Selinus
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- A town on the coast of Sicily, near Lilybaeum, now Pileri: palmosa, Verg. A. 3, 705; Sil. 14, 201.—Hence,
- 1 Sĕlīnūsĭus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Selinus, Selinusian: creta, Vitr. 7, 14; Plin. 35, 6, 27, § 46; 35, 16, 56, § 194.—
- 2 Sĕlīnuntĭi, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Selinus, Plin. 3, 8, 14, § 91.—
- II A town on the coast of Cilicia, now Selinty, Plin. 5, 27, 22, § 92; Liv. 33, 20, 5.—Also, a river near it of the same name, Luc. 8, 260.
- 1. door Megara gestichte Gr. stad aan de zuidwestkust v. Sicilië, nu Selinunte;
- 2. stad aan de Cilicische kust, nu Gazipaşa; / adj. Selīnūsius, a, um.
(Σελινοῦς), a son of Poseidon, was king of Aegialos and father of Helice. (Paus. 7.1.2; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 292.) [L.S]
SELI´NUS (Σελινοῦς)
1.A village in the north of Laconia, described by Pausanias as 20 stadia from Geronthrae; but as Pausanias seems not to have visited this part of Laconia, the distances may not be correct. Leake, therefore, places Selinus at the village of Kosmas, which lies further north of Geronthrae than 20 stadia, but where there are remains of ancient tombs. (Paus. 3.22.8; Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 363; Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 97; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. 2. p. 304.)
2.A river in the Triphylian Elis, near Scillus. [SCILLUS]
3.A river in Achaia. [ACHAIA 13b. No. 6.]
SELI´NUS (Σελινοῦς: Eth. Σελωούντιος, Selinuntius: Ru. at Torre dei Pulci), one of the most important of the Greek colonies in Sicily, situated on the SW. coast of that island, at the mouth of the small river of the same name, and 4 miles W. of that of the Hypsas (Belïci). It was founded, as we learn from Thucydides, by a colony from the Sicilian city of Megara, or Megara Hyblaea, under the conduct of a leader named Pammilus, about 100 years after the settlement of that city, with the addition of a fresh body of colonists from the parent city of Megara in Greece. (Thuc. 6.4, 7.57; Scymn. Ch. 292; Strab. 6. p. 272.) The date of its foundation cannot be precisely fixed, as Thucydides indicates it only by reference to that of the Sicilian Megara, which is itself not accurately known, but it may be placed about B.C. 628. Diodorus indeed would place it 22 years earlier, or B.C. 650, and Hieronymus still further back, B.C. 654; but the date given by Thucydides, which is probably entitled to the most confidence, is incompatible with this earlier epoch. (Thuc. 6.4; Diod. 13.59; Hieron. Chron. ad ann. 1362; Clinton, Fast. Hell. vol. 1. p. 208.) The name is supposed to have been derived from the quantities of wild parsley (σελινὸς) which grew on the spot; and for the same reason a leaf of this parsley was adopted as the symbol of their coins.
Selinus was the most westerly of the Greek colonies in Sicily, and for this reason was early brought into contact and collision with the Carthaginians and the barbarians in the W. and NW. of the island. The former people, however, do not at first seem to have offered any obstacle to their progress; but as early as B.C. 580 we find the Selinuntines engaged in hostilities with the people of Segesta (a non-Hellenic city), whose territory bordered on their own. (Diod. 5.9). The arrival of a body of emigrants from Rhodes and Cnidus who subsequently founded Lipara, and who lent their assistance to the Segestans, for a time secured the victory to that people; but disputes and hostilities seem to have been of frequent occurrence between the two cities, aud it is probable that in B.C. 454, when Diodorus speaks of the Segestans as being at war with the Lilybaeans (11.86), that the Selinuntines are the people really meant. [LILYBAEUM] The river Mazarus, which at that time appears to have formed the boundary between the two states, was only about 15 miles W. of Selinus; and it is certain that at a somewhat later period the territory of Selinus extended to its banks, and that that city had a fort and emporium at its mouth. (Diod. 13.54.) On the other side its territory certainly extended as far as the Halycus or Salso, at the mouth of which it had founded the colony of Minoa, or Heracleia, as it was afterwards termed. (Hdt. 5.46.) It is evident, therefore, that Selinus had early attained to great power and prosperity; but we have very little information as to its history, We learn, however, that, like most of the Sicilian cities, it had passed from an oligarchy to a despotism, and about B.C. 510 was subject to a despot named Peithagoras, from whom the citizens were freed by the assistance of the Spartan Euryleon, one of the companions of Dorieus: and thereupon Euryleon himself, for a short time, seized on the vacant sovereignty, but was speedily