HIMERA, in Ancient Geography

HIMERA, in Ancient Geography, a great Greek city on the northern coast of Sicily, at the mouth of a small stream about halfway between Panormus and Cephalodium. It was founded by a colony from Zancle, and its institutions were consequently at first Chalcidic; but there seems to have been also a considerable infusion of Syracusan blood. The date of its foundation, which is not accurately known, is generally assigned to the year 648 B.C. In its early history the only recorded event is its temporary subjugation by the tyrant Phalaris. It next fell under the power of a tyrant of its own, Terillus by name, who was expelled by Theron of Agrigentum. In his distress Terillus applied for aid to the Carthaginians. That people having probably in

view the conquest of the whole of Sicily, sent him an immense army, who, in the same year, and it is said on the same day which witnessed the route of Marathon, were utterly annihilated by Theron with the assistance of the Syracusan Gelon. The successful tyrant now entrusted the government of the city to his son Thrasycdeus, and augmented its diminished population by a colony of Dorian settlers. From this time Himera became Doric both in its constitution, dialect, and policy. After the death of Theron in 472, Thrasycdeus was expelled from Himera, which continued to grow in power and wealth till its final destruction by the Carthaginians in B.C. 408. Near the site of the old town the conquerors founded a new one, to which, from the hot wells in the neighbourhood, they gave the name of Thermæ or Thermæ Himerenses, which from its favourable situation soon attained considerable importance as a commercial mart. Even so late as the days of Cicero it was a place of some importance, as is attested by the extensive Roman remains of that period still extant. The name of the town is preserved in that of the modern Termini which occupies its site. Himera was the birthplace of the poet Stesichorus, whose statue, preserved in Thermæ, is mentioned by Cicero as being held in the highest veneration by the natives.