I T 
Lygour, fignified a man of the fea. The Ligurians inha¬ 
bited not only the coafts of Italy from the Serchio to the 
Alps, but the maritime regions in the fequel denomi¬ 
nated Provence and Languedoc. Scylax, by whom we 
have a defcription of the ftiores of the Mediterranean, writ¬ 
ten during the reign of Philip of Macedon, the father of 
Alexander, diftinguifhes three Ligurian ftates; the Ibero- 
liges, from the Pyrenees to the mouths of the Rhone; the 
Celtoliges, from the Rhone to the Maritime Alps ; and 
the Italiges, poflefling the countries afterwards denomi¬ 
nated Piedmont and Montferrat. The Ligurians were 
fettled between the Pyrenees and the Ariio at fo early a 
period, that the Greeks make mention of them in their 
fables on the fubjeft of the expedition of Hercules into 
Boetica. 
The Ligurians advanced at different times into Latium. 
On this account, feveral critics, according to Dionyfius of 
Kaiicarnafl'us, miltook them for the ancient inhabitants of 
the country of the Latins. Phyliftes of Syracufe dated 
that the colony that went to Sicily, one hundred years 
before the taking of Troy, was compofed of Ligurians ; 
but fo much is certain, that they puffed in great numbers 
into Corfica and Sardinia, the fiift of which was then de¬ 
nominated Cyrne, and the fecond Sardo. This we learn 
from Seneca. Thefe people afTumed the epithet of autoc- 
thoncs, or indigenous, to diftinguifh themfelves from the 
foreigners who came from Illyricum and Greece into the 
north and fouth of the peninfula. 
The north of Italy was peopled by fwarms which came 
from Illyricum acrofs the Carnic or Julian Alps. They 
formed three principal ftates, the Liburni, the Siculi or 
Siculiottae, and the Heneti or Veneti. Each of thefe three 
tribes at firft occupied the Italian diftriils bordering on 
thofe which it quitted; but, being afterwards prefled by 
the tribe which followed, it advanced ltill farther. Ac¬ 
cording to this progreffion, the defendants of the raoll 
ancient inhabitants of Italy, who came from Illyricum, 
fhould be fought in the diftriil of Otranto and the Bufili- 
cata. Thus the Liburni preceded the Siculi and Veneti 
in Italy, fince their colonies occupied almoft all the coun¬ 
try from Ancona to the remoteft point of the diftrict of 
Otranto. 
The Liburni, proceeding from the banks of the Save 
and Drave, formed fettlements between the Alps and the 
Athefis, the prefent Adige. Removing in procefs of time 
from the marftiy banks of the Po, they advanced to the 
extremity of Italy, into the province denominated by the 
Romans Apulia, and by the Greeks Japygia; and founded 
three ftates: the Apuli, properly fo called ; the Pedicli, 
fometimes confounded with the Peucetii, on account of 
the great quantity of pines growing upon the Appenines 
which they inhabited ; and the Calabri. According to 
Strabo, thefe tribes fpoke the fame language, which indi¬ 
cated the identity of their origin. They afterwards adopt¬ 
ed the Latin language without renouncing their ancient 
idiom, which occafioned Horace to give them the epithet 
of Bilingui. Pliny informs us, that the Pedicli were of 
Illyrian extraction ; and Strabo places a people called Ca¬ 
labri in Dardania oppofite to Macedonia. - 
Though the Liburni were in the fequel confined be¬ 
tween the defiles of Motint Garganus and the extreme 
point of Japygia, yet fome fragments of this colony main¬ 
tained their ground to the north and weft of that moun¬ 
tain. Such were, among others, according to Pliny, the 
Praetutii of the Picenum, and the Peligni. Feftus informs 
us, that the latter, whofe capital was Corfinium, though 
mixed with the Samnites, long exhibited traces of their 
Illyrian origin. 
The Siculi, originally from Dalmatia, followed the Li¬ 
burni into Italy; they fettled in feveral diftrifts of 
Umbria, in the Sabine country, in Latium, and in all the 
provinces whofe inhabitants were afterwards known by 
the name of Opici. 