overthrown and put to death by the Selinuntines. (Hdt. 5.46.) We are ignorant of the causes which led the Selinuntines to abandon the cause of the other Greeks, and take part with the Carthaginians during the great expedition of Hamilcar, B.C. 480; but we learn that they had even promised to send a contingent to the Carthaginian army, which, however did not arrive till after its defeat. (Diod. 11.21, 13.55.) The Selinuntines are next mentioned in B.C. 466, as co-operating with the other free cities of Sicily in assisting the Syracusans to expel Thrasybulus (Id. 11.68); and there is every reason to suppose that they fully shared in the prosperity of the half century that followed, a period of tranquillity and opulence for most of the Greek cities in Sicily. Thucydides speaks of Selinus just before the Athenian expedition as a powerful and wealthy city, possessing great resources for war both by land and sea, and having large stores of wealth accumulated in its temples. (Thuc. 6.20.) Diodorus also represents it at the time of the Carthaginian invasion, as having enjoyed a long period of tranquillity, and possessing a numerous population. (Diod. 13.55.)
In B.C. 416, a renewal of the old disputes between Selinus and Segesta became the occasion of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily. The Selinuntines were the first to call in the powerful aid of Syracuse, and thus for a time obtained the complete advantage over their enemies, whom they were able to blockade both by sea and land; but in this extremity the Segestans had recourse to the assistance of Athens. (Thuc. 6.6; Diod. 12.82.) Though the Athenians do not appear to have taken any measures for the immediate relief of Segesta, it is probable that the Selinuntines and Syracusans withdrew their forces at once, as we hear no more of their operations against Segesta. Nor does Selinus bear any important part in the war of which it was the immediate occasion. Nicias indeed proposed, when the expedition first arrived in Sicily (B.C. 415); that they should proceed at once to Selinus and compel that city to submit on moderate terms (Thuc. 6.47); but this advice being overruled, the efforts of the armament were directed against Syracuse, and the Selinuntines in consequence bore but a secondary part in the subsequent operations. They are, however, mentioned on several occasions as furnishing auxiliaries to the Syracusans; and it was at Selinus that the large Peloponnesian force sent to the support of Gylippus landed in the spring of 413, having been driven over to the coast of Africa by a tempest. (Thuc. 7.50, 58; Diod. 13.12.)
The defeat of the Athenian armament left the Segestans apparently at the mercy of their rivals; they in vain attempted to disarm the hostility of the Selinuntines by ceding without further contest the frontier district which had been the original subject of dispute. But the Selinuntines were not satisfied with this concession, and continued to press them with fresh aggressions, for protection against which they sought assistance from Carthage. This was, after some hesitation, accorded them, and a small force sent over at once, with the assistance of which the Segestans were able to defeat the Selinuntines in a battle. (Diod. 13.43, 44.) But not content with this, the Carthaginians in the following spring (B.C. 409) sent over a vast army amounting, according to the lowest estimate, to 100,000 men, with which Hannibal (the grandson of Hamilcar that was killed at Himera) landed at Lilybaeum, and from thence marched direct to Selinus. The Selinuntines were wholly unprepared to resist such a force; so little indeed had they expected it that the fortifications of their city were in many places out of repair, and the auxiliary force which had been promised by Syracuse as well as by Agrigentum and Gela, was not yet ready, and did not arrive in time. The Selinuntines, indeed, defended themselves with the courage of despair, and even after the walls were carried, continued the contest from house to house; but the overwhelming numbers of the enemy rendered all resistance hopeless; and after a siege of only ten days the city was taken, and the greater part of the defenders put to the sword. Of the citizens of Selinus we are told that 16,000 were slain, 5000 made prisoners, and 2600 under the command of Empedion escaped to Agrigentum. (Diod. 13.54--59.) Shortly after Hannibal destroyed the walls of the city, but gave permission to the surviving inhabitants to return and occupy it, as tributaries of Carthage, an arrangement which was confirmed by the treaty subsequently concluded between Dionysius and the Carthaginians, in B.C. 405. (Id. 13.59, 114.) In the interval a considerable number of the survivors and fugitives had been brought together by Hermocrates, and established within its walls. (Ib. 63.)
