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ADRANON (Ancient city) SICILY
Adranum or Hadranum (Adranon, Diod. Steph. B. Haitranum, Sil. Ital.:
Eth. Adranites, Hadranitanus: Aderno), a city of the interior of Sicily, situated
at the foot of the western slope of Mt. Aetna above the valley of the Simeto,
and about 7 miles from Centuripi. We learn from Diodorus (xiv. 37) that there
existed here from very ancient times a temple of a local deity named Adranus,
whose worship was extensively spread through Sicily, and appears to have been
connected with that of the Palici. (Hesych. s. v. Palikoi.) But there was no city
of the name until the year 400 B.C. when it was founded by the elder Dionysius,
with a view to extend his power and influence in the interior of the island. (Diod.
l. c.) It probably continued to be a dependency of Syracuse; but in 345 B.C. it
fell into the hands of Timoleon. (Id. xvi. 68; Plut. Timol. 12.) It was one of
the cities taken by the Romans at the commencement of the First Punic War (Diod.
xxiii. Exc. Hoesch. p. 501), and probably on this account continued afterwards
in a relation to Rome inferior to that of most other Sicilian cities. This may
perhaps account for the circumstance that its name is not once mentioned by Cicero
(see Zumpt ad Cic. Verr. iii. 6, p. 437); but we learn from Pliny that it was
in his time included in the class of the stipendiariae civitates of Sicily. (H.
N. iii. 8.)
Both Diodorus and Plutarch speak of it as a small town owing its importance
chiefly to the sanctity of its temple; but existing remains prove that it must
have been at one time a place of some consideration. These consist of portions
of the ancient walls and towers, built in a massive style of large squared blocks
of lava; of massive substructions, supposed to have been those of the temple of
Adranus; and the ruins of a large building which appears to have belonged to Roman
Thermae. Numerous sepulchres also have been discovered and excavated in the immediate
neighbourhood. The modem town of Aderno retains the ancient site as well as name:
it is a considerable place, with above 6000 inhabitants. (Biscari, Viaggio in
Sicilia, pp. 57-60; Ortolani, Diz. Geogr. della Sicilia, p. 13; Bull. dell. Inst.
Arch. 1843, p. 129.)
Stephanus Byzantinus speaks of the city as situated on a river of
the same name: this was evidently no other than the northern branch of the Simeto
(Symaethus) which is still often called the Finme d'Aderno.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
(Hadranon). A town of Sicily, near Mount Aetna, having in its vicinity a river of the name of Hadranus. It was founded by Dionysius.
A city on the SW slopes of Mt. Aetna near the Simeto river, ca. 28
km NW of Catania. It was founded by Dionysios of Syracuse ca. 400 B.C., near the
sanctuary of the ancient Sikel deity Adranos, who was connected with volcanic
phenomena and was therefore traditionally assimilated to the Greek Hephaistos
(Plut. Vit. Tim. 12; Ael. NA 2.3). The city was conquered by Timoleon in 343-342
B.C. and fell under Rome in 263 B.C. Pliny includes it in his list of stipendiary
cities.
The site was explored at the beginning of this century, but the first
excavation was carried out in 1959. The perimeter of the wall circuit is known
for long stretches. It delimits the urban area on the E and W sides. On the S
side, along the Simeto, defense was provided by a steep ravine; the N side has
almost entirely disappeared under modern buildings. The walls were built of isodomic
blocks of lava stone and are particularly well preserved on the E side (Cartalemi
district); at the NE end a rectangular tower has been incorporated into the Church
of San Francesco.
Excavation has brought to light some houses of the 4th c. containing
Italiote pottery and an interesting hoard of contemporary coins. No other monument
of the city is as yet known, not even the site of the Sanctuary of Adranos. The
city minted coins during the time of Timoleon (among the types appears Adranos
as river deity). Two excavation campaigns have investigated the wall circuit as
well as part of the archaic necropolis which stretches SE of the city (Sciare
Manganelli). The graves are of a type unusual in Sicily: small and crude circular
structures in lava stone which vaguely recall the Mycenean tholoi.
The finds, among which are archaic small bronzes of considerable interest,
are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum located within the Norman Castle of
Adrano.
P. Pelagatti, 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 bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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