Catana (modern Catania) is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse.

All ancient authors agree in representing Catania as a Greek colony of Chalcidic origin, but founded immediately from the neighboring city of Naxos, under the guidance of a leader named Euarchos (Euarchus).The exact date of its foundation is not recorded, but it appears from Thucydides to have followed shortly after that of Leontini (modern Lentini), which he places in the fifth year after Syracuse, or 730 BCE.

In the First Punic War, Catania is one of the first among the cities of Sicily that make their submission to the Roman Republic, after the first successes of their arms in 263 BCE.

The expression of Pliny (vii.

60) who represents it as having been taken by Valerius Messalla, is certainly a mistake.Hereacter known as Catania, the city appears to have continued afterwards steadily to maintain its friendly relations with Rome, and though it does not enjoy the advantages of a confederate city (foederata civitas), like its neighbors Tauromenium (modern Taormina) and Messana (modern Messina), it rises to a position of great prosperity under the Roman rule.