There can be no doubt that a considerable part of the citizens of Selinus availed themselves of this permission, and that the city continued to subsist under the Carthaginian dominion; but a fatal blow had been given to its prosperity, which it undoubtedly never recovered. The Selinuntines are again mentioned in B.C. 397 as declaring in favour of Dionysius during his war with Carthage (Diod. 14.47); but both the city and territory were again given up to the Carthaginians by the peace of 383 (Id. 15.17); and though Dionysius recovered possession of it by arms shortly before his death (Id. 15.73), it is probable that it soon again lapsed under the dominion of Carthage. The Halycus, which was established as the eastern boundary of the Carthaginian dominion in Sicily by the treaty of 383, seems to have generally continued to be so recognised, notwithstanding temporary interruptions; and was again fixed as their limit by the treaty with Agathocles in B.C. 314. (Id. 19.71.) This last treaty expressly stipulated that Selinus, as well as Heracleia and Himera, should continue subject to Carthage, as before. In B.C. 276, however, during the expedition of Pyrrhus to Sicily, the Selinuntines voluntarily submitted to that monarch, after the capture of Heracleia. (Id. 22.10. Exc. H. p. 498.) During the First Punic War we again find Selinus subject to Carthage, and its territory was repeatedly the theatre of military operations between the contending powers. (Id. 23.1, 21; Plb. 1.39.) But before the close of the war (about B.C. 250), when the Carthaginians were beginning to contract their operations, and confine themselves to the defence of as few points as possible, they removed all the inhabitants of Selinus to Lilybaeum and destroyed the city. (Diod. 24.1. Exc. H. p. 506.)
It seems certain that it was never rebuilt. Pliny indeed, mentions its name ( Selinus oppidum,3 .8. s. 14), as if it was still existing as a town in his time, but Strabo distinctly classes it with the cities which were wholly extinct; and Ptolemy, though he mentions the river Selinus, has no notice of a town of the name. (Strab. 6. p. 272; Ptol. 3.4.5.) The THERMAE SELINUNTIAE, which derived their name from the ancient city, and seem to have been much frequented in the time of the Romans, were situated at a considerable distance from Selinus, being undoubtedly the same as those now existing at Sciacca: they are sulphureous springs, still much valued for their medical properties, and dedicated, like most thermal waters in Sicily,--to St. Calogero. At a later period they were called the Aquae Labodes or Larodes, under which name they appear in the Itineraries. (Itin. Ant. p. 89; Tab. Peut. ) They are there placed 40 miles W. of Agrigentum, and 46 from Lilybaeum; distances which agree well with the position of Sciacca. This is distant about 20 miles to the E. of the ruins of Selinus.
The site of the ancient city is now wholly desolate, with the exception of a solitary guardhouse, and the ground is for the most part thickly overgrown with shrubs and low brushwood; but the remains of the walls can be distinctly traced throughout a great part of their circuit. They occupied the summit of a low hill, directly abutting on the sea, and bounded on the W. by the marshy valley through which flows the river Madiuni, the ancient Selinus; on the E. by a smaller valley or depression, also traversed by a small marshy stream, which separates it from a hill of similar character, where the remains of the principal temples are still visible. The space enclosed by the existing walls is of small extent, so that it is probable the city in the days of its greatness must have covered a considerable area without them: and it has been supposed by some writers that the present line of walls is that erected by Hermocrates when he restored the city after its destruction by the Carthaginians. (Diod. 13.63.) No trace is, however, found of a more extensive circuit, though the remains of two lines of wall, evidently connected with the port, are found in the small valley E. of the city. Within the area surrounded by the walls are the remains of three temples, all of the Doric order, and of an ancient style; none of them are standing, but the foundations of them all remain, together with numerous portions of columns and other architectural fragments, sufficient to enable us to restore the plan and design of all three without difficulty. The largest of them (marked C. on the plan) is 230 feet long by 85 feet broad, and has 6 columns in front and 18 in length, a very unusual proportion. All these are hexastyle and peripteral. Besides these three temples there is a small temple or Aedicula (marked B.), of a different plan, but also of the Doric order. No other remains of buildings, beyond mere fragments and foundations, can be traced within the walls; but the outlines of two large edifices, built of squared stones and in a massive style, are distinctly traceable outside the walls, near the NE, and NW. angles of the city, though we have no clue to their nature or purpose.
