Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/244

 4 G£LA. the tinne of Ajratboclesi and when its name next occom tre find it subject to the rule of Phinttas, the despot of Agrigentuin, who, with the view of aug- menting the city that he had lately founded near the ^month of the Uimera and called after his own name [Phiktias], not only removed thither the inha- bitants of Geh^ but demolished the walls and houses of the older city. (Diod. xxii. 2. Exc. Uoesch. p. 495.) It is evident that Gela never recovered from this blow: we find, indeed, incidental mention of its being again devastAted soon afier by the Mamertines (Diod. xxui. 1. Exc H. p. 601); but in the First Punic War no notice occurs of the city, though the territory is mentioned on one occasion in connection with Phintias (Diod. xxiv. I. Exc. H. p. 508). Under the Roman rule, however, the ** Gelenses ** certainly existed as a separate commonity (Cic. Verr. iii. 43), and the statement of Cicero^ that after the capture of Carthage Scipio restored to them the statues that had been carried off from their city ( Verr, iv. S3), would seem to prove that the latter was then still in existence. Strabo, indeed, tells us that Gela was in his day uninhab:ted (vi. p. 272), and associates its name with those of Gallipolis and Naxos, as cities that had wholly disappeared ; but his expressions must not be construed too literally, and the name b Btill found both in Pliny and Ptolemy. (Plin. iii. 8. 8. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 15.) But it was probably at this period a poor and decayed pbce, and no sub- sequent trace of it is found The site of Gela has been the subject of much controversy in modem times, many local writers contending for its position at the modem Alieata, at the mouth of the river SdUo^ while Cluverius, who has been generally ftdlowed by the most recent anthorities, phu»s it at Terr€Motaj about 18 miles fnrther E., and at the mouth of the river now known as the FumM di Terranova, All arguments derived /ram the statements of ancient writers are in fiivour of the latter view, which may, indeed, be considered as cleariy established : the only evidence in fiivour of Aiioata is the fact (in genenl, certainly a strong one) that an honorary inscription with the name of the Geloans has been found there. But as the ruins Mt viidble near AUaita are in all probability those •of Phintias, a city which was peopled with the inha- bitants of Gela, it is easy to undenstand how such an inscription (which is of small dimensions) may have been transported thither. No doubt exists that TerraMova occupies an ancient site; we leant from a -writer of the 13th century, that it was founded by the Emperor Frederic II., ** super ruinis deletae atque obmtae nrbb " (Goido Columna, . cited by FaJsello) : and the remains of an ancient temple are still visible there, of which the massive basement was preserved in the days of Fazello ; and one column remained standing as Ute as the visit of D'Orville (1727), but is now fallen and half buried in the sand. Numerous coins and painted vases have been brought to light by excavations on the site. (Faxell. de Jieb, Sie. v. 2. p. 232 ; Cluver. SieiL pp. 199, 200; D'Orville, SieuU, pp. 111—132; Smyth, Siciljft p. 196 ; Biscari, Viaggio m SicUiOy p. 1 11 ; Siefert, Abraga$ «. s. GebUt^y pp. 47, 48.) The situation of Terranova^ on a slight eminence, a little more than a mile from the sea, precisely cor- responds with the account given by Diodorus of the operations of Dionysius when he attacked the Carthaginian camp, from which it is evident that, olthoo^ situated near the sea-coast, it was suffi- GELA. 985 ^7'U €k{l. ciently distant fran it to admit of the passage of one division of the army between the walls and the sea. (Diod. xiiu 109, 1 10.) No importance can be attached to the circumstance that Ptolemy reckons Gela among the inland towns of Sicily, as he includes in the same category Phintias and Camarina, both of which were situated almost close to the coast. The position of the city of Gela being ascertained, that of the river follows it. This can be no other than the one now called Fiume di TerranavOf from its flowuig by the walls of that town, which rises in the neighbourhood of Piazza, about 25 miles N. of Terranova. It still retains the character of a violent and impetuous torrent, alluded to by Ovid {Fast iv. 470); but has little water in the dry season. Ancient grammarians derive the name oif the river (from which that of the city was taken) from a Sicnlian word, y4a, signifying cold or frost, evidently connected with the Latin gdu. (Steph. B. s. v.; Suid. r 9.; EUfm, Maffn. 9,v.) An ab« surd story is, however, related by the same authori- ties, which would derive the name of the city from ytXAw, The river-god Gelas is represented on most of the coins of the city, under the usual form of a boll with a human head : on one of them he bears the title of SASinOAIS, a strong instance of that veneration for rivers which appeara to have particu- larly characterised the Greeks of Sicily. To the we&t of Gela extended a broad tract of plain, between the mountains and the sea, but sepa- rated from the last by an intervening range of hills. This 18 the TcA^or w49tor of Diodoms and the Gamfi Geloi of Virgil {Aen. iiL 701). It is still, as in ancient times, one of the most fertile corn- growing tracts in the whole of Sicily ; whence GeU is termed, by the author of an ancient epigram, rvpd^pos, *'the wheat-bearing " {Epigr, ap. Anon. ViL ^escA.)iM^cording to an earlier writer (Amphis, op. Athen. iu p. 67), it was renowned for the excel- lence of its lentils (^km^). We leam also from Pliny (xxxi. 7. s. 39, 41), that its territoty produced abundance of salt. Gela was the birth-place of ApoUodorus, a comio poet of some note, who is firequently coniounded with his more celebrated namesake of Carystus. (Suid. s. V. 'AfoXXSSupos; Athen. iii. p. 125.) It was also the place to which Aeschylus retired when driven from Athens, and where he was soon after killed by a singular accident (b. c. 456). The Geloans paid great respect to his memory, and his tomb was still visible there in after-ages. [Aeschylus, Biogr, DictS^ We leam from Pausanias that they had a treasury at Olympia, in which they dedicated valu- able ofibrings. (Pans. vi. 19. § 15.) The same author alludes to some statues, the reputed work of Daedalus, which had formerly existed at Gela, but had disappeared in the time of the historian. (Id. ix. 40. § 4.) A colossal statue of Apollo, which stood outside the town, was carried off by the Car- thaginians, in B. c. 405, and sent to Tyre, where it still remained when that city was taken by Alexander the Great (Died. xiiL 108.) It is certain that Geh^ in the days of its power and prosperity, possessed an extensive territory; though we have no means of fixing its exact limits. It was probably separated from that of Agrigentum on the W. by the river Himeia : ot its extent towards the interior we have no account ; but the name of a station given in the Itineraries as " GeUutium Phi- losophianis," seems to prove that this point (which apparently coincided with the modem town of Piano, XX//I. J ^3. -/' t '