The Phoenicians in Italy

Driven mainly by the search for minerals and the establishment of new markets, the Phoenicians reached the western Mediterranean at the beginning of the 􀁿rst millennium BCE. Part of a farreaching phenomenon that saw the arrival in the west of di􀁼erent groups from the Levant, Cyprus, and the Aegean, they gave birth, in about two centuries, to a number of settlements that covered the vast area between Malta, North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, and the Iberian peninsula. In all the regions where they had a stable presence, the Phoenicians participated in numerous forms of settlement, the character of which cannot be reduced to a single pattern derived from a pre-organized and consistent plan. This chapter traces the development of the Phoenician presence in central Italy and on the two main Italian islands.