MODICA, a city of Italy, in the province of Syracuse in Sicily, 8 miles from the south coast, on the line of railway decreed in 1879 between Syracuse and Licata. It has increased its communal population from 30,547 in 1861 to 41,231 in 1881, and is a well-built and flourishing place. Of note among the public buildings are the old castle on the rock, the mediaeval convent of the Franciscans, and the churches of S. Maria del Carmine (1150) and S. Maria di Betlem—this last containing ruins of the ancient temple destroyed by the earthquake of 1693. Modica is the point from which the remarkable prehistoric tomb and dwellingcaves of Vai d’Ispica are usually visited. An early dependency of Syracuse, Motyca or Mutyca was in Cicero’s days a fairly important municipium. In modern times it was held as a countship by the dukes of Alba. Placido Carafla has written a prolix history of the city, which may be found in Graevius, Thes. Ant. et Hist. Ital., vol. xii.