ERYX
(Erice) Sicily.
Remains of an ancient
site on Monte San Giuliano at Erice 12 km NE of
Trapani. Fragments of Neolithic and Bronze Age objects have been found at the foot of the mountain and at
its summit a sanctuary dedicated first to the Phoenician
Astarte and then to Aphrodite and Venus, whom the
Romans called “Erycina ridens.” Ancient sources differ
on the origins of the cult (
Diod. 4.78; Dion. Hal. 1.53)
but all agree that Eryx was founded by the Elymians of
W Sicily, who were centered at Segesta. The Elymians,
especially those of Eryx, always maintained close relations with the Punic Phoenicians both during the various
wars against the Greeks and in peace. The Spartan Dorieus at the end of the 6th c. B.C. managed to found a
Greek center, Heraklea, at the foot of Eryx, but the site
was immediately destroyed by a coalition of Elymians
and Phoenicians. During the first Punic war, in 249 B.C.,
Eryx was occupied by the Romans for the first time, reconquered by Hamilcar in 244 B.C. but lost by the Phoenicians after the battle of the Egadi islands in 241 B.C.
when almost all of Sicily passed under Roman domination. Rome always looked on Eryx with favor since it,
like Rome, traced its origin back to Troy through Aphrodite and Aeneas.
The few remains of the sanctuary, with the exception
of sporadic fragments of the 6th-5th c. B.C., belong to
the Roman Imperial period, perhaps when the temple was
rebuilt under the emperor Claudius. Long stretches of the
city walls are well preserved though full of restorations and
rebuildings of various periods, including some of recent
date. Recent excavations have revealed that this circuit of
fortifications with its towers and gates, had two distinct
building phases. During the first (8th-mid 6th B.C.) the
lower courses were built in the megalithic technique; to
this phase must be attributed the many sherds of painted
pottery typical of various Elymian centers in W Sicily, and
specifically of Segesta. During the second (mid 6th-mid
3d B.C.), that is, from the period of greatest Punic influence on Eryx to the Roman conquest, the upper courses
were built. Punic influence is well attested by the numerous Phoenician characters inscribed on many blocks of
the walls.
The small Museo Civico houses various objects, almost all found at Eryx, which attest ot the presence of
non-Greek peoples at the site; they consist mostly of
statuettes, amulets, scarabs, terracotta vases which reflect a Cypro-Phoenician influence during the 6th c. B.C.
as well as a persistence of Punic culture until the Hellenistic-Roman period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. G. Guzzo-Amadasi,
Le iscrizioni
fenicie e puniche delle colonie in Occidente (1967) 53,
58, 77-79; A. M. Bisi, “Catalogo del materiale archeologico del Museo A. Cordici in Erice,”
Sicilia Archeologica 8 (1969) 7ff; id., “Una necropoli punica recentemente scoperta ad Erice,”
Sicilia Archeologica 11 (1970)
5ff, with previous bibliography
PI; A. Tusa-Cutroni “La
collezione numismatica del Museo Cordici de Erice,”
Sicilia Archeologica 12 (1970) 49ff; id., “Anelli argentei
e tipi monetali di Erice,”
Sicilia Archeologica 13 (1971)
43ff.
V. TUSA
