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The history of Sicily has seen Sicily usually controlled by greater powers—Roman, Vandal, Byzantine, Islamic, Norman, Hohenstaufen, Catalan, Spaniard—but also experiencing short periods of independence, as under the Greeks and later as the Emirate then Kingdom of Sicily. Although today part of the Republic of Italy, it has its own distinct culture. Sicily is both the largest region of the modern state of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Its central location and natural resources ensured that it has been considered a crucial strategic location due in large part to its importance for Mediterranean trade routes. For example, the area was highly regarded as part of ''Magna Graecia'', with Cicero describing Syracuse as the greatest and most beautiful city of all Ancient Greece. The economic history of rural Sicily has focused on its "latifundium economy" caused by the centrality of large, originally feudal, estates used for cereal cultivation and animal husbandry that developed in the 14th century and persisted until World War II. At times, the island has been at the heart of great civilizations, at other times it has been nothing more than a colonial backwater. Its fortunes have often waxed and waned depending on events out of its control, in earlier times a magnet for immigrants, in later times a land of emigrants. ==Prehistory== The indigenous peoples of Sicily, long absorbed into the population, were tribes known to ancient Greek writers as the Elymians, the Sicani and the Siculi or Sicels (from which the island derives its name). Of these, the last was clearly the latest to arrive and was related to other Italic peoples of southern Italy, such as the ''Italoi'' of Calabria, the Oenotrians, Chones, and Leuterni (or Leutarni), the Opicans, and the Ausones. It is possible, however, that the Sicani were originally an Iberian tribe. The Elymi, too, may have distant origins from outside Italy, in the Aegean Sea area. The recent discoveries of dolmens dating to the second half of the third millennium BC, seem to open up new horizons on the composite cultural panorama of primitive Sicily. It is a well-known fact that this region went through quite an intricate prehistory, so much so that it is difficult to move about amongst the muddle of peoples that have followed each other. The impact of two influences, however, remains clear: the Europeans coming from the North-West (bearers of the dolmens culture, recently discovered in this island and dating back to the early bronze age), and the Mediterranean influence with a clear oriental matrix.〔Salvatore Piccolo, ''Ancient Stones: The Prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily'', op. cit., p. 31.〕 Complex urban settlements become increasingly evident from around 1300 BC. From the 11th century BC, Phoenicians begin to settle in western Sicily, having already started colonies on the nearby parts of North Africa. Within a century, we find major Phoenician settlements at Soloeis (Solunto), present day Palermo and Motya (an island near present day Marsala). As Phoenician Carthage grew in power, these settlements came under its direct control. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Sicily」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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