NEBRODES MONS
NEBRODES MONS τὰ Νευρώδη ὄρη, Strab.:
Monti di Madonia), one of the most considerable ranges of mountains in Sicily.
The name was evidently applied to a part of the range which commences near Cape Pelorus, and extends along the northern side of the island, the whole way to the neighbourhood of Panormus. Though broken into various mountain groups, there is no real interruption in the chain throughout this extent, and the names applied to different parts of it seem to have been employed (as usual in such cases) with much vagueness.
The part of the chain nearest to Cape Pelorus, was called Mons Neptunius, and therefore the Mons Nebrodes must have been further to the
[p. 2.414]west. Strabo speaks of it as rising opposite to Aetna, so that he would seem to apply the name to the mountains between that peak and the northern coast, which are still covered with the extensive forests of
Caronia. Silius Italicus, on the other hand, tells us that it was in the Mons Nebrodes the two rivers of the name of Himera had their sources, which can refer only to the more westerly group of the
Monti di Madonia, the most lofty range in Sicily after Aetna, and this indentification is generally adopted.
But, as already observed, there is no real distinction between the two. Silius Italicus speaks of the Mons Nebrodes as covered with forests, and Solinus derives its name from the number of fawns that wandered through them; an etymology obviously fictitious. (
Strab. vi. p.274;
Solin. 5. §§ 11, 12;
Sil. Ital. 14.236; Cluver.
Sicil. p. 364; Fazell.
de Reb. Sic. 10.2. p. 414.)
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