Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/997

 SICILIA. names of Laestrygones and Cyclopes ; but these fabulous tales, preserved only by the early poets in a manner that renders it impossible to separate truth from falsehood, are justly discarded by Thucydides as unworthy of serious consideration (Thuc. vi. 2). It may suifice to remark, that Homer (of course, the earliest authority on the subject) says nothing di- rectly to prove that he conceived either the Cy- clopes or Laestrygones as dwelUng in Sicily; and this is in both cases a mere inference of later writers, or of some tradition now unknown to us. Homer indeed, in one passage, mentions (but not in connec- tion with either of these savage races), " the island of Thrinakia " {Odi/ss. xii. 127), and this was gene- rally identified with Sicily, though there is certainly nothing in the Odyssey that would naturally lead to such a conclusion. But it was a tradition generally received that Sicily had previously been called Tri- NACRIA, from its triangular form and the three promontories that formed its extremities (Thuc. vi. 2 ; Diod. v. 2 ; Strab. vi. p. 265), and this name was connected with the Homeric Thrinakia. It is obvious that such a name could only have been given by Greek navigators, and argues a consider- able amount of acquaintance with the configuration of its shores. It could not, therefore, have been (as supposed even by Thucydides) the original or native name of the island, nor could it have been in use even among the Greeks at a very early period. But we cannot discard the general testimony of ancient writers, that this was the earliest appellation by which Sicily was known to the Greeks. Another people whom Thucydides, apparently ■with good reason, regards as more ancient than the Sicels, were the Sicani, whom we find in historical times occupying the western and north-western parts of the island, whither, according to their own tradi- tion, they had been driven by the invading Sicels, when these crossed the straits, though another tra- dition ascribed their removal to the terror and devas- tation caused by the eruptions of Aetna (Thuc. vi.2; Diod. V. 6). The Sicanians claimed the honour of heing autochthons, or the original inhabitants of the island, and this view was followed by Timaeus ; but Thucydides, as well as Philistus, adopted another tradition, accordmg to which they were of Iberian extraction (Time. I. c. ; Diod. I. c). What the arguments were which he regards as conclusive, we are unfortunately wholly ignorant; but the view is in itself probable enough, and notwithstanding the close resemblance of name, it is certain that through- out the hist(jrical period the Sicani and Siculi are uniformly treated as distinct races. Hence it is improbable that they were merely tribes of a kindred origin, as we should otherwise have been led to infer from the fact that the two names are evidently only two forms of the same appellation. A third race which is found in Sicily within the historical period, and which is regarded by ancient writers as distinct from the two preceding ones, is that of Ei.YMi, who inhabited the extreme north- western corner of the island, about Eryx and Se- gesta. Tradition ascribed to them a Tnjan origin (Thuc. vi. 2; Dionys. i. 52), and though this story is probably worth no more than the numerous simi- lar tales of Trojan settlements on the coast of Italy, there must proiiably have been some foundation for regarding them as a distinct people from their neigh- bours, tile Sicani. Both Thucydides and Scylax Kjjecially mention them as such (Ti:uc. /. c. Scyl. p. 4. § 13): but at a later period, they seem to VOL. II. SICILIA. 977 have gradually disappeared or been merged into the surrounding tribes, and their name is not again found in history. Such were the indigenous races by which Sicily was peopled when its coasts were first visited, and colonies established there, by the Phoenicians and the Greeks. Of the colonies of the former people we have little information, but we are told in general by Thucydides that they occupied numerous points around the coasts of the island, establishing them- selves in pieference, as was their wont, on projecting headlands or small islands adjoining the shore. (Thuc. vi. 2). But these settlements were appa- rently, for the most part, mere trading stations, and as the Greeks came to establish themselves perma- nently and in still increasing numbers in Sicily, the Phoenicians gradually withdrew to the NW. corner of the island, where they retained three permanont settlements, Motya, Panormus, and Soloeis or Solun- tum. Here they were supported by the alliance of the neighbouring Elymi, and had also the advantage of the proximity of Carthage, upon which they all became eventually dependent. (Thuc. I. c.) The settlement of the Greek colonies in Sicily began about the middle of the eighth century b. c, and was continued for above a century and a half. Their dates and origin are known to us with much more certainty than those which took place during the corresponding period in the south of Italy. The earliest were established on the E. coast of the island, where the Chalcidic colony of Naxos was founded in B. c. 735, and that of Syracuse the following year (b.c. 734), by a body of Corinthian settlers under Archias. Thus the division betw-een the Chal- cidic and Doric colonies in Sicily, which bears so prominent a part in their political history, became marked I'rom the very outset. The Chalcidians were the first to extend their settlements, having founded within a few years of the parent colony (about b. c. 730) the two cities of Leontini and Catana, both of them destined to bear an important part in the affairs of Sicily. About the same time, or shortly after (probably about b. c. 728), a fresh body of colonists from Megara founded the city of the same name, called, for dibtinction's sake, Megara Hyb- Ijjea, on the E. coast, between Syracuse and Catana. The first colony on the S. coast of the island was that of Gela, founded in b. c. 690, by a body of emigrants from Ehodes and Crete; it was, therefore, a Doric colony. On the other hand, the Chalcidians founded, at what precise period we know not, the colony of Zancle (afterwards called JIessana), in a position of the utmost importance, .-is commanding the Sicilian Straits. The rapid rise and prosperity of these first settlements are shown by their having become in their turn the parents of other cities, which soon vied with them, and, in some cases, sur- passed them in importance. Thus we find Syracuse extending its power by establishing in succession the colonies of Acrae in b. c. 664, Casmenae in b. c. 644, and Camarina in b. c. 599. Of tiiese, the last alone rose to be a flourishing city and the rival of the neighbouring Gela. The latter city in its turn founded the colony of Agrigentum, in b. c. 580, which, though one of the latest of the Greek colonies in the island, was destined to become one of the most powerful and flourishing of them all. Still further to the W., the colony of Seeinis, planted as early as B.C. 628, by a body of settlers from the Hyblaean Megara, reinforced with emigrants from the parent city in Greece, rose to a state of power 3 K