Naxos or Naxus is an ancient city of Sicily, on the east coast of the island between Catana (modern Catania) and Messana (modern Messina).
It is situated on a low point of land at the mouth of the river Acesines (modern Alcantara), and at the foot of the hill on which is afterwards built the city of Tauromenium (modern Taormina).All ancient writers agree in representing Naxos as the most ancient of all the Greek colonies in Sicily; it is founded the year before Syracusae, or 735 BCE, by a body of colonists from Chalcis in Euboea, with whom there is mingled, according to Ephorus, a certain number of Ionians.
The same writer represents Theocles, or Thucles, the leader of the colony and founder of the city, as an Athenian by birth; but Thucydides takes no notice of this, and describes the city as a purely Chalcidic colony; and it seems certain that in later times it was generally so regarded.
(Thuc.
vi.
3; Ephor.
ap.
Strabo vi.
p. 267; Scymn.
Ch.
270-77; Diod.
xiv.
88.
Concerning the date of its foundation see Clinton, F. H. vol.
i. p. 164; Euseb.
Chron.
ad 01.
11.
1.)
The memory of Naxos as the earliest of all the Greek settlements in Sicily is preserved by the dedication of an altar outside the town to Apollo Archegetes, the divine patron under whose authority the colony had sailed; and it is a custom (still retained long after the destruction of Naxos itself) that all Theori or envoys proceeding on sacred missions to Greece, or returning from thence to Sicily, should offer sacrifice on this altar.
(Thuc.
l. c.; Appian, B.C.
v.
109.)
It is singular that none of the writers above cited allude to the origin of the name of Naxos; but there can be little doubt that this was derived, as stated by Hellanicus (ap.
Steph.
B. s. v. Χαλκίς), from the presence among the original settlers of a body of colonists from the island of that name.The new colony must have been speedily joined by fresh settlers from Greece, as within six years after its first establishment the Chalcidians at Naxos were able to send out a fresh colony, which founded the city of Leontini (modern Lentini), 730 BCE; and this was speedily followed by that of Catana.
