MILAZZO, a city of Italy in the province of Messina in Sicily, 20^ miles west of Messina, is built on the eastern shore of the Bay of Milazzo, partly on the isthmus of the promontory, Capo Milazzo, which divides it from the Bay of Olivieri. It consists of an old or upper town protected by strong bastioned walls, and a lower or modern town outside of the enceinte. The fine old castle is now used as a prison. Besides a certain amount of foreign commerce (37 vessels with a burden of 6707 tons entering in 1881, 93 with 13,496 in 1863), Milazzo carries on a good coasting trade (194,366 tons in 1881, 40,138 in 1861), and is one of the seats of the tunny-fishery. The communal population increased from 10,493 in 1861 to 13,565 in 1881, and that of the city was 7427 in 1871.

Milazzo is the ancient Mylae, a seaport and fortress founded by the Zanclaeans (Messanians), which gives its name to the battle of the Mylaean plain in which the Mamertines were defeated by Hiero in 270 b.c. In 1523 it was the scene of an unsuccessful conspiracy to transfer Sicily to the French. Captured by the Germans in 1718, it was besieged by the Spaniards, but relieved by a Neapolitan and English force. In July 1860 the defeat of the Neapolitans in the vicinity, and the seizure of the fortress, formed almost the crowning act of Garibaldi’s victorious campaign. The Bay of Milazzo has been the scene of the defeat of the Carthaginian navy by Duilius (260 B,c.), of Pompeius by Octavian’s general Agrippa (36 b.c.), and of the French and Messinian galleys by the Pisans (1268).