nhabited the place themselves.

BOOK VI

CHAPTER XVIII

_Seventeenth Year of the War--The Sicilian Campaign--Affair of the
Hermae--Departure of the Expedition_

The same winter the Athenians resolved to sail again to Sicily, with a
greater armament than that under Laches and Eurymedon, and, if possible,
to conquer the island; most of them being ignorant of its size and of
the number of its inhabitants, Hellenic and barbarian, and of the fact
that they were undertaking a war not much inferior to that against the
Peloponnesians. For the voyage round Sicily in a merchantman is not far
short of eight days; and yet, large as the island is, there are only two
miles of sea to prevent its being mainland.

It was settled originally as follows, and the peoples that occupied it
are these. The earliest inhabitants spoken of in any part of the country
are the Cyclopes and Laestrygones; but I cannot tell of what race
they were, or whence they came or whither they went, and must leave my
readers to what the poets have said of them and to what may be generally
known concerning them. The Sicanians appear to have been the next
settlers, although they pretend to have been the first of all and
aborigines; but the facts show that they were Iberians, driven by the
Ligurians from the river Sicanus in Iberia. It was from them that the
island, before called Trinacria, took its name of Sicania, and to the
present day they inhabit the west of Sicily. On the fall of Ilium, some
of the Trojans escaped from the Achaeans, came in ships to Sicily, and
settled next to the Sicanians under the general name of Elymi; their
towns being called Eryx and Egesta. With them settled some of the
Phocians carried on their way from Troy by a storm, first to Libya, and
afterwards from thence to Sicily. The Sicels crossed over to Sicily from
their first home Italy, flying from the Opicans, as tradition says and
as seems not unlikely, upon rafts, having watched till the wind set down
the strait to effect the passage; although perhaps they may have sailed
over in some other way. Even at the present day there are still Sicels
in Italy; and the country got its name of Italy from Italus, a king of
the Sicels, so called. These went with a great host to Sicily, defeated
the Sicanians in battle and forced them to remove to the south and west
of the island, which thus came to be called Sicily instead of Sicania,
and after they crossed over continued to enjoy the ri