Sicily
Sicily(see map: Italy)
1. Prehistory
Ancient writers distinguished three indigenous peoples—Sicani in central, Sicels in eastern, and Elymi in western Sicily. Thucydides (6. 2) attributes an Iberian origin to the Sicans, an Italic to the Sicels, and a Trojan to the Elymi. Archaeologically there is no differentiation of culture between east and west corresponding to the Sicel–Sican distinction, but the Italian origin of immigrants to Sicily in the late bronze age is confirmed by evidence from the Aeolian islands and NE Sicily, showing phases of the Apennine culture known as Ausonian. Surviving Sicel linguistic elements argue in the same direction. In south-east Sicily the pre-Greek culture does not show the same clear Italic affinities.2. The Greek settlement
Despite Thucydides' account, the Phoenicians did not apparently settle in Sicily before the Greeks, and their...[The entire page is 1487 words long]
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