MINED  , a

town of the province of Catania, Sicily, 34 M . S.W. of Catania by rail . Pop . (19ot), 9828 . It occupies the site of the ancient Menaenum, founded by Ducetius in 459 B.C . There is some doubt as to whether this town was also the birthplace of Ducetius, owing to confusions in nomenclature (see E . A . Free-man, History of Sicily, ii . 361) . Remains of ancient fortifications still exist, though it seems uncertain whether they are of Greek or of Byzantine origin (Notizie degli Scavi, 1899, p . 70) . Four miles to the north is the Lacus Palicorum, a small lake in a crater, which still sends up carbonic acid gas .

By it was the

temple of the Palici, twin Sicel gods, the most holy place in Sicily, where an oath taken was especially binding, and an inviolable asylum for fugitive slaves . There is now nothing to suggest twin deities; in ancient times there were probably two craters, whereas now there is only one . It was here that Ducetius, a few years later, founded a new seat for his power, the city of Palica .