TRIO´CALA
TRIO´CALA (
Τριόκαλα. Eth.
Triocalinus: Ru. near
Calatabellotta), a city of Sicily, situated in the interior of the island, about 12 miles from Thermae Selinuntiae (
Sciacca).
As the name is cited by Stephanus of Byzantium (who writes the name
Τρίκαλα) from Philistus, it is probable that it was a Siculian town or fortress as early at least as the time of the elder Dionysius; but no notice of it is now found in history until the second Servile War in Sicily in B.C. 103--100. On that occasion Triocala was selected, on account of its great natural strength and other advantages, by Tryphon, the leader of the insurgents, as his chief stronghold: he fortified the rocky summit on which it was situated, and was able to hold out there, as in an impregnable fortress, after his defeat in the field by L. Lucullus. (
Diod. 36.7,
8.)
The circumstances of its fall are not related to us, but Silius Italicus alludes to it as having suffered severely from the effects of the war. ( “Servili vastata Triocala bello,” 14.270). Cicero nowhere notices the name among the municipal towns of Sicily, but in one passage, mentions the “Triocalinus ager” (
Verr. 5.4); and the Triocalini again appear in Pliny's list of the municipal towns of Sicily.
The name is also found in Ptolemy, but in a manner that gives little information as to its position. (
Plin. Nat. 3.8. s. 14;
Ptol. 3.4.14.)
It was an episcopal see during the early part of the middle ages, and the site is identified by Fazello, who tells us that the ruins of the city were still visible in his time a short distance from
Calatabellotta, a town of Saracen origin, situated on a lofty hill about 12 miles inland from
Sciacca; and an old church on the site still preserved the ancient appellation. (Fazell.
de Reb. Sic. 10.472; Cluver.
Sicil. p. 374).
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E.H.B]
