Motya
MO´TYA (Μοτύη: Eth. Μοτυαῖος: S Pantaleo), a city on the W. coast of Sicily, between Drepanum and Lilybaeum. It was situated on a small island, about three quarters of a mile (six stadia) from the mainland, to which it was joined by an artificial causeway. (Diod. 14.48.) It was originally a colony of the Phoenicians, who were fond of choosing similar sites, and probably in the first instance merely a commercial station or emporium, but gradually rose to be a flourishing and important town. The Greeks, however, according to their custom, assigned it a legendary origin, and derived its name from a woman named Motya, whom they connected with the fables concerning Hercules. (Steph. B. s. v.) It passed, in common with the other Phoenician settlements in Sicily, at a later period under the government or dependency of Carthage, whence Diodorus calls it a Carthaginian colony; but it is probable that this is not strictly correct. (Thuc. 6.2; Diod. 14.47.) As the Greek colonies in Sicily increased in numbers and importance the Phoenicians gradually abandoned their settlements in the immediate neighbourhood of the new comers, and concentrated themselves in the three principal colonies of Solus, Panormus, and Motya. (Thuc. l. c.) The last of these, from its proximity to Carthage and its opportune situation for communication with Africa, as well as the natural strength of its position, became one of the chief strongholds of the Carthaginians, as well as one of the most important of their commercial cities in the island. (Diod. 14.47.) It appears to have held, in both these respects, the same position which was attained at a later period by Lilybaeum. [LILYBAEUM] Notwithstanding these accounts of its early importance and flourishing condition, the name of Motya is rarely mentioned in history until just before the period of its memorable siege. It is first mentioned by Hecataeus (ap. Steph. B. s. v. ), and Thucydides notices it among the chief colonies of the Phoenicians in Sicily, which still subsisted at the period of the Athenian expedition, B.C. 415. (Thuc. 6.2.) A few years later (B.C. 409) when the Carthaginian army under 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. 13.54, 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. 13.63); and again during the second expedition of the Carthaginians under Hamilcar (B.C. 407), these two cities became the permanent station of the Carthaginian fleet. (Id. 13.88.)
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, compelled 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. 14.47--53.) After this the Syracusan 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. 22.10. 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 been 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 remains 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 (στενωποί) between them, which facilitated the desperate defence of the inhabitants. (Diod. 14.48, 51.)
It is a singular fact that, though we have no account of Motya having received any Greek population, or fallen into the hands of the Greeks before its conquest by Dionysius, there exist coins of the city with the Greek legend ΜΟΤΥΑΙΟΝ. They are, however, of great rarity, and are apparently imitated from those of the neighbouring city of Segesta. (Eckhel, vol. 1. p. 225.) [E.H.B] COIN OF MOTYA.
(Μοτύη). An ancient town in the northwest of Sicily, situated on a small island (now S. Pantaleo) near the coast, with which it was connected by a mole. It was founded by the Phoenicians, and next belonged to the Carthaginians, who transferred its inhabitants to the town of Lilybaeum, B.C. 397 (Thuc.vi. 2).
An ancient Punic city on a small island (ca. 45 ha) less than 1 km from the nearest point of Sicily (Spagnola), but 8 km from Marsala (Capo Boeo). Historical information is slight. A well-known passage in Thucydides (6.2) relates that when the Greeks arrived in Sicily the Phoenicians retreated to Motya, Soluntum, and Palermo. On the basis of the foundation dates for the Greek colonies in Sicily, it can reasonably be assumed that Motya was founded between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 7th c. B.C. We have no exact information on the history of Motya between its foundation and its destruction in 397 B.C., which Diodoros (14:47-53) describes in great detail. It is certainly probable that Motya was involved in the major historical events that took place around Motya itself, that is, the expeditions of Pentathlos and Dorieus at the beginning and at the end of the 6th c. respectively.
About the siege and consequent destruction of the city in 397 B.C., Diodoros says that Dionysios, leaving Syracuse, moved directly against Motya because he was convinced that its conquest would be a grave blow to Carthaginian power in Sicily; from this we can infer Motya's importance in respect to the other Punic cities in Western Sicily. Diodoros tells us that Motya's survivors went to found Lilybaion. On the basis of this information it had been assumed that life ceased in Motya after its destruction, but recent excavation has shown that it continued, though on a reduced scale.
