In the time of Thucydides there existed three Punic towns on the north-west coast of Sicily, viz., _Soloeis_, _Motye_, and _Panormus_. Motye was the principal place among them, and stood to Carthage in the same relation as Utica, Leptis, and others. About thirty years before the passage of Xerxes into Europe, at the time of the expulsion of Tarquin, the Carthaginians were already in possession of a province in Sicily; they then concluded a treaty with Rome, which has been preserved by Polybius. Ancient Greek history gives us no information about this, but rather makes it appear as if their attempt in the time of Gelo to establish themselves in Sicily had been the first; but the treaty with Rome is indubitable. The statement that the victory of Salamis, and that of Gelo over the Carthaginians at Himera, took place on the same day, a coincidence on which Herodotus lays great stress, is likewise untenable, for it is opposed to the account which we have in the Parian marbles from Timaeus. The origin of the fiction evidently lies in the desire to have a parallel. Gelo’s victory must be dated seven or nine years later than the time to which it is assigned by Diodorus. After that defeat, the Carthaginians always maintained themselves on the north-western coast, where no Greek town existed. When, in the course of time, the power of the Carthaginians had greatly increased, and when they displayed a love of conquest, the neighbouring town of Egesta threw itself into their arms. The Greeks in Sicily were, on the one hand, extremely careless, and on the other fool-hardy in giving provocation, and these circumstances gave rise to the unfortunate war with Carthage. In the second war with Dionysius, Motye, which until then, had been the chief place of the Carthaginians, was destroyed. They now built a new town, Olymp. 100, of the name of _Lilybaeum_: when it was taken by the Romans, it had existed about 150 years. It was the seat of the Carthaginian government, a regular Carthaginian eparchy being established in those parts, which is always called ἡ Φοινικικὴ ἐπαρχία. Bochart’s etymologies, from the Semitic languages, are often quite without foundation, but he explains the name Lilybaeum quite correctly as ‎‏‎‏ללבי‏‎, that is, opposite to Libya. _Soloeis_ was an unimportant place. PANORMUS became a great town under the dominion of the Carthaginians. It is strange that both Soloeis and Panormus are Greek names; the money coined in the latter place at the time of the Carthaginian dominion in Sicily, is likewise Greek, from which we must infer that Panormus was not a Punic colony like Lilybaeum. The natural advantages of its situation are very great: it has an excellent harbour, as even its name intimates, and its site is in a beautiful fertile plain on the coast, above which mount Hercte rises at the entrance of the harbour. This mountain was a very important post during the first Punic war.