Greeks, Phoenicians & Romans
The deep antiquity of the western corner of Sicily — the Elymians of Erice and Segesta, the Phoenician island-city of Motya, the great Battle of the Egadi that ended the First Punic War, and the Roman peace that followed.
Part of Trapani
9 moments in this segment.
- — Eryx of the Elymians. The ancient mountaintop city of Eryx (Erice), sacred to the Elymians and famed across the Mediterranean for its temple to the fertility goddess — Astarte, then Aphrodite, then Venus Erycina.
- — The Youth of Motya. The exquisite marble statue of a young charioteer in a clinging tunic, carved around 470-450 BC and unearthed on Mozia — one of the masterpieces of Greek sculpture.
- — The Temple of Segesta. The astonishingly preserved Doric temple of the Elymian city of Segesta, built around 420 BC and never finished — standing alone in the hills above Trapani.
- — Motya, the Phoenician island. The Phoenician trading city of Motya (Mozia) on its island in the Stagnone lagoon — a Carthaginian stronghold destroyed by Syracuse in 397 BC and never rebuilt.
- — The Theatre of Segesta. The Greek-style theatre carved into Monte Barbaro, looking out over the valley to the Gulf of Castellammare — still used for performances today.
- — Drepana, the sickle harbour. Carthage moves the people of Eryx down to the sickle-shaped headland and harbour they call Drepanon — 'the sickle' — the founding of Trapani itself.
- — The Battle of Drepana. In 249 BC the Carthaginian admiral Adherbal crushes a Roman fleet off Trapani — Rome's worst naval defeat of the First Punic War.
- — The Battle of the Egadi Islands. On 10 March 241 BC a rebuilt Roman fleet annihilates the Carthaginians off the Egadi — ending the 23-year First Punic War and handing Rome its first overseas province: Sicily.
- — The bronze rams of the Egadi. Bronze warship rams recovered from the seabed off the Egadi Islands — physical relics of the 241 BC battle, raised by underwater archaeologists.
