Editing Licata (section)

=== Ancient ===

The settlement was frequented by the Phoenicians who traded there between the 12th and 8th centuries BC. At the end of the 7th century BC the Geloi (inhabitants of ancient Gela, in [[Magna Graecia]]) built a fortified station to guard the mouth of the [[Salso]] (''Himera'') river. In the first half of 6th century BC [[Phalaris]], tyrant of [[Agrigento]], built a fortified outpost.

The first settlement was probably<ref>Attested by chance finds of Corinthian, Ionic, and Geloan pottery and figurines, now in the museums of Palermo and Agrigento (Stillwell).</ref> founded by colonists from Gela.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:id=phintias The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Phintias]</ref>

At the [[Battle of the Himera River (311 BC)]] near the town, [[Agathocles of Syracuse|Agothocles]] was beaten by the Carthaginians and the town fell into their hands.

The city itself was re-founded on the right bank of the Salso in 282 BC, by [[Phintias of Agrigentum|Phintias]], tyrant of [[Agrigentum]], who named it for himself (Phintias), after razing the city of [[Gela]] and resettling its population here.<ref>Diod. xxii. 2, p. 495.</ref> As late as the 1st century BC, inscriptions and coins show that the inhabitants retained the name ''Geloi''. 

Phintias was laid out on a great scale, with walls, temples and an [[agora]]. The setting took advantage of a small natural harbour, about {{convert|80|m|ft}} across, in a bay on the coast that is now infilled. The site was protected by the headland now named Monte San Michele. Phintias, however, never rose to the importance of Gela.

At nearby Cape Ecnomus, in 256 BC the [[Roman Republic|Romans]] won the [[Battle of Cape Ecnomus]] in the [[First Punic War]] and freed the city from the Carthaginians. In 249 BC it afforded shelter to a [[ancient Rome|Roman]] fleet which was, however, attacked by the [[Carthage|Carthaginians]] and many of the ships sunk.<ref>Diod. xxiv. 1, p. 508.</ref> [[Cicero]] also alludes to it as a seaport, carrying on a considerable export trade in corn.<ref>Cicero ''[[In Verrem]]'' iii. 8. 3.</ref> 

Under the Romans Phintias became a large commercial emporium. But in [[Strabo]]'s time it seems to have fallen into the same state of decay with the other cities on the south coast of Sicily, as he does not mention it among the few exceptions.<ref>Strabo vi. p. 272.</ref> [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], notices the Phintienses (or Phthinthienses as the name is written in some manuscripts) among the stipendiary towns of Sicily; and its name is found also in [[Ptolemy]]; but it is strange that both these writers reckon it among the inland towns of Sicily, though its maritime position is clearly attested both by Diodorus and Cicero. The ''[[Antonine Itinerary]]'' also gives a place called Plintis, doubtless a corruption of Phintias, which it places on the road from Agrigentum along the coast towards [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]], at the distance of {{convert|23|mi|km}} from the former city.<ref>Itin. Ant. p. 95.</ref> This distance agrees tolerably well with that from Agrigento to Licata, though somewhat less.