Sikeloi

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 Attributes: | +20% Recruitment Rate, +20 Morale, +20% Pillaging, +20% Scavenge Rate

The **Sikeloi** are a small-medium Sicilian faction located in eastern Sicily. It is one of a few factions playable in multiple scenarios, being available in both the Unification of Italy sandbox and the Sicily-only sandbox.

Their neighbours are Zancle, Himera, Selinous and the Elymoi in the full Italy sandbox. In the Sicily-only sandbox, the Sikeloi lose their border with the Elymoi and gain a border with the Sikanoi instead.

The Sikeloi, like all factions on Sicily, are an addition of The Eagle King DLC and do not occur in the basic version of the game.

### In-game Description

"The Sikeloi, also known as the Siculi or the Sicels, are a people of unknown origin inhabiting the eastern coast of Sicily, which is named after them. When Greek colonists arrived in Sicily, they were pushed inland and started to be influenced by Greek culture. In the fifth century BCE the Sikelian king Duketios would establish the Sikeloi as a power in central and southern Sicily before his expansion drew the ire of nearby Syrakousai, who defeated and exiled him. The Sikelian empire he established would not outlive him."

### Starting Cities

* **Kentoripa**: Kentoripa, now known as Centuripe, is a major town of the Sikeloi that would later be the first city in Sicily given Latin Rights by the Romans.
* **Katane**: Katane sits in the shadow of Mount Etna, whose volcanic ashes create fertile soil for vinyards and occasional destroy swathes of the city. Originally a town of the Sikeloi, Greeks from Chalcis Hellenized Katane around 729 BCE.
* **Morgantina**: Morgantina is said by Strabo to have been founded by the Morgetes of Rhegium, led by a king called Morges. It was captured by the Sikelian king Duketios in his efforts to create a united, independent Sicilian nation in 459 BCE.
* **Enna\*\*\***: Enna is an old city of the Sikeloi located high in the Sicilian interior mountains. It is said to have been the agreed-upon boundary between the Sikeloi and the Sikanoi, an earlier Sicilian people the Sikeloi pushed west when they came to Sicily.

**\*\*\***City belongs to the Sikanoi in the Sicily-only sandbox

### Strategy

The Sikeloi have a relatively surrounded territory in the interior of Sicily. It will probably prove to be beneficial to secure truces with some of your neighbours through diplomacy, to reduce the amount of neighbours you are in conflict with at once. Your bonuses to recruitment rate and morale can help you gain the upper hand against the factions that you don't manage to secure truces with.

Geographically, Zancle is theoretically a good target in the early game as this will allow you to expand along the coast of the island without gaining too many new land borders, and it is a smaller faction than Syrakousai. The exact best target for early expansion probably depends on randomized factors such as AI vs AI conquest and diplomatic events.

### Trivia & History

* Katane was historically a colony of the nearby Greek city of Tauromenium (originally known as Naxos) rathern than a Sikelian city. Naxos/Tauromenium and its colonies were presumably divided between Zancle and the Sikeloi to simplify the in-game faction roster.
* Kale Akte was historically also a city of the Sikeloi, but is given to Himera in-game, presumably for balance reasons.
* As referenced in the in-game description, the ethnic origin of the Sikeloi remains unknown, as with the Elymoi and Sikanoi. The Sikeloi are sometimes thought to be related to the Oenotrians who were the original inhabitants of Lucania and Bruttium, and may have been an Italic people related to the Latins, Sabellics and Veneti.
* It has been suggested that the Sikeloi may be identical with the Shekelesh, one of the so-called "Sea Peoples" that invaded Egypt at the close of the Bronze Age.
* Originally owning all of eastern Sicily, the Sikeloi were driven into the interior of the island by the arrival of Greek colonists on the coasts, such as at Zancle and Syrakousai.
* As referenced in the in-game description, the Sikeloi managed to briefly create an organized state to assert their own independence in the 450s BC before being defeated by Syrakousai. Afterwards, the Sikeloi were mostly within Syracusan control before the area passed to Rome during the First Punic War of 264-241 BC.
* The faction's icon depicts a racing chariot and appears to be taken from ancient coins found in Sicily, though the original designs usually depicted a four-horse chariot with the goddess Nike additionally flying overhead.