It seems to have fallen into the power of the Syracusans, and was occupied by them with a strong garrison; and in 426 BC, during the Sicilian Expedition, we find the Athenians under Laches in vain attempting to wrest it from their hands.
[4] At a subsequent period the strength of its position as a fortress, rendered it a place of importance in the civil dissensions of Sicily, and it became the refuge of the Syracusan knights who had opposed the elevation of Dionysius the Elder.
[5] We find no mention of it from this time until the days of Cicero, who repeatedly speaks of it as a municipal town of considerable importance; its territory being one of the most fertile in corn of all Sicily.
[6] The Aetnenses are also mentioned by Pliny among the populi stipendiarii of Sicily; and the name of the city is found both in Ptolemy and the Itineraries, but its subsequent history and the period of its destruction are unknown.
Mannert, however, speaks of ruins at a place called Castro, about 4 km northeast from Paternò, on a hill projecting from the foot of the mountain, which he regards as the site of Aetna, and which would certainly agree well with the requisite conditions.