Helorus

Helorus, Heloros, Helorum, or Elorus (Greek: Ἔλωρος or Ἕλωρος, Ptol., Steph. B. or Ἕλωρον, Scyl.; Italian: Eloro), was an ancient city of Sicily, situated near the east coast, about 40 km south of Syracuse and on the banks of the river of the same name. It is currently an archaeological site in the modern comune of Noto.

History

We have no account of its origin, but it was probably a colony of Syracuse, of which it appears to have continued always a dependency. The name is first found in Scylax; for, though Thucydides repeatedly mentions the road leading to Helorus from Syracuse, which was that followed by the Athenians in their disastrous retreat, he never speaks of the town itself. It was one of the cities which remained the under the government of Hieron II by the treaty concluded with him by the Romans, in 263 BCE: and, having during the Second Punic War declared in favor of the Carthaginians, was recovered by Marcus Claudius Marcellus in 214 BCE.

Under the Romans it appears to have been dependent on Syracuse, and had perhaps no separate municipal existence, though in a passage of Cicero it appears to be noticed as a civitas. Its name is again mentioned by the orator (Id. v. 34) as a maritime town where the squadron fitted out by Verres was attacked by pirates: but it does not occur in Pliny's list of the towns of Sicily; though he elsewhere mentions it as a castellum on the river of the same name: and Ptolemy speaks of a city of Helorus.

Helorus (river)

Helorus or Elorus (Greek: Ἕλωρος or Ἕλωρος), is a river in the southeast of Sicily, the most considerable which occurs between Syracuse and Cape Pachynum. It is now called Tellaro, evidently a corruption of Helorus.

It rises in the hills between Palazzolo (ancient Acrae) and Giarratana, and flows at first to the south, then turns eastward, and enters the sea about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Syracuse. Near its mouth stood the town of the same name. In the upper part of its course it is a mountain stream, flowing over a rugged and rocky bed, whence Silius Italicus calls it undae clamosus Helorus (xiv. 269); but near its mouth it becomes almost perfectly stagnant, and liable to frequent inundations. Hence Virgil justly speaks of praepingue solum stagnantis Helori (Aen. iii. 698). Ovid praises the beauty of the valley through which it flows, which he terms Helornia Tempe (Fast. iv. 476). Several ancient authors mention that the stagnant pools at the mouth of the river abounded in fish, which were said to be so tame that they would eat out of the hand, in the same manner as was afterwards not uncommon in the fishponds of the Romans. (Apollodorus of Athens ap. Steph. Byz. v. Ἔλωρος; Athenaeus, viii. p. 331; Plin. xxxii. 2. s. 7.)