 Enna (Sicilian: Castrugiuvanni; Greek: Ἔννα; Latin: Henna and less frequently Haenna) is a city located in the center of Sicily in the province of Enna, towering above the surrounding countryside. It has earned a few nicknames, such as "belvedere" (panoramic viewpoint) or the "ombelico" (navel) of Sicily.Enna is the highest provincial capital of Italy. Enna is situated near the center of the island; whence the Roman writer Cicero called it Mediterranea maxime, reporting that it was within a day's journey of the nearest point on all the three coasts. The peculiar situation of Enna is described by several ancient authors, and is indeed one of the most remarkable in Sicily. The ancient city was placed on the level summit of a gigantic hill, so lofty as almost to deserve to be called a mountain, and surrounded on all sides with precipitous cliffs almost wholly inaccessible, except in a very few spots which are easily defended, abundantly supplied with water which gushes from the face of the rocks on all sides, and having a fine plain or table land of about 5 km in circumference on the summit, it forms one of the most remarkable natural fortresses in the world. Archaeological findings dating from the 14th century BC have proved the human presence in the area since Neolithic times. A settlement from before the 11th century BC, assigned by some to the Sicani, has been identified at the top of the hill; later it was a center of the Siculi. In historical times it became renowned in Sicily and Italy for the cult of the goddess Demeter (the Roman Ceres), whose grove in the neighborhood was known as the umbilicus Siciliae ("The navel of Sicily"); the origin of the toponym Henna remains obscure. Dionysius I of Syracuse seems to have fully appreciated Enna's importance, and repeatedly attempted to make himself master of the place; at first by aiding and encouraging Aeimnestus, a citizen of Enna, to seize on the sovereign power, and afterwards, failing in his object by this means, turning against him and assisting the Ennaeans to get rid of their despot. He did not however at this time accomplish his purpose, and it was not till a later period that, after repeated expeditions against the neighbouring Sicilian cities, Enna also was betrayed into his hands. In the time of Agathocles we find Enna for a time subject to that tyrant, but when the Agrigentines under Xenodicus began to proclaim the restoration of the other cities of Sicily to freedom, the Ennaeans were the first to join their standard, and opened their gates to Xenodicus, 309 BC. In the First Punic War Enna is repeatedly mentioned; it was taken first by the Carthaginians under Hamilcar, and subsequently recaptured by the Romans, but in both instances by treachery and not by force. In the Second Punic War, while Marcellus was engaged in the siege of Syracuse (214 BC), Enna became the scene of a fearful massacre. The defection of several Sicilian towns from Rome had alarmed Pinarius the governor of Enna, lest the citizens of that place should follow their example; and in order to forestall the apprehended treachery, he with the Roman garrison fell upon the citizens when assembled in the theater, and put them all to the sword without distinction, after which he gave up the city to be plundered by his soldiers. Eighty years later Enna again became conspicuous as the headquarters of the First Servile War in Sicily (134 BC-132 BC), which first broke out there under the lead of Eunus, who made himself master in the first instance of Enna, which from its central position and great natural strength became the center of his operations, and the receptacle, of the plunder of Sicily. It was the last place that held out against the proconsul Rupilius, and was at length betrayed into his hands, its impregnable strength having defied all his efforts. According to Strabo, it suffered severely upon this occasion (which, indeed, could scarcely be otherwise), and regards this period as the commencement of its subsequent decline. Cicero, however, notices it repeatedly in a manner which seems to imply that it was still a flourishing municipal town: it had a fertile territory, well-adapted for the growth of corn, and diligently cultivated, till it was rendered almost desolate by the exactions of Verres. From this time little is known about Enna: Strabo speaks of it as still inhabited, though by a small population, in his time: and the name appears in Pliny among the municipal towns of Sicily, as well as in Ptolemy and the Itineraries. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it continued to flourish throughout the Middle Ages as an important Byzantine stronghold. In 859, in the course of the Islamic conquest of Sicily, the town was taken by Muslim troops, who had to sneak in one by one through a sewer to breach the town's hardy defenses. Their name for the city, 'Qas'r Ianni' (Fort of John), was a combination of "qas'r" (a corruption of the Latin "castrum", fort), and "Ianni", a corruption of "Henna". The name in the native dialect of Sicily remained Castro Janni (Castrogiovanni) until the renaming by order of Mussolini in 1927. The Normans captured her in 1087. Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, established a summer residence here. Enna had a prominent role in the Sicilian Vespers that lead to the Aragonese conquest of Sicily, and thenceforth enjoyed a short communal autonomy. King Frederick III of Sicily favored it and embellished the city; it however suffered a period of decay under the Spanish domination. It was restored as provincial capital in the 1920s. It has become a university city in 2002. The most important monuments of Enna are:
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article: "Enna".
|
Thursday, 09 September 2010