When excavation began in 1906, extensive ruins were already visible, including the N gate. Since that time there have been excavations at the site called Cappiddazzu, where a sacred structure was uncovered; also in the archaic necropolis, in the so-called House of the Mosaics, within the habitation center, and along certain stretches of the walls.
The earliest evidence for the historical period has been found in the archaic necropolis in the NW part of the island; it is composed mostly of cremation burials within amphoras placed in rock-cut pits or in large rectangular cists made of stone slabs; at a higher level there are a few inhumation burials in stone sarcophagi. Funerary goods are mostly represented by archaic Punic pottery, oinochoai, bottle-shaped vases with wide lip, various types of jugs. Sometimes imported wares are found mixed with local pottery; in the earliest phases they are mostly E Greek cups or Corinthian Geometric skiphoi, which can be dated to the end of the 8th c. B.C. This necropolis was in use until the beginning of the 6th c. B.C.; after that time, contemporary with the construction of the walls, the burials were transferred to another cemetery in Sicily called Birgi. It is probably for this purpose that the underwater causeway, still preserved and used today, was constructed to connect Motya with Birgi.
The entire perimeter of the island (ca. 2 km) is delimited by walls which may have been constructed at the beginning of the 6th c. B.C., perhaps at the time of Pentathlos' expedition. They are built with irregular, roughly squared blocks of local limestone, with the exception of short stretches built in Greek fashion with isodomic blocks of imported tufa. At more or less regular intervals the walls are reinforced by square towers and probably had four gates, of which only the N and the S gates are clearly visible; the former is flanked at the entrance by bastions set at an angle to the line of the walls. It contained six passageways which, in three pairs, controlled access to the city. The two bastions of the S gate are perfectly aligned with the course of the walls. Near this gate is the so-called kothon, a small quadrangular bay (51 x 37 m) which has been considered the island's harbor; recent excavation has shown, however, that it is a small artificial dock.
In the NW part of the island is the sacred area of Phoenician-Punic culture, the tophet, recently excavated and found well preserved; several layers of deposit dating from the 6th to the 3d c. B.C. consists of urns of different types containing the burnt remains of sacrifices. Within the tophet ca. 700 stone stelai have been found, mostly with figured decoration, together with some terracotta female masks perhaps depicting a divinity. Some stelai carry dedicatory inscriptions to Baal-Hammon.
The Cappiddazzu sanctuary is a rectangular enclosure (27.4 x 35.4 m) datable to the 6th c. B.C., within which must have stood several small shrines; inserted into one side of this enclosure, as usual in Phoenician-Punic areas, are the foundations of a large building with three naves, which certainly postdates not only the precinct wall but also the destruction of Motya in 397 B.C.
After this time also dates the section of the habitation center so far uncovered. It is composed primarily of a wide street and a few rooms that belong to a sacred complex similar to some found in Selinus and Soloeis during the 4th and 3d c. B.C.
A house which still retains the peristyle court typical of Hellenistic-Roman houses after the 4th c. B.C. is also reminiscent of Soloeis; in Motya, however, the house has a feature unique in Sicily, a mosaic floor made with black and white pebbles which, besides decorative patterns of clear Greek derivation (such as the maeander), depicts animal fights, a popular subject in the Middle and Near Eastern repertoires.
Motya minted its own coinage as early as the 5th c. B.C., with both Greek and Punic legends. The island has a museum which contains, besides various finds from Lilybaion, all the archaeological material excavated on the island itself, and is therefore one of the indispensable tools for our knowledge of Punic civilization in the Mediterranean.
BIBLIOGRAPHYJ. Whitaker, Motya. A Phoenician Colony in Sicily (1921) MPI; B. Isserlin et al., “Motya, a Phoenician-Punic site near Marsala, Sicily,” Annual of Leeds University Oriental Soc. 4 (1962-63) 84ffI; P. Cintas, “La céramique de Motyé et la date de la fondation de Carthage,” BAC (1963-64) 107ffI; A. Ciasca et al., Mozia, I-VII (1965-71) MPI; A. Tusa-Cutroni, “Mozia, monetazione e circolazione,” Mozia, III (1967) 97ffI; S. Moscati, “Iconografie fenicie a Mozia,” RStO 42 (1967) 61ffI.
V. TUSA