Zancle (Greek: Ζάγκλη): Greek city on Sicily, modern Messina.
Early History
Coin from Zancle
Founded c.730 when the Greeks expanded their trade network to Sicily and Etruria. Zancle controls the Strait of Messina. Across the water is Rhegion.
There are two stories about the city's origin. According to Thucydides, the first settlers were Greek pirates from Cumae who took over an already existing Siculian town.note[Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 6.4.] According to Strabo of Amasia, the settlers arrived from Naxos in Sicily.
The Greek name Zancle means "scythe" and refers to the shape of the harbor
c.493: Shorty after the Persians have suppressed the Ionian Revolt, refugees from Samos and Miletus flee to the far west, where the tyrant of Rhegion, Anexilaus, suggests them not to build a new city but capture Zancle. The Samians do so; the Zancleans sought support from the tyrant Hippocrates of Gela; he, however, allowed himself to be bribed away.note[Herodotus, Histories 6.22-24.]
The city is renamed Messana to honor Messene, the native city of Anaxilaus.note[Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 6.4.]
Lion-shaped antefix
397 The Carthaginians sack Messana but are driven out by Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, who repopulates Messana.
343 Intervention by Timoleon of Syracuse
Agahthocles of Syracuse conquers the city
c.282 The Mamertine mercenaries, expelled from Syracuse, take Messana
241 BCE Messana recognized as Roman ally. The city suffers from the slave wars.
Port of Messina
During the civil wars, Pompey the Great attacked the fleet of Julius Caesar in Messana; later, it was a base for Pompey's son Sextus; still later the city was occupied by Octavian. The Tenth Legion, which serves as garrison, receives the nickname Fretensis, "of the straits"
Late Antiquity
In 407, the Byzantine emperor Arcadius recognized the city as capital of Sicily and southern Italy ("protometropolis")
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city becomes Ostrogothic
