Apollonia ( Greek: ) was an ancient city of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, which, according to

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...

, was situated in the neighbourhood of Aluntium and

Calacte Caronia ( Sicilian: ''Carunìa'', Greek: ( Ptol.) or ( Diod. et al.), Latin: ''Calacte'' or ''Cale Acte'') is a town and ''comune'' on the north coast of Sicily, in the province of Messina, about half way between Tyndaris (modern Tindari) and ...

. The city was founded by Dionysius I of Syracuse as an outpost against the

Carthaginians The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...

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 ...

also mentions it in conjunction with Haluntium, Capitium, and Enguium, in a manner that seems to imply that it was situated in the same part of Sicily with these cities, and Diodorus states that it was at one time subject to

Leptines Leptines ( grc-gre, Λεπτίνης) was an Athenian orator. He is known as the proposer of a law that no Athenian, whether citizen or resident alien (with the sole exception of the descendants of Harmodius and Aristogeiton), should be exempt fro ...

the tyrant of Enguium from whose hands it was wrested by Timoleon in 342 BC and restored to independency. A little later we find it again mentioned among the cities reduced by Agathocles after his return from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

in 307 BC. But it evidently regained its liberty after the fall of the tyrant, and in the days of Cicero was still a municipal town of some importance. In the 1st c. BC it was ''civitas decumana'' subject to sending a tenth of its agricultural income to Rome, and it sent one ship to the fleet to counter pirates. At this time it also suffered from the predatory actions of Verres.Cicero In Verrem 2.3.103 The city was later abandoned. Its site had been much disputed but the passages above cited a point in the north-eastern part of Sicily and the remains have been located through excavations in 2003-5 on Monte Vecchio near

San Fratello San Fratello (Gallo-Italic: San Frareau, Sicilian: ''Santu Frateddu'', Greek and Latin: ''Apollonia'', Medieval Latin ''Castrum S. Philadelphi''), formerly San Filadelfo, is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina in the ...

, rather than at the modern

Pollina Pollina ( Sicilian: ''Puòddina'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about east of Palermo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 3,102 and an area of .All demograph ...

which was postulated. The city walls of isodomic limestone masonry still exist on the south and west sides. Remains of at least two buildings also in isodomic, lie on the E side of the plateau. On the top of the hill is a large rock-cut cistern.

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* {{Magna Graecia Lost ancient cities and towns Ancient cities in Sicily Roman towns and cities in Italy Former populated places in Italy

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