“The place ... in the most favourable position of all in Sicily” (Diod. Sic. 14.58.4): Zancle-Messana and its sickle-shaped peninsula

This article investigates the representation of the peninsula of Zancle-Messana in ancient literary and epigraphic evidence. In particular, it analyses how and to what extent the image of the sickle-shaped peninsula (along with its port facilities, located as they were at the northern mouth of the Straits between Sicily and Italy) may have impacted on the general consideration of Zancle-Messana as an admirably situated city, giving rise to mythical and/or aetiological interpretations about the peninsula itself and the surrounding landscape. To this end, special attention is paid not only to passages from Thucydides’ History, Callimachus’ Aetia, and Diodorus’ Bibliotheke, but also to a recently published inscription from present-day Messina.