Hannibal landed at the promontory of Lilybaeum, that general laid up his fleet for security in the gulf around Motya, while he advanced with his land forces along the coast to attack Selinus. (Diod. xiii. 54, 61.) After the fall of the latter city, we are told that Hermocrates, the Syracusan exile, who had established himself on its ruins with a numerous band of followers, laid waste the territories of Motya and Panormus (Id. xiii. 63); and again during the second expedition of the Carthaginians under Ha- milcar (B.C. 407), these two cities became the per- manent station of the Carthagiuian fleet. (Id. xiii. 88.)
It was the important position to which Motya
had thus attained that led Dionysius of Syracuse to
direct his principal efforts to its reduction, when in
B.C. 397 he in his turn invaded the Carthaginian
territory in Sicily. The citizens on the other hand,
relying on succour from Carthage, made preparations
for a vigorous resistance; and by cutting off the
causeway which united them to the mainland, com-
pelled Dionysius to have recourse to the tedious and
laborious process of constructing a mound or mole of
earth across the intervening space. Even when
this was accomplished, and the military engines of
Dionysius (among which the formidable catapult on
this occasion made its appearance for the first time)
were brought up to the walls, the Motyans continued
a desperate resistance; and after the walls and towers
were carried by the overwhelming forces of the
enemy, still maintained the defence from street to
street and from house to house. This obstinate
struggle only increased the previous exasperation of
the Sicilian Greeks against the Carthaginians; and
when at length the troops of Dionysius made themselves masters of the city, they put the whole surviving population, men, women, and children, to the
sword. (Diod. xiv. 47-53.) After this the Syracusau despot placed it in charge of a garrison under
an officer named Biton; while his brother Leptines
made it the station of his fleet. But the next
spring (B.C. 396) Himilcon, the Carthaginian general, having landed at Panormus with a very large
force, recovered possession of Motya with comparatively little difficulty. (Id. ib. 55.) That city,
however, was not destined to recover its former importance; for Himilcon, being apparently struck
with the superior advantages of Lilybaeum, founded
a new city on the promontory of that name, to which
he transferred the few remaining inhabitants of
Motya. (Diod. xxii. 10. p. 498.) From this period
the latter altogether disappears from history; and
the little islet on which it was built, has probably
ever since been inhabited only by a few fishermen.
The site of Motya, on which earlier geographers
were in much doubt, has beeu clearly identified and
described by Captain Smyth. Between the promontory of Lilybaeum (Capo Boéo) and that of
Aegithallus (S. Teodoro), the coast forms a deep
bight, in front of which lies a long group of low
rocky islets, called the Stagnone. Within these,
and considerably nearer to the mainland, lies the
small island called S. Pantaleo, on which the re-
mains of an ancient city may still be distinctly
traced. Fragments of the walls, with those of two
gateways, still exist, and coins as well as pieces of
ancient brick and pottery-the never failing indications of an ancient site are found scattered
throughout the island. The circuit of the latter
does not exceed a mile and a half, and it is inhabited only by a few fishermen ; but is not devoid of
fertility. (Smyth's Sicily, pp. 235, 236.) The confined space on which the city was built agrees
with the description of Diodorus that the houses
were lofty and of solid construction, with narrow
streets ((
Greek characters)) between them, which facilitated
the desperate defence of the inhabitants. (Diod. xiv. 48, 51.)
It is a singular fact that, though we have no
account of Motya having received any Greek po-
pulation, or fallen into the hands of the Greeks
before its conquest by Dionysius, there exist coins of
the city with the Greek legend (Greek characters).
They are, however, of great rarity, and are ap-
parently imitated from those of the neighbouring
city of Segesta. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 225.) [E. H. B.]
MOTYCA, or MUTYCA ((Greek characters), Ptol.: Eth.
Mutycensis, Cic. et Plin.: Modica), an inland town
in the SE. of Sicily, between Syracuse and Camarina. It was probably from an early period a dependency of Syracuse; and hence we meet with no
mention of its name until after the Roman conquest
of Sicily, when it became an independent municipium, and apparently a place of some consequence.
Cicero tells us that previous to the exactions of
Verres, its territory (the "ager Mutycensis") supported 187 farmers, whence it would appear to have
been at once extensive and fertile. (Cic. Verr.
iii. 43, 51.) Motyca is also mentioned among the
inland towns of the island both by Pliny and Ptolemy; and though its name is not found in the
Itineraries, it is again mentioned by the Geographer
of Ravenna. (Plin. iii. 8. § 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 14;
Geogr. Rav. v. 23.) Silius Italicus also includes it
in his list of Sicilian cities, and immediately associates it with Netum, with which it was clearly in
the same neighbourhood. (Sil. Ital. xiv. 268.)
There can be no doubt that it is represented by the
modern city of Modica, one of the largest and most
populous places in the Val di Noto. It is situated
in a deep valley, surrounded by bare limestone mountains, about 10 miles from the sea.
Ptolemy notices also a river to which he gives the
name of Motychanus ((Greek characters)), which
he places on the S. coast, and must evidently derive
its name from the city. It is either the trifling
stream now known as the Fiume di Scicli, which rises
very near Modica; or perhaps the more considerable
one, now known as Fiume di Ragusa, which flows
within a few miles of the same city. [E. H. B.]
MO'TYUM ((Greek characters)), a small town or fortress of
Sicily, in the territory of Agrigentum. It was besieged
in B. c. 451 by the Siculian chief Ducetius, and fell
into his hands after a battle in which he defeated
the Agrigentines and their allies; but was recovered
by the Agrigentines in the course of the following
summer. (Diod. xi. 91.) No other mention of it is
found, and its site is wholly unknown. [E. H. B.]
MOXOE'NE, one of the five provinces beyond the Tigris, ceded by Narses to Galerius and the
Romans, and which Sapor afterwards recovered
