Abacaenum

Abakainon (Greek Ἀβάκαινον; Latin Abacaenum ) was located on a steep mountain ancient city in north- eastern Sicily in the church today Tripi.

Originally Sicel settlement came under Greek cultural influence. The urban area of ​​Abakainon extended initially north to the sea, but was significantly reduced in 396 BC with the creation of Tyndaris by the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse. The historian Diodorus, which represents a significant source for the ancient history of Sicily, Abakainon especially mentioned in the description of military clashes between Syracuse and Carthage; so defeated about 393 BC Dionysius I in Abakainon the Carthaginian general Mago, who lost 800 men. Accordingly, the place for some time was a more important place, but is no longer mentioned in the literary sources since the time of King Hieron II of Syracuse. Probably the rising prosperity of the neighboring Tyndaris was to blame for his downfall. However, it mentions Ptolemy, making it even existed during the Roman Imperial period.

The ancient remains of the city at the foot of the hill on which the present Tripi is already the Italian Dominican monk and historian Tommaso Fazello found in the 16th century. Silver and copper coins of the city can be detected from the middle of the 5th to the end of the 3rd century AD, the types ( Eber and acorn ) indicate livestock in the nearby large forests. Abakainon is also mentioned in the list of Theodorokoi from Delphi ( early 2nd century BC).