Gela
[key], city, S Sicily, Italy, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is a port,
industrial center, and seaside resort. Petrochemicals are produced nearby,
and petroleum is refined in the city. Much cotton is grown in Gela's
hinterland. The city was founded c.688 b.c. by Greek colonists from
Crete and Rhodes and soon flourished, founding (c.580 b.c.) Acragas
(the later Agrigento). It
attained its greatest prosperity under the tyrants Hippocrates and Gelon in the 5th cent. b.c.
However, the city was sacked by Carthage in 405 b.c. and never
fully recovered. In 282 b.c., Mamertine mercenaries (see Messina) destroyed the city, and
Phintias, tyrant of Acragas, resettled the inhabitants in the new city of
Phintias (now Licata). In a necropolis near Gela, Greek vases and other
objects have been found; excavations (begun in 1901) have uncovered the
ancient Greek wall of Gela (5th–4th cent. b.c.) and two
temples. The modern city was founded by Emperor Frederick II in 1230; until
1927 it was known as Terranova di Sicilia. In World War II, Gela was a
landing point (July, 1943) for the Allied invasion of Sicily.
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