AUGUSTA

augusta, a seaport of the province of syracuse, sicily, 19 m. n. of it by rail. pop. (1901) 16,402. it occupies a part of the former peninsula of xiphonia, now a small island, connected with the mainland by a bridge. it was founded by the emperor frederick ii. in 1232, and almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake in 1693, after which it was rebuilt. the castle is now a large prison. the fortified port, though unfrequented except as a naval harbour of refuge, is a very fine one. there are considerable saltworks at augusta. to the south, on the left bank of the molinello. 1-1/2 m. from its mouth, sicel tombs and christian catacombs, and farther up the river a cave village of the early middle ages, have been explored (_notizie degli scavi_, 1902, 411, 631; _romische quartalschrift_, 1902, 205). whether there was ever a town bearing the name xiphonia is doubted by e.a. freeman (_hist. of sic._ i. 583); cf., however, e. pais, _atakta_ (pisa, 1891), 55, who attributes its foundation, under the name of tauromenion (which it soon lost), to the zancleans of hybla (afterwards megara hyblaea). (t. as.)