Assorus or Assoros ( grc, Ἄσσωρος), or Asserus or Asseros (Ἄσσηρος), also known as Assorium or Assorion (Ἀσσώριον), was a city of the interior of

ancient Sicily The history of Sicily has been influenced by numerous ethnic groups. It has seen Sicily controlled by external powers – Phoenician and Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, Vandal and Ostrogoth, Byzantine Greek, Aghlabid, Fatimid, Kalbid, Norman, Arago ...

, situated about half way between

Agyrium ''Agyrium'' is a genus of saprophytic fungi in the family Agyriaceae. It probably evolved from a lichen ancestor, as it is closely related to many lichenized species of fungi. Taxonomy ''Agyrium'' was first proposed by Elias Magnus Fries in hi ...

and

Enna Enna ( or ; grc, Ἔννα; la, Henna, less frequently ), known from the Middle Ages until 1926 as Castrogiovanni ( scn, Castrugiuvanni ), is a city and located roughly at the center of Sicily, southern Italy, in the province of Enna, towering ...

. It was a city of the

Siculi The Sicels (; la, Siculi; grc, wikt:Σικελοί, Σικελοί ''Sikeloi'') were an Italic people, Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age. Their neighbours to the west were the Sicani. The Sicels gave Sicily the na ...

, and appears never to have received a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

colony. In 396 BCE it is mentioned by

Diodorus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

as the only Siculian town which remained faithful to Dionysius of Syracuse, at the time of the great

Carthaginian The term Carthaginian ( la, Carthaginiensis ) usually refers to a citizen of Ancient Carthage. It can also refer to: * Carthaginian (ship), a three-masted schooner built in 1921 * Insurgent privateers; nineteenth-century South American privateers, ...

expedition under

Himilco Himilco was a Carthaginian navigator and explorer who lived during the late 6th or early 5th century BC, a period of time where Carthage held significant sway over its neighboring regions. Himilco is the first known explorer from the Mediterranea ...

. In consequence, we find Dionysius, after the defeat of the Carthaginians, concluding a treaty of alliance with the Assorini, and leaving them in possession of their independence. At this time it would seem to have been a place of some importance; but no subsequent mention of it occurs in ancient writers until the days of

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

, in whose time it appears to have been but a small town, though retaining its municipal independence, and possessing a territory fertile in corn. It suffered severely, in common with the neighbouring towns, from the exactions of

Verres Gaius Verres (c. 120–43 BC) was a Roman magistrate, notorious for his misgovernment of Sicily. His extortion of local farmers and plundering of temples led to his prosecution by Cicero, whose accusations were so devastating that his defence adv ...

. We learn from

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

, that it continued to exist under the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

. and the modern town of

Assoro Assoro ( scn, Àsaru, la, Assorus, el, Assoros) is a ''comune'' in the Province of Enna, Sicily, southern Italy. The town-site of Assoro occupies the site of ancient Assorus. The fight to take the heights of Assoro during WWII figured promi ...

undoubtedly occupies the site, as well as retains, with little alteration, the name of Assorus. According to

Tommaso Fazello Tommaso Fazello (New Latin ''Fazellus'', 1498 – 8 April 1570) was an Italian Dominican friar, historian and antiquarian. He is known as the father of Sicilian history. He is the author of the first printed history of Sicily: ''De Rebus Sicu ...

, the remains of the ancient walls, and one of the gates, were still visible in his time (16th century). It was situated on a lofty hill, at the foot of which flowed the river Chrysas (now called the

Dittaino The Dittaino (Greek: ; Latin: Chrysas) is a river of central Sicily which rises in the Heraean Mountains, not far from the modern towns of Gangi and Enna. It is long. After flowing through the territory of Assorus, where its tutelary divinity ...

), the tutelary deity of which was worshipped with peculiar reverence by the Assorini, and inhabitants of the neighbouring cities. His temple was situated, as we learn from Cicero, at a short distance from the town, on the road to Enna; and so sacred was it deemed, that even Verres did not venture openly to violate it, but his emissaries made an unsuccessful attempt to carry off the statue of the deity in the night. Fazello asserts that considerable remains of this temple were still extant in his day; but the description he gives of them would lead us to suppose that they must have belonged to an ancient edifice of a different class.Fazell. ''de Reb. Sic.'' 10.2. p. 440. The coins of Assorus bear on the reverse a standing figure, with the name annexed of Chrysas. They are found only of copper, and are evidently of late date, from the fact that the legends are in Latin.

External links

Assorus located in Ptolemy's Geography, book III

References

Archaeological sites in Sicily Ancient cities in Sicily Populated places in ancient Sicily {{Europe-archaeology-stub