42 EUSKAL DIJNES IN OTHER
ants of Sicily is so important a feature in the history of that
people, that I shall adduce at some lengfch'the authorities by
which it is supported.
Thucydides commences his narrative of the war of the
Athenians in Sicily with a particular account of that island,
and of the races of people who inhabited it. He says, “ it
was thus peopled originally, and contains altogether the
following races. The Cyclopes and Laestrygones are said to
have been the first inhabitants in some parts of the. country;
concerning whom I have nothing to say, either as to their
race or whence they came,-or whither rthey. have gone;
suffice the poetical stories which are reported o f them, and
the notions in any way attainable. The Sicani appear to have
been the next settlers after the aforesaid; they were as thenii;
selves report still more ancient, since tbey: term, themselteë-
indigenous j but as it is ascertained' to be^ru©,— ctXrjQeict
evpl*K£tai,—they were Iberes or Iberians: havingbeen expelled
from the river Sicanus, in Iberia, i
them the island was named Sicania, which had pre^-
viously been called Trinacria. They still continue,Mvhe- .adds| i
“ to inhabit the western parts of Sicily;”* It appears
what follows that the Sicani possessed l i e whole island before.
the arrival of later colonists, for Thucydides: goes on to relate
that the Trojan refugees, who reached Sicily, ;settled; in their,'
country, and mixing with them, formed the Elymi, whose
towns were Eryx and Egesta. Afterwards the-Siculi came
from Italy in great numbers, and having conquered the
Sicani, drove them to the southern and western parts of the
island, and gained possession of the best parts of it. This
happened about three hundred years before the arrival of
Greek colonies in Sicily, *f*
Dionysius of Halicarnassus has given nearly the sap©
account. It appears that Philistus, the Syracusan historian,
who is cited by Diodorus, agreed with Thucydides J in
declaring that the Sicani were an Iberian race.
* Thucyd. lib. yi. c. 2 .
+ Diodor. Sic.- Bibl.
X Strabon, Geog. lib..yLp. 270.
PARTS ' OF 'EUROPE. 4^
Streber^ fullyy corroborates the statement that the old
inhabitants of ; Sicily were an Iberian race. This geographer
cMeS at length the historical account o f‘the island
given by Ephorus. Before the foundation of the Greek
colonies Sicily, according to Ephorufe/s was inhabited by
barbarians, whose cruelty prevented all intercourse with
foreigners. At the era of. the foundation of Syracuse
several tribes of barbar■i a■ hnmsh hihnmhmabb bi tbehd the i$n ter..i.oWrfë,x iïSSasp moncgf
whom were^Siceli», Sieani, and Mofgetes, as well as Iberians,
whom Ephorus reported^ says Straboy: “ to: have been the
first barbarians wi^;c#öniie|^i<5aïy;” The city of Morgan-
tium, destroyed ih the time of Strabo,, was, as he says,
probably inhabited- by the Morgefos. Diodorus terms this
<rity Margantia; § and from this name,« teem pared with that of
Margis,-an ancient town intSjaain, M. de Humboldt conclude»
the Morgetes to.hav© been; likewise Iberians.
It seems frop these aceounts that tbè island ©f Sicily was
inhabited» «/very ancient t im es by peopfeof the saPe Pc^as
the IberèidlSpaki, who were likewise», asweshall find, amon^;
: . ^ ï # » ; m r l É g ^ t Sardinia, and Corsica.£ Whéther
they rdaêhÉÉ Sicily from Gaul oil,■ Spain, or - made their way
toithesel countries from .Sicily ^-i®1 uncertain.
^Erêrét reckoned the Sicani among the Post ahesient inhabitants
of Italy; and thisI coöj©ctüreo derives ;probability from
the : fact. Observed; by M. de Humbbldt, .that several names
which have theistrilctur© of Euskarian words and are idew
scripfeive in the Euskarian speech, are appropriated to towns
and districts iin. various»parts of Italy.1* >
* Diodöfr'Sic..lib.xiV. c. 78. De Iitttobêldtsi pt 96, p> 168. Niebtihr, Rom.
Gjeschichter i ^ 110'., Madnèrt, 1 447, 448.;
\ ,t Iria is the Euskarian word for town: arid Iria flayiaiis th ^w p e q f.a town in i
m e fa lla id . So Iria in Taurinis od ;|Ke frontièr of Itaiv^Herice also Urium
m ‘ the Turdulia'n, and tJria in Apuliril1 1 Astufa, a vln^Trfislmct Euskarian
epithet, was an inland town near^Antium. AsW occurs in th’è interior of Lignria.
Rasta, Easterbini, jBiturgis, Campania, Curensis, Hispefluin, Osci, and Ausones,
are, according to M. De llümb.oldt, - clearly Iberian nameA, S e e his W e r -
suchungen.” That there was somè connexidn rietween the Spaniards arid thé’ancient
Italic nations, would appear from the' fact 'observed ^by 'Gesènius, in his late
admirable work on Phoenician I^sdriptionS, that the characters used in Spain, and
termed commonly Celtiberian, are4nearly allied to thè old Italic alphabets. They
apprbaéh móst nearly to the Oscan. This., might seem a'confirmation of
M. de Humboldt’s" opinion, who derives the name of Oscan from the Iberian