Messāna
（
Μεσσήνη). The modern Messina; a celebrated town of
Sicily, on the strait separating Italy from this island, which is here about four miles broad.
The Romans called the town Messana, according to its Doric pronunciation, but
Messené was its more usual name among the Greeks. It was originally a town of the
Siceli, and was called Zanclé, or a sickle, on account of the shape of its harbour,
which is formed by a singular curve of sand and shells. It was first colonized by Chalcidians,
and was afterwards seized by Samians, who had come to Sicily after the capture of Miletus by
the Persians (B.C. 494). The Samians were shortly afterwards driven out of Zanclé
by Anaxilas, who changed the name of the town into Messana or Messené, both because
he was himself a Messenian and because he transferred to the place a body of Messenians from
Rhegium. In B.C. 396 it was taken and destroyed by the Carthaginians, but was rebuilt by
Dionysius. It afterwards fell into the hands of Agathocles. Among the mercenaries of this
tyrant were a number of Mamertini, an Oscan people from Campania, who had been sent from home,
under the protection of the god Mamers, or Mars, to seek their fortune in other lands. These
Mamertini were quartered in Messana; and after the death of Agathocles (B.C. 282) they made
themselves masters of the town, killed the male inhabitants, and took possession of their
wives, their children, and their property. The town was now called Mamertīna, and the inhabitants Mamertini; but its ancient name of Messana
continued to be in more general use. The new inhabitants could not lay aside their old
predatory habits, and in consequence became involved in a war with Hieron of Syracuse, who
would probably have conquered the town had not the Carthaginians come in to the aid of the
Mamertini, and, under the pretext of assisting them, taken possession of their citadel. The
Mamertini had at the same time applied to the Romans for help, who gladly availed themselves
of the opportunity to obtain a footing in Sicily. Thus Messana was the immediate cause of the
First Punic War, 264. The Mamertini expelled the Carthaginian garrison,
and received the Romans, in whose power Messana remained till the latest times. See
Siefert, Zankle-Messana (1854); and
Axt, Topographie
v. Messana (1887).
