Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/977

 SELINUS. Sclinnntines by ceding without further contest tlie frontier district which had been the original sub- ject of dispute. But the Sehnuntines were not satisfied with this concession, and continued to press them with fresh aggressions, for protection against which they sought assistance from Carthage. Tliis was, after some hesitation, accorded them, and a ^^lalI force sent over at once, with the assistance of which the Segestans were able to defeat the Sehnun- tines in a battle. (Diod. xiii. 43, 44.) But not content with this, the Carthaginians in the following spring (b. c. 409) sent over a vast army amounting, according to the lowest estimate, to 100,000 men, with which Hanniba! (the grandson of Hamilcar that was killed at Himera) landed at Lilybaeum, and from thence marched direct to Selinus. The Selinuntines were wholly unprepared to resist such a force; so little indeed had they expected it that the fortifications of their city were in many jilaces out of repair, and the auxiliary force which had been promised by Syracuse as well as by Agrigentum and Gela, was not yet ready, and did not arrive in time. The Selinuntines, indeed, defended themselves with the courage of despair, and even after the walls were carried, continued the contest from house to house ; but the overwhelming numbers of the enemy rendered all resistance hopeless ; and after a siege of only ten days the city was taken, and the greater part of the defenders put to the sword. Of the citizens of Selinus we are told that 16,000 were slain, 5000 made prisoners, and 2600 under the command of Empedion escaped to Agri- gentum. (Diod. xiii. 54 — 59.) Shortly after Han- nibal destroyed the walls of the city, but gave permission to the surviving inhabitants to return and occupy it, as tributai-ies of Carthage, an ar- rangement which was confirmed by the treaty sub- sequently concluded between Dionysius and the Carthaginians, in b. c. 405. (Id. xiii. 59, 1 14.) In the interval a considerable number of the survi- vors and fugitives had been brought together by Hermocrates, and established within its walls. (76. 63.) There can be no doubt that a considerable part of the citizens of Selinus availed themselves of this permission, and that the city continued to subsist under the Carthaginian dominion; but a fatal blow had been given to its prosperity, whiph it undoubtedly never recovered. The Selinuntines are again men- tioned in B. c. 397 as declaring in favour of Dio- nysius during his war with Carthage (Diod. xiv. 47); but both the city and territory were again given up to the Carthaginians by the peace of 383 (Id. XV. 17); and though Dionysius recovered possession of it by arms shortly before his death (Id. XV. 73), it is probable that it soon again lapsed under the dominion of Carthage. The Ha- lycus, which was established as the eastern boun- dary of the Carthaginian dominion in Sicily by the treaty of 383, seems to have generally continued to be so recognised, notwithstanding temporary in- terruptions; and was again fixed as their limit by the treaty with Agathocles in b. c. 314. (Id. xix. 71.) This last treaty expressly stipulated that Se- linus, as well as Heracleia and Himera, should con- tinue subject to Carthage, as before. In b. c. 276, however, during the expedition of Fyrrhus to Sicily, the Selinuntines voluntarily submitted to that monarch, after the capture of Heracleia. (Id. xxii. 10. Exc. II. p. 498.) During the First Punic War we again find Selinus subject to Carthage, and SELINUS. 957 its territory was repeatedly the theatre of military- operations between the contending powers. (Id. xxiii. 1, 21; Pol. i. 39.) But before the close of the war (about b. c. 250), when the Carthaginians were beginning to contract their operations, and confine themselves to the defence of as few points as possible, they removed all the inhabitants of Selinus to Lilybaeum and destroyed the city. (Diod. xxiv. 1. Exc. II. p. 506.) It seems certain that it was never rebuilt. Pliny indeed, mentions its name (" Selinus oppidum," iii. 8. s. 14), as if it was still existing as a town in his time, but Strabo distinctly classes it with the cities which were wholly extinct; and Ptolemy, though he mentions the river Selinus, has no notice of a town of the name. (Strab. vi. p. 272; Ptol. iii. 4. § 5.) The Thermae Selinuntiae, which de- rived their name from the ancient city, and seem to have been much frequented in the time of the Ro- mans, were situated at a considerable distance from Selinus, being undoubtedly the same as those now existing at Sciacca: they are sulphureous springs, still much valued for their medical properties, and dedicated, like most thermal waters in Sicily, to St. Cahgero. At a later period they were called the Aquae Labodes or Larodes, under which name they appear in the Itineraries, {[tin. Ant. p. 89; Tab. Pent.) They are there placed 40 miles W. of Agrigentum, and 46 from Lilybaeum ; distances which agree well with the position of Sciacca. This is distant about 20 miles to the E. of the ruins of Selinus. The site of the ancient city is now wholly deso- late, with the exception of a solitary guardhouse, and the ground is for the most part thickly overgrown with shrubs and low brushwood; but the remains of the walls can be distinctly traced throughout a great part of their circuit. They occupied the summit of a low hill, directly abutting on the sea, and bounded on the W. by the marshy valley through which flows the river Madiuni, the ancient Selinus; on the E. by a smaller valley or depression, also traversed by a small marshy stream, which separates it from a hill of similar character, where the remains of the principal temples are still visible. The space enclosed by the existing walls is of small extent, so that it is probable the city in the days of its greatness must have covered a considerable area without them: and it has been supposed by some writers that the present line of walls is that erected by Hermocrates when he restored the city after its destruction by the Carthaginians. (Diod. xiii. 63.) No trace is, however, found of a more extensive circuit, though the remains of two lines of wall, evidently connected with the port, are found in the small valley E. of the city. Within the area sur- rounded by the walls are the remains of three temples, all of the Doric order, and of an ancient style; none of them are standing, but the foinida- tions of them all remain, together with numerous portions of columns and other architectural frag- ments, sufficient to enable us to restore the plan and design of all three without difficulty. The largest of them (marked C. on the plan) is 230 feet lung by 85 feet broad, and has 6 colunms in front and 18 in length, a very unusual proportion. All these are hcxastyle and peripteral. Besides these three temples there is a small temple or Aediciila (markeil B.), of a different plan, but also of tlio Doric order. No other remains of buildings, beyond mere frag- ments and foundations, can be traced within the