Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "MILAZZO Town SICILY" .
Mylae (Mulai: Eth. Mulaites, Steph. B.; Mulaios, Diod.: Milazzo),
a city on the N. coast of Sicily, about 30 miles from Cape Pelorus, and 20 from
Tyndaris, though Strabo calls it 25 miles from each of these points. (Strab. vi.
p. 266.) It was situated on the narrow neck or isthmus of a projecting peninsular
headland, about 5 miles in length, the furthest point of which is only about 15
miles from the island of Hiera or Vulcano, the nearest to Sicily of the Lipari
islands. Mylae was undoubtedly a Greek colony founded by the Zanclaeans, and appears
to have long continued subject to, or dependent on its parent city of Zancle.
(Strab. vi. p. 272, Scym. Ch. 288.) Hence Thucydides speaks of Himera as in his
time the only Greek city on the N. coast of the island, omitting Mylae, because
it was not an independent city or state. (Thuc. vi. 62.) The period of its foundation
is wholly uncertain. Siefert would identify it with the city called Chersonesus
by Eusebius, the foundation of which that author assigns to a period as early
as B.C. 716, but the identification is very questionable. (Euseb. Chron. ad Ol.
161; Siefert, Zankle-Messana, p. 4.) It is certain, however, that it was founded
before Himera, B.C. 648, as, according to Strabo, the Zanclaeans at Mylae took
part in the colonisation of the latter city. (Strab. vi. p. 272.) Mylae itself
does not appear to have ever risen to any great importance; and after the revolution
which changed the name of Zancle to that of Messana, still continued in the same
dependent relation to it as before. It was, however, a strong fortress, with a
good port; and these advantages which it derived from its natural situation, rendered
it a place of importance to the Messanisans as securing their communications with
the N. coast of the island. Scylax speaks of it as a Greek city and port (Scyl.
p. 4. § 13), and its castle or fortress is mentioned by several ancient writers.
The earliest historical notice of the city is found in B.C. 427, when the Athenian
fleet under Laches which was stationed at Rhegium, made an attack upon Mylae.
The place was defended by the Messanians with a strong garrison, but was compelled
to surrender to the Athenians and their allies, who thereupon marched against
Messana itself. (Thuc. iii. 90; Diod. xii. 54.) After the destruction of Messana
by the Carthaginian general Himilcon, Mylae appears to have for a time shaken
off its dependence; and in B.C. 394, the Rhegians, becoming alarmed at the restoration
of Messana by Dionysius, which they regarded as directed against themselves, proceeded
to establish at Mylae the exiles from Naxos and Catana, with a view to create
a countercheck to the rising power of Messana. The scheme, however, failed of
effect; the Rhegians were defeated and the Messanians recovered possession of
Mylae. (Diod. xiv. 87.) That city is again noticed during the war of Timoleon
in Sicily; and in B.C. 315 it was wrested by Agathocles, from the Messanians.
though he was soon after compelled to restore it to them. (Id. xix. 65; Plut.
Timol. 37.) It was in the immediate neighbourhood of Mylae also (en toi Mulaioi
pedioi) that the forces of the Mamertines were defeated in a great battle, by
Hieron of Syraouse, B.C. 270 (Pol. i. 9; Diod. xxii. 13); though the river Longanus,
on the banks of which the action was fought, cannot be identified with certainty.
It is probable that, even after the Roman conquest of Sicily, Mylae
continued to be a dependency of Messana, as long as that city enjoyed its privileged
condition as a foederata civitas: hence no mention is found of its name in the
Verrine orations of Cicero; but in the time of Pliny it had acquired the ordinary
municipal privileges of the Sicilian towns. (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4.
§ 2.) It never, however, seems to have been a place of importance, and was at
this period wholly eclipsed by the neighbouring colony of Tyndaris. But the strength
of its position as a fortress caused it in the middle ages to be an object of
attention to the Norman kings of Sicily, as well as to the emperor Frederic II.;
and though now much neglected, it is still a military position of importtance.
The modern city of Milazzo is a tolerably flourishing place, with about 8000 inhabitants;
it is built for the most part on a low sandy neck of land, connecting the peninsula,
which is bold and rocky, with the mainland. But the old town, which probably occupied
the same site with the ancient city, stood on a rocky hill, forming the first
rise of the rocky ridge that constitutes the peninsula or headland of Capo di
Milazzo. The modern castle on a hill of greater elevation, commanding both the
upper and lower town, is probably the site of the ancient Acropolis. (Thuc. iii.
