Mytistraton or Mytistratus or Myttistraton (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: , Steph. B.

Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephen of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus , was the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica...

, Diod.; , Zonar.; , Pol.

Polybius

Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...

), was an ancient town in the interior 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,...

, the site of which is located at modern 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 Monte Castellazzo di Marianopoli, 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 Marianopoli

Marianopoli

Marianopoli is a comune in the Province of Caltanissetta in the Italian region Sicily, located about 80 km southeast of Palermo and about 20 km northwest of Caltanissetta....

, in the Province of Caltanissetta

Province of Caltanissetta

The Province of Caltanissetta is a province in the southern part of Sicily, Italy...

.

It was probably but a small town, though strongly fortified, whence Philistus

Philistus

Philistus , son of Archomenidas, was Greek historian of Sicily. Philistus was born at Syracuse about the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. He was a faithful supporter of the elder Dionysius, and commander of the citadel. Cicero who had a high opinion of his work, calls him the miniature Thucydides...

 (ap. Steph. B. s. v.) called it a fortress of Sicily. It is conspicuously mentioned during the First Punic War

First Punic War

The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters but also to a lesser extent in...

, when it was in the hands of the Carthaginians

Carthage

Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

, and was besieged by the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, but for some time without success, on account of the great strength of its position; it was at length taken by the consul Aulus Atilius Calatinus

Aulus Atilius Calatinus

Aulus Atilius Calatinus , was a politician and general in Ancient Rome. He was the first Roman dictator to lead an army outside Italy , when he led his army into Sicily. He was consul in 258 BC and again in 254 BC, a praetor and triumphator in 257 BC, and finally a censor in 247 BC...

 in 258 BCE

258 BC

Year 258 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Calatinus and Peterculus...

. The inhabitants were either put to the sword or sold as slaves, and the town itself entirely destroyed. (Pol. i. 24; Diod. xxiii. 9, Exc. Hoesch. p. 503; Zonar. viii.) It was, however, again inhabited at a later period, as we find the Mutustratini mentioned by 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...

 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 interior of Sicily (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14) but no notice of its name occurs in the interval.