But much the most remarkable of the ruins at PLAN OF SELINUS.
PLAN OF SELINUS., A C D. Temples within the city.
B. Small temple or aedicula in the city.
E F G. Great temples without the city.
H M. Remains of edifices outside the walls.
N. River Selinus, now the Madiuni.
Selinus are those of three temples on the hill to the E., which do not appear to have been included in the city, but, as was often the case, were built on this neighbouring eminence, so as to front the city itself. All these temples are considerably larger than any of the three above described; and the most northerly of them is one of the largest of which we have any remains. It had 8 columns in front and 17 in the sides, and was of the kind called pseudo-dipteral. Its length was 359 feet, and its breadth 162, so that it was actually longer than the great temple of Jupiter Olympius at Agrigentum, though not equal to it in breadth. From the columns being only partially fluted, as well as from other signs, it is clear that it never was completed; but all the more important parts of the structure were finished, and it must have certainly been one of the most imposing fabrics in antiquity. Only three of the columns are now standing, and these imperfect; but the whole area is filled up with a heap of fallen masses, portions of columns, capitals, &c., and other huge architectural fragments, all of the most massive character, and forming, as observed by Swinburne, one of the most gigantic and sublime ruins imaginable.T he two other temples are also prostrate, but the ruins have fallen with such regularity that the portions of almost every column lie on the ground as they have fallen; and it is not only easy to restore the plan and design of the two edifices, but it appears as if they could be rebuilt with little difficulty. These temples, though greatly inferior to their gigantic neighbour, were still larger than that at Segesta, and even exceed the great temple of Neptune at Paestum; so that the three, when standing, must have presented a spectacle unrivalled in antiquity. All these buildings may be safely referred to a period anterior to the Carthaginian conquest (B.C. 409), though the three temples last described appear to have been all of them of later date than those within the walls of the city. This is proved, among other circumstances, by the sculptured metopes, several of which have been discovered and extricated from among the fallen fragments. Of these sculptures, those which belonged to the temples within the walls, present a very peculiar and archaic style of art, and are universally recognised as among the earliest extant specimens of Greek sculpture. (They are figured by Müller, Denkmäler, pl. 4, 5, as well as in many other works, and casts of them are in the British Museum.) Those, on the contrary, which have been found among the ruins of the temple marked E. on the opposite hill, are of a later and more advanced style, though still retaining considerable remains of the stiffness of the earliest art. Besides the interest attached to these Selinuntine metopes from their important bearing on the history of Greek sculpture, the remains of these temples are of value as affording the most unequivocal testimony to the use of painting, both for the architectural decoration of the temples, and as applied to the sculptures with which they were adorned. A very full and detailed account of the ruins at Selinus is given in the Duke of Serra di Falco's Antichità Siciliane, vol. ii., from which the preceding plan is derived. A more general description of them will be found in Swinburne's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 242--245; Smyth's Sicily, pp. 219--221; and other works on Sicily in general.
The coins of Selinus are numerous and various. The earliest, as already mentioned, bear merely the figure of a parsley-leaf on the obverse. Those of somewhat later date (including the one figured below) represent a figure sacrificing on an altar, which is consecrated to Aesculapius, as indicated by the cock which stands below it. The subject of this type evidently refers to a story related by Diogenes Laertius (Diog. Laert. 8.2.11) that the Selinuntines were afflicted with a pestilence from the marshy character of the lands adjoining the neighbouring river, but that this was cured by works of drainage, suggested by Empedocles. The figure standing on the coin is the river-god Selinus, which was thus made conducive to the salubrity of the city. COIN OF SELINUS
[E.H.B]SELI´NUS (Σελινοῦς: Eth. Σελινούντιος or Σελινούσιος: Selenti), a port-town on the west coast of Cilicia, at the mouth of a small river of the same name, which is now called Selenti. (Scylax, p. 40; Liv. 33.20; Strab. 14. p. 682; Ptol. 5.8.2, 8.17.42; Plin. Nat. 5.22.) This town is memorable in history as the place where, in A.D. 117, the emperor Trajan is said by some authors to have died (Dio Cass.). After this event the place for a time bore the name of Trajanopolis; but its bishops afterwards are called bishops of Selinus. (Hierocl. p. 709.) Basil of Seleucia (Vita S. Theclae, 2.17) describes the place as reduced to a state of insignificance in his time, though it had once been a great commercial town. (Comp. Stadiasm. Mar. Mag. § § 203, 204; Lucan (Luc. 8.260; Chron. Paschale, p. 253.) Selinus was situated on a precipitous rock, surrounded on almost every side by the sea, by which position it was rendered almost impregnable. The whole of the rock, however, was not included in the ancient line of fortifications; inside the walls there still are many traces of houses, but on the outside, and between the foot of the hill and the river, the remains of some large buildings are yet standing, which appear to be a mausoleum, an agora, a theatre, an aqueduct, and some tombs (Beaufort, Karamania, p. 186, fell.)
