Messina

The foundation myth of Messina tells of a single trident blow by Neptune that separated Sicily from ‘the continent’ across the Straits and an ancient city built by an enraptured Saturn. Somewhat less intriguigingly, historians date its origins to around 750BC, when Greek settlers from Cuma and Calcide established the town of Zancle (Sickle). Lauded by Cicero, the city was conquered and re-conquered by Sicilian Greeks, the Carthaginians and the Siceliots prior to becoming the first Roman colony in Sicily. The vicissitudes of Messina continued in a series of glorious epochs punctuated by cataclysmic episodes: a ‘protometropolis’ under Byzantine ...  Read the complete review