IMACHARA
IMACHARA (
Ἱμιχάρα or
Ἡμιχάρα, Ptol.: Eth.
Imacharensis, Cic.; Imacarensis, Plin.), a city of Sicily, the name of which does not appear in history, but which is repeatedly mentioned by Cicero among the municipal towns of the island.
There is great discrepancy in regard to the form of the name, which is written in many MSS. “Macarensis” or “Macharensis;” and the same uncertainty is found in those of Pliny, who also notices the town among those of the interior of Sicily. (
Cic. Ver. 3.18,
42,
5.7; Zumpt,
ad loc.; Plin. Nat. 3.8. s. 14; Sillig,
ad loc.) From the manner in which it is spoken of by Cicero, it would seem to have been a town of some consideration, with a territory fertile in corn.
That writer associates it with Herbita, Assorus, Agyrium, and other towns of the interior, in a manner that would lead us to suppose it situated in the same region of Sicily; and this inference is confirmed by Ptolemy, who places Hemichara or Himichara (evidently the same place) in the NE. of Sicily, between Capitium and Centuripa. (
Ptol. 3.4.12.) Hence Cluverius conjectures that it may have occupied the site of
Traina, but this is wholly uncertain. Fazello and other Sicilian writers have supposed the ruins of an ancient city, which are still visible on the coast about 9 miles N. of Cape Pachynum, near the
Porto Vindicari, to be those of Imachara; but though the name of
Macaresa, still borne by an adjoining headland, gives some colour to, this opinion, it is wholly opposed to the data furnished us by ancient authors, who all agree in placing Imachara in the
interior of the island.
The ruins in question, which indicate the site of a considerable town, are regarded by Cluverius (but equally without authority) as those of Ichana. (Cluver.
Sicil. p. 356; Fazell.
de Reb. Sic. 4.2, p. 217; Amico,
Not. ad Fazell. pp.417, 447; Hoare's
Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 301.)
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E.H.B]
