protruding rectangular towers along the perimeter with side staircases of carefully-cut local sandstone slabs, possibly due to a change in tactics. Phase 4 (450–397 BC): the wall reaches the maximum width of with the addition of a base made of big limestone splinters and an ashlar masonry revetment in some places. The wall base is preserved at some places at a height of more than 5m including part of the mudbrick superstructure. All around the wall at the changes of orientation, huge square protruding towers () (Eastern Tower, South Tower, Western Fortress) were built overlooking the walls in addition to the existing bastions. House of mosaics This house is built on two levels against the city walls on the seashore, suggesting the walls were no longer in use and in ruins. On the upper level is a courtyard with a peristyle paved with a pebble mosaic which is the only example of its type in Sicily. It resembles a panelled carpet with a complex geometric border and with the panels containing depictions of hunting wild animals (a lion attacking a bull, a bird of prey, a deer). Its format dates it from similar ones in mainland Greece and its colonies to the 3rd century BC. The peristyle has residential rooms around it. On the lower level in the southwestern part of the house are 6 service rooms with three large pithoi (food storage vessels). In fiction The 399 BC Battle of Motya, part of the war of Syracuse's tyrant Dionysios I against Carthage is a major event in the 1965 historical novel The Arrows of Hercules by L. Sprague de Camp. References Citations Bibliography . . External links Archaeological expedition to Motya, by Sapienza University of Rome Livius Picture Archive, including maps of the island and the lagoon Picture archive https://www.facebook.com/lasapienzamozia Populated places established in the 8th century BC Archaeological sites in Sicily Archaeological parks Phoenician colonies in Sicily Marsala Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Italy 8th-century BC establishments in Italy Carthaginian colonies