Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/391

Rh Hannibal landed at the promontory of Lilybaeum, that general laid up his fleet for security in the gulf around Motya, while he advanced with his land forces along the coast to attack Selinus. (Diod. xiii. 54, 61.) After the fall of the latter city, we are told that Hermocrates, the Syracusan exile, who had established himself on its ruins with a numerous band of followers, laid waste the territories of Motya and Panormus (Id. xiii. 63); and again during the second expedition of the Carthaginians under Ha- milcar ( 407), these two cities became the per- manent station of the Carthagiuian fleet. (Id. xiii. 88.)

It was the important position to which Motya had thus attained that led Dionysius of Syracuse to direct his principal efforts to its reduction, when in 397 he in his turn invaded the Carthaginian territory in Sicily. The citizens on the other hand, relying on succour from Carthage, made preparations for a vigorous resistance; and by cutting off the causeway which united them to the mainland, com- pelled Dionysius to have recourse to the tedious and laborious process of constructing a mound or mole of earth across the intervening space. Even when this was accomplished, and the military engines of Dionysius (among which the formidable catapult on this occasion made its appearance for the first time) were brought up to the walls, the Motyans continued a desperate resistance; and after the walls and towers were carried by the overwhelming forces of the enemy, still maintained the defence from street to street and from house to house. This obstinate struggle only increased the previous exasperation of the Sicilian Greeks against the Carthaginians; and when at length the troops of Dionysius made themselves masters of the city, they put the whole surviving population, men, women, and children, to the sword. (Diod. xiv. 47-53.) After this the Syracusau despot placed it in charge of a garrison under an officer named Biton; while his brother Leptines made it the station of his fleet. But the next spring ( 396) Himilcon, the Carthaginian general, having landed at Panormus with a very large force, recovered possession of Motya with comparatively little difficulty. (Id. ib. 55.) That city, however, was not destined to recover its former importance; for Himilcon, being apparently struck with the superior advantages of Lilybaeum, founded a new city on the promontory of that name, to which he transferred the few remaining inhabitants of Motya. (Diod. xxii. 10. p. 498.) From this period the latter altogether disappears from history; and the little islet on which it was built, has probably ever since been inhabited only by a few fishermen. The site of Motya, on which earlier geographers were in much doubt, has beeu clearly identified and described by Captain Smyth. Between the promontory of Lilybaeum (Capo Boéo) and that of Aegithallus (S. Teodoro), the coast forms a deep bight, in front of which lies a long group of low rocky islets, called the Stagnone. Within these, and considerably nearer to the mainland, lies the small island called S. Pantaleo, on which the re- mains of an ancient city may still be distinctly traced. Fragments of the walls, with those of two gateways, still exist, and coins as well as pieces of ancient brick and pottery-the never failing indications of an ancient site are found scattered throughout the island. The circuit of the latter does not exceed a mile and a half, and it is inhabited only by a few fishermen ; but is not devoid of fertility. (Smyth's Sicily, pp. 235, 236.) The confined space on which the city was built agrees with the description of Diodorus that the houses were lofty and of solid construction, with narrow streets between them, which facilitated the desperate defence of the inhabitants. (Diod. xiv. 48, 51.)

It is a singular fact that, though we have no account of Motya having received any Greek po- pulation, or fallen into the hands of the Greeks before its conquest by Dionysius, there exist coins of the city with the Greek legend. They are, however, of great rarity, and are ap- parently imitated from those of the neighbouring city of Segesta. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 225.) [E. H. B.]

MOTYCA, or MUTYCA (, Ptol.: Eth. Mutycensis, Cic. et Plin.: Modica), an inland town in the SE. of Sicily, between Syracuse and Camarina. It was probably from an early period a dependency of Syracuse; and hence we meet with no mention of its name until after the Roman conquest of Sicily, when it became an independent municipium, and apparently a place of some consequence. Cicero tells us that previous to the exactions of Verres, its territory (the "ager Mutycensis") supported 187 farmers, whence it would appear to have been at once extensive and fertile. (Cic. Verr. iii. 43, 51.) Motyca is also mentioned among the inland towns of the island both by Pliny and Ptolemy; and though its name is not found in the Itineraries, it is again mentioned by the Geographer of Ravenna. (Plin. iii. 8. § 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 14; Geogr. Rav. v. 23.) Silius Italicus also includes it in his list of Sicilian cities, and immediately associates it with Netum, with which it was clearly in the same neighbourhood. (Sil. Ital. xiv. 268.) There can be no doubt that it is represented by the modern city of Modica, one of the largest and most populous places in the Val di Noto. It is situated in a deep valley, surrounded by bare limestone mountains, about 10 miles from the sea.

Ptolemy notices also a river to which he gives the name of Motychanus, which he places on the S. coast, and must evidently derive its name from the city. It is either the trifling stream now known as the Fiume di Scicli, which rises very near Modica; or perhaps the more considerable one, now known as Fiume di Ragusa, which flows within a few miles of the same city. [E. H. B.]

MO'TYUM, a small town or fortress of Sicily, in the territory of Agrigentum. It was besieged in B. c. 451 by the Siculian chief Ducetius, and fell into his hands after a battle in which he defeated the Agrigentines and their allies; but was recovered by the Agrigentines in the course of the following summer. (Diod. xi. 91.) No other mention of it is found, and its site is wholly unknown. [E. H. B.]

MOXOE'NE, one of the five provinces beyond the Tigris, ceded by Narses to Galerius and the Romans, and which Sapor afterwards recovered Rh