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'''Hybla Major''' or '''Hybla Magna''' ({{langx|grc|Ὕβλα ἡ μείζων and  Ὕβλα Μεγάλη}}) &ndash; the "Greater Hybla" &ndash; was a name used to identify the most important of the ancient cities named [[Hybla (disambiguation)|Hybla]] in [[Magna Graecia]] in [[Sicily]].

==Controversy==
There is much debate as to which of the cities named "Hybla" the name applied ([[Hybla Gereatis]] or [[Megara Hyblaea]]) and whether the name uniformly applied to the same city over the period during which the name was used.  Initially Megara Hyblaea was the more important; it was founded c. 728 BCE and destroyed in c. 481 BCE.  Hybla Gereatis, however, played an important role in the [[Second Punic War]], in the 3rd century BCE.

A possible explanation of how the term arose is from a corruption of the [[Rho (letter)|rho]] in Greek {{lang|grc|Μέγα'''ρ'''α}} "Megara" to a [[lambda]] generating {{lang|grc|Μέγα'''λ'''α}} "Megala" (meaning "greater").  The coins of Hybla Major bear the Greek legend "HYBLA MEGALAS".

==References==
*{{SmithDGRG}}
*T. Dunbabin, The Western Greeks, ({{ISBN|0585278059}}), (1968), pp.&nbsp;19, 44.

{{coord missing|Italy}}

[[Category:Colonies of Magna Graecia]]
[[Category:Ancient cities in Sicily]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Italy]]


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