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CASTROGIOVANNI (Arab. Kasr-Yani, a co...

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 484 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CASTROGIOVANNI (Arab. Kasr-Yani, a corruption of Castrum Ennae)  , a
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town and episcopal see of the province of
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Caltanisetta, Sicily, 95 M. by
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rail S.E. of Palermo, and 56 m . W. of Catania, situated 2605 ft. above sea-level, almost in the centre of the island, and commanding a magnificent view of the interior . Pop . (1901) 25,826 . Enna was one of the cities of the Sicels, and the statement of Stephanus Byzantinus that it was colonized by Syracuse in 664 B.C. is improbable . The question is discussed by E . Pais, Atakta (Pisa, 1891), 63 . It does not appear in
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history before the time of Dionysius I. of Syracuse, who, after unsuccessful attempts, finally acquired possession of it by treachery about 397 B.C . Its natural position rendered it a fortress of
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great importance, and it is frequently mentioned in subsequent history . In 134-132 it was the headquarters of the slave.revolt, and was only reduced by treachery .
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Cicero speaks of it as a place of some importance, but in imperial times it seems to have been of little account . In A.D .

837 the

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Saracens attempted to take it, but without success; and it was again only by treachery that they were able to take it in 859 . In 1087 it fell into the hands of the
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Normans; and the existing remains of fortifications are entirely
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medieval . There are indeed no remains of earlier days . The
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cathedral, founded in 1307, is of some
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interest . There are no remains of the famous temple of
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Demeter, from which Verres, as Cicero tells us, re-moved the
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bronze statue of the goddess . The lake of Pergus, where Persephone, according to one of the myths, was carried off by Hades, lies 4 M. to the south . The myth itself must have had some
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local origin, but has had so much Greek detail grafted upon it that the very names of the earlier Sicel deities have been displaced .

End of Article: CASTROGIOVANNI (Arab. Kasr-Yani, a corruption of Castrum Ennae)
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