Ground Floor. In Room I, Early-Christian inscriptions and the sarcophagus of Adelfia (5th cent.) from the catacombs of San Giovanni (p. [165]). In Rooms III-V, Greek inscriptions, sarcophagi, cinerary urns, and architectural fragments. Room VI. Earthenware sarcophagi from Gela (6–5th cent. B. C.), Hellenistic and Roman sculptures. Room VII. Chiefly Greek sculptures. In Room VIII, a fine Venus Anadyomene (Hellenistic).
The Staircase and First Floor (Rooms XI and XVII-XIX) contain the ancient historical collection, showing the progress of Sicilian culture from the pre-Greek period (from the 15th cent.) down to the 5th cent. B. C.—Rooms XII, XIII. Greek vases from Sicily and Lower Italy, archaic bronzes and coins from ancient Sicily. Rooms XIV-XVI. Terracottas.
The mediæval and modern collections of the Museum are to be transferred to the Palazzo Bellomo, a building of the 15th cent., in the Via Capodieci running to the E. from the Fontana Aretusa.
The Via Cavour leads to the N. from the Piazza del Duomo to the Via Diana, where on the left are the ruins of the so-called Temple of Diana (keys at the barber’s opposite; fee 30 c.), but now believed to have been dedicated to Apollo. This is one of the most curious of Greek temples. In front stood two rows of six columns each. The side-walls were of unusual length and were each probably flanked by nineteen columns.
b. The Ancient City.
Long before the Athenian campaign (p. [163]) Ancient Syracuse had extended her boundaries far beyond her island of Ortygia and across the high plateau to the N. to the bay of Trogilos and the present tonnara near Cape Santa Panagia (p. [159]). The earliest extension consisted in the Achradina, the smaller half of which lay between the great harbour and the plateau, while the larger half occupied the E. margin of the latter, and was enclosed by a wall whose ruins still exist. Adjoining the Achradina on the W. were the Neapolis, or new city, on a terrace above the great harbour, and the quarter named Tyche after a temple of the goddess of Fortune. The Epipolae, the fifth and highest quarter, on the W. side of the plateau, was the chief base of the Athenian besiegers; but it was only completed after Dionysius I. had (about 402–385) enclosed the entire half of the plateau stretching from the Achradina wall westwards, with a huge city-wall, and had built the fortress of Euryelus at its W. end. The circumference of the city, which however embraced a good deal of unoccupied land, was thus no less than 17 M. Of the enclosing wall 10½ M. still exist.
We begin with the Achradina. The Corso Umberto Primo (p. [163]), the main street of the new suburb on the mainland, leads in 10 min. to a round piazza whence radiate the Floridia road, passing the central station, and the Catania and Noto roads. The remains of columns on the drilling-ground between this piazza and the small harbour probably belonged to a superb Agora or market-place.
From this point we follow the Catania road to the N., whence an avenue soon diverges to the right to the Porto Piccolo (ferry, see p. [163]), now choked with sand, and leads along the shore, below the suburb of Santa Lucia, and across a railway cutting, to (25 min.) the Capuchin Monastery (now a poor-house). Close by, on the right, is the entrance to the—
*Latomía dei Cappuccino (adm. 30 c.), one of the wildest and grandest of the old quarries of Syracuse, now clothed with rich vegetation. It was here probably that the 7000 Athenian prisoners of war languished in 413 B. C.
Following the road to the W. we skirt the plateau and pass the Cimitero to (10 min.) the road coming from the upper Achradina, and go on by a cart-road, whence, by the Latomia del Casale, we see the Catania road before us and the church of San Giovanni below, on the left.