1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Santa Maria di Licodia

SANTA MARIA DI LICODIA, a village of Sicily, in the province of Catania, 18 m. N.W. of Catania by rail, on the S.W. slopes of Mount Etna. Pop. (1901) 4101. It is believed to occupy the site of the ancient Aetna, a settlement founded by the colonists whom Hiero I. had placed at Catania after their expulsion by the original inhabitants in 461 B.C., which absorbed or incorporated an already existing Sicel town named Inessa. Its subsequent history is uneventful, though it suffered from the ex actions of Verres; and its inscriptions are unimportant. A large hoard of coins was found here in 1891. Near it, in a district called Civita, is a large elliptical area of about 1300 by 380 yds., enclosed by a wall of masses of lava, which is about 28 ft. wide at the base, and 11 ft. high. The ground is covered with fragments of tiles and pottery of the classical period, and it is probably a hastily built encampment of historic times rather than a primitive fortification, as there are no prehistoric traces (Orsi in Notizie degli scavi, 1903, 442).

See Casagrandi, Su due antiche città sicule Vesta ed Inessa (Acireale, 1892).