SEGESTA
Trapani, Sicily.
In the NW part
of the island on Monte Barbaro near modern Calatafimi,
the principal city of the Elymi. Still almost totally unknown, this ethnic group, together with the Phoenicians,
were in possession of W Sicily until the island was unified
under Roman control around the middle of the 3d c.
B.C. Thucydides (
6.2) says that the Elymi were Trojans
who escaped their city's destruction, fled to Sicily, and
there fused with the Sikans whom they found in the area;
they were later joined by some Phokaians. Thucydides'
largely legendary narrative reflects a cultural truth in that,
as recent studies seem to confirm, it appears increasingly
probable that the Elymi came from the W Mediterranean.
That Monte Barbaro was previously inhabited is attested
by some prehistoric remains; these have been found in
the area of the theater, specifically in the cavea, under
which, at the time of construction, a cave, perhaps with
religious connotations, was carefully preserved with its
prehistoric material.
Segesta occupies a prominent place in the history of
ancient Sicily since some of its political maneuvers gave
rise to two episodes with important consequences: the
Athenian expedition to Sicily, and the war between
Greeks and Carthaginians in 409 B.C. Throughout its entire existence Segesta may have been in constant conflict
with Selinus, which probably sought an outlet on the
Tyrrhenian Sea. The first encounters between Segesta
and Selinus can probably be dated to 580-576 B.C. (
Diod.
5.9); the same source (
Diod. 11.86) relates another
episode of this struggle in 454. Within the framework of
this conflict, falls the episode of 415 B.C. when Segesta
asked for Athenian help and succeeded in promoting the
disastrous expedition to Sicily (
Thuc. 6.6;
Diod. 12.82).
Shortly afterwards Segesta asked for Carthaginian help
(
Diod. 13.43), provoking the war that brought about
the destruction of Selinus, Akragas, Gela, and Himera in 409 B.C.
At the time of Dionysios' first campaign into W Sicily
(397 B.C.), Segesta was allied with the Carthaginians
(
Diod. 14.48); it was later allied with Agathokles, who
in 307 B.C. destroyed it and changed its name to Dikaiopolis, as if to stress the justice he believed himself to be
bringing. Not long afterwards Segesta resumed its former
name and alliance with the Carthaginians, but shifted to
the Roman side at the beginning of the first Punic war
(
Diod. 13.5). It was heavily besieged by the Carthaginians, but since the war ended in Roman victory, Segesta was rewarded: it became a city libera et immunis (Cic.
Verr. 3.6.13) and obtained vast territories, including possibly those of Eryx.
Probably during the Roman period the city was moved
N, near modern Castellammare, in the vicinity of sulphur
springs where Roman remains have been found. This new
Segesta is reputed to have been destroyed by the Vandals.
At the site of the ancient city on Monte Barbaro, no
excavation has been conducted. The exact location of the
necropolis is unknown, with the exception of a few
Hellenistic graves (3d c. B.C.) found at the foot of Monte
Barbaro, on the SW side. In recent years many sherds
have been found on the NE slopes, presumably thrown
down from the ancient city above. They include local
incised and painted ware as well as Greek imports. Some
of the Greek sherds carry graffiti in Greek script but in
a language which may derive from an Anatolian source;
it must be the Elymian language, which hitherto has
been known only through faint traces of inscriptions on
coins. On this same side of the mountain some rock-cut
niches have been found; they are obviously connected
with a cult. In front of them ran a rock-cut road which
led from the city on the summit to an area now called
Mango at the foot of the mountain, where a large sanctuary has recently been identified. The sanctuary consists
of a temenos (83.4 x 47.8 m) which has not yet been
entirely excavated but which contains several structures,
including an archaic Doric temple (6th c. B.C.), rebuilt
during the following century. These two centuries represent the life-span of the sanctuary itself.
Certain clues suggest that, after the city's destruction
by Dionysios, it was probably rebuilt, like Soloeis, according to the Hippodamian system. Unlike Soloeis,
however, Segesta would have been rebuilt on the same
site as the earlier town, as is attested by the two roads
previously mentioned which connect the sanctuary with
the plateau on Monte Barbaro. The city was surrounded
by a double circuit of walls, which are still visible in a
few stretches including a gate and some towers. The
walls were presumably erected at various times.
The two best-known monuments are the theater and
the so-called temple. The former is within the city, at
the extreme NE tip of the plateau from which one enjoys
a vast view expanding as far as the gulf of Castellammare. The theater is usually dated to the middle of the
3d c. B.C., but it may be earlier, that is, contemporary
with the reconstruction of the city, which must have
occurred during the previous century. It is surrounded by
a high circular wall which has both a delimiting and a
retaining function and includes two high analemmata
parallel to the stage building; the lower koilon comprises 20 rows of steps divided into seven cunei; the upper koilon above the diazoma is no longer preserved. The stage building is flanked by paraskenia, according to
the stage type prevalent in Sicilian Hellenistic theaters;
worthy of note are the two poorly preserved statues of
Pan, which functioned as telamones in the paraskenia.
The so-called temple, outside the city walls to the W, is
a peristyle of the Doric order, with 6 columns on the
facade and 14 on the sides, all unfluted; it is generally
dated to the last third of the 5th c. B.C. This building
has always been considered an unfinished temple, but it
has recently been suggested on rather good grounds that
the building was conceived solely as a Greek Doric
peristyle meant to delimit a space within which the non-Greek population of Segesta would have practiced an
open-air cult on a temporary altar according to the Oriental custom. This peristyle rises outside the city walls, to the W.
Segesta had a mint that was among the most notable
of ancient Sicily.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. van Compernolle, “Ségeste et l'Hellenisme (1st part),”
Phoibos 5 (1950-51) 183ff;
V. Tusa,
“Aspetti storico-archeologici di alcuni centri della Sicilia
Occidentale, I,”
Kokalos 3 (1957) 79ff; II,
Kokalos 4
(1958) 151ff
MPI; A. Burford, “Temple building at Segesta,”
CQ 11 (1961) 87ff
I; S. Stucchi, “Alla ricerca della cella del tempio di Segesta,”
Studi in onore di F. Fasolo (1961) 13ff
I; V. Tusa, “Il santuario arcaico di Segesta,”
Atti del VII Congresso Internazionale di Arch. Class., 2
(1961) 3 lff
PI; id. “La questione degli Elimi alla luce
degli ultimi rinvenimenti archeologici,”
Atti e Memorie
del I° Congresso Internaz. di Micenologia (1968) 1197ff
I;
R. Ambrosini, “Italica o anatolica Ia lingua dei graffiti
di Segesta?”
Studi e Saggi linguistici 8 (1968) 160ff; M.
Lejeune, “Observations sur l'epigraphie élyme,”
REL
(1970) 133ff.
V. TUSA