1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Milazzo

MILAZZO, a seaport on the north coast of Sicily, in the province of Messina, 22 m. W. of Messina by rail. Pop. (1901), 16,422. It is mainly built on the low isthmus of a peninsula, which stretches some 3 m. farther north and forms a good harbour: but the old town, which contains a castle, mainly the work of Charles V., lies on a hill above. Milazzo is the ancient Mylae, an outpost of Zancle, occupied before 648 B.C., perhaps as early as 716 B.C. (E. A. Freeman, History of Sicily, I., pp. 395, 587). It was taken by the Athenians in 426 B.C. The people of Rhegium planted here the exiles from Naxos and Catana in 395 B.C. as a counterpoise to Dionysius’ foundation of Tyndaris; but Dionysius soon took it. In the bay Duilius won the first Roman naval victory over the Carthaginians (260 B.C.).