MARSALA  , a seaport of

Sicily, in the province of Trapani, 19 m. by rail S. of Trapani . Pop . (1881), 19,732; (1901), 57,567 . The low coast on which it is situated is the westernmost point of the island . The town is the seat of a bishop, and the cathedral contains 16 grey marble columns, which are said to have been intended for Canterbury Cathedral in England, the vessel conveying them having been wrecked here . The town owes its importance mainly to the trade in Marsala wine . Marsala occupies the site of Lilybaeum, the principal strong-hold of the Carthaginians in Sicily, founded by Himilco after the abandonment of Motya . Neither Pyrrhus nor the Romans were able to reduce it by siege, but it was surrendered to the latter in 241 B.C. at the end of the First Punic War . In the later wars it was a starting point for the Roman expeditions against Carthage; ' Bulletin Lowell Obsy., Monthly Notices, R.A.S . (1905), 66, p . 51 . 2 St Petersburg Memoirs, series viii., Phys .

Mars-classe, vol. viii . and under Roman rule it enjoyed considerable prosperity (C.I.L . X. p . 742) . It obtained municipal rights from Augustus and became a colony under Pertinax or Septimus Severus . The Saracens gave it its present name, Marsa Ali, port of Ali . The harbour, which lay on the north-east, was destroyed by Charles V. to prevent its occupation by pirates . The modern harbour lies to the south-east . In ,86o Garibaldi landed at Marsala with low men and began his campaign in Sicily . Scanty remains of the ancient Lilybaeum (fragments of the city walls, of squared stones, and some foundations of buildings between the walls and the sea) are visible; and the so-called grotto and spring of the Sibyl may be mentioned . To the east of the town is a great fosse which defended it on the land side, and beyond this again are quarries like those of Syracuse on a small scale . The modern town takes the shape of the Roman camp within the earlier city, one of the gates of which still existed in 1887 .

The

main street (the Cassaro) perpetuates the name castrum .