The Sicels, also known as the Sikelians, were an Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily from 1200 BC to 440 BC. The Sicels once lived east and north of Rome in central Italy, but the Umbri and Sabines dislodged the Sicels, who fled to the island of Sicily in the south. After a series of conflicts with the Sicani, the Salso River was set as the border between them. The Greek settlers from Chalcis were friendly with the Sicels, but the Dorians were not, and Syracuse defeated the Sicels in 450 BC. Ten years later, the Sicel king Ducetius died, and the Sicels were Hellenized, losing their Italic character and becoming assimilated Greeks.
Gallery[]
Migration of the Sicels