Messina

Sister cities

• Kronstadt

History

Founded by Greek colonists of Magna Graecia in the 8th century BC, Messina was originally called Zancle (), from the Greek meaning "scythe" because of the shape of its natural harbour (though a legend attributes the name to King Zanclus). A comune of its Metropolitan City, located at the southern entrance of the Strait of Messina, is to this day called 'Scaletta Zanclea'. Solinus wrote that the city of Metauros was established by people from Zancle. In the early 5th century BC Anaxilas of Rhegium renamed it Messene () in honour of the Greek city Messene (See also List of traditional Greek place names). Later, Micythus was the ruler of Rhegium and Zancle, and he also founded the city of Pyxus. The city was sacked in 397 BC by the Carthaginians and then reconquered by Dionysius I of Syracuse. In 288 BC the Mamertines seized the city by treachery, killing all the men and taking the women as their wives. The city became a base from which they ravaged the countryside, leading to a conflict with the expanding regional empire of Syracuse. Hiero II, tyrant of Syracuse, defeated the Mamertines near Mylae on the Longanus River and besieged Messina. Carthage assisted the Mamertines because of a long-standing conflict with Syracuse over dominance in Sicily. When Hiero attacked a second time in 264 BC, the Mamertines petitioned the Roman Republic for an alliance, hoping for more reliable protection. Although initially reluctant to assist lest it encourage other mercenary groups to mutiny, Rome was unwilling to see Carthaginian power spread further over Sicily and encroach on Italy. Rome, therefore, entered into an alliance with the Mamertines. In 264 BC, Roman troops were deployed to Sicily, the first time a Roman army acted outside the Italian Peninsula. At the end of the First…

Geography

Located in the north-eastern corner of Sicily, on the western shore of the Strait of Messina (Ionian Sea)— altitude above sea level— it extends for of municipal surface. Its extension on the coast ( from the coast of Giampilieri to the south to that of Orto Liuzzo to the north), which makes it the "longest" and most maritime city in Italy. The municipality is located from Catania and from Palermo, squeezed between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian coasts and the Peloritani mountains, it overlooks with its large natural, military and commercial port, closed by the sickle-shaped peninsula of San Raineri, in front of Villa San Giovanni and a little further north than Reggio Calabria. Cape Peloro, in the northern part of the city, is instead opposite Scylla. In these waters is located the myth of Scylla and Charybdis, whose whirlpools are compared to the punishment of the souls of hell that go round and round and collide eternally ("qui la gente riddi" in Sicilian). An era of the Neogene, a fraction of the upper Miocene, a period known as the one in which the Mediterranean increased its salinity following the closing of the Strait of Gibraltar, takes the name of Messinian from the discovery in Messina of its characteristic rocks, the evaporites. From sea level, within the same municipality, it is possible to climb up to above sea level, in the Ionian strip. The Tyrrhenian strip, long, Messina has a subtropical Mediterranean climate with long, hot summers with low diurnal temperature variation and consistently dry weather. In winter, Messina is rather wet and mild. Diurnals remain low and remain averaging above lows even during winter. It is rather rainier than Reggio Calabria on the other side of the Messina Strait, a remarkable climatic difference for such a small…