On comparing certain pafiages of Herodotus, Thucy¬ 
dides, Plato, and Ariftotle, we find that the Siculi and 
Voi. XI. No. 767. s « 
Opici were two general names, under which were fre¬ 
quently included all the Italians from the banks of the 
Tiber to tiieeaftern extremities of the peninfula, with the 
exception of the Liburni. The two names were gradu¬ 
ally difufed, and thofe who bore them were known to the 
Romans by the appellation of Sabines, Samnites, Latins, 
and Italians. Such of the Siculi as puffed over into Sicily 
alone retained their ancient name, which they allb gave 
to that ifiand. 
The Heneti, or Veneti, arriving laft in Italy, re¬ 
mained on the north of the Po. Herodotus attefts the Il¬ 
lyrian origin of the Veneti, who refided near Adria, and 
whofe capital was Patavium. Strabo relates, that, accord¬ 
ing to fome of the ancients, the Heneti of Italy were a 
colony of the Veneti of Gaul, on the coafts of Bretagne. 
This improbable opinion has been refuted by Polybius 
and Livy. The Greeks eftabliftied colonies on the coafts 
inhabited by the Veneti, where they introduced the .wor- 
ftiip of Diana of Calydon, and Juno of Argos. 
The ftory of the exiftence of a Trojan colony, conduc¬ 
ed by Antenor to this coaft, might arife from the refcm- 
blance of the name of the Venetes to that of the Henetes 
of Alia Minor, mentioned by Homer; but this tradition 
is not fupported by any hiftorical record. The name of 
the city of Patavium, fuppofed to have been built by An¬ 
tenor, is very much like that of Patavio, an ancient town 
of Pannonia on the Drave. Cluvier, who makes Patavium 
a Batavian colony, feems not to have known, that, ac¬ 
cording to the oblervation of Polybius, the Veneti fpoke 
a different language from the Celts, and that the Pata- 
vians exifted long before the invafion of Italy liy the 
Gauls. The ancient Venetia forms the modern Friule, 
Vicenza, and the provinces bordering the extremity of the 
Adriatic Gulf. 
The fettlement of the Liburni, Siculi, and Veneti, m 
Italy, was anterior by feveral centuries to the period af~ 
figned to the Trojan war. 
We are allured, that Sicily was at firft called Trinacria, 
on account of its triangular figure and its three principal 
promontories. The Sicanians gave it the name of Sicania. 
Thefe people pretended to be aborigines ; but we are in¬ 
formed by Thucydides, that they were Iberians, that they 
inhabited the banks of the Sicanus, and that, being driven 
from the country, they fettled in Trinacria. The period 
of this migration is wholly unknown. 
Hellanicus of Leibos, quoted by Dionyfius of Halicar- 
naffus, places the precife epoch of the paflage of the Siculi 
into Sicily in the twenty-eighth year of the prielthood of 
Alcyonea prieftefs of Argos. Thucydides dates their ar¬ 
rival in that ifland three hundred years prior to the firft 
invafions of the Greeks. The firft Greek colony was that 
which founded the city of Naxos about the year 759 be¬ 
fore our aera ; fo that the invafion of the Siculi mull have 
happened 1059 years before Chrift. The Siculi, having 
conquered the Sicanians, obliged them to retire to the 
fouthern and weftern parts of the ifland; and feized all 
die mod fertile diftrifts for themfelves. The Sicanians 
were Hill in being at the time of Thucydides. 
The Siculi, foon after their arival in Sicily, founded 
the city of Meflina, which they denominated Zancle. The 
Greeks afterwards fent a colony thither about the time of 
the foundation of Syracufe. Anaxiras, tyrant of Rhe- 
gium, fubdued that city, and changed its name into Mef- 
fina, which led Thucydides to fuppofe that this prince 
was of Mefienian extra&ion. In what manner Anaxiras 
made himfelf mafter of the city, may be feen in the fourth 
book of Paufanias. 
Three centuries after the arrival of the Siculi in Sicily, 
a colony of Chalcidians, leaving Eubcea under the conduit 
of Theucles, founded the city of Naxos on the eaft coaft 
of the ifland, near Mount iEtna, at the mouth of the 
fmall river Arfines, the modern Cantara. Some ruins of 
this city are ftill to be feen in the vicinity of Caitel Schifl'o. 
Thucydides adds, that the year following, Archias, of the 
family of the Heraclides, founded the city of Syracufe ; 
S Y and. 
