The original inhabitants of Sicily are three defined groups of the ancient peoples of Italy, the most prominent and by far the earliest of which are the Sicani, who according to Thucydides arrived from the Iberian Peninsula (perhaps Catalonia).

Important historical evidence has been discovered in the form of cave drawings by the Sicani, dated from the end of the Pleistocene epoch, around 8000 BCE.

The arrival of the first humans is correlated with extinction of dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants.

In ancient literature, the Sicani are distinguished from the later Elymi of western Sicily and the Siculi of eastern Sicily.

Phoenicians had been early settlers before the Greeks in Sicily also; Palermo is a name of Phoenician origin.

Sicily’s strategic location at the center of the Mediterranean makes the island a crossroads of history, a pawn of conquest and empire, and a melting pot for the dozen or more ethnic groups whose warriors or merchants seek its shores.

Three peoples occupy Sicily at the coming of the Greeks: in the east are the Siculi, or Sicels, who have given their name to the island but are reputed to be latecomers from Italy; to the west of the Gelas River are the Sicani; and in the extreme west are the Elymians, a people to whom a Trojan origin had been assigned, with their chief centers at Segesta and at Eryx (Erice).

The Siculi speak an Indo-European language; there are no remains of the languages of the other peoples.

Syracusan exiles and Chalcidian inhabitants of Zancle (Messana) establish Himera, on the northern Himeras (modern Grande) River, on the northern coast of Sicily in about 649 BCE.

…Panormus (modern Palermo) team up with the Elymians to defeat …

...Panormus, and ...

Hamilcar, delayed by three years, leads a Carthaginian expedition to Sicily, which coincides with the expedition of Xerxes against mainland Greece in 480 BCE.

He is said to have assembled an army numbering three hundred thousand soldiers from Iberia, Sardinia, Corsica, Italy, Gaul and Africa under the command of a body of Carthaginian officers, along with war chariots, two hundred warships and three thousand transports for the venture.

Hamilcar had chosen not to sail to Selinus and then attack Akragas, although it lies on the coast closest to Carthage.

The Carthaginian fleet, escorted by sixty triremes, sails to Panormus instead.

Hamilcar has chosen this course probably because restoring Terrilus was his primary objective.

The conquest of Sicily, if this indeed is a consideration, takes second place to his duty as a guest friend of Terrilus.

The fleet is battered by storms at sea, losing the ships carrying the chariots and horses—which is to be a significant factor in the coming battle.

The Greek fleet, able to muster two hundred ships, does not contest the crossing; in fact, it will play no part in the coming battle.

Hamilcar spends three days reorganizing his forces at Panormus, and repairing his battered fleet.

Himilco, who had been elected "king" in 397 BCE, chooses to sail to with a mercenary army and fleet to Panormus, whence the attack on Syracuse and her allies is to take place.

Dionysius had initially been victorious in his third war against Carthage, from 383 BCE to about 375 BCE, but suffers a major defeat at Cronium near Palermo.

The Romans also move in the north by marching across the northern coast toward Panormus, but are not able to take the city.

Hamilcar raids Locri and Brindisi in 247 BCE, and upon his return he seizes a strong position on Mount Ercte (Monte Pellegrino, near Palermo, or Mt.

Castellacio, seven miles northwest of Palermo), and not only maintains himself against all attacks, but carries on with his raids from Catana in Sicily to far as Cumae in central Italy.

He also sets about improving the spirit of the army, and succeeds in creating a highly disciplined, versatile force.

While Hamilcar wins no large scale battle or recaptures cities lost to the Romans, his Carthaginians wage a relentless campaign against the Roman land forces, and their efforts are a constant and heavy drain on Roman resources.