History of Palermo

Palermo is one of the major cities of Italy, and the historical and administrative capital of Sicily.

Human settlement in the Palermo area goes back to prehistoric times. It has one of the most ancient sites in Sicily: Interesting graffiti and prehistoric paintings were discovered in the Addaura grottoes in 1953 by archaeologist Jole Bovio Marconi. They portray dancing figures performing a propitiatory rite, perhaps shamans.

In the 8th c. BC Phoenicians established a flourishing merchant colony in the Palermo area.^{[citation needed]} The relationship of the new city with the Siculi, the people living in the Eastern part of the Island involved both commerce and war. The first building in which soon became a great city was called Mabbonath^{[citation needed]} ("lodging" in Phoenician). The settlement itself was known as Ziz (Punic: 𐤑‬𐤉𐤑, ṢYṢ), meaning "Flower". It was the most important of the three colonies forming the "Phoenician Triangle" cited by Thucydides, the others being Motya and Soluntum.

Between the 8th and the 7th centuries BC, the Greeks colonized Sicily. They called the city Panormos ("All port") and traded with the Carthaginians. The two civilizations lived together in Sicily until the Roman conquest. Carthaginian coins from Palermo used the Greek name Panormos from the 5th century BC. The Greek colony at Panormos had two cores: the "Old Town" (Paleopolis) between the two rivers Kemonia and Papirethos and the "New Town" (Neapolis). Curiously, early Naples was also divided in two parts with the same names. Its current name stems from the latter.

In the course of the Punic Wars Palermo was fought over by the Carthaginians and the Romans until, in 254 BC, the Roman fleet besieged the city. It eventually surrendered and the population had to pay a war tribute to save their liberty. Hasdrubal tried to take it back, but the Roman consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated him and imposed a lasting Roman rule over the town he knew as Panormus. In 247, Hamilcar camped with the Carthaginian army on Monte Pellegrino, then called Ercta. However this was in vain, as Palermo remained loyal to Rome. It therefore gained the titles of Praetura, the Golden Eagle, and the right to mint a coin of its own, as one of only five free cities in Sicily.

Panormus was a flourishing and beautiful city during the Golden Age of the Roman Republic and Empire. In Piazza Vittoria ("Victory's Square") notable palaces and mosaics have been discovered and a large theatre still existed in the Norman age. According to geographer Strabo, during the Roman Empire it provided large amounts of wheat for the capital. However, after the reign of Vespasian, it decayed, and in 445 was sacked by the King of Vandal Africa, Gaiseric. Later it was part of the territory of Odoacer and Theoderic's Ostrogoths.

In 535, the Byzantine general Belisarius stormed the port, during Justinian I's program of reconquering Italy, which soon turned into the fierce and disastrous Gothic War. The Byzantine rule lasted until 831, when the Aghlabid Arabs, disembarked in Mazara del Vallo. The Arabs captured Palermo after a year-long siege and made it the capital city of their Sicilian emirate.

After the Byzantines were betrayed by admiral Euphemius who fled to Tunisia in 827 and begged the Aghlabid leader Ziyadat Allah to help him there was a Muslim conquest of Sicily, putting in place the Emirate of Sicily. The Aghlabids were good administrators. Under their rule Sicily became a rich and flourishing land.