The island of Sicily was a highly contested area throughout much of its history. Among the first to exert strong influence on its political, cultural, infrastructural, and demographic developments were the two major decentralized civilizations of the first millennium BCE: the Phoenicians and the Greeks. While trade and cultural exchange preceded their permanent presence, it was the colonizing movement that brought territorial competition and political power struggles on the island to a new level. The history of six centuries of colonization is replete with accounts of conflict and warfare that include cross-cultural confrontations, as well as interstate hostilities, domestic conflicts, and government violence.

This book is not concerned with realities from the battlefield or questions of military strategy and tactics, but rather offers a broad collection of archaeological case studies and historical essays that analyze how political competition, strategic considerations, and violent encounters substantially affected rural and urban environments, the island’s heterogeneous communities, and their social practices. These contributions, originating from a workshop in 2018, combine expertise from the fields of archaeology, ancient history, and philology. The focus on a specific time period and the limited geographic area of Greek Sicily allows for the thorough investigation and discussion of various forms of organized societal violence and their consequences on the developments in society and landscape.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Preface: word of welcome, by Franco De Angelis
• Introduction, by Melanie Jonasch
• 1. Guerre e conflitti nella Sicilia centro-settentrionale tra la metà del VI e la fine del V sec. a.C.: una prospettiva archeologica : Stefano Vassallo
• 2. War and the life of a sacred structure. Weapons from the NYU-UniMi excavations in the main urban sanctuary of Selinunte : Andrew Ward and Clemente Marconi
• 3. A dangerous place to live? Arms and armour in the Agora of Selinunte : Holger Baitinger
• 4. Enslavement and redemption in Classical Sicily : Randall Souza
• 5. ‘Sufferings too great for tears’: the destruction of the Athenian expeditionary corps in Sicily : Bernd Steinbock
• 6. Trauma and morality in Thucydides : Lisa Irene Hau
• 7. The curse tablets of Selinous: evidence of social strife? : Ryan Johnson
• 8. Energising the economy: present results and future directions : Franco De Angelis
• 9. The power of movement: mercenary mobility and empire building in Sicily during the Classical Period : Jason Harris
• 10. Dawn of the mercenaries, twilight of the Sikels? : Spencer Pope
• 11. La fondazione di città in Sicilia nel V e all’inizio del IV sec. a.C. (492–396 a.C.): tra passato e futuro : Michela Costanzi
• 12. The military landscape of Greek Sicily : Melanie Jonasch
• 13. Quanti templi per la vittoria di Himera? Nuove evidenze dall’ Athenaion di Siracusa : Giulio Amara
• 14. When war changes a city. Fortifications and urban landscapes in tyrant-ruled Syracuse : Valentina Mignosa
• 15. War and society in Greek Leontinoi : Massimo Frasca
• 16. The city walls of Eryx and the sociopolitical conflicts in western Sicily before the Roman conquest : Salvatore De Vincenzo
• 17. Roman fears, the Punic way and the Sicilian contribution: the war for Sicily in its first stages (264–263 BC) : Claudio Vacanti
• Epilogo: guerra e società nella Sicilia greca : Stefania De Vido
• Epilogue: war and society in Greek Sicily : Stefania De Vido
• Bibliography
• Timeline
• Plate I