Mazzarino
A modern village in S central Sicily in the environs of which are ancient settlements of different periods. To the SE rises Mt. Bubbonia, on whose summit there developed a settlement which replaced sporadic earlier habitation. It lasted from the end of the 7th c. to the beginning of the 3d c. B.C. This settlement came into contact with the Rhodio-Cretan world of Gela around the end of the 7th c. or the beginning of the 6th c. B.C., but the strongest evidence of Greek influence is from the second half of the 6th c. Probably the agger fortification, and a smaller fortification of the same type which defended the acropolis, go back to this period as well as the acropolis with its prominent archaic shrine. This small temple has a masonry base in the Greek manner and was decorated with gorgon antefixes of the second half of the 6th c. of Geloan type. On the N side, but outside the walls, a votive deposit has been identified and partly excavated; it has proved rich in archaic statuettes and bronzes. The figurines are mostly Geloan in type but of local manufacture. From the necropoleis scattered on the E side of the mountain come grave goods reflecting contact with Gela toward the end of the 7th c. The site, therefore, joined the Geloan chora at the end of the 7th c. or the beginning of the 6th c. B.C. Quite likely during the 6th c. it also adopted a city plan per strigas, as if it were a sub-colony. Its name was probably Maktorion.
In the Sofiana district on the E border of the territory is the statio Philosophiana, which dates to the first half of the 1st c. A.D. To this period belongs the first phase of the bath complex, which was, however, repeatedly altered down to the 4th c. A.D. At the time of the Antonine Itinerary the statio is mentioned on the large Roman traffic artery connecting Catane with Agrigentum. Settlement at Sofiana actually goes back to the 4th c. B.C. when in the same area there already existed a Hellenistic farm.
At the SW border of the habitation area, toward the end of the 4th c. A.D., an Early Christian basilica with three naves and prothyron was built, and around it spread rich cemeteries which continued in use until the 10th c. Other necropoleis connected with the settlement stretch in all directions, but the earliest are those to the E and to the N.
Since the statio lies near the great imperial villa of Piazza Armerina, some connection between the two monuments might be postulated. Brick stamps found at Sofiana carry the inscription FIL (O) SOF, and it is probable that we are dealing with a Praedium Philosophianum, similar to that of Calvisianus in the Geloan plain.
BIBLIOGRAPHYMt. Bubbonia: P. Orsi, “Città e necropoli sicule dei tempi greci,” NSc (1905) 447; (1907) 497; (1912) 454; D. Adamesteanu, ArchCl 7 (1955) 179-86; id., RA 49 (1957) 165-69; P. Orlandini, Kokalos 8 (1962) 85-88; D. Adamesteanu, RendLinc 11, pp. 1ff; id., EAA 7, pp. 265-67.
Sofiana: P. Griffo, Bilancio di cinque anni di scavo nelle Provincie di Agrigento e Caltanisetta (1955) 33-38; D. Adamesteanu, “I primi documenti paleocristiani della Sicilia centro-meridionale,” RendLinc 10 (1955) 569-71; id., “Due problemi topografici del retroterra gelese: Phalaroin-stazioni itinerari e bolli laterizi,” RendLinc 10 (1955) 199-210; id., “Vaso figurato del retroterra di Gela,” BdA 2 (1956) 158-61.
D. ADAMESTEANU