THE SICANIANS

2^nd millennium BCE

The Sicani (or Sicanians) who are likely to come from Spain (sent away by Ligurians from the Sycanian river in Iberia), inhabited Sicily even before Sicels, changing its name from Trinacria into Sicania. Some identify them with Sicels themselves, others stated they were the prae-Indo-European inhabitants of the island, pushed back to the north-western corner from the Sicels when these latters arrived there from the peninsula. Archaeological studies showed that Sicanians reached western Sicily during the third millennium BCE. There are no information about their relations with Elymians. They were independent until the Carthaginians colonization.