Termini Imerese

Termini Imerese (anc. Thermae Himeraeae), a seaport town of Sicily, in the province of Palermo, 23 m. E.S.E. of it by rail. Pop. (1901) 20,633. It is finely situated on a promontory above its harbour, and it is possible that it was occupied by an early Phoenician settlement; as a town, however, it was not founded until 407 B.C. by the Carthaginians, after their destruction of Himera, in the vicinity of hot springs mentioned by Pindar (Od. xii. 19) which are still resorted to and are well fitted up (temp. 110 F.). It remained a Carthaginian colony, though thoroughly Greek' in character, until it was taken by Rome in the First Punic war. In the time of Cicero it was flourishing, though not of great importance. Augustus sent a Roman colony to it, and a Roman road ran from it to Catana. Its medieval castle was destroyed in 1860. The modern town presents no features of interest; there is a collection of antiquities and pictures, with a considerable number of Roman inscriptions. Scanty remains of buildings of Roman times (an amphitheatre and a so-called basilica) exist in the upper part of the town; and outside it on the S. are considerable remains of two aqueducts of the same period crossing a deep ravine. The surrounding district is fertile.

Four m. E. of Termini, about 1 m. W. of the railway station of Cerda, on an E. spur of the Monte S. Calogera, called Monte Castellaccio, is a Cyclopean wall, about 66 ft. long, 10 ft. thick, and 30 ft. high in the middle, blocking the only access to the summit of the spur, on the N.E. Fortifications in this style are very rare in Sicily.

See B. Romano, Antichita Termitane (Palermo, 1838); Mauceri, Acropoli Pelasgica nei dintorni di Termini Imerese (Palermo, 1896).

(T. As.)