Chrysas, 'the golden river' (the modern Dittaino), was the god of the small Sikel town of Assorus (modern Assoro), which lay between Henna and Agyrium in the island's interior and appears among the Sikel communities of that region in Diodorus (14.78.7). Cicero, prosecuting Verres in 70 BCE, provides the fullest ancient notice of a Sicilian river-cult: 'Chrysas is the river that flows through the territory of the Assorini; among them he is held to be a god and is worshipped with the greatest reverence. His shrine stands in the countryside beside the road from Assorus to Henna, and in it is an image of Chrysas himself, finely wrought in marble.' Because of the shrine's exceptional sanctity Verres did not dare demand the statue outright but sent his agents Tlepolemus and Hiero to break in by night; roused by the temple slaves' horn, the countryside gathered and drove the raiders off, and only a small bronze piece was carried away. The bronze coins of Assorus struck after 210 BCE show the river-god standing with amphora and cornucopiae, very likely copying the marble image; the cult of the local stream, Greek in dress but rooted in the town's indigenous devotion to its own waters, is a prime example of the persistence of pre-Greek Sicilian religion into the Roman period.