Intro

Sicily played a main role in the Phoenician, Greek and Roman history. All of these ancient inhabitants coveted Sicily's strategic position at the heart of the ancient universe. The Greeks colonized Sicily, also called Trinacria, between VII and V century B.C., and they founded Catania, Zancle (modern Messina), Megara Hyblea, Tauromenion (modern Taormina), Agrigento, Gela, Selinunte, and, the most important Greek city in the past, Syracuse. Phoenicians colonized the other side of Sicily, founding Panormos, (modern Palermo), Drepanon (modern Trapani), Mothya, and Segesta and Erech (modern Erice) together with their allies, the Elymians. Greeks and Phoenicians fought several times to conquer the whole of Sicily, with changing fortunes. In the III century B.C Romans began the three Punic wars against Carthago and the Phoenicians for the control of the Mediterranean area, and at the end of the III Punic War, in 146 B.C. Sicily became Rome's first province, its fertile soil earning it the title of "Gr anary of the Empire".