Tindari

Coordinates: 38°08′44″N 15°02′23″E / 38.14556°N 15.03972°E / 38.14556; 15.03972
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tindari
Lu Tìnnaru (
Byzantine period
CulturesAncient Greece

Tindari (Italian:

Ancient Greek: Τυνδαρίς, Strab.) or Tyndarion (Τυνδάριον, Ptol.), is a small town, frazione (suburb or municipal component) in the comune of Patti and a Latin Catholic titular see
.

The monumental ruins of ancient Tyndaris are a main attraction for visitors and excavations are continuing to reveal more parts of the city.

Tindari has a famous

poem Vento a Tindari, written by Salvatore Quasimodo
.

History

The monumental propylaeum gate from the inside
Roman Domus

Ancient Tyndaris was strategically situated on its prominent hill overlooking the wide bay of the Tyrrhenian Sea bounded by the Capo di Milazzo on the east, and the Capo Calavà on the west.[citation needed] It was connected by a comparatively narrow isthmus with the lower ground inland. It thus commanded views of the summit of Mount Etna and northwards to the Lipari Islands.[1]

It was one of the latest of all the cities in Sicily that could claim a purely Greek origin, having been founded by the

Dioscuri, and readily admitting fresh citizens from other quarters, soon raised their whole population to the number of 5000 citizens.[2]
The new city thus rose at once to be a place of considerable importance.

It is next mentioned in 344 BC, when it was one of the first cities that declared in favor of

Liparaean islands, in which a Roman fleet under Gaius Atilius Regulus obtained some advantage over the Carthaginian fleet, but without any decisive result.[6] The Roman fleet is described on that occasion as touching at the promontory of Tyndaris, but the city had not yet fallen into their hands, and it was not until after the fall of Panormus (modern Palermo) in 254 BC that Tyndaris expelled the Carthaginian garrison and joined the Roman alliance.[7]

We hear little of Tyndaris under Roman government, but it appears to have been a flourishing and considerable city.

Roman senate, apparently as an honorary distinction, to contribute to certain offerings to the temple of Venus at Eryx.[10] In other respects it had no peculiar privileges, and was in the condition of an ordinary municipal town, with its own magistrates, local senate, etc., but was certainly in the time of Cicero one of the most considerable places in the island. It, however, suffered severely from the exactions of Verres[11] and the inhabitants, to revenge themselves on their oppressor, publicly demolished his statue as soon as he had quit the island.[12]

Tyndaris again bore a considerable part in the

Mylae, and became one of his chief posts, from which he carried on offensive warfare against Pompey.[13] Subsequently, to this we hear nothing more of Tyndaris in history; but there is no doubt of its having continued to subsist throughout the period of the Roman Empire. Strabo speaks of it as one of the places on the north coast of Sicily which, in his time, still deserved the name of cities; and Pliny gives it the title of a Colonia. It is probable that it received a colony under Augustus, as we find it bearing in an inscription the titles of Colonia Augusta Tyndaritanorum.[14] Pliny indeed mentions a great calamity which the city had sustained, when (he tells us) half of it was swallowed up by the sea, probably from an earthquake having caused the fall of part of the hill on which it stands, but we have no clue to the date of this event.[1][15] The Itineraries attest the existence of Tyndaris, apparently still as a considerable place, in the fourth century.[16]

Lagoon of Tindari included in the nature reserve of Marinello.

Ecclesiastical History

Titular see

The diocese was nominally restored in 1968 as Latin

Titular bishopric
of Tindari (Curiate Italian) / Tyndaris (Latin) / Tyndaritan(us) (Latin adjective)

Remains

Greek theatre

By the 19th century, the site of Tyndaris was wholly deserted, but the name was retained by a church, which crowned the most elevated point of the hill on which the city formerly stood, and was still called the Madonna di Tindaro. It is c. 180 m above the sea-level, and forms a conspicuous landmark to sailors. Considerable ruins of the ancient city, are also visible. It occupied the whole plateau or summit of the hill, and the remains of the ancient walls may be traced, at intervals, all round the brow of the cliffs, except in one part, facing the sea, where the cliff is now quite precipitous. It is not improbable that it is here that a part of the cliff fell in, in the manner recorded by Pliny[17] Two gates of the city are also still distinctly to be traced.

The chief monuments, of which the ruins are still extant within the circuit of the walls, are:

  • the theatre, of which the remains are in imperfect condition, but sufficient to show that it was not of large size, and apparently of Roman construction, or at least, like that of Tauromenium, rebuilt in Roman times upon the Greek foundations
  • a
    propylaeum
    with two handsome stone arches (previously called a Gymnasium)
  • several other edifices of Roman times, but of wholly uncertain character, a mosaic pavement and some Roman tombs.[18]

Numerous inscriptions, fragments of sculpture, and architectural decorations, as well as coins, vases etc. have also been discovered on the site.

Sanctuary of Tindari.
The Black Madonna of Tindari celebrated the 7–8 September, inscribed NIGRA SUM SED FORMOSA, meaning "I am black but beautiful".

Legend

Local legend tells that the lagoon was created after a pilgrim who came to see the Madonna refused to pray to the Madonna because she was black. The woman accidentally dropped her baby into the ocean and the Madonna made the land rise to save the baby. The sands of Marinello have taken shape of the profile of the Madonna.

Cultural references

An episode of Inspector Montalbano was called "Excursion to Tindari". It ends with four of the main characters overlooking the bay.[19] Salvatore Quasimodo, who would later win the Nobel prize for literature, in 1930 published a poem entitled "Vento a Tindari" (Wind at Tindari).

Accessibility

By car, if you come from Falcone , A20 of Autostrada Messina-Palermo take Palermo direction along SS 113.

But Tindari and its Church are reachable by trains run by Trenitalia, including services from Messina with the Oliveri railway station situated on the Palermo–Messina railway. Outside of the station is available a Uber service by App.

Tindari is also served by bus provided from Azienda Siciliana Trasporti.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Ashby 1911.
  2. Diodorus
    xiv. 78.
  3. ^ Diod. xvi. 69.
  4. ^ Diod. xxii. Exc. H. p. 499.
  5. ^ Diod. xxiii. p. 502.
  6. ^ Polybius i. 25; Zonar. viii. 12.
  7. ^ Diod. xxiii. p. 505.
  8. ^ In Verrem iii. 43.
  9. ^ Cicero, In Verrem iv. 3. 9-42, v. 47.
  10. ^ Cicero In Verrem v. 47; Zumpt, ad loc.; Diod. iv. 83.
  11. ^ Cicero In Verrem ll. cc..
  12. ^ Cicero In Verrem ii. 66.
  13. ^ Appian, B.C. v. 105, 109, 116.
  14. ^ Strabo vi. p. 272; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 2; Orell. Inscr. 955.
  15. ^ Pliny ii. 92. s. 94.
  16. ^ Itin. Ant. pp. 90, 93; Tab. Peut.
  17. ^ ii. 92. s. 94.
  18. ^ Serra di Falco, Antichità della Sicilia, vol. v. part vi.; William Henry Smyth Sicily, p. 101; Richard Hoare, Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 217, etc.
  19. ^ "Excursion to Tindari". Retrieved 16 March 2015.

Sources and external links

Bibliography
  • Rocco Pirri, Sicilia sacra, vol. I, Palermo 1733, p. 493
  • Giuseppe Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia dalla loro origine sino ai nostri giorni, Venice 1870, vol. XXI, pp. 587–588
  • Francesco Lanzoni, Le diocesi d'Italia dalle origini al principio del secolo VII (an. 604), vol. II, Faenza 1927, p. 650