Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/175

 LEONTINI. freedom and independence of Leontini. (Diod. xiii. 89, 113, 114; Xen. Hell. ii. 3. § 5.) This con- dition was not long observed by Dionysius, who no sooner found himself free from the fear of Carthage than he turned his arms against the Chalcidic cities, and, after reducing Catana and Naxos, compelled the Leontines, who were now bereft of all their allies, to surrender their city, which was for the second time deserted, and the whole people transferred to Syracuse, b. c. 403. (Id. xiv. 14, 15.) At a later period of his reign (u. c. 39f>) Dionysius found him- self compelled to appease the discontent of his mer- cenary troops, by giving up to them both the city and the fertile territory of Leontini, where they esta- blished themselves to the number of 10,000 men. (Id. xiv. 78.) From this time Leontini is repeatedly mentioned in connection with the civil troubles and revolutions at Syracuse, with which city it seems to have constantly continued in intimate relations ; but, as Strabo observes, always shared in its dis- asters, without always partaking of its prospe- rity. (Strab. vi. p. 273.) Thus, the Leontines were among the first to declare against the younger Dionysius, and open their gates to Dion (Diod. xvi. 16; Plut. Dion. 39, 40). Some years afterwards their city was occupied with a military force by Hicetas, who from thence carried on war with Ti- moleon (Jh. 78, 82) ; and it was not till after the great victory of the latter over the Carthaginians (b. c. 340) that he was able to expel Hicetas and make himself master of Leontini. (76. 82 ; Plut. Tiinol. 32.) That city was not, like almost all the others of Sicily, restored on this occasion to freedom and independence, but was once more incor- porated in the Syracusan state, and the inhabitants transferred to that city. (Diod. xvi. 82.) At a later period the Leontines again figure as an independent state, and, during the wars of Agathocles with the Carthaginians, on several occasions took part against the Syracusans. (Diod. xix. 110, xx. 32.) When Pyrrhus arrived in Sicily, b. c. 278, they were subject to a tyrant or despot of the name of Heracleides, who was one of the first to make his submission to that monarch. (Id. xxii. 8, 10, Exc. H. p. 497.) But not long after they appear to have again fallen under the yoke of Syracuse, and Leon- tini was one of the cities of which the sovereignty was secured to Hieron, king of Syracuse, by the treaty concluded with him by the Romans at the commencement of the First Punic War, b. c. 263. (Id. xxiii. Exc. H. p. 502.) This state of things continued till the Second Punic War, when Leontini again figures conspicuously in the events which led to the fall of Syracuse. It was in one of the long and naiTow streets of Leontini that Hieronymus was assassinated by Dinomenes, B.C. 215 (Liv. xxiv. 7; Polyb. vii. 6) ; and it was there that, shortly after, Hippocrates and Epicydes first raised the standard of open war against Rome. Warcellus hastened to attack the city, and made himself master of it without diiBculty ; but the severities exercised by him on this occasion inflamed the minds of the Syracu.sans to such an extent as to become the im- mediate occasion of the rupture with Rome. (Liv. xxiv. 29, 30, 39.) Under the Roman government Leontini was restored to the position of an inde- pendent municipal town, but it seems to have sunk into a state of decay. Cicero calls it " misera civitas atque inanis " ( Verr. ii. 66) ; and, though its fertile territory was still well cultivated, this was done almost wholly by farmers from other cities of Sicily, par- LEONTINL 159 ticularly from Centuripa. (/&. iii. 46, 49.) Strabo also speaks of it as in a very declining condition and though the name is still found in Pliny and Ptolemy, it seems never to have been a place of importance under the Roman rule. (Strab. vi. p. 273 ; Mel. ii. 7. § 16; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 13.) But the great strength of its position must have always preser(-ed it from entire decay, and rendered it a place of some consequence in the middle ages. The modem city of Lentini, which preserves the ancient site as well as name, is a poor place, though with about 5000 inhabitants, and sufiers severely from malaria. No ruins are 'isible on the site ; but some extensive excavations in the rocky sides of the hill on which it stands are be- lieved by the inhabitants to be the work of the Laestrygones, and gravely described as such by Fazello. (Fazell. de Reh. Sic. iii. 3.) The situation of Leontini is well described by Polybius : it stood on a broken hill, divided into two separate summits by an intervening valley or hollow; at the foot of this hill on the W. side, flowed a small stream, which he calls the Lissus, now known as the Fi'ume Ruina, which falls into the Lake of Lentini, a little below the town. (Pol. vii. 6.) The two summits just noticed, being bordered by pre- cipitous cliffs, formed, as it were, two natural citadels or fortresses; it was evidently one of these which Thucydides mentions under the name of Phoceae, which was occupied in b. c. 422 by the Leontine exiles who returned from Syracuse. (Thuc. v. 4.) Both heights seem to have been fortified by the Syracusans, who regarded Leontini as an important fortress ; and we find them alluded to as " the forts " (to (ppovpia) of Leontini. (Diod. xiv. 58, xxii. 8.) Diodorus also mentions that one quarter of Leontini was known by the name of " The New Town " (^ Ne'a noAis, xri. 72) ; but we have no means of determining its locality. It is singular that no ancient author alludes to the Lake (or as it is commonly called the Biviere) of Lentini, a sheet of water of considerable extent, but stagnant and shallow, which lies immediately to the N. of the city. It produces abundance of fish, but is con- sidered to be the principal cause of the malaria from which the city now suffers. (D'OrvOle, Sicula, p. 168 ; Smyth's Sicily, pp. 157, 158.) The extraordinary fertility of the territory of Leontini, or the Leontinus Cajupcs, is celebrated by many ancient authors. According to a tradition commonly received, it was there that wheat grew wild, and where it was first brought into cultiva- tion (Diod. iv. 24, v. 2); and it was always regarded as the most productive district in all Sicily for the growth of com. Cicero calls it " campus ille Leon- tinus nobilissimus ac feracissimus," " uberrima Siciliae pars," "caput rei frumentariae;" and says that the Romans were accustomed to consider it as in itself a sufficient resource against scarcity. (Cic. Verr. iii. 18, 44, 46, pro Scaur. 2, Phil. viii. 8.) The tract thus celebrated, which was known also by the name of the Laestrygonii Campi [Laestky- GONEs], was evidently the plain extending from the foot of the hills on which Leontini was situated to the river Symaethus, now known as the Piano di Catania. We have no explanation of the tradition which led to the fixing on this fertile tract as the abode of the fabulous Laestrygones. Leontini was noted as the birthplace of the cele- brated orator Gnrgias, who in B. c. 427 was the head of the deputation sent by his native city to