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| *Modica is a city in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily. The city is situated in the Iblean mountains and, along with Val di Noto, is part of UNESCO Heritage Sites in Italy. Founded in 1360 BC or in 1031 in accordance to Thucydides, and circa the 7th century BC inhabited by the Sicels, when it was known as Motyca. The Sicels gave their name to the whole island and came around 1400 BC, entered in touch with the Greeks in the 8th century BC and were overwhelmed by them in controlling the coastal zone of Sicily. Later Modica was occupied by the Romans after the battle of the Egadi islands against the Carthaginians in the Punic Wars 241 BC, together with Syracuse and all the Sicily. Modica became one of the 35 "decuman" (i. e. spontaneously submitted) cities of the island and was oppressed by the praetor Verres (Cicero, In Verrem, 1, III, 51).
The south-east of Sicily and Modica (according to the German historian L. Hertling) was precociously christianized, as the diocese of Syracuse boasts an apostholic foundation by St. Paul in 61 (28,12). In 535 the byzantine general Belisarius expelled the Goths and estabilished for Justinian I the government of the East-Roman Empire (also improperly known as the Byzantine Empire) and the already Greek-speaking population fixed their culture until the latinization of the Normans in the 11th century. In 845 Modica was captured by the Arabs who referred to the city as Mudiqah. In 1091 ended the long lasting war of the Normans, led by Roger of Hauteville, against the Arabs: with the fall of the entire Val di Noto, the south-eastern part of the island, the Christians, led by Roger of Hauteville, reconquered Sicily.
In 1296 Modica became the capital of an important county, which under the Chiaramonte family became a flourishing semi-independent state controlling the whole southern third of the island, with the right of a mint of its own and other privileges (see County of Modica). The most striking event of the modern era was the earthquake of 1693, which destroyed the entire Val di Noto, although to a slightly lesser extent in Modica.
Annexed to Italy in 1860, Modica remained district capital until 1926, when it was included in the province of Ragusa. * |
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