History and etymology of Aidone and Morgantina
In 1210 Aidone was defined as “terra” ["land"], a term that refers to the concept of fairly important town, walled and with its own administrative offices, which also exercised some control over the surrounding area (See F. Maurici, “Il vocabolario delle fortificazioni...”, in Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Rome, De Luca, 1998: 25-39 and p. 10, footnote 83 of the extract). In 1210, therefore Aidone was a remarkable city, and the age is that of Frederick II of Swabia, but the town is very ancient. It seems to be the direct heir of “Morgantina”, not far from Aidone, which was precisely identified with Morgantina by many scholars, and as an outpost of Chalcidian penetration toward the plain north of Lentini (Erim 1958, Piraino 1959, Adamesteanu 1956, Suöqvist 1960, Tsakirgis 1995, Bell 2000) [See Giada Giudice, “Il Tornio, la nave, le terre lontane”, Rome, 2007: 265 and note 95). Now the identification between Morgantina and Aidone meets almost unanimous consents" (See "Archaeological Institute bulletin Germany", 1975, Vol. 82, p. 33 and note 51).
Morgantina was founded, according to historical sources in 560 BC by Chalcidian colonists in an area formerly inhabited by the Sicules, located in a extremely good climate area full of sources and building materials, certainly better than Aidone, located about 200 meters higher than Morgantina.
Around the third century BC, during the reign of Agathocles (361-282 BC) and Hieron (died in 466 BC), Morgantina had a large population, estimated at 30,000 inhabitants (See G. Bruno, S. Nicosia, “Caratteri geologici e idrogeologici di Morgantina”, in “Il sistema uomo-ambiente tra passato e presente, Edipuglia, 1998: 185-195). Morgantina was conquered by the Romans in 211 BC and sacked by the legions of Marcus Cornelius Cetego (died in 196 BC). It was destroyed by the Romans themselves in the imperial Age, because, during the Civil War between Pompey (106-48 BC) and Octavian (63 BC-14 AD), the town sided with the latter. Therefore, at the behest of Octavian, the town was punished by the destruction, and gradually was abandoned by the inhabitants.
The etymology, in the case of Aidone, is a key element since, in accordance with it, we can somehow pick up even the origins of the city. The opinions in the case of Aidone are manifold, because there are those who speak of a Greek name (Aedòn-dònos = “nightingale”), others speak of an Arab origin, handed down by Al-Idrisi in the form of “Ayduni” ( See M. Amari, "The Book of Roger", 1883, p. 55); others propose instead a Germanic root, resulting from a proper name. It’s been rightly noted that the etymological data must be somehow related to historical events. For Aidone the only etymology in which the linguistic and historical data converge is the third hypothesis, which relates the original name of the city with some checked historical events. The“Centro studi filologici e linguistici siciliani”, Bollettino 13, 1977, p. 466 e nota 1) notes that G. Alessio (“L'elemento greco nella toponomastica della Sicilia”, Bollettino, I, 1953, pp. 76-77) “proposes a derivation from the Germanic personal name ‘Aido-onis”. We must also exclude as etymological bases the Greek name ‘Aedon-donos’ "(Nightingale) and the Arabic 'ain-dun' (higher source) (see p. 466)". Ascertainable, however, both from phonetic and historical point of view is the idea of a Germanic personal name derived from 'Aido-onis'. After all, no strangers to Sicily were some place-names deriving from Germanic (and Norman) personal names. Among these we include ... another place name derived from a personal name [as] the famous ‘Rocca di Sarra’ (...) Etymologically the name is a derivative of "Serlo-onis" (See p. 467). But many scholars believe that the Normans have not established "ex novo" the village of Aidone, while, on contrary, they believe that the Normans have simply "re-populated" an ancient Arab village at their time almost deserted.
