AETNA.
are also mentioned by Pliny among the “populi stipendiarii”
of Sicily; and the name of the city is
found both in Ptolemy and the Itiueraries, bat itB
fgakifqwftt hifrtoiy and the period of its destruction
arrnoknown.
Great donbt exists as to the site of Aetna. Strabo
tefis OS (Ti. ph. 273) that it was near CetUuripi, and
va!i the place finm whence travellers usnallj as-
cmded the mountain. But in another passage (ib.
p. 268) he expresslj sajs that it was oulj 80
£tadk from Catana. The Itin. Ant. (p. 93) jdaces
^ St 12 >I. P. from Catana, and the same distance
frm Centoript; its position between these two cities
m &rdwr oonfirroed bj Thucjdides (vi. 96). Bat
Batimh&tantfing these xmusnallj precise data, its
ruct sitnatian cannot be fixed with certainty. Si-
rOiao sntiqaaTies gmerallj place it at Sta Maria di
JJeoiia, which agrees well with the strong position
«f the c^, bat is certainly too distant from Catana.
(te the other hand S. Nicolo ddV Artna^ a convent
jast abore Niooloti, whidi is regarded by Cluverias
as tbe Hte, is too h^h Tip the mountain to have ever
been on the high road from Catana to Centuripi.
Jlimert, however, speaks of ruins at a place called
Castro^ about 2| miles N. £. frxim Paternd, on a hiU
irojeetiiig fivm the foot of the mountain, which he
j^^aids as the site of Aetna, and which would cer-
tunlr a^jte well with the requisite conditions. He
does not cite his aathority, and the spot is not de-
Mximl by any recent travdler. (Cluver. SiciL p. 123 ;
Aaiic. Lex, Topogr, Sic voL iiL p. 50; Mannert,
/fiiL ToL iL p. 293.)
There exist coins of Aetna in can»derable numbers,
bet principally of copper; they bear the name of the
feo(>k at fon, AITNAIfiN. Those of silver, which
are very rare, are similar to some of Catana, bat bear
solj die abbreviated l^end AITN. [£. H. B.]
AETNA.
CI
•f
COIN OF AETNA.
AETNA (Atmqi), a celebrated volcanic mountain
of Sicily, situated in the KE. part of the island,
adjoisii^ the sea-coast between Taoromenium and
Cataoa. It is now called by the peasantry of Sicily
MtmgSbtUoyK name compounded of the Italian MonUj
I sad the AraMc Jibelj a mountain; but is still well-
ktcmn fj the name of Etna. It is by far the loftiest
iaovntain in Sicily, rising to a height of 10,874 feet
shove the level of the sea, while its base is not less
thu 90 miles in circumference. Like most volcanic
Bt^nttains it forms a distinct and isolated mass,
hanag no real connection with the mountain groups
to the N. of it, from which it is separated by the
va&TT of the Acesines, wAlcanlaraf while its limits
« the W. and S. are defined by the river Symaethos
(the Simeto or Giarretta), and on the £. by the sea.
The Tvlcanic phenomena which it presents (xi a far
finater scale than is seen elsewhere in Europe, early
•ttrwted the attention of the ancients, and there is
scaredy any object of physical geography of which
we find more numerous and ample notices.
It is certain from geological considerations, that
^ fii5t eruptions of Aetna must have long preceded
thehistoriudera; and if any reliance could be placed
on the fact rccordod by Dlodoms (v. 6), that the
Sicauians were compelled to abandon their original
settlements in the £. part of the island in conse-
quence of the frequency and violence of these out-
btusts, we should have sufficient evidence that it was
in a state of active operation at the earliest period at
which Sicily was inhabited. It is difiicult, however,
to believe that any such tradition was reaDy pre>
served ; and it is far more probable, as related by Thu-
cydides (vi. 2), that the Sicanians were driven to the
W. portion of the island by the invasion of the Si-
celians, or Siculi : on the other hand, the silence of
Homer concerning Aetna has been frequently urged
as a proof that the mountain was not then in a state
of volcanic activity, and though it would be absurd
to infer from thence (as has been done by some au-
thors) that there had been no previous eruptions, it
may fairly be assumed that these phenomena were
not veiy fi^uent or violent in the days of the poet,
otherwise some vague rumour of them must have
reached him among the other marvels of " the far
west." But the fuime at least of Aetna, and pro-
bably its volcanic character, was known to Hesiod
(Eratosth. ap. Strab. i. p. 23), and from the time of
tiie Greek settlements in Sicily, it attracted general
attention. Pindar describes the phenomena of the
mountain in a manner equally accurate and poetical
— the streams of fire that were vomited fiirth from
its inmost recesses, and the rivers (of lava) that gave
forth only smoke in the daytime, bat in the dar^ess
assumed the appearance of sheets of crimson fire
rolling down into the deep sea. (P^A. i. 40.) Aes-
chylus also alludes distinctiy to the " rivers of fire,
devouring with their fierce jaws the smooth fields of
the fertile Sicily." (Prom. F. 368.) Great eruptions,
accompanied with streams of lava, were not, however,
fireqnent. We learn from Thucycfides (iii. 116) that
the one which he records in the sixth year of the
Peloponnesian war (b. c. 425) was only the third
which had taken place since the establishment of the
Greeks in the island. The date of the earliest is not
mentioned; the second (which is evidently the one
moreparticularlyreferred to by Pindarand Aeschylus)
took place, according to Thucydides, 50 years before
the above date, or b. c. 475 ; but it is placed by the
Parian Chronicle in the same year with the battle
of Plataea, b. c. 479. (Mann. Par. 68, ed. C. Miiller.)
The next after thkt of B.C. 425 is the one recorded by
Diodorus in b. c. 396, as having occurred shortly be-
fore that date, which had laid waste so considerable
a part of the tract between Tauroroenium and Catana,
as to render it impossible for the Carthaginian general
Mago to advance with his army along the coast.
(Diod. xiv. 59; the same eruption is noticed by
Orosios, ii. 18.) From this time we have no account
of any great outbreak till b. c. 140, when the moun-
tidn seems to have suddenly assumed a condition of
extraordinary activity, and we find no less than four
violent eruptions recorded within 20 years, viz. in b.c.
140, 135, 126, 121 ; the last of which inflicted the
most serious damage, not only on the territory but
the city of Catana. (Oros. v. 6, 10, 13; Jul. Obseq.
82, 85, 89.) Other eruptions are also mentioned as
accompanying the outbreak of the civil war between
Pompey and Caesar, b. c. 49, and immediately pre-
ceding the death of the latter, b. c. 44 (Virg. G. i,
471 ; Liv. ap. Serv. ad Virg. I c. ; Pctron. c^e B. C-
135; Lucan. i. 545), and these successive outbursts
appear to have so completely devastated the whole
tract on the eastern side of the mountain, as to have
rendered it uninhabitable and almost impassable from
