Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/969

 SEGESTA. arms against Syracuse, and the contest between Segesta auJ Selinus was almost forgotten in the more important struggle between those two great powers. In the summer of b. c. 415 an Athenian fleet, proceeding along the coast, took the small town of Hyceara, on the coast, near Segesta, and made it over to the Segestans. (Thuc. vi. 62; Diod. siii. 6.) The latter people are again mentioned on more than one occasion as sending auxiliary troops to assist their Athenian allies (Thuc. vii. 57; Diod. xiii. 7); but no other notice occurs of them. The final defeat of the Athenians left the Segestans again ex- posed to the attacks of their neighbours the Seli- nuntines; and feeling themselves unable to cope with them, they again had recourse to the Cartha- ginians, who determined to espouse their cause, and sent them, in the first instance, an auxiliary force of 5000 Africans and 800 Campanian mercenaries, which sufficed to ensure them the victory over their rivals, B.C. 410. (Diod. xiii. 43, 44.) But this was followed the next year by a vast armament under Hannibal, who landed at Lilybaeum, and, proceeding direct to Sehnus, took and destroyed tlie city. (lb. 54 — 58.) This was followed by the destruction of Himera; and the Carthaginian power now became firmly established in the western por- tion of Sicily. Segesta, surrounded on all sides by this formidable neighbour, naturally fell gradually into the position of a dependent ally of Carthage. It was one of the few cities that remained faithful to this alliance even in B.C. 397, when the great expedition of Dionysius to the W. of Sicily and the siege of Motya seemed altogether to shake the power of Carthage. Dionysius in consequence laid siege to Segesta, and pressed it with the utmost vigour, especially after the fall of Motya; but the city was able to defy his eflbrts, until the landing of Hi- milco N-ith a fjrmidable Carthaginian force changed the aspect of aflairs, and compelled Dionysius to raise the siege. (Id. xiv. 48, 53 — 55.) From this time we hear little more of Segesta till the time of Agathocles, under whom it suffered a great calamity. The despot having landed in the W. of Sicily on his return from Africa (b. c. 307), and being received into the city as a friend and ally, suddenly turned upon the inhabitants on a pretence of disaffection, and put the whole of the citizens (said to amount to 10,000 in number) to the sword, plundered their wealth, and sold the women and children into slavery. He then changed the name of the city to Dicaeopolis, and assigned it as a residence to the fugitives and deserters that had gathered around him. (Diod. xx. 71.) It is probable that Segesta neveraltogether recovered this blow; but it soon resumed its original name, and again appears in history as an independent city. Thus it is mentioned in b. C. 276, as one of the cities which joined Pyrrhus during his expedition into the W. of Sicily. (Diod. xxii. 10. £xc. II. p. 498.) It, however, soon after fell again under the power of the Carthaginians ; and it was probably on this occasion that the city was taken and plundered by them, as alluded to by Cicero ( Verr. iv. 33) ; a circumstance of which we have no other account. It continued subject to, or at least dependent on that people, till the First Punic War. In the first year of that war (b.c. 264) it was attacked by the consul Appius Claudius, but without success (Diod. xxiii. 3. p. 501 ); but shortly after the inhabitants put the Carthaginian garrison to the sword, and declared for the alliance of Kome. (/6. 5. p. 502 ; Zonar. viii. 9.) They were in con- SEGESTA. 949 sequence besieged by a Carthaginian force, and were at one time reduced to great straits, but were relieved by the arrival of DuiUus, after his naval victory, b. c. 260. (Pol. i. 24.) Segesta seems to have been one of the first of the Sicilian cities to set the exam- ple of defection from Carthage ; on which account, as well as of their pretended Trojan descent, the in- habitants were treated with great distinction by tlta Romans. They were exempted from all public bur- dens, and even as late as the time of Cicero continued to be " sine foedere immunes ac liberi." (Cic. Vei-r. iii. 6, iv. 33.) After the destruction of Carthage, Scipio Africanus restored to the Segestans a statue of Diana which had been carried off by the Cartha- ginians, probably when they obtained possession of the city after the departure of Pyrrhus. (Cic. Verr. iv. 33.) During the Servile War also, in b. c. 102, the territory of Segesta is again mentioned as one of those where the insurrection broke out with the greatest fury. (Diod. xsxvi. 5, Exc. Phot.j). 534.) But with the exception of these incidental notices we hear little of it under the Roman government. It seems to have been still a considerable town in the time of Cicero, and had a port or emporium of its own on the bay about 6 miles distant (rb tSiv Alyecr- Tfiov i/j.irSpwi', Strab. vi. pp. 266, 272 ; '^iyiffrai'cov ifx-Kopiou, Ptol. iii. 4. § 4). This emporium seems to have grown up in the days of Strabo to be a more important place than Segesta itself: but the con- tinued existence of the ancient city is attested both by Pliny and Ptolemy ; and we learn from the former that the inhabitants, though they no longer retained their position of nominal independence, enjoyed the privileges of the Latin citizenship. (Strab. I. c; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptoh iii. 4. § 15.) It seems, however, to have been a decaying place, and no trace of it is subsequently found in history. The site is said to have been finally abandoned, in consequence of the ravages of the Saracens, in a. d. 900 (Amico, ad Fasell. Sic. vii. 4. not. 9), and is now wholly de- solate ; but the town of Castell 'a Mare, about 6 miles distant, occupies nearly, if not precisely, the same site as the ancient emporium or port of Segesla. The site of the ancient city is still marked by the ruins of a temple and theatre, the former of which is one of the most perfect and striking ruins in Sicily. It stands on a hill, about 3 miles NW. of Calatajimi, in a very barren and open situation. It is of the Doric order, with six columns in front and fourteen on each side (all, except one, quite perfect, and that only damaged), forming a parallelogram of 162 feet by 66. From the columns not being fluted, they have rather a heavy aspect ; but if due allowance be made for this circumstance, the architecture is on the whole a light order of Doric ; and it is probable, therefore, that the temple is not of very early date. From the absence of fluting, as well as other details of the architecture, there can be no doubt that it never was finished, — the work probably being inter- rupted by some political catastrophe. This temple appears to have stood, as was often the case, outside the walls of the city, at a short distance to the W. of it. The latter occupied the sunmiit of a hill of small extent, at the foot of which flows, in a deep valley or ravine, the torrent now called the Fiume Ga(j(/era, a confluent of the Fiume di S. Bartolomeo, which flows about 5 miles E. of Segesta. The latter is probably the ancient Crimisus [CiUMisus], cele- brated for the great victory of Timoleon over the Carthaginians, while the Gayjera must probably bo tiie stream called by Diodorus (xx 7 1 ) thcSiaiuandev 3 I' 3