SEGESTA

Historical summary

Segesta ascended until IV century from its foundation and showed its richness building temples out of the city and by its strong currency production from 480 to 397, while Selinunte was living a period of crisis of its currency. Later the Segestan currency acquired importance during the Roman age until the Augustan one. In V century Segesta reached the climax of its importance; it was involved in the Mediterranean politics of Chartago and Athens and in that period historians considered it important and inhabited by a first population called "Elimi".

Segesta had been allied to Athens since 457/8, then the Greek city lost in 415 b.C. in Sicily and after this event, Segesta went spountaneusly under the Chartago dominion. In 409 b. C. Chartago had destroyed Selinunte, against which Segesta had fought from the first half of IV century, characterizing West Sicily history. The IV century and the first half of the III century, are characterized by several reballions to the chartaginians dominion. Besides the destruction of Segesta made by the Chartaginians, there was a fight against Dionigi in 397, followed by another in 368 b. C. and then a conflict with Timoleonte solved in the Krimisos river battle (San Bartolomeo) in 335.

Segesta was destroyed by Agatocle to whom it had been allied in 307, later it was a Pirro's dominion and than a Roman's one in 260 b.C., Under the Romans Segesta could get free from the Chartaginians, thanks to the first Punic War. Then, it was a free city and had many territories left, among which Erice; so Segesta enjoyed a new period of prosperity until I century b.C. After a not very important medieval period, Segesta had a last Norman-Swabian domination, demonstrated by the archaeological remainings discovered until now; showing a big urban centre, inhabited at least, during the last two phases by those Musulman-Arabs defeated by Frederick II. In 1442, the little church dedicated to S. Leone, near the theatre, was built by some inhabitants from Calatafimi. In the first half of 1500 Fazello discovered Segesta, while the first archaeological intervention in the modern age is the restauration of the temple, proposed by Federico Di Borbone in 1781.

Segesta shows extraordinary interesting and charming archaeological monuments. On a hill, a little bit out of the city, there is a Doric complete temple of V century b. C.. It was never finished so that allowed to understand some building techniques of that time. While the extraordinary Segestan theatre, conventionally dated II century, is one of the best exemples of theatre architecture and in front of it there is the valley of Segesta. Being partially excaved in the rock, it's a unicum for its tipology between the Greek and Roman style. There, a biennal classical representations proposed by the A.P.T. (Provincial Tourist Office) take place. A big Sanctuary of the IV-I century b.C. in Mango district, can be found at the back of the old city hill surrounded by a big temenos.

Thanks to the Soprintendenza BBCCAA, an intense campaign of excavation involving four universities has started in1988, and it's showing the remainings of one of the most important centres in old Sicily. We have to notice the new excavations on the walls; the medieval city Calatabarbaro, born among the ruins of the old city; the three-aisle church and the Norman Castle; the mosque and the Arab village. Near the city: Calatafimi, with the ruins of S. Eufemio Castle, its historical centre with its narrow streets and many churches. Calathamet, called during the Arab Age Khamma=Baths, is an Arab and Norman village with a big Palatium, on the top of a hill, with at its foot thermal waters, near a Roman centre.
Calatubo, Today, Calatubo is a fortified farm with an extraordinary landscape, on the top of a rocky hill, where a little medieval and native centre already existed.