Adrano

Adrano (aˈdraːno; Adernò until 1929; Ddirnò), ancient Adranon, is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Catania on the east coast of Sicily. It is situated around northwest of Catania, which was also the capital of the province to which Adrano belonged, now a metropolitan city. It lies near the foot of Mount Etna, at the confluence of the Simeto and Salso rivers. It is the commercial center for a region where olives and citrus fruit are grown. Neighbouring towns include: Biancavilla, Bronte, Paternò, Randazzo, Santa Maria di Licodia and Centuripe. The settlement was founded by Dionysius the Elder around 400 BC, intending to strengthen Syracusan power in the region. He named the town Adranon in honour of Adranus. In 344 BC the troops of Timoleon fought the forces of the Syracusan commander Iketas of Leontini near Adrano. During the following years, Adrano was frequently harried by Campanian mercenaries, called the Mamertinians. The Romans conquered the growing township in 263 BC and declared it a civitas stipendiaria, obliging it to pay a costly tribute to Rome. The consul Valerius ravaged the town, enslaved the inhabitants and sold them as workers and slaves to the aratores (farmers) residing in the near city of Centuripe. In 137 BC, Eunus led an unsuccessful slave revolt against the Roman suppressors, and from then on, Adrano was nothing more than part of Centuripe. The Romans referred to the city as Adranum or Hadranum. The township was pillaged several times by Germanic tribes during the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Only through the reign of Theodoric the Great (495–526), the conditions improved due to the administration by Cassiodorus. In the mid-6th century it was conquered by the Eastern Roman Empire. Around 950, the Arab Musa occupied the city of Centuripe and its vicinity, and thenceforth Adrano became part of the emirate of Sicily. The Arabs ruled the region until in 1075 the Normans, led by Hugo of Yersey, succeeded in conquering the region against the resistance of Caid Albucazar.