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Itineraries
Phoenicians were allied during their century-long fights against the
bellicose neighbouring Greek colonies, these three ethnic groups
strongly influenced one each other: they shared the same alphabet,
the same urbanistic style of their settlements and many toponyms of
the Elymian area had (and still have) a clear Greek origin (e.g. Scopel-
lo and the Phoenician-Roman emporium of Cetaria, from the words
‘skopeloi’ = stacks, and ‘kētos’ = tuna fish, respectively).
Segesta and Eryx continued to play an important role for both fish
and cereal crop production during the Roman dominion. After Van-
dals invaded N Africa and during all the Byzantine period (V-IX cen-
turies AD) both NW Sicily and Egadi islands probably were almost
desert, only hosting scattered monastic communities, as testified by
the many toponyms ‘Monaco’ (= monk) spread all over this territory.
Once again, toponyms (Visicari, Guidaloca, Balata di Baida,
Màcari, etc.) tell us how densely this territory was inhabited betwe-
en IX and XII centuries by Arab-Berber farmers and shepherds, who
re-populated many ancient towns such as Segesta, Kalathamet near
the thermal springs of Castellammare and the Emporium Segesta-
num itself, called ‘al-Madarig’ (= tuna factory).
After blowing up the resistance of Arab-Berber communities in all
western Sicily, the Swabian emperor Frederick II donated the whole
Peninsula of San Vito to his northern Italian soldiers, who founded
the village of Scopello (c. 1230 AD). Shortly after, this territory beca-
me a property of the town of San Giuliano (Erice).
Between XIII and XVI all the coasts of NW Sicily a dangerous place
where to live, as they were subject to the continuous raids of pirates
and corsairs coming from NW Africa or belonging to the so-called ma-
rine republics of Genoa and Pisa. Hence, the few local communities
were located where they could enjoy some protection from the garri-
sons of the coastal towers. The massive structure of local farmhouses,
called ‘bagli’ (e.g. Castello di Inici, Balata di Baida, Scopello, etc.) and
tuna factories, called ‘tonnare’ (e.g. Favignana, Formica, Bonagia, Co-
fano, Scopello, Castellammare) remind us these period of uncertainty.
Between XVII and XIX centuries, after centuries of no or little
human presence, Egadi were bought by the family Pallavicino who
begun to populate them. Under the new owners the islands’ land-
scape underwent strong changes: the Genoese tradesmen restarted
agriculture, causing their almost total deforestation, and intensified

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