THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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WHO WERE THE MAKERS? 261
earliest inhabitants were some Iberians from the river Iberus
in Spain, who were expelled from their old home by the
Ligyes. In time came the Siculi who, pressed on by other
tribes from above, crossed the Strait and reduced to subjection,
or drove into the west of the island, the old Iberian population.
Finally came the Hellenes from the east, who planted their
colonies, such as Naxos, Syracuse, Leontini, Himera, and who
either conquered or drove back the Sicels from the eastern
part of the island.
On a former page we tested the truth of the traditions
respecting the earliest period of Argolis, Laconia, and Attica,
by the aid of the political conditions of the various parts of
the population in the fifth century B.C. We then found
that tradition was amply confirmed in all three cases by the
presence or absence of serf classes. Let us now apply the
same test to Sicily, and we at once find that there was an
old servile population called Cyllyrii'. Now these must have
been either Sicels reduced to villenage by the Greek colonists,
or Sicani enslaved by the Sicels on their conquest. The latter
is
the more probable alternative.
As the aboriginal inhabitants of lower Italy became the
serfs of the conquering Italic tribes, and as Pelasgi and
Brettii became the names of the serf populations, there is a
probability that the serf population at Syracuse
was not
compcjsed uf Sicels, but rather of the Sicani. It is
probable
that tiie Greeks were enabled to plant their colonies in Sicily
by the aid of the Sicani, who, like the aborigines of central
Italy, would have been only too glad to help the invader
against their old oppressors, hut would in the end only liave
exchanged one master fn- another. Thus later on, during
the siege of Syracuse, the Sicels weie ready to
hel]) the
Athenians against the Svracusans, bv whom they in tlu'ir turn
had been o))presse(l.
The struggle then betwi-en the old oligarchy of the
(Jatnoii
and the Dennis at Syracuse' was probably a I'ace (piestioii,
as
well as one of wealth and })overty. This is continued by
262 WHO WERE THE MAKERS?
drachms* of Syracuse,
on which is a warrior with the name
Leucaspis. As this hero was neither a Greek nor a Sicel, but
a native Sicanian chieftain slain by Heracles*, it is likely that
the Syraciisan Demus regarded themselves as Sicanians. At
Rome the cause of the earl}^ intestine troubles was probably
the same as at Syracuse, while at Athens it seems to have
been purely a question of poverty and riches.
The similarity of culture presented by the earliest prehistoric
antiquities in both Sicily and Italy points clearly to a similarity
of race.
But besides the earlier unglazed pottery, Syracuse has yielded
a dome-grave and vessels of the fully developed Mycenean
type. It is
probable that this advance was due to direct
influence from the Aegean area, where the true Mycenean
culture had made its great strides. It -was said that Daedalus
had escaped from Minos and taken refnge with Cocalus in
Sicily, and his tame spread over Sicily and Ital}', and by some
he was even said to have planted a colony in Sardniia along
with Aristaeus''. This tradition may refer to the coming of
some colony from Crete to Sicily
in Mycenean days, part of
which later on may have returned to Greece. We can now see
a cause for such a migration from Sicily to Attica in the advance
into Sicily of the Sicels'*, and their con(piest of the Sicani,
whose tombs were brought to light by Orsi. The story that the
Sicani were Iberians from Spain derives confirmation from the
remarkable excavations of the l)rotliers H. and L. Sin't in
sotith-eastern Spain. They have indicated many points of
similarity between the culture of Spain in the earliest age of
metal, and that found in Sicily, Sai'dinia and otiier places'"'.
At this point it will be convenient to discuss the traditional
chronology of Italy and Sicily and its coiniection with that of
Greece.
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