GELA
Sicily.
A Greek city founded in 689
B.C. by colonists from Rhodes and Crete led by Antiphemos and Entimos. It occupied part of a long and low
sandy hill parallel to the seashore, which was already
inhabited by Early Bronze Age Sikanian villagers during
the second millennium B.C. The city acropolis developed
near the source of the river Gelas after which the new
colony was named. After long struggles against the indigenous populations to secure possession of the fertile inland plain, the Geloans began a policy of commercial and
political penetration along the coast and toward the interior of the island. In 582 B.C. they founded Akragas and
extended their domination to a large part of central and
S Sicily. Under the tyrant Hippokrates, at the beginning
of the 5th c. B.C., Gela's power reached also into E Sicily,
up to the straits of Messina. Hippokrates was succeeded
by Gelon, who moved to Syracuse in 483 B.C. and defeated the Carthaginian army in the battle of Himera in
480 B.C. Under the rule of Gelon's successors, the Deinomenids, Gela's political importance declined although
it remained an artistic and cultural center. The tragic poet
Aeschylos spent his last years in Gela, dying there in 456
B.C. And in 424 B.C. was convened there the peace congress in which the Syracusan Hermokrates, in the face
of the threatening Athenian power, proclaimed the autonomy of the Sicilian colonies. In 405 B.C., despite the
help of Dionysios of Syracuse, Gela was conquered and
completely destroyed by the Carthaginian army led by
Himilco. The city remained uninhabited for many years.
It was rebuilt and repopulated with new colonists after
338 B.C. by the Corinthian Timoleon, who restored peace
and democracy in Sicily. After a period of prosperous
tranquility Gela was again conquered by the new tyrant
of Syracuse, Agathokles, who in 311-310 B.C. used Gela
as his military base against the Carthaginians. After 310
B.C. the city shrank to the W part of the hill, and at an
undetermined date between 285 and 282 B.C. was destroyed by the Akragan tyrant Phintias, who transferred
its population into the new city of Phintias (Licata).
The hill of Gela remained deserted until 1233, when
Frederik II of Swabia built on the ancient ruins the
fortified city that was first called Herakleia and later
Terranova until 1927, when the original name was restored.
Excavations in 1900 brought to light large sections of
the Greek necropoleis and the remains of two temples
on the acropolis. In 1948 the accidental discovery of
fortifications in the area of Capo Soprano inspired a
new series of systematic excavations still in progress.
A section of the archaic and Classical acropolis antedating the destruction of 405 B.C. has been uncovered
on the modern hill of Molino a Vento where, according
to Thucydides, were built the first fortifications, which
the colonists called Lindioi. On the S side of the acropolis one can see the foundations of the archaic Temple
of Athena, famous for its architectural terracottas (at
present in the Syracuse Museum), and the foundations
of a second Doric temple of the 5th c. B.C., of which
remain some blocks for the underpinning of the cella
and one of the columns of the opisthodomos. On the N
side excavation has uncovered a section of living quarters of the 4th c. B.C. (the age of Timoleon), with ruins
of houses and shops on terraces built over the remains
of the earlier sanctuaries and the archaic fortifications
destroyed by the Carthaginians. The area of the ancient
town to the W of the acropolis is now totally occupied
by the modern city. But architectural, votive, and domestic finds of great importance and aesthetic appeal have
been made almost everywhere, and a Sanctuary of Hera
has been identified in the area of the present City Hall.
Numerous sanctuaries outside the town have been excavated around the hill; most of them were dedicated to
Demeter and Kore. The Sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros on the small Bitalemi hill, at the mouth of
the river Gelas, has yielded thousands of votive objects
perfectly stratified. Another sanctuary, near the present
railway station, contained a splendid hoard of over a
thousand archaic silver coins.
Before 405 B.C. the polis ended at the level of the
present Pasqualello valley, where the necropoleis began,
and filled the entire W section of the hill. When Gela
was rebuilt by Timoleon shortly after 338 B.C., habitation
expanded over the necropolis area; and the entire hill,
over 4 km long, was enclosed by a new circuit of walls.
The Capo Soprano walls, excavated and restored between
1948 and 1954, represent the W end of these fortifications and are among the most perfect examples of Greek
walls. They were built in two media, the lower part of
elegant ashlar blocks of sandstone, the upper part of unbaked mud bricks, by use of a technique widely diffused
in the Graeco-Oriental world. In the preserved section
one should note a postern gate with a false pointed arch,
a gate for wheeled traffic, remains of towers and stairways. These fortifications were soon covered by sand and
the Geloans were forced to raise them at least twice in
50 years, probably at the time of Agathokles and again
when they were finally conquered by Phintias. These
superimposed layers are clearly visible in the best-preserved section of the walls which, through these additions,
reach at some points a height of 8 m. In order to protect
the unbaked mud bricks, an expensive covering with tempered glass panes and plastic roofing has been devised.
Inside the walls test excavations have uncovered houses
and military quarters of the time of Agathokles; the
structures, built of unbaked bricks, have been temporarily
covered over.
Throughout the W section of the city, foundations of
houses and shops were found with evident traces of destruction and fire. These are the houses that, according
to Diodorus Siculus, the Akragan tyrant Phintias razed
to the ground together with the walls. Among the preserved monuments of this last period (338-282 B.C.) one
should note public baths, with two groups of tubs and
the furnaces for heating the water. It is the oldest public
bath found in Italy thus far. It was originally built with
terracotta tubs which were in the process of being replaced with cement troughs at the time of the final destruction.
All the archaeological finds from the new excavations
are now in the National Museum, next to the acropolis
area. They are displayed with the material coming from
excavations and soundings in the interior (Manfria, Butera, Monte Bubbonia, Sofiana, etc.). The Museum also
houses a local collection of Greek vases, especially Attic
(Navarra collection). The material from the 1900-6 excavation is in the National Museum of Syracuse.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Schubring, “Historische topographische Studien über Altsizilien,”
RhM (1873); L. Pareti,
“Per la storia e la topografia di Gela,”
Studi siciliani ed
italioti (1914) 199f; D. Adamesteanu & P. Orlandini,
“Gela—scavi e scoperte,”
NSc (1956) 203-401; (1960)
67-246; (1962) 340-408 (with bibl.); P. Orlandini, “Lo
scavo del Thesmophorion di Bitalemi e il culto delle
divinità ctonie a Gela,”
Kokalos 12 (1966) 8ff; id., “Gela:
topografia dei santuari e documentazione archeologica dei
culti,”
RivIstArch (1968) 20f; H. Wentker, “Die Ktisis
von Gela by Thukydides,”
RömMitt (1956) 129f; P.
Griffo,
Gela (ed. Stringa, 1963).
P. ORLANDINI