Licata [key], city (1991 pop. 41,300), S Sicily, Italy, on the Mediterranean Sea at the mouth of the Salso River. Licata is a seaport, seaside resort, and commercial and industrial center. Sulfur and asphalt are shipped through its port. It was founded in the early 3d cent. b.c. as a refuge for the inhabitants of Gela after that city's destruction and was called Phintias after the tyrant of Acragas. Off nearby Cape Economus (now Poggio di Sant' Angelo), the Roman consul Regulus won (256 b.c.) a decisive battle in the first of the Punic Wars.
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