A Sicilian scholar, Ferdinando Maurici, writes: "[...] not less than seventy of these fortified places are mentioned 'at least' until the moment of the Norman Conquest and (...) the evidences of a priority of some cities in the second half of 11th century (...) are certainly higher than the hypothesis of a Norman foundation (...) We do not possess in fact no clear example of evolution and transition from the Muslim 'Rahal' (farm-house) to the Norman farm-house. For many cases, however, is more than likely a topographic and structural continuity, free of breaking-points [...]" (F. Maurici, "Medieval castles in Sicily", Sellerio, 1992: 121, 137). The historical data in our possession show that the Normans of Roger (1031-1101), and then the Swabians attracted the peoples of the North Italy to repopulate many Sicilian villages almost deserted: "[...] The dialect spoken in Aidone, such as Nicosia, Piazza Armerina, San Fratello and Sperlinga was called by linguists 'Gallo-Italic'. These dialects, especially in the earliest phase, were different from the Sicilian dialect for phonetic, morphological and lexical points of view. The origin of these dialects must be re-searched at the time of the Norman and Swabian domination of Sicily, when they favored the immigration of settlers from northern Italy, to re-populate some towns and districts devastated by war [ ...]" (See AA.VV., "Aidone, Morgantina, Ariete, 1997: 8).
We observe that the Sicilians called the newcomers "Lombardi"; as explained by Giovanni Ruffino, the Normans "encouraged massive transfers of north settlers toward the south and Sicily. Many small towns were founded and others were intensely re-populated by the presence of these new people. They were improperly called 'Lombardi', while their origin was largely from Liguria and Piedmont; the Gallo-Italians settled mostly in the central-eastern Sicily "(See G. Ruffino," Sicily ", Bari, Laterza, 2001: 1-7). Despite many doubts about the fact that Aidone had been established "ex novo", the tradition says the opposite. Michele Amari, for example, wrote that Fazello “ added to the number of Lombard colonies of this age Aidone and San Fratello" (M. Amari: 230). In fact, Fazello wrote: "[...] Not far from the fortress called ‘Pietratagliata’ (...) there is Aidone, a castle of Lombards, which was built by them at the time of the Normans, when Count Roger of Sicily defeated the Saracens and the Lombards, who came with him built this castle , where until now the Lombard language is spoken [...]" (See T. Fazello, "History of Sicily”, Palermo, 1830, Volume 2: 394).
For Fazello thus Aidone was a "creation" of the "Lombardi" called by the Normans. L. Villari observed a very important fact, that is: "[...] By an analysis of the entire work of Al Idrisi, we note that the Arab Geographer 'not Arabized' countries founded by the Normans; he limited himself to write according to the Arabic handwriting. So we have 'Aiduni' (Aidone), 'Sant Marku' (Municipality of San Marco) [...]" (See L. Villari, “L'Ibla Sicana e il sito della Villa Imperiale di Piazza Armerina”, 1995: 49). If, therefore, Al Idrisi "not Arabized" the names of Norman origin, it means that he heard them "outsiders" to the Arab tradition, so this is another fact in favor of the hypothesis that Aidone was a "New Town" founded “ex novo” by the Lombards, attracted by the Normans in Sicily. L. Villari, in this regard, adds: "On the other hand, we know that Edrisi wrote in Arabic because it was an official language of the time, and thus he reported for each village the name of the Arab tradition. The refusal of this interpretation is such as to refuse the favors that Geographer Dufour accomplished with the collaboration of Michele Amari, and those of many other scholars "(p. 49). Also the “Biblioteca del Centro Studi filologici e linguistici siciliani” expresses a similar point of view, pointing out that the Germanic personal name "[...] 'Aido-onis' (...) answers historically and phonetically better than the names of Greek and Arabic origin (...) This example is very instructive because it teaches us it is no sufficient that a place-name has been handed down to us in a 'disguised’ Arab language to swear by its Semitic origin, especially if the form sent to us by the Arab geographers does not answer to the needs of the phonetic Arabic name (See “Biblioteca del centro studi filologici e linguistici siciliani, “Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani”, 1954: 17). As we can see the question about the name "Aidone" has produced a large amount of studies.
