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Segesta - province of Trapani, Sicily Segesta (Sicilian: Seggesta) was the political center of the Elymian people. It is placed in the northwestern part of Sicily, in the province of Trapani and in 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.