Apollonia
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Apollonia (mod. Pollina or S. Fratello) (ME): Originally a Sikel town located on the N coast of Sicily, its site has not been excavated. It was situated between the ancient towns of Haltontion and Kalakta, and had little role in history. In the middle of the 4th century BC, Leptines, tyrant of Engyon, controlled it. In 342 BC, it was freed by Timoleon after he had defeated and exiled Leptines (Diod. 16: 72). Agathocles sacked the town in 307 BC. Cicero (Verr. 3.43.103) described it as a civitas decumana. He also states that the town provided a ship to Pompey in his campaign against the pirates.
Ancient Apollonia was located on a rocky plateau on the summit of M. Vecchio, part of the central Nebrodi mountains. It oversees a large stretch of the coast from Kephaloidion to Agathyrnon. Its ruins are visible on the mountain peak.
The fortification walls survive along the S and W sides and show construction with isodomc masonry of local marble. On the E side of the plateau are the remains of at least two buildings of the same construction, located to the W and NE of the 12th century Norman church of the Three Saints. On the summit of the mountain is a possible cistern cut into the rock. Nearby is an altar and a portion of a stairway which rises from the E.