Monte San Basile
A fortified hilltop above the modern town of Scordia, controlling the junction of the plain of Leontinoi and the valley of Katane. The site was first occupied by a village of the Castelluccio culture (ca. 1800-1400 B.C.); oval huts have been excavated. Later Sikel occupation is indicated by rock-cut tombs. In the early 5th c. the hilltop was fortified by Greeks, probably from Leontinoi across the plain; stretches of the wall and a handsome stone cistern survive. A necropolis of the 4th-3d c. B.C. occupied the E slope; one tomb contained a bronze cuirass, weapons, and a Sikeliote amphora of ca. 340 B.C. The site (also called Monte Casale and Monte San Basilio) has been plausibly identified with the Brikinniai held by Leontinoi in 424 B.C. (Thuc. 5.4).
BIBLIOGRAPHYDe Mauro, Sul colle di San Basilio (1861); P. Orsi, NSc (1899) 276f; id., “Insigne scoperta a Monte Casale presso Scordia,” Aretusa, 15 June 1922; T. J. Dunbabin, The Western Greeks (1948) 12 if.
M. BELL