Respecting the small river Selinus, flowing by Pergamum, see PERGAMUM p. 575.
[L.S](Σελινοῦς). (1) A small river on the southwestern coast of Sicily, flowing by the town of the same name.
(2) Now Crestena, a river of Elis, in the district Triphylia, near Scillus, flowing into the Alpheus west of Olympia.
(3) Now Vostitza, a river of Achaia, rising in Mount Erymanthus.
(4) A tributary of the Caicus, in Mysia, flowing by the town of Pergamum.
(5) Now Castel Vetrano, one of the most important towns in Sicily, situated upon a hill on the southwestern coast and upon a river of the same name. It was founded by the Dorians from Megara Hyblaea, on the eastern coast of Sicily, B.C. 628. It soon attained great prosperity; but it was taken by the Carthaginians in 409, when most of its inhabitants were slain or sold as slaves and the greater part of the city destroyed. The ruins of the ancient city are of great extent and magnificence, the temple of Zeus being one of the largest of which remains still exist.
(6) Now Selenti, a town in Cilicia, situated on the coast.
An ancient city on the S coast of Sicily, ca. 12 km S of Castelvetrano and approximately 40 km W of Sciacca. The river Modione (Selino) forms its W border, the river Cottone (Calici) its E border. The city had for the S part of Sicily the same function that Himera had for the N: it was an outpost of Greek civilization against W Sicily which was inhabited by Phoenicians and Elymi. It was founded by the Megarians who had arrived a century earlier from Megara Nysaia in Greece, and had founded Megara Hyblaia in the vicinity of modern Augusta. The location was selected for its strategic position: a hill jutting into the sea between two rivers, both of which were ideal for debarkation and provided excellent penetration routes toward the interior.
The colonists from Megara Hyblain were led by the oikistes Pammylos, who came expressly for this assignment from the mother city in Greece (Thuc. 1.24.2; Diod. 13.59.4). Disagreement in the sources on the foundation date (Thuc. 628-627B.C.; Diod. 651 B.C.) has been settled by recent studies and excavations which specify that Selinus was founded 651-650 B.C. The colonists almost certainly found the territory occupied by small settlements of indigenous populations, perhaps of Sikan origin; recent finds indicate the presence of such settlements at least as early as the beginning of the Bronze Age.
On the strength of its position, Selinus rapidly became a large and powerful city and the major protagonist in the history of W Sicily, from the 6th c. until its destruction in 409 B.C. It soon promoted a movement of expansion to the N, which caused inevitable conflict with the Elymi of Segesta and the Phoenicians of Motya. This expansion, perhaps during a later phase, pointed also toward the E, where the colony of Herakleia Minoa was founded (Her. 5.46). Despite its frequent struggles with the Elymi and the Phoenicians in Sicily, Selinus almost always managed to stay on good terms with Carthage. This permitted long periods of peace and the attainment of extraordinary prosperity, such as it must have enjoyed after Pentathlos' expedition (580 B.C.) and until the first battle of Himera (480 B.C.). Building activity in this period outstripped that in every other Greek city in Sicily, and at Olympia the city erected a treasury containing a chryselephantine statue of Dionysos (Paus. 6.19.6).
