San Marco d'Alunzio borders the following municipalities: Alcara li Fusi, Capri Leone, Frazzanò, Longi, Militello Rosmarino, Torrenova.

Its foundation was ascribed by some authors to Acarnanians led by Patron, some of whom settled here after guiding Aeneas across the Ionian Sea from Greece.

He mentions it as having suffered severely from the exactions of Verres, who, not content with ruinous extortions of corn, compelled the inhabitants to give up all their ornamental plate.

[7] This position exactly accords with that described by Cicero, who tells that Verres would not take the trouble to visit the town himself quod erat difficili ascensu atque arduo, but remained on the beach below while he sent Archagathus to execute his behests.

After a period under the Emirate of Sicily, it was captured by the Normans in the 11th century, and was used by Robert Guiscard as one of his main bases for the conquest of the island.