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SOLUNTUM (Gr. EoX t or lath's)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 368 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SOLUNTUM (Gr. EoX t or See also:lath's)  , an See also:ancient See also:town of See also:Sicily, one of the three See also:chief Phoenician settlements in the See also:island, situated on the See also:north See also:coast, ro m . E. of Panormus (See also:Palermo), boo ft. above See also:sea-level, on the S.E. See also:side of See also:Monte Catalfano (1225 ft.), in a naturally strong situation, and commanding a See also:fine view . The date of its first occupation is, like that of Panormus, unknown . It continued to be a Carthaginian See also:possession almost uninterruptedly until the First Punic See also:War, when, after the fall of Panormus, it opened its See also:gates to the See also:Romans . In the See also:Roman See also:period it seems to have been of no See also:great importance; an inscription, erected by the citizens in See also:honour of Fulvia See also:Plan-tills, the wife of See also:Caracalla, was found there in 1857 . It was perhaps destroyed by. the See also:Saracens and is now entirely deserted . Excavations have brought to See also:light considerable remains of the ancient town, belonging entirely to the Roman period, and a See also:good See also:deal still remains unexplored . An archaic See also:oriental See also:Artemis sitting between a See also:lion and a See also:panther, found here, is in the museum at Palermo, with other antiquities from this site . With the exception of the winding road by which the town was approached on the See also:south, the streets, despite the unevenness of the ground, which in places is so steep that steps have to be introduced, are laid out regularly, See also:running from See also:east to See also:west and from north to south, and intersecting at right angles . They are as a See also:rule paved with slabs of See also:stone . The houses were constructed of rough walling, which was afterwards plastered over; the natural See also:rock is often used for the See also:lower See also:part of the walls . One of the largest of them, with a See also:peristyle, is currently, thoughwrongly, called the Gymnasium .

Near the See also:

top of the town are some cisterns cut in the rock, and at the See also:summit is a larger See also:house than usual, with See also:mosaic pavements and paintings on its walls . (T .

End of Article: SOLUNTUM (Gr. EoX t or lath's)
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