Mylai
A small city in the province of Messina at the isthmus of a narrow peninsula that extends ca. 6 km toward the Aeolian islands. It was a sub-colony of Zankle founded in 717-716 B.C., and it probably never enjoyed political autonomy since its destiny depended on that of Zankle-Messene, of which it was considered a stronghold. In 426 B.C. the Athenian Laches (Diod. 12:54), and again in 315 B.C. Agathokles (Diod. 19:65), before attacking Messene, occupied Mylai. In 260 B.C. Caius Duilius obtained in its waters the first Roman naval victory against the Phoenicians; again near Mylai, in 36 B.C., Octavian defeated Sextus Pompey. Excavations have revealed a continuous series of cemeteries: from the Middle Bronze Necropolis (15th-13th c. B.C.) in the Sottocastello district to that of the Iron Age (llth-9th c. B.C.) in Piazza Romana, which is a true urnfield of Villanovan type, to the Hellenistic cemetery in the S. Giovanni district. No traces remain of the habitation center, which must surely have occupied the acropolis on which later rose the mediaeval castle. A Roman mosaic is preserved in the St. Francis' Monastery. A rare type of Byzantine grave in the shape of an aedicula can be seen at the entrance to the highway called the Strada Panoramica. Finds and reconstructions of the cemeteries are at the Museum in Lipari.
BIBLIOGRAPHYL. Bernabò Brea & M. Cavalier, Mylai (1959) MPI.
G. SCIBONAA city captured and burned by Perseus, identified by Stählin with the steep hill between Damasi and Damasouli near Phalanna. There are remains of a wall around a small acropolis at the W end, and a larger circuit of rough polygonal blocks of yellowish limestone. There were round towers at three corners and probably at the fourth. Much of the wall now visible belongs to Byzantine rebuilding. The Hellenistic remains are chiefly in the stretch of wall N of the E tower. The identification was questioned by Philippson-Kirsten on the grounds that the site seemed typically mediaeval. In support of the identification, Stählin reported a dedicatory inscription found in Damasi which refers to the Mother of the Gods of Mylai.
BIBLIOGRAPHYF. Stählin in RE 152 (1893) 1038P; F. Stählin in AthMitt 52 (1927) 88f; A. Philippson-Kirsten, GL (1950-59) I185, 274.
M. H. MCALLISTER