AME´STRATUS
AME´STRATUS (
Ἀμήστρατος,
Steph. B. sub voce Amestratinus:
Mistretta), a city of Sicily, noticed only by Cicero and Steph. Byz. From the circumstance mentioned by the former, that Verres compelled the inhabitants of Calacte to deliver their tithes of corn at Amestratus instead of at Calacte itself, it is clear that it was not very far from that city: and this fact, coupled with the resemblance of the name, enables us to fix its site at
Mistretta, now a considerable town, situated on a hill about 5 miles from the N. coast of Sicily near
Sto. Stefano, and 10 from
Caronia (Calacte).
According to Fazello, considerable remains of antiquity were still visible there in his time; but the place is not described by any recent traveller. We learn from Cicero that it was a small and poor town, though enjoying municipal privileges. (
Cic. in Verr. 3.39, 43, 74;
Steph. B. sub voce Fazell.
de Reb. Sicul. x. p. 415; Cluver.
Sicil. p. 383.)
It is probably the same place as the Amastra of Silius Italicus (
14.267), but there is no foundation for identifying it (as has been done by Cluverius and most subsequent geographers) with the Mytistratus of Polybius and Pliny: both names being perfectly well authenticated. [
MYTISTRATUS] That of Amestratus, in addition to the testimony of Cicero and Stephanus, is fully supported by the evidence of its coins, which have the name at full,
ΑΜΗΣΤΠΑΤΙΝΩΝ. (Castell.
Sicil. Vet. Num. pl. 15; Eckhel, vol. i. p. 197.)
[
E.H.B]
