On a hill a short way from the sea, in the territory of Tusa, stands a Greek city founded in 403 before Christ for a precise reason: to give land to the Siculi who had fought beside Archonides of Herbita, and to plant a garrison on the border with the area the Carthaginians controlled. The city took the name of its founder.
What to see
The site keeps its urban layout on the terraces of the hill: the paved streets that climb, the foundations of the houses, the public square with its porticoes and the remains of the walls. Higher up are the sacred buildings, among them the sanctuary that dominated the town, and from there you see the whole Tyrrhenian coast as far as the Aeolian islands.
When the Romans landed the city took their side at once, and when Sicily became a province it obtained the right to stay free and untaxed: a rare condition, which made it grow fast and let it go on striking its own coinage, in silver too. The antiquarium beside the excavations gathers the inscriptions, the coins and the material found.
Visiting
The site is at Santa Maria delle Palate, above Tusa, about ten minutes by car from the main road; entry by ticket and hours that shorten in winter, uphill ground and little shade, so the morning is better. An hour and a half.
Our editors' tip
The city's coins bore as their emblem a column with a dog on top, to say that from here the territory was watched. Look at the coat of arms of the comune of Tusa, on documents and on signs: that dog is still there. Twenty-four centuries on, a symbol struck on a Greek coin is still in service.
