Elymians

[Pantagathus]

As most of you know by now, one area that really interests me is seeking out information on little known/talked about ethnic groups (though I use that for lack of a better term) of the Greco-Roman age in an effort to get a more complete picture of the ancient world.

 

One area in particular are the

Edited February 2, 2006 by Pantagathus

[Segestan]

The Roman tale of a Trojan origin is a fabrication. One meant to relay the greatness of the Roman Imperial cult to the then Eastern powers. The Romans had a great respect of all things Hellenic. They in turn wanted to seem to be of Hellenic origin. The whole story was an attempt to make a growing power, Rome, gain what they saw as Hellenic respect favor with the Gods.. Rome was always trying to become as great or greater power than the mythical Hellens. Even the Purple color of the senate's garb was a copy of the Royal Court of Macedon.

The island of sicily, was an important corn growing region, an trading post and military station, a very important point of cultural extention for any power who could hold it. The many colonist who settled on the island, they often found themselves as a political extention of the home cities powers. In fact it was a policy to send colonist out in those days by most cities in the ancient world. Conflict was naturally ripe and often. With very sad and bloody results.

The punic war was the great struggle that put Sicilian peoples squarely under the Roman yoke.

Sicily was a cultural cross roads of the ancient world. Like Rhoades , Sicily had the security and trading position on the seas.

A beautiful island , a save place to live , worship the Gods , and conduct business , for all who enjoyed peace and prosperity.

Their were also many pirate leagues in those days whose interest it was to not see the island belong to a rival power. A magnet of Drama was Sicily, thus the many Temples to the Gods , the souls of the earth.

[Pantagathus]

So Segestan, leaving aside the Roman claim to Trojan ancestry is it your stance that it is rubbish in the Elymians case as well? I wasn't quite clear what you thought of the Elymians specifically.

[Segestan]

The Segestan's had been allies of the Phoenicians against the Hellenic and Minoans. They fought with the Phoenicians to help remove the tyrant of Selinus Pythagoras. The Segestans were on the side of Carthage in the Punic War against the Tyrant of Syracuse Dionysus. Most likely the colonist who first founder sicily were not of Trojan descent ,but rather Phoenician. It is of course possible that a Trojan colony came to Sicily after the war. The Trojans , like the Phoenician and Hittites, were sea faring traders. They would have known of the Island but I do find it rather difficult to imagine a fleeing people heading for an island that was heavily populated by Achaeans. Sicily , like the southern peninsula of Italy was Greek.

It would have been far easier for a Trojan band to head east into friendly territory rather than make the journey to Sicily. Homer and his great epic the Illiad is the reason Rome attempted place a Trojan origin on there ancestry. The Illiad is the Bible of the Hellenic world.

 

 

regards,

[Kosmo]

The knights of the fourth (1204) crusaide told the vlahs that they, thru Rome, have rights on the Balkans as trojans!

The etruscans is very likely to have anatolian roots and this can give a historical base to the roman claims of trojan ancestry .

I have no ideea about Elymians and I always belived that Eryx was a Phoenician/Carthaginian city.

[Pantagathus]

I have no ideea about Elymians and I always belived that Eryx was a Phoenician/Carthaginian city.

 

Eryx fell under Carthaginain dominion for some time but it was already in place before the Phoenicians started showing up ~1000 BC.

 

Every ancient source I have read regarding this subject has them and their cities in place before the Greeks or Phoenicians started showing up in the early-mid 1st Millennium.

 

They would have known of the Island but I do find it rather difficult to imagine a fleeing people heading for an island that was heavily populated by Achaeans.

 

It wasn't at all populated by Greeks when the Elymians arrived; if it's supposed that they arrived between 1500-1200 BC.

Edited February 10, 2006 by Pantagathus

[Guest Toby]

It wasn't at all populated by Greeks when the Elymians arrived; if it's supposed that they arrived between 1500-1200 BC.

 

Correct, and as I recall, only the eastern side of Sicily, and parts of the South, was ultimately under Hellenic rule. I am not sure to what extent they ever administered or colonized the western side, but the point is moot given the timeline.

 

A more fruitful path would be to discuss any linguistic remnants of the Elymian culture, if any are known, and to see if they can be linked to known linguistic patterns in Sikanian and Pelasgian; for example, toponyms ending in -nth. I think it is likely, anyway, that the Elymians are another branch of the Anatolian diaspora.

[Pantagathus]

A more fruitful path would be to discuss any linguistic remnants of the Elymian culture, if any are known, and to see if they can be linked to known linguistic patterns in Sikanian and Pelasgian; for example, toponyms ending in -nth. I think it is likely, anyway, that the Elymians are another branch of the Anatolian diaspora.

 

It would seem that the only clue in this line of inquiry is their apparent love for the vowel epsilon as a sort of prefix.