Sicily

An island in the Mediterranean Sea separated from the southwestern tip of Italy by the Strait of Messina.

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea with an area of 9,924 square miles (25,703 square kilometers); known in ancient times as Sikilia; located in such a strategic position, Sicily was a very desirable area for colonies and settlements.

A brief outline of its history could begin circa 800 BCE when an Indo-European group known as the Sicani or Siculi settled the island; circa 735 BCE the Greeks founded their first colonies on the island and gradually established towns and settlements in Messana (modern Messina), Katane (Catania), Gela, Selinus (Selinunte), Akragas (Agrigento) and, the most important Greek colony, Syracuse.

Circa 550 BCE the Carthaginians established colonies on Sicily and a longstanding animosity between the Greeks and Carthaginians developed; the island was essentially divided in half with the Carthaginians on the west and the Greeks on the east; this division lasted until the Romans eclipsed both the Greeks and the Carthaginians and declared the island as their first province (circa 241 BCE).