Selinus maintained good relationships with Carthage even after the first battle of Himera when the Carthaginians were defeated by Syracuse and Akragas. It even housed Giskon, whose father Hamilcar had died at Himera (Diod. 13.43.5). However, this friendship with Carthage did not prevent Selinus from espousing the Greek cause on occasion (Diod. 11.68.1) for although the aristocratic party promoted the alliance with Carthage, the democratic party favored alliance with the Greeks. These two parties, alternating in political power presumably account for the city's shifts in international policy.
In 409 B.C. Selinus was destroyed by Carthage (Diod. 13.54-59) in a battle that marked the end of the city's power. The Syracusan general Hermokrates tried to recapture it soon afterwards, and for this purpose hastily rebuilt the city walls (Diod. 13.63.3), but he failed. From then on Selinus lived poorly under Carthaginian political control until, during the first Punic war, in the middle of the 3d c. B.C., it was again destroyed and definitely abandoned. Small groups of people settled there both in Christian-Byzantine times and in the Arab period; afterwards the name itself was lost, and the site came to be known as Casale degli Idoli or Terra di Pulci. The site was identified by Fazello (De Rebus Siculis [Palermo 1558] 146ff).
The archaeological investigation of Selinus began during the early 1800's when the three famous metopes were found in the area of Temple C. Since that time investigation has continued but no excavation has been carried out in the area of the ancient city. The city as a whole comprises the following zones: A) the acropolis; B) the ancient city; C) Temples on the E hill; D) Malophoros Sanctuary; E) the necropoleis.
A) The acropolis. The Megarian colonists leveled the hill before building the first structures and surrounding them with a circuit wall of which traces have been found. Later on (perhaps late 6th-early 5th c. B.C.), building on the acropolis was augmented and surrounded by the fortifications that are still visible today, including the sloping stretch near the modern entrance to the ruins. After the defeat in 409 B.C., the surviving inhabitants retreated within the acropolis. To this last phase (4th-3d c. B.C.) belong the houses visible today as well as the urban system, which probably utilized some of the earlier streets or repeated the alignment of some earlier buildings, but the city plan at present evident on the acropolis should, as a whole, be attributed to the Carthaginian phase of the city. The structures belonging to this period present all the characteristics of Punic settlements at that time: ladder masonry, sacred areas of the Punic type in every block, symbols of Tanit on the house floors, coins and movable objects found on the dirt-paved streets and in the houses; an earlier building was perhaps dismantled and its material re-employed in the new constructions.
Since the acropolis is still largely unexcavated, it is difficult to distinguish clearly between what predated and what followed the Carthaginian occupation. Starting from the S, the first identifiable structure is Temple O, of which only the foundations remain. It is quite similar, even in dimensions, to Temple A a short distance to the N; it is hexastyle with pronaos and opisthodomos in antis. Temple A is peripteral, with 6 by 14 columns; its stylobate measures 40.23 by 16.23 m. It can be dated, together with Temple O, between 490 and 480 B.C. On the E side the altar connected with the temple has recently been uncovered; both temples were utilized as a fortress during the mediaeval period; to this purpose they were joined, and could provide a well-fortified tower projecting on the S side.
On the axis of Temple A, 34 m to the E, lies a T-shaped structure fronted by a porch (13.1 x 5.6 m); it is a propylon leading into the sacred area of Temples A and O and dates after 480 B.C.
Crossing the road that runs E-W, one enters an area containing the ruins of perhaps the earliest sacred buildings on the acropolis, with the exception of the small Temple B, perhaps dedicated to Empedokles, the Akragan philosopher and scientist who, according to Diogenes Laertius (8.70), had drained the Selinuntine marshes. It is a small building (8.4 x 4.6 m) of the Hellenistic period (perhaps as early as the 4th c.), a tetrastyle prostyle aedicula with pronaos and cella located on a natural rise of the terrain and accessible on the E by means of nine steps. Its entablature carried traces of color.
