MENAENUM
MENAENUM or MENAE (Μεναί, Ptol., Steph. B. sub voce ; Μέναινον, Diod.: Eth. Μεναῖος, Steph.; but coins have Μέναινος; Menaenus, Cic.; Menaeninus, Plin.: Minéo), an inland city of Sicily, about 18 miles W. of Leontini. It was a city of the Siculi, and not a Greek colony, but, according to Diodorus, was not an ancient settlement of that people, but first founded by their king Ducetius, in B. S. 459. (Diod. 11.78.) It was situated at a distance of about 2 miles from the celebrated lake and sanctuary of the Palici [PALICORUM LACUS] (Steph. B. sub voce and Ducetius appears, a few years afterwards, to have removed the inhabitants again from his newly built city. and to have founded another, in the immediate neighbourhood of the sacred lake, to which he gave the name of Palica (Diod. 11.88, where the reading Μένας for Νέας, suggested by Cluver, and adopted by Weaseling, is at least very probable, though it is difficult to understand how Diodorus could call it the native city of Ducetius, if it had, in fact, been only founded by him.) This new city, however, was destroyed soon after the death of Ducetius (Diod. 11.90), and it is probable that the inhabitants settled again at Menaenum. The latter city, though it never attained to any great importance, continued to subsist down to a [p. 2.327]late period. There is little doubt that it is the city meant by Diodorus (14.78, where the editions have Σμένεον, a name certainly corrupt), which Was reduced by Dionysius In B.C. 396, together with Morgantia and other cities of the Siculi. It is mentioned more than once by Cicero among the muni cipal towns of Sicily, and seems to have been a tolerably flourishing place, the inhabitants of which carried on agriculture to a considerable extent. (Cic. Ver. 3.22, 43.) It is enumerated also by Silius Italicus among the cities of Sicily, and by Pliny among the stipendiary towns of that island, and its name is found also in Ptolemy. (Sil. Ital. 14.266; Plin. Nat. 3.8. s, 14; Ptol. 3.4.13.) This is the last notice of it that occurs; but there is no doubt that the modern town of Minéo retains the name, and probably the site, of Menaenum. It is situated on a lofty hill forming part of a range which sweeps round from Palagonia to Caltagirone, and forms the boundary of a deep basin, in the centre of which is a small plain, with the volcanic lake now called Lago di Naftia, which is unquestionably the ancient Lacus Palicorum. No ruins are now extant at Minéo; but the coins of Menaenum, which are numerous, though only of copper, attest the consideration which it anciently enjoyed. |
| COIN OF MENAENUM. |
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