Naxos

Province: Messina

Altitude: 10m/33ft.

Location

2km/1.25mi south of Giardini, on the east coast of Sicily below Taormina, the basalt rocks of Capo Schisò jut out into the sea. To the south the cape adjoins the fertile plain at the mouth of the Alcántara River (known in ancient times as the Akesine). Here stood Naxos, the first Greek town to be built in Sicily.

History

According to Thucydides, Naxos was founded in 735 B.C. by settlers from Khalkis (Evvoia) and the Cycladic island of Naxos, after which the new town was named. They erected an altar to Apollo Archegetes as the main place of worship for these Ionian Greeks. As long ago as 730 B.C. their leader Thukles founded the towns of Katane and Leontinoi. The subsequent fortunes of Naxos were determined by the tension which existed between the Ionians (Naxos and its satellites) and the Doric Greeks from Syracuse and Gela. In 495 B.C. the tyrant Hippocrates from Gela conquered the Ionian towns, and in 476 Hieron I of Syracuse transported the people of Naxos and Katane to Leontinoi; after Hieron's death in 466, however, they returned.

During the Sicilian expeditions carried out by Athens in 427-424 and 415-413 B.C. Naxos fought on their side against Syracuse. In a revenge campaign in 403 B.C. Dionysios I of Syracuse, aided by a deserter from the town, conquered Naxos, razed it to the ground and enslaved the population.

In 358 B.C. the survivors made a new home in the nearby mountain settlement of Tauromenion. In the years that followed Naxos became a town of little importance.