Catăna

, a town of Sicily at the foot of mount Ætna, founded by a colony from Chalcis, 753 years before the christian era. Ceres had there a temple, in which none but women were permitted to appear. It was large and opulent, and it is rendered remarkable for the dreadful overthrows to which it has been subjected from its vicinity to Ætna, which has discharged, in some of its eruptions, a stream of lava four miles broad and 50 feet deep, advancing at the rate of seven miles in a day. Catana contains now about 30,000 inhabitants. Cicero , Against Verres , bk. 4 , ch. 53 ; bk. 5 , ch. 84 .— Diodorus , bks. 11 & 14.— Strabo , bk. 6 .— Thucydides , bk. 6 , ch. 3 .