PHINTIAS
(Licata) Sicily.
A Greek city
on Mt. Eknomos at the mouth of the river Himera, between Gela and Agrigento. The city took its name from
the Akragan tyrant who founded it at the beginning of
the 3d c. B.C. for the citizens of Gela, whose city he had
destroyed in 286-282 B.C. Inscriptions and coins show that
the new inhabitants long retained the name Geloi, which
still appears in an inscription of the 1st c. B.C. listing
victorious ephebes. Diodorus Siculus mentions (22.2)
that the city had a large agora with porticos; however,
since no regular excavation has yet taken place, the Hellenistic and Roman material which can be connected with Phintias comes from chance finds.
Before the founding of Phintias, Mt. Eknomos was occupied by archaic settlements. The first was probably a
Greek center founded by Geloan colonists in their march
along the S coast of Sicily. Later, during the second
quarter of the 6th c. B.C., a phrourion was founded by the
Akragan tyrant Phalaris (
Diod. 19.2). This archaic
phase is attested by Corinthian, Ionic, and Geloan pottery and figurines, sporadically found in the area and at present exhibited in the Museums of Palermo and Agrigento. A recent, though rather improbable, hypothesis
would locate the Sikanian city of Inicos on the Eknomos.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Adamesteanu,
Atti III Congresso
Internazionale di Epigrafia Greca e Latina (1959) 425ff;
id. in
EAA 4 (1961); E. De Miro,
La Parola del Passato
49 (1956) 266ff; id.,
Kokalos 8 (1962) 124ff; G. Caputo,
NSc (1965) 189ff; V. La Bua,
Atti Accademia Scienze
Lettere e Arti di Palermo (1966-67) 4ff.
P. ORLANDINI
