Engyon is a legendary ancient town of the interior of Sicily, a Cretan colony, according to legend, and famous for an ancient temple of the Magna Mater (or Cybele) which aroused the greed of Verres.
The Ietini are only noticed in passing by Cicero among the towns whose lands had been utterly ruined by the exactions of Verres; and the Ietenses are enumerated by Pliny among the populi stipendiarii of the interior of Sicily.
There Antonio Servilio discovers that the governor Verre (cf Gaius Verres, the corrupt governor of Sicily and opponent of Cicero), a real mafia, is the cause of many abuses and damages against the people, for fear that the report does not consider it wise wrongs suffered.
The people were for the most part prosperous and contented, but under Verres, the island experienced more misery and desolation than during the time of the First Punic or the recent servile wars.
Verres |