Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/365

 WESTERN COLONIES OF GREECE. 349 CHAPTER XXII. WESTERN COLONIES OF GREECE -IN EI'IRUS, ITALY, SICILY, AND GAUL. THE stream of Grecian colonization to the westward, as far as we can be said to know it authentically, with names and dates, be- gins from the 11th Olympiad. But it is reasonable to believe that there were other attempts earlier than this, though we must content ourselves with recognizing them as generally probable. There were doubtless detached bands of volunteer emigrants 01 marauders, who, fixing themselves in some situation favorable to commerce or piracy, either became mingled with the native tribes, or grew up by successive reinforcements into an acknowledged town. Not being able to boast of any filiation from the prytan- eium of a known Grecian city, these adventurers were often dis- posed to fasten upon the inexhaustible legend of the Trojan war, and ascribe their origin to one of the victorious heroes in the host of Agamemnon, alike distinguished for their valor and for their ubiquitous dispersion after the siege. Of such alleged settlements by fugitive Grecian or Trojan heroes, there were a great number, on various points throughout the shores of the Mediterranean ; and the same honorable origin was claimed even by many non-Hellenic towns. In the eighth century B. c., when this westerly stream of Gre- cian colonization begins to assume an authentic shape (735 B. c.), the population of Sicily as far as our scanty information per. mits us to determine it consisted of two races completely dis- tinct from each other Sikels and Sikans besides the Elymi, a mixed race apparently distinct from both, and occupying Eryx and Egesta, near the westernmost corner of the island, and the Phenician colonies and coast establishments formed for purposes of trade. According to the belief both of Thucydides and Phi- listu?, these Sikans, though they gav<s themselves out as indigen-