The making of the Hellenistic city in Sicily. Some reflections from the case study of Tauromenion

Archaeological research carried out by the University of Messina in the ancient Tauromenion has allowed to better delineate the physiognomy of the city in the Hellenistic period. This paper shows that the physiognomy of Hellenistic Tauromenion can now be identified as the result of a vast programme of urban reconfiguration and monumentalisation of public spaces, datable to the second half of the 3rd century Bc. The peculiarities of this intervention seem to reflect the adoption of ideas developed at Syracuse during the reign of Hiero II, adapted to a different scale and to a particular orographic context. Taormina was therefore the first city in Hellenistic Sicily to adopt and re-elaborate the Syracusan model, which was later also emulated by cities on the Tyrrhenian coast of the island.