CHAPTER XXII - Western Colonies of Greece—in Epirus, Italy, Sicily, and Gaul

Summary

The stream of Grecian colonisation to the westward, as far as we can be said to know it authentically, with names and dates, begins from the 11th Olympiad. But it is reasonable to believe that there were other attempts earlier than this, though we must content ourselves with recognising them as generally probable. There were doubtless detached bands of volunteer emigrants or marauders, who, fixing themselves in some situation favourable 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 Prytaneium of a known Grecian city, these adventurers might be disposed 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 valour 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 honourable origin was claimed even by many non-Hellenic towns.

In the eighth century B.C., when this westerly stream of Grecian colonisation begins to assume an authentic shape (735 B.C.), the population of Sicily (as far as our scanty information permits us to determine it) consisted of two races completely distinct 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.