Megara Hyblaea

▪ ancient city, Sicily, Italy

      ancient city on the east coast of Sicily, 12 miles (19 km) north of Syracuse, founded about 728 BC by colonists from Megara in Attica. In 628 the city established a colony at Selinus but in 483 was destroyed by the Syracusan leader Gelon. The city had a brief independent existence in the 4th century BC, when it issued coinage, but is heard of mainly as a fortified place.

      Excavations begun in 1891 revealed part of the town wall, an extensive cemetery, and a deposit of votive objects from a temple built over the ditch enclosing a Late Neolithic village of the Stentinello period. Part of the inhabited area was uncovered in post-1949 digs, throwing much light on the earliest years of the city.

* * *