Hyccara

Hyccara or HYCARA (Ὕκκαρα,, Thuc.; Ὕκαρα, Diod, Steph: B.: Eth. Ὑκάρευς, Id.), a small town on the N. coast of Sicily between Panormus and the port of Segesta. Thucydides tells us it was a Sicanian town; and it appears to have been independent of, and on hostile terms with, the neighbouring city of Segesta. Hence, during the Athenian expedition to Sicily, B.C. 415, Nicias, as he was proceeding with the fleet along the N. coast of the island, landed at Hyccara, which he took and plundered, and afterwards made it over to the Segestans. (Thuc. 6.62; Diod. 13.6.) The Athenians are said to have realised 100 talents by the booty thus acquired: among the captives taken on this occasion was the celebrated courtesan Laïs, then a mere child, who was carried to Corinth and there sold as a slave. (Plut. Nic. 15, Alcib. 39; Athen. 13.589; Paus. 2.2.5; Steph. B. sub voce Ὕκαρα; Schol. in Aristoph. Plut. 179.) No subsequent notice of Hyccara is found in history: it probably continued to be but a small place, and a mere dependency of Segesta or Panormus: but it did not cease to exist, for its name reappears in the Itinerary of Antoninus (pp. 91, 97), which places it M. P. from Panormus, proceeding along the coast to the westward. This distance coincides with a place called Muro di Carini, where, according to Fazello, the ruins of an ancient town were still visible in his time. The modern town of Carini (the name of which is probably derived from that of Hyccara) has been removed to a distance of three miles inland. (Fazell. de Reb. Sic. 7.6; Cluver. Sicil. p. 272.)

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