When Virgil published the Aeneid, Syracuse and its shores were a name already well known to the Greek and Roman world.
As a matter of fact, Ortygia, gathered in the embrace of the “Plemmyrium ondosum” gulf, is mentioned by the Latin poet, who provides this immortal caption of the place: “Across the bay of Syracuse, straight off/Plemmyrium’s sea-beat shore, there lies an isle: The ancients called its name Ortygia once. The story goes that the Alpheus here -/A river that in Elis runs – hath wrought/A secret channel ‘neath the sea, and now/Through thy mouth, fount of Arethusa, blends/With the Sicilian springs. […]”.
