Archaeological Park of Selinunte
Selinunte was founded near a river, where it grew abundantly a parsley sevatico, the Selinon, which gave name to the city, the river this, and was the emblem of the currencies of Selinunte.. It was founded by colonists from Megara Hyblaea guided by 'ecista Pammilos in the seventh century BC Subsequent immigration of settlers megaresi Siceliots there were both in the last decades of the seventh is for the entire sixth century until the beginning of V. Selinunte tried to found colonies in western Sicily (Eraclea Minoa). When in the early fifth century war broke out between Greeks and Carthaginians in Sicily, which ended with the Battle of Himera in 480, Selinunte, strangely, he preferred an alliance with Carthage. He had many and strong contrasts with Segesta until 409, the year of its destruction by the Carthaginians own. Selinunte so he found himself subjected to the dominion of the Carthaginians, who fortified and rebuilt, the area where once stood the acropolis: the archaeological remains present a mixed village, Punic and greek. The Carthaginian domination lasted until the first Punic War. Carthage, the Romans to defend against attacks, he decided to concentrate his forces in Lylibeo, moving the population of Selinunte, destroying the city and abandoning it to ruin. A powerful earthquake in the tenth or eleventh century, perhaps eventually to be reduced to a heap of ruins, the monuments of the ancient city. In the second half of the sixteenth century, the city was rediscovered by storicoTommaso Fazello. In 1823 the British undertook archaeological excavations.
