Virtual History of Sicily

Selinunte, Temple E


Outside Events
Year
Events in Sicily
    [PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT AND GREEK CULTURE]
Stone Age tribal groups migrate across Mediterranean Before
3000 BC
 
  1500
-1000 BC
Siculi, Sicani and Elymni arrive in Sicily from the Italian penninsula, North Africa and Asia Minor
  1000
-800 BC
Phoenicians establish trading settlements along north-western coast
  735 BC Chalcidians of Euboea begin Greek settlement of Sicily by establishing the city of Naxos on the eastern coast
  485 BC Gelon, the Tyrant of Gela, centralizes control of Greek Sicily in Syracuse
  480 BC Syracuse defeats Carthage at Battle of Himera
Peloponnesian War begins between Athens and Sparta and their allies 431 BC  
  413 BC Syracuse destroys Athenian attack force
  409
-301 BC
Carthage, allied with the Siculi and Phoenician cities of Sicily, commences a century of debilitating and indecisive wars with Syracuse
    [PERIOD OF ROMAN RULE]
  282 BC The Italian invasion of Sicily begins as former mercenaries from mainland Italy seize Messina
 

264
-241 BC

Rome and Carthage battle for Sicily in the First Punic War
  263 BC Syracuse allies with Rome as a vassal state
  241 BC Carthage cedes to Rome its territory in western Sicily; Rome begins 600 years of rule in Sicily
Capital of Roman Empire transferred from Rome to Constantinople [Byzantium] 330  
Roman Empires of the West and the East split apart 395  
Vandals from Spain capture the Western Roman Empire's provinces in Africa 428-
435
 
    [PERIODS OF BARBARIAN AND BYZANTINE RULE]
  440 Vandals from North Africa invade and capture Sicily
Odoacer leads overthrow of Western Roman Empire by barbarian mercenaries 476 Vandals cede Sicily by treaty to Odoacer
Theodoric's Ostrogoths invade and seize control of Italy 489  
  491 Ostrogoths succeed to dominion over Sicily
Byzantine [Eastern Roman] Empire counterattacks against Ostrogoths 533-
551
Byzantine Empire army under Belisarius drives Ostrogoths from Sicily
The prophet Mohammed founds Islam 610  
    [PERIOD OF SARACEN RULE]
  827 Saracens from North Africa begin their invasion of Sicily
  831 Palermo captured by Saracen invaders from Iberian peninsula
  965 Saracens complete the conquest of Sicily
    [PERIODS OF FRENCH AND GERMAN RULE]
  1060 Normans under Robert and Roger d'Hauteville begin an invasion of Sicily at Messina
  1091 Normans complete conquest and rule Sicily as part of a powerful new kingdom including the southern Italian peninsula
  1194 King Henry VI of Germany, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, seizes the Norman kingdom, deriving his claim from his marriage to the daughter of Count Roger d'Hauteville
  1198 The celebrated Frederick II, later hailed by his contemporaries as Stupor Mundi ["Wonder of the World"] succeeds his father, Henry VI
  1266 Supported by Pope Urban IV, Charles, Count of Anjou, seizes control of Sicily, slaying Frederick II's illegitimate son and successor Manfred
    [PERIOD OF SPANISH RULE]
  1282 The Sicilians revolt against the Anjou French in the dramatic episode known as the Sicilian Vespers, cede sovereignty to Manfred's son-in-law, Peter III, King of Aragon [Spain]
  1296 Under threat of being returned to the Anjou French, the island of Sicily enters a brief period of independence under the rule of Frederick III, brother of the King of Aragon and grandson of Manfred
  1442 Alphonso V "the Magnanimous" of Aragon reunites the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples
War of Spanish Succession erupts through Europe 1701
-1712
 
 

1713
-1738

Treaty of Utrecht leads to New Kingdom of Two Sicilies
    [PERIOD OF ITALIAN STATEHOOD]
  1860 Garibaldi leads forces from the Kingdom of Savoy in conquering the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and creating the Kingdom of Italy, the first unitary government of Sicily and the Italian pennisula since the Roman Empire

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