Hippana or Hyppana was an ancient town of Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, mentioned by Polybius

Polybius

Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...

 as being taken by assault by the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 in the First Punic War

First Punic War

The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters but also to a lesser extent in...

, 260 BCE. (Pol. i. 24.) Diodorus, in relating the events of the same campaign, mentions the capture of a town called "Sittana", for which we should in all probability read "Hippana". (Diod. xxiii. 9.; Cluver. Sicil. p. 392.) The correctness of the name found in Polybius is confirmed by Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephen of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus , was the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica...

 (s. v.), who, however, writes it , but cites Polybius as his authority. It sat astride the main road from Panormus (modern Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

) to Agrigentum (modern Agrigento

Agrigento

Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden...

) upon Monte dei Cavalli, in the modern comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of Prizzi

Prizzi

Prizzi is a town and comune of 5,711 inhabitants in the Italian province of Palermo, on the island of Sicily. It is located south of the city of Palermo at an altitude of 696 m above sea level on a hill in the upper valley of the River Sosio...

.

Some manuscripts of Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 mention the name of Ipanenses in his list of Sicilian towns. (iii. 8. s. 14. § 91), where the older editions have Ichanenses. If this reading be adopted, it in all probability refers to the same place as the Hippana of Polybius; but as the reading Ichanenses is also supported by the authority of Stephanus (who notices Ichana

Ichana

Ichana , was an ancient city of Sicily, which, according to Stephanus of Byzantium, held out for a long time against the arms of the Syracusans, whence he derives its name , but gives us no indication of the period to which this statement refers. The "Ichanenses" , however, are mentioned by Pliny...

as a town of Sicily), the point must be considered doubtful.