ABSTRACT
Reference has often been made to the Mediterranean centrality of Sicily and of the area of the Messina Strait. As a matter of fact, Sicily is placed in a stra tegic position in the centre of Mediterranean, less than 200 km from North Africa, constituting a kind of bridge platform between Europe and Africa, but also between Eastern and Western countries of the Mediterranean, and has long been considered thus. According to Strabo's1 geography, the axis of the world inhabited 2,000 years ago, from west to east, was measured on a line drawn from the Pillars (Strait of Gibraltar), then through Messina Strait, Athens, Rhodes, and the Taurus, to the eastern sea. (Figure 1.1)
The geographic parallel passing through the Strait represented an axis of symmetry between inhabited countries of Europe and North Africa. At that time therefore the Strait of Messina was right in the middle of the civilized world, that was considered to be formed by Europe, North Africa and Mid dle East. Its central position along the ancient routes connecting the Aegean and the Tyrrhenian seas made the Strait an historic crossroad for ancient peoples and cultures.