Temple C, built on the highest point of the acropolis during the first half of the 6th c. B.C., 15 hexastyle peripteral with 17 columns on the sides; 14 columns of the N side were re-erected in 1925-26 together with portions of the entablature. The early date of this building is attested not only by its very elongated plan, but also by the fact that monolithic columns were at first employed on the S and E sides; moreover the columns taper from bottom to top. The stylobate measures 63.7 x 24 m; the cella building comprised an adyton, a long and narrow cella, and a pronaos. The triglyph frieze carried carved metopes and was surmounted by a cornice revetted with polychrome terracotta slabs; two gorgoneia, also of painted terracotta, decorated both pediments of the temple, one of which has been reconstructed at full scale in the Palermo Museum. On the temple roof, the ridge pole was covered by the kalypteres also of polychrome terracotta. Of the two large altars the earlier lies to the SE; the later is in front of the temple to the E. The area in front of Temple C must have been the Hellenistic agora. Just to the N is Temple D, built around the middle of the 6th c. B.C. It is hexastyle peripteral, with 13 columns on the sides and a stylobate of 56 by 24 m. Its plan includes a prostyle porch, pronaos, cella, and adyton. Near the SE corner are the remains of a sacrificial altar, diagonal to the temple axis. Not far from the NE corner of Temple D are the foundations of a rectangular structure whose early archaic date can be inferred from its very elongated plan.
The whole acropolis is surrounded by walls that represent the largest fortification complex in the whole of Greek Sicily, second only to the Euryalos castle in Syracuse. Since the walls of Selinus have never been studied in their entirety, the following description is based on superficial observation. Various repairs can easily be recognized, and the most important are the work of Hermokrates; to his rebuilding also should be attributed the two round towers on the N and W, which reused materials from earlier temples. Blocks from the same buildings were, however, reused in several other places and in greatest number within the small N chambers. This demonstrates that at least some temples had collapsed after the battle in 409, a fact hinted at by Diodoros' description of the battle itself (13.54-59). Only two gates survive, the one to the W and the more important one on the N side, which connected the acropolis with the city. There are many postern gates, both on the E and W sides, several of them blocked. Several square towers dot the circuit of the walls on all sides; one of them has recently yielded two archaic metopes probably reused by Hermokrates.
B) Ancient city. To the N of the acropolis, on the hill called Manuzza, stood the city proper, also surrounded by walls of which only traces remain; its street pattern has recently been identified through aerial photography. There have been no excavations.
C) Temples on the E Hill. At a certain moment in the city's history, for reasons as yet unknown, the Selinuntines built three temples on the hill to the W of the city and acropolis, beyond the river Cottone. These must have been built about the middle of the 6th c. B.C. since this is the date given to the earliest of the three temples, Temple F. This building, the smallest of the three, has a stylobate measuring 61.83 by 24.43 m and lies between the other two. It was hexastyle with 14 columns on the sides; its plan includes a pronaos, cella, and adyton, but no opisthodomos. Its metopes, like all the others, are now in the Palermo Museum.
To the S lies Temple E; it belongs to the best phase of Doric construction, the phase that is usually called developed Doric and is generally dated 480-460 B.C. It is hexastyle peripteral with 15 columns to the side and was probably set within a temenos, as suggested by a recently discovered wall. Its plan comprises pronaos, cella, adyton, and opisthodomos in antis, its stylobate measures 67.82 by 25.33 m; in the adyton stands the base for the cult statue of the patron deity, probably Hera. The pronaos frieze carried sculpted metopes, four of which are in the Palermo Museum. The building has been recently restored.
Temple G is one of the largest temples of antiquity: its stylobate measures 110.36 by 50.10 m and its columns are 16.27 m high with a diameter of 3.41 m. The building was never completed, probably because it was still unfinished at the time of the city's destruction in 409 B.C.; it must have been started at the beginning of that century. Either because the length of the period it was under construction allowed for various changes and modernizations or because its proportions favored the expression of the architects' imagination, this temple presents peculiarities not found in other Doric temples. It was hypaethral since the central nave was left unroofed; the vast cella had three doors corresponding to the three inner naves formed by two rows of ten monolithic columns in two tiers. The stone to build this temple came from the quarries of Cusa, which are ca. 9 km NW of Selinus as the crow flies. These quarries are still in the condition in which they were when the work was suspended and one finds there some partly cut column drums that correspond in dimensions to the columns of Temple G; the stone, moreover, is the same.
