Selinunte

Selinunte

Σελινοῦς
The Temple of Hera at Selinunte (Temple E)
Shown within Italy
Location	Marinella di Selinunte, Province of Trapani, Sicily, Italy
Coordinates	37°35′1″N 12°49′29″E / 37.58361°N 12.82472°E / 37.58361; 12.82472Coordinates: 37°35′1″N 12°49′29″E / 37.58361°N 12.82472°E / 37.58361; 12.82472
Type	Settlement
Area	270 ha (670 acres)
History
Founded	628 BCE
Abandoned	Approximately 250 BCE
Periods	Archaic Greece to Hellenistic period
Site notes
Management	Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA. di Trapani
Website	Area Archeologica Selinunte (Italian)

Selinunte (/ˌsɛlᵻˈnuːnteɪ/; Ancient Greek: Σελινοῦς, Selinous; Latin: Selinūs) was an ancient Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily in Italy. It was situated between the valleys of the Belice and Modione rivers. It now lies in the comune Castelvetrano, between the frazioni of Triscina di Selinunte in the west and Marinella di Selinunte in the east. The archaeological site contains five temples centered on an acropolis. Of the five temples, only the Temple of Hera, also known as "Temple E", has been re-erected. At its peak before 409 BC the city may have contained up to 30,000 people, excluding slaves.

Selinunte was one of the most important of the Greek colonies in Sicily, situated on the southwest coast of that island, at the mouth of the small river of the same name, and 6.5 km west of the Hypsas river (the modern Belice). It was founded, according to the historian Thucydides, by a colony from the Sicilian city of Megara Hyblaea, under the leadership of a man called Pammilus, about 100 years after the foundation of Megara Hyblaea, with the help of colonists from Megara in Greece, which was Megara Hyblaea's mother city. The date of its foundation cannot be precisely fixed, as Thucydides indicates it only by reference to the foundation of Megara Hyblaea, which is itself not accurately known, but it may be placed about 628 BCE. Diodorus places it 22 years earlier, or 650 BCE, and Hieronymus still further back in 654 BCE. The date from Thucydides, which is probably the most likely, is incompatible with this earlier date. The name is supposed to have been derived from quantities of wild celery (Ancient Greek: σέλινον (selinon)) that grew on the spot. For the same reason, they adopted the celery leaf as the symbol on their coins.