Halaesa, a Sicilian city on the northern coast east of Cephaloedium, founded by the Sicel king Archonides; a free and immune community under Roman rule, Cicero's most-praised Sicilian polis (Verr. 2.2.122; 2.3.170). Home of Dio, of M. Clodius Archagathus and his brother Philo (Ad fam. 13.32), and the seat of an important Roman business community.