Hybla Heraea


Hybla Heraea or Hybla Hera was an ancient city of Sicily; its site is at the modern località of Ibla, in the comune of Ragusa. There were at least three cities named "Hybla" in ancient accounts of Sicily which are often confounded with each other, and which it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish.

History

Hybla Heraea is called by Stephanus of Byzantium "Hybla the Less or Hybla the Least", in distinction to Hybla Major and Hybla Minor, and surnamed Hera or Heraea. Of the cities of Sicily bearing the name "Hybla", it is much the least known from ancient sources. No allusion to it is found in Pausanias, where he is distinguishing Hybla Major from Hybla Minor, nor in any of the geographers: but we find in the Itineraries a town of Hybla, placed on the line of road from Syracuse to Agrigentum, and can therefore be no other than the third Hybla of Stephanus. It was situated, according to the Itineraries, 18 miles from Acrae.. A passage in which Cicero speaks of a town called "Hera", in Sicily, has been thought to refer to this town; but the reading is very doubtful.