Messana
Messana, known in its earlier days as Zancle, is a historic coastal city located at the northeastern tip of Sicily, separated from mainland Italy by the straits that bear its name. The city's origins trace back to the fifth millennium BC, and it became a center of Bronze Age activity. Greek pirates from Cyme settled there around 750–725 BC, and the city subsequently attracted colonists from various Euboean cities, contributing to its development. The name was changed to Messene in the late 5th century BC by Anaxilas I, a tyrant who brought Messenians from the Peloponnese, and later modified to Messana. Throughout its history, Messana experienced periods of destruction and rebuilding, notably being destroyed by the Carthaginian Himilco and later regaining independence as an ally of Syracuse. The city played a significant role in the First Punic War and served as a military stronghold during the Roman civil wars. Archaeological discoveries have revealed its rich history, including remnants of a sanctuary and extensive habitation areas, highlighting the city's cultural and religious significance with deities like Pan and Poseidon prominently featured in its coinage.
Messana
Messene, earlier Zancle (Messina)
A coastal city at the northeastern end of Sicily upon the straits which bear its name and separate the island from Italy. The place lay in a narrow plain between the foothills of the Peloritan mountains (beside Cape Pelorus [Peloro]), named after Zancle's mythical founder, and the long, narrow, curved spit of land or sand bar called Peloris or Pelorias—hence the name Zancle, meaning sickle in the tongue of the previous native inhabitants. This spit provided a natural harbor, as well as three lakes of volcanic origin abounding (we are told by Solinus) in game and fish.
It is now known that the origins of Zancle go back to the fifth millennium BC; and it was later a Bronze Age center. According to Thucydides, the site was subsequently settled by Greek pirates from Cyme (Cumae) in Campania (southwestern Italy)—to judge from finds, this occurred c 750–725. They were joined by settlers from Chalcis and other cities of Euboea (Strabo's assertion of colonization from the Aegean island of Naxos does not seem to be accurate). Colonists were soon sent from Zancle to Mylae (Milazzo), and later also to Himera (Imera); and others participated in the foundation of Rhegium (Reggio di Calabria). But in 490/489 the autocratic ruler (`tyrant’) of that city, Anaxilas I, prompted a party of his supporters from Samos and Miletus to capture Zancle. Settling a group of Messenians (from the Peloponnese) in the city, he changed its name to Messene—modified, after 461, to the Doric form Messana when Syracusan (Dorian) and other ex-mercenaries arrived, whereupon the Samians were expelled. Regaining its independence and becoming an ally of Syracuse, Messana was destroyed in 397/6 by the Carthaginian Himilco, but was rebuilt by the Syracusans under whose control, with intervals of domination by local autocrats, it remained until c 288/84. At that juncture Campanian mercenaries and raiders in Syracusan employment, calling themselves Mamertini (men of Mamers, the Oscan Mars), seized the city and made it their capital (under the name of Civitas Mamertina). When Hiero II of Syracuse later tried to suppress them, they appealed both to the Carthaginians and Romans (at one stage placing the armed god Adranos, the Punic Adar or Moloch, on their coins). The resulting rivalry between the two empires precipitated the First Punic War (264–241).
After the war Messana was a prosperous ally (civitas foedera) of Rome, but during the civil strife following the death of Julius Caesar it became the military headquarters of Sextus Pompeius (42), the son of Pompey the Great, and was sacked in 36 by his victorious enemy Octavian (the future Augustus). Sextus had struck a military coinage at Messana, displaying its famous lighthouse (recalled by the modern village Faro); and an Augustan issue celebrated its subsequent elevation to the rank of a Roman citizen community (municipium), before 12 AD.
New discoveries in the Viale Boccetta have documented Zancle's remote origins, and Bronze Age finds have come to light near the harbor. A sanctuary of the eighth or seventh century has been located at the top of the harbor spit, and part of the habitation area can be traced at the point where the spit joins the mainland; recent excavations have shown that the early colony was more extensive than had been supposed. Coins show that its principal deities were Pan and Poseidon. A large chamber tomb of third-century Messana is excellently preserved, and it is thought that the Hellenistic acropolis has been located on Montepiselli hill.