6.

In the interior of the island a few inhabitants possess Enna,2315 in which there is a temple of Ceres;2316 it is situated on [Pg 412]
[CAS. 272] a hill, and surrounded by spacious tablelands well adapted for tillage. The fugitive slaves, who placed themselves under the leading of Eunus,2317 and sustained in this city a long siege, scarcely being reduced by the Romans, occasioned much damage to the city. The Catanæi, Tauromenitæ, and many others, suffered, much in like manner. †Eryx,2318 a very lofty mountain, is also inhabited. It possesses a temple of Venus, which is very much esteemed; in former times it was well filled with women sacred to the goddess, whom the inhabitants of Sicily, and also many others, offered in accomplishment of their vows; but now, both is the neighbourhood much thinner of inhabitants, and the temple not near so well supplied with priestesses and female attendants.2319 There is also an establishment of this goddess at Rome called the temple of Venus Erycina, just before the Colline Gate; in addition to the temple it has a portico well worthy of notice.† The other settlement and most of the interior have been left to the shepherds for pasturage; for we do not know that Himera is yet inhabited,2320 or Gela,2321 or Callipolis, or Selinus, or Eubœa, or many other places; of these the Zanclæi of Mylæ2322 founded Himera,2323 the people of Naxos, Callipolis,2324 the Megaræans of Sicily,2325 Selinus,2326 and the Leontini2327 Eubœa.2328 Many too of the cities of the aboriginal inhabitants2329 have been destroyed, as Camici, the kingdom of Cocalus, at whose house Minos is reported to have been treacherously cut off. The Romans therefore, considering the deserted condition of the country, and having got possession both of the hills and the most part of the plains, have given them over to horse-breeders, herdsmen, and shepherds, by whom the island has frequently been brought into great perils. First of all the shepherds, taking to pillage here and there in different places, and afterwards assembling in numbers and forcibly taking settlements; for instance, as those under the command of Eunus2330 seized upon Enna.2331 And quite recently, during the time that we were at Rome, a certain Selurus, called the son of Ætna, was sent up to that city. He had been the captain of a band of robbers, and had for a long time infested the country round Ætna, committing frequent depredations. We saw him torn to pieces by wild beasts in the forum after a contest of gladiators: he had been set upon a platform fashioned to represent Mount Ætna, which being suddenly unfastened and falling, he was precipitated amongst certain cages of wild beasts, which had also been slightly constructed under the platform for the occasion.