Mytistraton or Mytistratus or Myttistraton (

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

: , Μυτισέρατος Steph. B., Diod.; , Zonar.; , Pol.), was an ancient town in the interior of

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. ...

, the site of which is located at modern the ''

località A ''località'' is an inhabited place in Italy that is not accorded a more significant distinction in administrative law, such as a '' frazione'', ''comune'', '' municipio'', '' circoscrizione'', or ''quartiere''. The word is cognate to English ' ...

'' of Monte Castellazzo di Marianopoli, in the ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of Marianopoli, in the

Province of Caltanissetta The province of Caltanissetta (; or ; officially ''libero consorzio comunale di Caltanissetta'') is a Provinces of Italy, province in the southern part of Sicily, Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it was replaced in 20 ...

. It was probably a small town, though strongly fortified, whence

Philistus Philistus (; 432 – 356 BC), son of Archomenidas, was a Greek historian from Sicily, Magna Graecia. Life Philistus was born in Syracuse around the time the Peloponnesian War began. He was a faithful supporter of the elder Dionysius, and c ...

(''ap.'' Steph. B. ''s. v.'') called it a fortress of Sicily. It is conspicuously mentioned during the

First Punic War The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and grea ...

, when it was in the hands of 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 ...

, and was besieged by the Romans, but for some time without success, on account of the great strength of its position; it was at length taken by the consul Aulus Atilius Caiatinus in 258 BCE. The inhabitants were either put to the sword or sold as slaves, and the town itself entirely destroyed. (Pol. i. 24; Diod. xxiii. 9, Exc. Hoesch. p. 503; Zonar. viii.) It was, however, again inhabited at a later period, as we find the Mutustratini mentioned by Pliny among the municipal towns of the interior of Sicily (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14) but no notice of its name occurs in the interval.

References

* Ancient cities in Sicily Roman towns and cities in Italy Ruins in Italy Former populated places in Italy {{sicily-geo-stub