Museo Giuseppe Whitaker. Motya was an ancient and powerful city on San Pantaleo Island off the west coast of Sicily, in the Stagnone Lagoon between Drepanum and Lilybaeum. It is within the present-day commune of Marsala, Italy. Many of the city's impressive ancient monuments have been excavated and can be admired today. Motya has become known recently for the marble statue of the Motya Charioteer, found in 1979 and on display at the local Giuseppe Whitaker museum. The Greeks claimed the place was named for a woman named Motya whom they connected with the myths around Hercules. The town's Italian name appears as both Mozia and Mothia; its Sicilian name is Mozzia. The island first received the name San Pantaleo in the 11th century from Basilian monks. The island is nearly 850 m long and 750 m wide, and about 1 km from the mainland of Sicily. It was joined to the mainland in ancient times by a causeway, over which chariots with large wheels could reach the town. The foundation of the city probably dates from the eighth centuryBC, about a century after the foundation of Carthage in Tunisia. It was originally a colony of the Phoenicians, who were fond of choosing similar sites, and probably in the first instance merely a commercial station or emporium, but gradually rose to be a flourishing and important town. The Phoenicians transformed the inhospitable island into one of the most affluent cities of its time, naturally defended by the lagoon as well as high defensive walls. Ancient windmills and salt pans were used for evaporation, salt grinding and refinement, and to maintain the condition of the lagoon and island itself. Recently the mills and salt pans have been restored by the owners and opened to the public. In common with the other Phoenician settlements in Sicily, it passed under the government or dependency of Carthage, whence Diodorus calls it a Carthaginian colony; but it is probable that this is not strictly correct. As the Greek colonies in Sicily increased in numbers and importance the Phoenicians gradually abandoned their settlements in the immediate neighbourhood of the newcomers, and concentrated themselves in the three principal colonies of Soluntum, Panormus, and Motya. The last of these, from its proximity to Carthage and its opportune situation for communication with North Africa, as well as the natural strength of its position, became one of the chief strongholds of the Carthaginians, as well as one of the most important of their commercial cities in the island. It appears to have held, in both these respects, the same position which was attained at a later period by Lilybaeum. Notwithstanding these accounts of its early importance and flourishing condition, the name of Motya is rarely mentioned in history until just before the period of its memorable siege. It is first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus, and Thucydides notices it among the chief colonies of the Phoenicians in Sicily which existed at the time of the Athenian expedition, 415 BC. A few years later when the Carthaginian army under Hannibal Mago landed at the promontory of Lilybaeum, that general laid up his fleet for security in the gulf around Motya, while he advanced with his land forces along the coast to attack Selinus. After the fall of the latter city, we are told that Hermocrates, the Syracusan exile, who had established himself on its ruins with a numerous band of followers, laid waste the territories of Motya and Panormus; and again during the second expedition of the Carthaginians under Hamilcar, these two cities became the permanent station of the Carthaginian fleet. Main article: Siege of Motya It was the important position to which Motya had thus attained that led Dionysius I of Syracuse to direct his principal efforts to its reduction, when in 397 BC he in his turn invaded the Carthaginian territory in Sicily. The citizens on the other hand, relying on succour from Carthage, made preparations for a vigorous resistance; and by cutting off the causeway which united them to the mainland, compelled Dionysius to have recourse to the tedious and laborious process of constructing a mound or mole of earth across the intervening space.