MORGANTINA
An ancient Sicula (Sicilian)
and Greek City, situated in the province of Enna and studied
by the American Princeton University.
Morgantina was inhabited since the Bronze Age and was part
of that which was called the Cultura di Castelluccio society,
characterised by a tribal organisation who lived in huts and
used particular tools in ceramic.
According to the legend of the City, it was instead founded
during the 10th Century by the Morgeti (from which its name
derives), a pre-Roman Italian population who were descendants
of the Enotri, who previously lived in Central Italy and the
drifted down to Calabria and Sicily during the 15th Century,
founding various cities.
At the beginning of the 8th Century BC, the first Greek Calcidesi
colonies arrived, who slowly took over administrative control
of Western Sicily.
Ducezio, a Siculi commander, was opposed to these colonies
and in 459 BC, destroyed Morgantina. After the exit of Ducezio
8450 BC), the City once again passed hands under Syracuse,
giving it a period of maximum splendour under the tyrant Agatocle
(300 BC).
Morgantina then sided with the Romans during the First Punic
War and with the Carthaginians during the second. For this
reason it was besieged and destroyed in 211 BC by propraetor
Marco Cornelio Cetego. It then survived for a further 2 centuries
until it was progressively abandoned at the beginning of the
Imperial era. In the archaeological area, one can visit the
remains of the Agorà with its Roman shops and Roman
Gymnasium. Close to the Agorà, one can visit the Greek
Theatre (4th Century). About a kilometre away from the archaeological
site, on Monte Citadella, one can visit the remains of the
Acropolis, the City which was destroyed by Ducezio during
the 5th Century. In the vicinity of its walls there are a
series of roomed tombs dug out in the rock.
During the Greek and Roman times, (from the 5th to the 2nd
Century BC), Morgantina minted its own coinage, many of remarkable
workmanship, which were recovered during digs, and which show
the main events of the history of the City.
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