Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/326

 UIMERA. tlon with this ttatement, that he elsewhere indudes the Himeraeana, as well as the Selinantines aod A^rigentines, among the exiled citizens that were allowed by the treaty concluded with Carthage, in B.C. 405, to return to their homes, and inhabit their own cities, on condition of paying tribute to Carthage and not restoring their fortifications. (Id. ziii. 1 14.) And it seems clear that many of them at least availed themselves of this permission, as we find the Uimeraeans subsequently mentioned among the states that declared in iavour of Dionysius, at the com- mencement of his great war with Carthage iu b. a 397 ; though thoy quickly returned to the Cartha- ginian alliance in the following year. (Id. xiv. 47, 56.) The explanation of this difficulty is furnished by Cicero, who telk us that, " after the destruction of Himera, those citizens who had survived the ca- lamity of the war established themselves at Thermae, within the confines of the same tenitoiy, and not fiur from their old town." (Cic Vtrr, ii. 35.) Diodoms indeed gives us a somewhat different ac- connt of the foundation of Thermae, which he re- presents as established by the Carthaginians them- selves before the close of the war, ins. a 407. (Diod. ziii. 79). But it is proliable iJiat both state- ments are substantially correct, and that the Car- thaginians founded the new town in the immediate nnghbooihood of Himera, in order to {ffevent the old site being again occupied ; while the Himeraean exiles, when they retuined thither, though they settled in the new town, naturally regarded them- selves as still the same people, and would continue to bear the name of Himeraeans. How completely, even at a much later period, the one ctj was re- garded as the representative of the other, appears finom the statement of Cicero, that when Scipio Afri- canos, after the capture of Carthage, restored to the Agrigentines and Gelenses the statues that had been earned off from their respective cities, he at the same time restored to the citizens of Thertna those that had been taken from Himera. (Cic. Verr. u. 35, iv. 33.) Hence we cannot be surprised to find that, not only are the Himeraeans still spoken of as an existing peoptt^ but even that the name of Himera itself is sometimes inadvertently used as that of their city. Thus, in b. c. 314, Diodorus teUs OS that, by the treaty between Agathocles and the Carthaginians, it was stipulated that Hersdeia, Selinus, and Himera should continue subject to Carthage as they had been before. (Diod. xiz. 71.) It is much more strange that we find the name of Himera reappear both in Mela and Pliny, though we know firom the distinct statements of Cicero and Strabo, as well as Diodorus, that it had ceased to exist centuries before. (Strab. vL p. 272 ; MeL iu 7. § 16 ; PUn. iii. 8. s. 14.) The new town of Thermae or Thebua, called for the sake of distinction Thermae Himebensks (6«^/tal at 'iMcpajoi, Pol.; 6«p/ial 'IfiifKu, PtoL; e«p/iii, Btpfik 'I/Mpfluo, Diod.: £th, e^pfdniSy Ther- mitanus), which thus took the phuie of Hlmers, obviously derived its name from the hot springs for which it was celebrated, and the first discovery of which was connected by legends with the wanderngs of Hercules. (Diod. iv. 23, v. 3 ; Pind. OL xiL 28.) It appears to have early become a considerable town, though it continued, with few and brief exceptions, to be subject to the Carthaginian rule. In the First Punic War its name is repeatedly mentioned. Thus, in b. c 260, a body of Soman troops were encamped in the neighbourhood, when they were HIMERA. 1067 attacked by Hamilcar, and defeated with heavy loss. (Pol. i 24 ; Diod. xxiu. 9. Exc. H. p. 503.) Be- fore the close of the war, Thermae itself was besieged and taken by the Bomans. (PoL i. 39 ; Diod.xxiii. 20. Exc H. p. 506.) We have, however, no clue to the circumstances which led to the peculiar fa- vour which this city seems to have received at the hands of its Roman conquerors. Cicero tells us that the Roman government restored to the Ther- mitani their dty and territory, with the firee use of their own laws, as a reward for their steady fidelity (" quod semper in amidtia fideque mansissent," Cic Verr. ii. 37). As we see that they were on hostile terms with Rome during tlie First Punic War, it can only be to the subsequent period that these ex-> pressions apply ; but the occasion to which they refer is unknown. In the time of Cicero, Thermae appears to have been a flourishing place, carrying on a con- siderable amount of trade, though the orator speaks of it ss ** oppidum non maximum." (Id. ii. 46, 75, iii. 42.) It seems to have received a colony in the time of Augustus, whence we find mention in in- scriptions of the " Ordo et Populus splendidissimae Coloniae Augustas Himerseorum Thermitanorum " (CastelL Inter, Sicil. p. 47 ; Grater. Inter, p. 433, no. 6.) : and there can be very littie doubt that the ^ Thermae colonia** of Pliny in reality refers to this town, though he evidoitiy understood it to be Thermae Selinuntiae, as he places it on the S. cosst between Agrigentnm and Selinus. (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14.) We have litUe subsequent account of Thermae ; but, as its name is found in Ptolemy and the Itineraries, it appears to have continued in existence throughout the period of the Roman Empire, and probably never ceased to be inhabited, as the modem town of Ter- mini retains the ancient site as well as name. (Ptol. iii. 4. § 4 ; Itin, Ant, p. 92 ; Tab. Pent.) Con- siderable remains of the andent dty are still visible, but all of the Roman period ; among these, the most interesting are those of the andent Thermae, which are still applied to thdr original purpose, and are now known as the Bagni di & Calogero : their form and construction is peculiar, being probably determined by the circumstances of the locality in which they were built. Besides these, the ruins of a theatre we^ still extant in the days of Fazello, but have been since destroyed ; some portions of an aqueduct still remain, and the ruins of a large building of Roman date, but of uncertain destinatiim i numerous inscriptions and fivgments of andent sculpture are also preserved in the modern dty, (FazelL de Reb. Sic ix. 1 ; Biscari, Viaggii> m SiciUa, pp. 235—239.) No doubt can therefore exist with regard to the site of Thermae, which would be, indeed, sufficiently marked by the hot springs themselves ; but the exact position of the more andent dty of Himera is still a subject of controversy. The opinion of Cln- verius, which has been followed by almost all sub- sequent writera, would place it on the left bank of the river which fiows by Termini on the west, and is thence eommonly known as the Fiume di Terminif though called in the upper part of its course Fiume S, Lionardo, On this supposition the inhabitants merely removed from one bank of the river to the other; and this would readily explain the passages in which Himera and Thermae appear to he regarded as identical, and where the river Himera (which unquestionably gave name to the older city) is represented at the same time as fiowing by Thermae. (Sil. ItaL xiv. 232 ; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14 ; Vib. Sequest.