The ancient city: Greek origins and Roman growth

Although Catania lies at the foot of Mount Etna, and several times over the course of the centuries has been touched by lavaflows, the vestiges of the ancient city continue to emerge. This proves false the view that the volcano had for the most part obliterated the ancient city. lndeed, the numerous remains of the Greek and Roman past, if analysed using modern interpretative techniques, would provide us with an articulate and wide-ranging picture of the historic, urban and artistic lifeof the city. According to Thucydides, Catania was founded in 729 BC by Greek colonists from Chalcis on the island of Euboea. After having founded Naxos in 734 BC, they pushed south and by force of arms unseated the Sikelians and established the cities of Leontini and Catania. The results of a very rcccnt excavation inside the Castello Ursino (conducted by the local archaeological authority) are in full agreement with the Athenian historian. On this site, which in ancient times was closer to the sea, Greek structures and materials were found. These date back to the period between the end of the eighth and the beginning of the seventh centuries; in other words thcy arc attributablc to tbc carlicst phasc of the Catania colony. Furthermore, in a series of excavations initiated in 1978 on the crest of the hill on which the acropolis stood - today occupied by Piazza Dante and the splendid Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò l' Arena - Greek materials and structures bave been found.Together with the results from the Castello Ursino, this would seem to suggest that the Catania settlement, in common with those of other Sicilian colonies, covered a wide area but never proceeded to capillary urbanization. lt should be noted that during the course of research on the acropolis hill significant traces of prehistoric habitation were found, relating specifically to the Neolithic and Copper Ages. Literary sources of the seventh and sixth centuries carry little mention of Katane (this was the city's name during the Greek age). They do, however, tell us that in the first decades of the sixth century Caronda was active bere and provided the city with a corpus of written laws. Archaeological research, however, allows us to follow the progressive, and bellicose, expansion of the Chalcidian colony into its hinterland. An exceptionally interesting votive deposit - discovered in 1959 in the area of Piazza San Francesco and still unpublished - allows a glimpse of a Katane that is fully part of the Hellenic world, thanks to the seventh-century pottery materials which carne, not only from the workshops of Athens and Corinth, but from Sparta, Chios and other Greek cities. ln 476 BC the conquest by the Syracusan tyrant Hieron shook the life of the city: he expelled the Chalcidian inhabitants, repopulated it with a large number of Dorians from Syracuse and the Peloponnese and renamed it Aitna (Etna). ln 461 BC, however, after the fall of the Syracusan tyranny, the Chalcidians returned to their city and restored its ancient name. In the second half of the fifth century, during the great Athenian expedition to Sicily (415-13 BC), the inhabitants of Catania supported the Attic city in an attempt to contain the continuing territorial ambitions of nearby Syracuse. Some ten years after the Athenian defeat, in 403 BC, Catania was conquered by the Syracusan tyrant Dionysus the Elder: he sold some of the inhabitants as slaves and introduced groups of bis Campanian mercenaries into the population. After these events, in the fourth century and the first decades of the third, Catania remained firmly within the orbit of Syracusan power. Indicative of this is the fact that among the fifth- and fourth-century statuettes of the votive deposit in Piazza San Francesco, the most common type is of Kore carrying a torch, most probably introduced by Hieron, who was a priest of Demeter and Kore, when Catania suffered its first Syracusan conquest. The Roman conquest of 263 BC, at the outset of the First Punic War, opened a period of some seven centuries in which Catania grew notably in importance and prestige. Indeed, in the fourth century AD the Gallic poet Ausonius classed it, together with Syracuse, among the most important centres of the Roman empire. Catania remained a "decuman" city (subject to a tax of one tenth of the produce of its territory) for almost two centuries after the organization of the province of Sicily by the proconsul M. Valerius Levinus around 210 BC. A decided improvement in the city's condition was noted when, in 21 BC, some fifteen years after having defeated Sextus Pompeius on the island, Augustus made it a Roman colony. This was perhaps on the suggestion of bis generaI and friend, M. Vispanius Agrippa, important landowner in the area. The decision brought about an increase in the population through the admission into the citizenship of groups of veterans, and it also brought about an enlargement of the city's territory thanks to the acquisition of the fertile plain to the south of the Simeto, previously controlled by Leontini. AlI of this, combined with the various privileges connected with colonial status, favoured the economic growth of Catania during the imperial era. The setting up of the forum area around the present Cortile San Pantaleone can be dated back to the institution of the colony when it was necessary to give a Roman appearance to the city. A decided reordering of the road system seems to date back to the same period. On the basis of recent excavations in Via Crociferi, together with a manuscript document from the 15005, the road network of the colony is to some degree traceable on its modern counterpart in the area around Via Vittorio Emanuele along the stretch between Piazza Duomo and Via Plebiscito. During the years of imperial rule, however, the Augustan plan furnished directives for the expansion of the urban area especially towards the south, where the circus for chariot races was built. The northern limit of the imperial city was marked by the amphitheatre: built during the second century AD, the majesty of this structure can be considered the crown in the process of accumulation of riches thatbegan with the promotion to colony status. Furthermore, together with the other facilities such as the theatre, the odeum, the thermae and water systems, the amphitheatre is representative of the high quality of life that must bave characterized Catania in Roman times. Currently it remains impossible to date and explain the introduction and the establishment of Christianity in Catania. We can conjecture, however, that the faithful were considerable in number in the mid third century AD when, during persecution under the emperor Decius, tradition dates the martyrdom of Agatha, the city' 5 patron. More reliable information on Christian Catania is available from the beginning of the fourth century AD thanks to a consistent series of inscriptions and the excavations carried out in sacred or burial areas. In the middle decades of the fifth century AD the incursions of the V andals affected the city and certainly caused notable damage, In any case, the great Roman monuments were not held in high esteem during the Ostrogoth domination of Sicily given that Theodoric, 10rd of the island between AD 491 and 526, allowed the inhabitants of Catania to use the square blocks of lava stone from the amphitheatre for their buildings. Conquered by Belisarius in AD 535 during the Greco-Gothic war, the city was part of the Byzantine empire for three centuries. Written sources provide most of our information regarding this period and some places of worship, both in the city and the surroundings, date back to it. After the Arabs set foot on Sicily in AD 827 they rapidly conquered Catania, but no significant traces of their rule remain in the city. In the mid twelfth century, however, the geographer al-Idrisi felt obliged to mention the many mosques that were still active in Catania at that time.

The theatre		The amphitheatre
The odeum		The thermae
The forum area		The necropolises

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