GALA´RIA
GALA´RIA (
Γαλαρία, Diod., but the older editions have
Γαλερία; Γαλαρίνα,
Steph. B. sub voce: Eth.
Γαλαρῖνος, Diod.:
Gagliano), a city of Sicily, which, according to Stephanus, was founded by the Siculian chief Morges or Morgus. (
Steph. B. sub voce Though we may infer from this statement (which is evidently meant to connect it with the establishment of the Morgetes in Sicily) that it was a city of great antiquity, we find no mention of it in history till B.C. 345, when it was the only city that ventured to send succours to the Entellini when besieged by the Carthaginians under Hanno.
But their small force, amounting to only 1000 men, was intercepted and entirely cut off. (
Diod. 16.67.) Again, in B.C. 311, Galaria was occupied by the Syracusan exiles under Deinocrates, who were, however, soon after defeated and driven out by the generals of Agathocles. (Id. 19.104.) No subsequent notice of it is found in history; and as its name does not occur among the Sicilian towns enumerated by Cicero, Pliny, or Ptolemy, it would seem to have ceased to exist under the Roman dominion.
It would indeed be natural to suspect that the GALATINI of Pliny (
3.8. s. 14), whom he enumerates among the “populi stipendiarii” of the interior of Sicily, were identical with the Galarini of Diodorus, but that there seems to be some reason to admit the existence of a separate town of the name of Galata. We find the name of this town apparently still preserved in the village of
Galati, E. of
Militello, and about 10 miles from the N. coast of the island; while that of Galaria is supposed by Cluverius and Sicilian topographers to be retained by
Gagliano, on the opposite side of the
Caronia mountains, and about 6 miles N. of the ancient Agyrium. (Cluver.
Sicil. pp. 330, 385; Amico,
Lex. Topog. Sic. s. v. Galaria.) But it does not appear that ancient remains exist at either locality, and the evidence of name alone is inconclusive.
There is nothing in Diodorus to lead us to suppose that Galaria was a Greek city, and the contrary seems to be implied by Stephanus; but there exists a coin of very early date, and of pure Greek style, which bears the inscription
ΓΑΔΑ., and must certainly be referred to this city. On the reverse it has a sitting figure of Zeus, with the epithet
ΣΟΤΕΡ in ancient characters. (It is figured by T. Combe,
Num. Mus. Brit. pl. 4. fig. 6.)
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E.H.B]
