CENTURIOE, a town of Sicily, province of Catania, 2,38oft. above sea-level, 7m. N. of the railway station of Catenanuova Centuripe, which is 28m. W. from Catania. It was formerly called Centorbi (anc. KEVrbpi/ra) or Centuripae. Pop. (1921) 13,883 (town) ; 15,96o (commune). Thucydides called it a Sicel city; it allied itself with Athens against Syracuse, and remained inde pendent (apart from Agathocles' domination) till the first Punic War. Cicero, perhaps exaggerating, called it the largest and rich est city in Sicily, with io,000 inhabitants cultivating a large terri tory. It appears to have suffered much in the war against Sextus Pompeius, and not to have regained its former prosperity under the empire. Frederick II. partly destroyed it in 1233, and its ruin was completed by Charles of Anjou. Considerable remains of buildings, including Hellenistic houses with wall paintings, thermal establishments and cisterns, and a number of substruction walls on the steep slopes, mostly of the Roman period, still exist ; Hellenistic terra-cottas and finely painted vases, both of local manufacture, have been discovered, and a large number of tombs have been excavated. It is surrounded by deep ravines, due to erosion.
See G. Libertini, Centuripe (Catania, 1926) .