Hybla Major or Hybla Maior or Hybla Magna (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: = Hybla Megale) – the "Greater Hybla" – was a used to identify the most important of the ancient cities named Hybla

Hybla

In geography, Hybla may refer to any of several different sites in ancient Sicily:*Megara Hyblaea, archeological site near Augusta*Hybla Heraea, historic quarter of modern Ragusa...

 in 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,...

.

Controversy

There is much debate as to which of the cities named "Hybla" the name applied (Hybla Gereatis

Hybla Gereatis

Hybla Gereatis , is the name of an ancient city of Sicily, located on the southern slope of Mount Etna, not far from the river Symaethus, in the modern comune of Paternò...

 or Megara Hyblaea

Megara Hyblaea

Megara Hyblaea – perhaps identical with Hybla Major – is the name of an ancient Greek colony in Sicily, situated near Augusta on the east coast, north-northwest of Syracuse, Italy, on the deep bay formed by the Xiphonian promontory...

) and whether the name uniformly applied to the same city over the period during which the name was used. Initially Megara Hyblaea was the more important; it was founded c. 728 BCE and destroyed in c. 481 BCE

481 BC

Year 481 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Fusus...

. Hybla Gereatis, however, played an important role in the Second Punic War

Second Punic War

The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...

, in the 3rd century BCE.

A possible explanation of how the term arose is from a corruption of the rho

Rho (letter)

Rho is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 100. It is derived from Semitic resh "head"...

 in Greek "Megara" to a lambda

Lambda

Lambda is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is related to the Phoenician letter Lamed . Letters in other alphabets that stemmed from lambda include the Roman L and the Cyrillic letter El...

generating "Megala" (meaning "greater"). The coins of Hybla Major bear the Greek legend "HYBLA MEGALAS".