90; Smyth's Sicily, pp. 103, 104; Hoare's Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 215.)
The promontory of Mylae, stretching out abruptly into the sea, forms
the western boundary of a bay of considerable extent, affording excellent anchorage.
This bay was memorable in ancient history as the scene of two great naval actions.
The first of these was the victory obtained by the Roman fleet under C. Duillius,
over that of the Carthaginians in the First Punic War, B.C. 260, in which the
Roman consul, by means of the engines called Corvi (then used for the first time),
totally defeated the enemy's fleet, and took fifty of their ships. (Pol. i. 23.)
More than two centuries later, it was in the same bay that Agrippa, who commanded
the fleet of Octavian, defeated that of Sextus Pompeius, B.C. 36. Agrippa advanced
from the island of Hiera, where his fleet had been before stationed, while the
ships of Pompey lined the shores of the bay of Mylae. After their defeat they
took refuge at the mouths of the numerous small rivers, or rather mountain torrents,
which here descend into the sea. After this battle, Agrippa made himself master
of Mylae as well as Tyndaris; and some time afterwards again defeated the fleet
of Pompeius in a second and more decisive action, between Mylae and a place called
Naulochus. The latter name is otherwise unknown, but it seems to have been situated
somewhere in the neighbourhood of Cape Rasoculmo, the Phalacrian promontory of
Ptolemy. (Appian, B.C. v. 195-109, 115-122; Dion Cass. xlix. 2-11; Vell. Pat.
ii. 79; Suet. Aug. 16.)
In the account of this campaign Appian speaks of a small town named
Artemisium, which is noticed also by Dion Cassius, and must have been situated
a little to the E. of Mylae, but is not mentioned by any of the geographers. (Appian,
B.C. v. 116; Dion Cass. xlix. 8.) It is, however, obviously the same place alluded
to by Silius Italicus as the sedes Facelina Dianae (Sil. Ital. xiv. 260), and
called by Lucilius, in a fragment of his satires, Facelitis templa Dianae. (Lucil.
Sat. iii. 13.) Vibius Sequester also mentions a river which he calls Phacelinus,
and describes as juxta Peloridem, confinis temple Dianae. (Vib. Seq. p. 16.) It
is, however, obvious, from Appian, that the temple was not situated in the neighbourhood
of Pelorus, but at a short distance from Mylae, though the precise site cannot
be determined. It was designated by popular tradition as the spot where the sacred
cattle of the Sun had been kept, and were slaughtered by the companions of Ulysses.
(Appian, l. c.; Plin. ii. 98. s. 101.) The Mons Thorax, mentioned by Diodorus
in his account of the battle of the Longanus (Diod. xxii. 13), must have been
one of the underfalls of the Neptunian Mountains, which throughout this part of
Sicily descend close to the sea-shore; but the particular mountain meant is wholly
uncertain.
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
(Mulai). A town on the eastern part of the north coast of Sicily, founded by Zancle (Messana), and situated on a promontory running out into the sea. It was off Mylae that C. Duilius won his victory over the Carthaginians in B.C. 260, and that Agrippa defeated the fleet of Sex. Pompeius (B.C. 36).
A small city in the province of Messina at the isthmus of a narrow peninsula that extends ca. 6 km toward the Aeolian islands. It was a sub-colony of Zankle founded in 717-716 B.C., and it probably never enjoyed political autonomy since its destiny depended on that of Zankle-Messene, of which it was considered a stronghold. In 426 B.C. the Athenian Laches (Diod. 12:54), and again in 315 B.C. Agathokles (Diod. 19:65), before attacking Messene, occupied Mylai. In 260 B.C. Caius Duilius obtained in its waters the first Roman naval victory against the Phoenicians; again near Mylai, in 36 B.C., Octavian defeated Sextus Pompey. Excavations have revealed a continuous series of cemeteries: from the Middle Bronze Necropolis (15th-13th c. B.C.) in the Sottocastello district to that of the Iron Age (llth-9th c. B.C.) in Piazza Romana, which is a true urnfield of Villanovan type, to the Hellenistic cemetery in the S. Giovanni district. No traces remain of the habitation center, which must surely have occupied the acropolis on which later rose the mediaeval castle. A Roman mosaic is preserved in the St. Francis' Monastery. A rare type of Byzantine grave in the shape of an aedicula can be seen at the entrance to the highway called the Strada Panoramica. Finds and reconstructions of the cemeteries are at the Museum in Lipari.
G. Scibona, 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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