Mactorium

MACTORIUM

MACTO´RIUM (Μακτώριον), a town of Sicily, in the neighbourhood of Gela, mentioned by Herodotus (Hdt. 7.153), who tells us that it was occupied by a body of Geloan citizens, who were driven out from their country, and were restored to it by Telines, the ancestor of Gelon. The name is also found in Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.), who cites it from Philistus, but no mention of it occurs in later times. The only clue to its position is that afforded by Herodotus, who calls it a city above Gela,b y which he must mean further inland. Cluverius conjectures that it may have occupied the site of Butera, a town on a hill about 8 miles inland from Terranova, the site of Gela. (Cluver. Sicil. p. 363.)

[E.H.B]

Mactorium Mactorium, a town near Gela in Sicily

• Hdt. 7.153