Apollonia ( Greek: ) was an ancient city of

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, which, according to Stephanus of Byzantium, was situated in the neighbourhood of Aluntium and Calacte. The city was founded by Dionysius I of Syracuse as an outpost against the

Carthaginians The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people, Semitic people who Phoenician settlement of North Africa, migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Iron ...

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

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 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. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

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 Gaius Verres ( 114 – 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 advo ...

.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, rather than at the modern Pollina 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 Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Italy

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