ERYX, a city and mountain in the west of Sicily, six miles from Drepana, and a short distance from the sea-shore. The mountain, now called Monte S. Giuliano, rising to the height of a little more than 2000 feet, appears from its isolation a great deal higher than it really is. On its summit stood a celebrated temple of Venus, called from that
Erzeroum circumstance Erycina, under which name that goddess is frequently mentioned by the Latin poets. The possession of the town of Eryx was contested by the Syracusans and Carthaginians. A great battle was fought off the town between the fleets of the two nations, in which the Syracusans were victorious. The town subsequently changed hands more than once, but it seems to have owned the Carthaginian supremacy at the time of the expedition of Pyrrhus, B.C. 278. Though taken by that monarch, it once more fell into the hands of its original conquerors, who retained it till the close of the first Punic war.