D) Sanctuary of the Malophoros. Scarcely more than a km separates the acropolis and the city from this structure, which lies to the W beyond the river Modione (Selinos). The dedication of the sanctuary is indicated by various inscriptions and by several thousand terracotta statuettes depicting a goddess with a pomegranate. The sanctuary is quadrangular (50 x 60 m) with a precinct wall encompassing several interior structures. The main building is shaped like a megaron and is dedicated to the major divinity, the Malophoros, perhaps to be equated with Demeter; in front of it lies a large rectangular altar. Within the peribolos is a smaller shrine dedicated to Zeus Meilichios where the famous twin stelai depicting a god and a goddess were uncovered; they belong to the Punic phase. There is also a Hekataion. This is obviously a sanctuary dedicated to the chthonian deities. The temenos was entered through the propylaia, which seem to have been remodeled during the Punic period; at that time the sanctuary was still in use, and even later, during the Byzantine phase, when the main megaron was adapted to a new function. The earliest evidence from this site goes back to the middle of the 7th c. B.C., and is thus contemporary with the earliest finds from the acropolis at Selinus, but here the aspect both of the buildings and of the divinities worshiped suggest that this sanctuary served not only for Greek Selinus but also for other neighboring centers inhabited by peoples of different origins.
Near the sanctuary a spring, which is still flowing, may have been the reason for the erection of the temenos in this area.
E) Necropoleis. The cemeteries attributed to Selinus lie E and W of the river Modione. Those to the E are the necropoleis of Galera-Bagliazzo and Buffa; those to the W, Manicalunga-Timpone Nero, Bresciana, and Pipio. There are several tens of thousands of graves, both cremation and inhumation: built graves, tile graves (a cappuccina), earth cists. The cemeteries E of the Modione may be dated as early as the mid 7th c. B.C.; those to the W, no earlier than the 6th. The latter extend as far as 5 km from the city, with the added obstacle of the river crossing and therefore may belong to another settlement not yet found.
This was the only Greek city of Sicily to have decorated its temples with sculptures (Palermo Museum). They belong to at least four periods, extending from the end of the 7th to the middle of the 5th c. B.C. Although they are all Classical Greek sculptures, certain aspects are obviously local and prevent exact classification within any of the known categories. A clear example of what might be called Sicilian, is the bronze statue of the so-called Ephebe, which dates to the beginning of the 5th c. B.C.
It has been hazarded that the temples were dedicated to the following divinities: Shrine of the small metopes to Apollo, Leto, and Artemis. For the three temples replacing this small temple—Temple C to Apollo, Temple A to Leto, and Temple O to Artemis; Temple G is attributed to Zeus; Temple F to Athena; Temple E to Hera, and Temple D to Aphrodite.
Selinus had its own mint and some coins carry the device of the wild celery, which gave the city its name.
BIBLIOGRAPHYM. Santangelo, Selinunte (1961) (J. M. Bovio) with previous bibliographyMPI; EAA 7 (1966) MPI; E. Gabrici, “Studi archeologici selinuntini,” MonAnt 43 (1956) MPI; G. Vallet & F. Villard, “La date de fondation de Selinonte: les données archéologiques,” BCH (1958) 16ffI; A. Di Vita, “Le stele puniche del recinto di Zeus Meilichios a Selinunte,” Atti del Convegno di Studi Annibalici (1964) 238ff; id., “Per l'architettura e la urbanistica di età greca arcaica: la stoà del temenos del tempio C e lo sviluppo programmato di Selinunte,” Palladio (1967) 3ffPI; C. Kerényi, “Le divinità e i templi di Selinunte,” Kokalos 12 (1966) 3ff; V. Tusa, “Aree sacrificali a Selinunte e a Solunto,” Mozia, II (1966) 143ffPI; id., “Le divinità e i templi di Selinunte,” Kokalos 13 (1967) 186ff; id., “Due nuove metope arcaiche da Selinunte,” ArchCl 21 (1969) 153ffI; id., “Tombe della necropoli di Selinunte,” Sicilia Archeologica 11 (1970) 11ffI; id. “Le necropoli di Selinunte,” Odéon (1971) 177ffPI; D. White, “The post-classical cult of Malophoros at Selinus,” AJA 71 (1967) 335ffI.
V. TUSA- its occupation by one of Dorieus' followers: Hdt. 5.46
- destroyed by Carthaginians: Paus. 6.19.10
- people of S. dedicate treasury at Olympia: Paus. 6.19.10
- Paus. 7.1.3
- Paus. 7.24.5
- Paus. 5.6.6
- Paus. 3.22.8