However, the question is perhaps easier. G. Battia, a writer of a magazine in the mid-nineteenth century, wrote about Aidone a very interesting notation, and perhaps it would be worthwhile to re-consider. Thus he wrote: "[...] The European peoples always give the places names that hint at their shape. In all parts of southern Europe dominated by Arabs, the word ‘Gibil’, ‘Zibili’ or ‘Gibili’ always indicates hill or mountain… The Romans marked with the name of 'Altum' the first points of a mountainous country overlooking the plain. This word changed in the vernacular languages, and become 'Aitar' in Spain, 'Aiton' in Savoy, and 'Aidone' in Italy [. ..]" (See G. Battia, “Cognizioni utili”, in “Il cronista”, 1856, n. X, p. 57). Aidone is located at an altitude of about 850 meters above sea level, that is 200 meters higher than Morgantina. Thus, the term "Altum" is perfectly adapted to the topography. It’s very probable that, when the Romans conquered Morgantina. they called "Altum" the rocky peak that rose about 200 meters above the won town. Among other things, we have in other States a similar topography, which produced the same name, or “Aidone”. G. Casalis writes : "[...] Aiton (Aito), a communities in the district of Aiguebelle (...) ‘Aiton’ comes from 'locus altus', that is a town situated on a hill, where we can see the whole valley of Rochette, Montmeillan, St. Peter of Albigny, Conflans, and easily see where the borders of France. On some ancient monuments we read 'Altum', above others 'Alton', and over time the 'l' is changed to 'i', so 'A-l-ton' has become 'A-i-ton', as today we write [ ...]" (See G. Casalis“Dizionario Geografico-Storico-statistico-commerciale degli Stati di Sua Maestà il Re di Sardegna”, Torino, 1833, Vol. I :96).
"Altum" was therefore probably the ancient Latin name of Aidone, who then Al Idrisi called “Ayduni”. Therefore, it is not even necessary to think of a name of a Germanic warrior called "Aidon-onis." We also know that when the Normans became the Lords of a Hamlet, they tended to take the name of that farm-house. For example, G. Maurici writes that the first document attesting the existence of Aidone is a diploma of the Cathedral of Messina dating back to 1154, in which is mentioned a “Paschalis miles de Aydone” "( “Paschalis, knight of Aidone”): "[... ] The only indication of the possible existence of a fortress in the twelfth century is the certification status of people who carry the Knights 'cognomen' 'de Aydone' and that they could be members of a feudal family of the place, the so-called 'milites Castri' ( ('Knights of the fortress') (…) and an ‘Enricus miles de Aidone’ appears in 1183 [...]" (See F. Maurici, "Medieval castles in Sicily", Sellerio, 1992: 248). It’s therefore likely that it happened the opposite of what we thought until now, that is, the hamlet "Aidone" did not take the name of the Lord who owned it, but that he had to take the name of the “Casale” (“hamlet”), which he ruled . The names of former knights of Aidone were "Paschalis de (from) Aidone" and "Enricus de (from) Aidone”. Therefore Aidone was indeed a "New Town", not in the sense that it was "created" by the Normans, but they re-populated and re-vitalized it, having a very important part in the history of the town and Sicily.
In fact, with the Normans were built the most important civic and religious monuments of the town, like the so- called “Castellaccio”, the Churches of “San Antonio”, “San Lorenzo”, and “Santa Maria Lo Plano". Aidone in the following centuries, as all Sicily, passed from one domain to another. After the Normans it was ruled by the Swabians. With the arrival in Italy of Conrad of Swabia, the town was destroyed and rebuilt in 1276-1277 (See F. Maurici, "Federico II e la Sicilia”, 1997: 122) In 1282 the town was a protagonist of the “War of the Sicilian Vespers” (the rebellion against the Angevin) and it was subsequently ruled for about two centuries (1282-1516) by the Aragonese and the Castilians with Chiaromonte, Rosso, Gioeni. Under the Gioeni other important religious buildings were built, as the Church of San Domenico, the Convent of St. Michael and the Church of San Giovanni. After the “Risorgimento” struggles for the unification of Italy, to which Aidone such a great contribution, it finally entered into the Kingdom of Italy with the Unification (1861). The main activities were agriculture and industry production sulphurous; however today tourism has agreat economic significance due to the exploitation of recent archaeological discoveries, its artistic heritage and, finally, the area's resources.