Greeks and Indigenous Peoples
Upon arrival
Scholars long depicted Greek occupation of Sicily as primarily offensive and unilateral, whereas recent research has emphasized the role of native communities. It remains that Greek colonization was accompanied by violence, forced evictions, and territorial appropriation. Thucydides (6.3) recounts the expulsion of local inhabitants during the foundations of Naxos (734), Syracuse (733), and Leontini (728), and excavations at these sites reveal Iron-Age structures summarily removed to create space for townscapes. Violent encounters likely occurred after the foundation of Gela in 688. Although Gela was not constructed upon an earlier settlement, the earliest Geloans apparently sacked the town of Omphace in the foothills of the Geloan chora (Paus. 8.46.2).
The non-Greek communities concurrently developing in the hinterland were soon drawn into the sphere of influence of their new neighbors, thanks to trade, treaties, and shared rituals. For example, Thucydides (6.4) describes an agreement between Greek settlers and a local potentate during the foundation of Megara Hyblaea in 729. A group of men from Megara had suffered several misfortunes while searching for a permanent settlement area, when the Sicel leader Hyblon offered them a site on the eastern shore of Sicily, where they founded their city with the approval of the local people.
Although this story points to varied relations between Greek settlers and their neighbors, it also demonstrates that Greek enterprises in Sicily were not automatically successful. In 580, the expedition of Pentathlus of Cnidus to Lilybaeum utterly failed after the settlers became involved in a local power struggle (Diod. Sic. 5.9). At the end of the century, when the Carthaginians had already staked their claim in western Sicily, the Spartan Dorieus and his men also met fierce resistance while settling this area.2 Colonization was risky as well as complex. Nevertheless, many of these early conflicts can be interpreted as raids or skirmishes—false starts with few casualties.3
Colonial expansion and neighborhood conflicts
During the seventh and sixth centuries, Greeks seemingly spread along the northern and southern coasts of Sicily without major violence against indigenous populations. Yet the foundation of Acrae (663), Casmenae (644), and Camarina (599) by Syracuse curtailed the autonomy of non-Greek neighbors, as did the foundation of Acragas 50 miles west of Gela in 580. The tyranny of Phalaris of Acragas in the first half of the sixth century featured aggressive expansion. Diodorus (19.108) details the construction of several military outposts by the tyrant, and Polyaenus (5.1.4) refers to the submission of the unknown local settlement of Vessa to Phalaris. In the last decades of the sixth century, Acragas expanded across the hinterland of Sicily toward the northern shore.
During the sixth century, increasing territorial competition inspired new or rebuilt town defenses and numerous new hilltop strongholds in many locales. Then, in the early fifth century, many hilltop sites in the hinterland were abandoned, perhaps because of two political developments: the centralization of political power in Greek Sicily and the territorial hegemony exercised by the rising tyrannies.
In western Sicily, territorial competition had far-reaching consequences. Selinus, founded as an apoikia of Megara Hyblaea in 628, experienced uneasy relations with her Elymian neighbor Egesta from the early sixth century onward. Diodorus (5.9) mentions strife between the two cities beginning with the failed colonization attempt of Pentathlus. Since Selinus undoubtedly had expanding territorial interests, these affrays likely occurred over border issues. Despite the tension, thriving trade appears in the archaeological record, and Thucydides (6.6) names Selinus and Egesta as parties to the the only known agreement concerning intermarriage between a Greek and an Elymian settlement. In the last quarter of the fifth century, relations deteriorated so much that Egesta sought aid from more powerful cities.4 While the resulting Athenian Expedition had a major impact on Sicily, intervention by Carthage in 409 led to the destruction of Selinus and Himera and to a significant shift in the balance of power (see the subsection on Carthage).
During the colonial period, then, relations between Greek poleis and their non-Greek neighbors were in flux. No evidence exists for a united front among the local populations. Instead, politically independent communities continually acted as both allies and adversaries of the Greeks. During wars with Athens and Carthage, Sicel communities are repeatedly listed as participants on either side. Meanwhile, recognizable native elements were vanishing from the material culture by the mid-fifth century.5
Indigenous ambitions for power
A significant moment in indigenous history was the uprising of Ducetius, an autocrat of native origin, in the mid-fifth century. Conflicts with Catane led to his alliance with Syracuse and to a joint victory over Catane (Diod. Sic. 11.76.3). Encouraged by this success, Ducetius turned against the city of Morgantina and organized a federation of independent Sicel communities challenging Greek supremacy. Next to a sanctuary for the indigenous Palici, he founded the city of Paliké as capital of the federation (Diod. Sic. 11.88.6). After various minor successes, the tide turned when he attacked the so far unidentified hilltop site of Motyon, manned by a garrison from Acragas (Diod. Sic. 11.91). After the combined forces of Syracuse and Acragas destabilized the federation, the Sicels turned against Ducetius, who fled to Syracuse and surrendered all land under his rule (Diod. Sic. 11.92).
While the rhetoric attributed to Ducetius regarding the sanctuary of the Palici suggests a certain ethnic self-awareness and “pan-Sicel” aspirations, his strategy resembled those carried out by the Syracusan tyrants, the expansionist Deinomenids. Ducetius aimed to create a stable power in the hinterland, as proved by his early moves against Morgantina and Motyon, and sought allies among independent communities for this purpose. The synteleia of communities, however, did not act cohesively under one leader, as some communities remained independent and most Sicel allies disagreed with his decisions in the wake of his assault on Motyon. Ducetius found refuge and forgiveness, not in his Sicel hometown, but in Syracuse, which exiled him to Corinth.
Upon his return to Sicily in 446, Ducetius founded the city of Kale Akte, on the northern shore of Sicily, with the consent of Corinth and Syracuse (Diod. Sic. 12.8), but died soon after in 440. Syracuse consequently regained control over all insurgent communities and perhaps destroyed the Sicel center of Trinacria, sometimes identified with the Ducetian foundation Paliké (Diod. Sic. 12.29). In sum, Ducetius was not a freedom fighter for the indigenous Sicilian cause, but an opportunist who became a major figure in Greek historiography. His attempt to gain political power is nevertheless the sole instance when non-Greeks cooperated in order to claim hegemony in Sicily.6
Colonial Rivalries and Regional Power Struggles
Just as no common spirit existed among native populations, no ethnic solidarity appeared among Greek settlers vying for the two prizes of territory and power. The following subsections will analyze these motives for violent conflicts among Greeks.
Territorial conflicts
Although we know of only one early armed border conflict, one between Leontini and Megara Hyblaea in the sixth century (Polyaen. 5.47), violent disputes over boundaries certainly occurred regularly during the foundation of colonies. For example, the war between Syracuse and Camarina in the mid-sixth century was a border dispute in a broad sense, as the causa belli was the lack of loyalty by Camarina, founded by Syracuse as a buffer against the potential ambitions of neighboring Gela. Camarina revolted only a few decades after her foundation, with the support of Gela and her local non-Greek neighbors (Philistus, FGrH 556 Fr5). After a coalition of Syracuse, Megara Hyblaea, and Enna quelled the revolt, all inhabitants were apparently deported to Syracuse, as noted by Thucydides (6.5.3). Since archaeological evidence proves continuous settlement through the sixth and early fifth centuries, we must assume that Syracuse merely asserted its hegemony. Because of her position, Camarina remained a plaything of outside powers throughout her history. In the early fifth century, she was given