Archeology in the Province of Siracusa

The Greeks knew very well from the tales of Phoenician merchants that Sicily was an island inhabited by other peoples, very fertile, and in an important commercial and strategic position. They didn’t behave like ‘discoverers’, but like invaders, and they were well aware that the occupation of those lands would lead to long, bloody fights against the indigenous people who were determined to defend their lands and liberty.

Braving possible aggressions of the pirates of the Tyrrhenian, in the VIII century BCE, exiles from the Ionian landed on the eastern shores of the island and founded Leontini, Catania, Naxos, Taormina and Messina; the Corinthians settled at Siracusa and pressed on from these to Akrai, Kasmene and Kamarina; the settlers from Rhodes built Agrigento and Gela, while the Doric and Megarese settlers founded Mégara Hyblaea and went on to Selinus.

The conquerors were themselves conquered by the proud and independent nature of the vanquished, so far as to make it their own and to identify themselves increasingly with their new homeland, so mild and generous. Even before Pericles’ time, the polis of Siracusa was rich, populous, authoritative and at the centre of busy maritime and commercial exchanges; the city had no reason to play down its role - it was not a mere extension of Magna Grecia. With the support of other strong and dynamic cities like Akragas, Leontini and Kamarina, it could aspire to be the unquestioned capital of the Mediterranean and lord over southern Italy because militarily, politically and culturally, it had already founded “Magna Sicilia”.