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Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article’s lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. The Sicilian people are indigenous to the island of Sicily, which was first populated beginning in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. 13th century BC, have been found in Lipari. From the 11th century BC, Phoenicians began to settle in western Sicily, having already started colonies on the nearby parts of North Africa and Malta.

Sicily was later colonized and heavily settled by Greeks, beginning in the 8th century BC. Besides Sicily, the Theme or Province of Sicily also included the adjacent region of Calabria in Mainland Italy. The capital city of Byzantine Sicily was Syracuse. The province was looked after by the imperial governor known as a Praetor, and was militarily protected under a general by the title of Dux.