Segesta is the political center of the Elymian people, located in the northwestern part of Sicily, in what are now the province of Trapani and the comune of Calatafimi-Segesta.According to the tradition used in Virgil's Aeneid, Segesta was founded jointly by the territorial king Acestes (who was son of the local river Crinisus by a Dardanian woman named Segesta or Egesta) and by those of Aeneas' folk who wished to remain behind with Acestes to found the city of Acesta.The belief that the name of the city was originally Acesta or Egesta and changed to Segesta by the Romans to avoid its ill-omened meaning in Latin is disproved by coins showing that Segesta was indeed the earlier name.Segesta, called Egesta by the Greeks, is one of the major cities of the Elymian people, one of the three indigenous peoples of Sicily.

The other major cities of the Elymians are Eryx and Entella.The population of Segesta is mixed Elymian and Ionian Greek, though the Elymians soon Hellenizes and takes on external characteristics of Greek life.