Imachara was an ancient city of Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 repeatedly mentioned by Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 among the municipal towns

Municipium

Municipium , the prototype of English municipality, was the Latin term for a town or city. Etymologically the municipium was a social contract between municipes, the "duty holders," or citizens of the town. The duties, or munera, were a communal obligation assumed by the municipes in exchange for...

 of the island. There is great discrepancy in regard to the form of the name, which is written in many manuscripts Macarensis or Macharensis; and the same uncertainty is found in those of Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

, who also notices the town among those of the interior of Sicily. The precise location of Imachara is not known but has been and remains the subject of much scholarly debate.

History and location

From the manner in which it is spoken of by Cicero, it would seem to have been a town of some consideration, with a territory fertile in corn. That writer associates it with Herbita

Herbita

Herbita is a genus of moth in the family Geometridae.-References:*...

, Assorus

Assorus, Sicily

The Sicel city the Romans called Assorus is the modern Assoro in the province of Enna, Sicily. Assorus was an inland town, midway between Enna and Agyrium. It long resisted Hellenization, and retained its traditional Sicel character....

, Agyrium (modern Agira

Agira

Agira is a town and comune in the province of Enna, Sicily . It is located in the mid-valley of the River Salso, 35 km from Enna...

), and other towns of the interior, in a manner that would lead us to suppose it situated in the same region of Sicily; and this inference is confirmed by Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

, who places Hemichara or Himichara (evidently the same place) in the northeast of Sicily, between Capitium (modern Capizzi

Capizzi

Capizzi is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 100 km southeast of Palermo and about 100 km southwest of Messina...

) and Centuripa (modern Centuripe

Centuripe

Centuripe is a town and comune in the province of Enna . The city is located 61 km from Enna, in the hill country between the Rivers Dittaìno and Salso.The economy is mostly based on agriculture...

). Hence Cluverius conjectured that it may have occupied the site of Traina

Traina

Traina is a genus of moth in the family Geometridae.-References:*...

, but this is wholly uncertain. Fazello and other Sicilian writers have supposed the ruins of an ancient city, which are still visible on the coast about 15 km north of Cape Pachynum, near the Porto Vindicari, in the comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of Noto

Noto

Noto is a city and comune in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily . Its located 32 km southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains and gives its name to the surrounding valley, Val di Noto...

, to be those of Imachara; but though the name of Macaresa, still borne by an adjoining headland, gives some color to this opinion, it is wholly opposed to the data furnished us by ancient authors, who all agree in placing Imachara in the interior of the island. The ruins in question, which indicate the site of a considerable town, are regarded by Cluverius (but equally without authority) as those of Ichana

Ichana

Ichana , was an ancient city of Sicily, which, according to Stephanus of Byzantium, held out for a long time against the arms of the Syracusans, whence he derives its name , but gives us no indication of the period to which this statement refers. The "Ichanenses" , however, are mentioned by Pliny...

. Modern scholars still debate the location of the city. The editors of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World

Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World

The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World is a large-format English language atlas of ancient Europe, Asia, and North Africa, edited by Richard Talbert. The time period depicted is roughly from archaic Greek civilization through Late Antiquity . The atlas was published by Princeton...

 tentatively place Imachara at the località

Località

A località, in Italy, is the name given to inhabited places that are not accorded a more significant distinction in administrative law such as a frazione, comune, municipio, circoscrizione, or quartiere. The word is cognate to English locality...

of Vaccarra di Nicosia in the comune of Nicosia

Nicosia

Nicosia from , known locally as Lefkosia , is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, as well as its main business center. Nicosia is the only divided capital in the world, with the southern and the northern portions divided by a Green Line...

.