end of the ridge, before reaching the depression separating it from Cittadella,
was occupied by a large structure, either a barracks or a series of apartments
of poorer sort. Nearby lay an early shrine, long and simple, of the 6th-5th c.
Little is to be seen of the walls of the city, but they have been traced for nearly
the entire perimeter. As is to be expected they show much rebuilding of different
dates.
Three cemeteries lie just outside the town. The earliest, of the 6th
and 5th c., is on a steep slope just below the E edge of Cittadella. The tombs
were cut into the rock in the form of chambers, with sarcophagi in the walls or
graves in their floors. A second burial area lies close against the S wall, below
the depression in which was the House of the Official. These are of the Epitymbion
type, and the vases date from ca. 330 to 210 B.C. A later cemetery with rock-cut
shafts, covered by stone slabs and dating mainly from the 2d c., lies ca. 100
m W of the city, along the road leading to the W gate.
R. Stillwell, 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 2 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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