Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/327

 loea HIHEBA. p. II.) Od tha otfaer hud, then u greit difficult m lappwng tlut Ihe Fiume S. Lionardo cu t« the liTcr Uimen (s« the folloniDg uticle); wid all our dmtt with nfiri ta the Utter would Mem ta lupport tba Tiir* oT yuello, who identifiu it with the Fiame Grande, the mouth of which is diaUnt Just 8 milea from TVrtiwH. This distajuca can hardly be Bajd to b« too great to be reconciled with Cicero'i eipreMion, that Ilie new Mttlement waa ealablished " non lotiKe ah opjnda antiqno' (Cic Verr. ii. 35); while tha aJdiCMu that it wu in tha tune territot? ("in ejoa- dem agri Gnibni," L £.} woald rather Kan to implj that it wu nal very near tha old lila. Qt ni«j be added, that, in thii caie, the new sits wontaT have hwl the ncammoidatiao in the ejea of the Car(haf;i>iian3 of beiniriiairarta their own wttlements of Solos and Panonnua, ajid, conseqoentlj, mora within their Mun- > maniQ Bat Faiello'i view deriras a atrrmg ccnfir- (nation from tha circnmslnnce, sUled bj him, that the lite which bo indicatsa, marked bj the Tom di BmfonnUo on tha eea- FiuMt Grande, ckae to no nuns, ^wondad in ancient rvLica, lucb aa vsees, bronio, kr. ; and namaroiu aepnlchrea had also been brooK'^t to light. (Kaiell. ii. 2.) On the olber hand, neither Clurerina nor anj other writer hae noticed the existence of anjr andent nmaine on the west bank of theHimera; nordoee it appear that the aita ao fixed is one adapted for a citj of importance. The looUiiiea do not appear to have been carefully investigated by anj recent traveller, though sndi an examination would pruhablf set the whole (joestiaa at mL In Uia roenn time the probabilities saedi itranglj in favour rf the views of Faiello. Himera was celebrated in antiqnitj as the lurtb- place of the poet St»ichoras, who appears, from an anecdote preserved by Aristotle, to have taken con- aidenble put in the pilitical aflaini of hie native city. Hie elatae was alill preserred at Thermae m Che days of Cicero, and regarded with the ntmoat venetation. (Ari«L Riu*. iL 30 ; Cic Kerr. it. 3S ; SU. Ital. liv. S33', Paas.uL IS. § 13.; Snid. j. v. 2n^lxofWi.) Er^lea, iriioea nclory at (be Olympic gamea is celebrated by Pindar, waa a citinn, bnt ddC a native, of HimeiB. <Pind. OL lii.; Paui. vi. 4. § II.) On the other hand, I'bennas bad the hoooar lA being tba birthplace of the tyrant Agatbocles. (Diod, xii. 3.) The magnificence of tha ancient dly, and the taste af its citiiens for (ha ancoaragement of Bit, are sttseted by Cicero, who calls it " in primia Siciliae clanun et omntum ■' and Bonw avidenee of it remained, even in the diye of that orator, in the it*tuea preserved by the Thermitani, to irticm they had been reatored by Scipio, aft«r the oonqDest of Carthage: and which were valuable, Dot only aa relics of the past, but from their high merit aa works ofMt (Cic Ferr. ii. 35.) [E. H. B.] HIUESA. Ses, the other to Ihe S. tout of the itli ich, by a strange confuiioo, were regu which is in conaeqnaice described aa rtting in l^ ^ of the island, and flowinf; in two diSeroit ions, so as ctsnplctdy to divide Scdly into m parts. It is singular that, if wt may believe Vftm Iter, this absurd notim is as old as the tine sichoros, who was Ijimself a nMJve of Binn. Uela is, however, Ihe only one of the anrieot fee- ffraphm who adopts it. (Mel. n. 7. § 17: Soba.v. S 17 ; Vib. SequesL p. 12 ; SiL ItaL lit. 339; Antig. CarysL 133; VilniT. viii. 3. § 7.) 1. The southern and nnri impoitaiii river of Ik me, is cerUunly the one now called iia Fmmi Satio, one of the most cooeidenble atnama ia Sidit, which rises in the Monti di MaJonia. the Nebndis Mons of the ancients, aod Sowing neariy doe &. entci^ the se* at Alioala (Phinlias). In the ^jpr part of iti eourae it is cemposed of two btaniei, mnning Dearly parallel with one another ; (be a» now called tha Fitmt Gnmde rising nev Ga}^ the other, called the Fiume di Petrvlia, fno Ik town of the same name : iC ia only after the JDoctid of (ha two that it cbiains the name of Fitmi SdK It ia impossible to say which of the two btancla was regarded by the ancients as the tme Hinisi ; 50 miles from N. lo S., and ita aonica an d« above 15 miles from the N. onast of the isU. Hence the eiprcsiion of Pulyblus and Livy, dM the Himera nearly divides the wbole of Sidlv bn two parts, is by no means inaccunte. (PoL ^1; Liv. xiiv. 6.) But it ia evidently this d coupled with the Gut that ther« was a of the same name flowing ii wlilch gave rise to the fable above noticed So^ iriio does not notice the aonlhem Himera, a|^ (evidently by mistake) very nearly the same ra* as Polrbins to Ihe northern river of the na»t (Slrab.'vi. p. 36G.) Modoius nolica the bncbt quality of the waters of the Himera, whieh gira rise to its modern name of Fiume Saiao: thii it caused by the Junction of a small stream near Cd- tamietta, that fiows from Ihe salt minca in Aal vicinity. (Diod. xii. 109 ; Sinytfe Sio/jr. p> IM-) Soliniu erronefAisly ascribea this qnality Is tba northern Himem (SoUn. v, § 17) ; while Vitrmin rightly atlribates it to the sonlhem rivet nlr (riii. 3. S 7). Historically, Ihe eonthem Binien is mnufaUt for Ihe gnat battle fboght on its banks beCmi AgaCbcdes and Ihe Carthaginians, in which the latter obtained a complete vklory, B. c. 311. (DW- lii. 107— lla) The scene of this action -is s short dUlance from the mouth of the river, the (Tsn thaginians occupying the hill of Ecncmos, whih AgslhoclM was enaunped on the left bank. [E> witnawd a defeat of the Agrigentines by the Srn- cuuns (Diod. lii. B) ; and, again, in lbs Secoi Punic War, B.C. 312. becune the aceos of ■> acliou between Harcellus and the CarlbiL^nin forces under Hanno and Epicydea nf Syracoae, is which the latur were defeated and driven tulakt sheller within the walls of Agrigenlmn. (JlA* xi'- 40. 41.) By the traty concluded with Cirthap by Hierunymos of Syracnsc, it was iigreed 1o divii" tha whole of Sdly between Ihe two powers, so iliai tha liver Himet* should be the booDdaij of their respective dominigng. (Polyb. viL 4 ; Lhr. ixiv. 6-) K,'