Sicily, the strategically located largest island in the Mediterranean, has long been a crossroads of history, a “melting pot” of ancient cultures and peoples. It was colonized by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks starting in the 8th century BCE and in the millennia that followed fell first to the Romans, then successively to the Vandals, Goths, Byzantines, and Arabs, and finally to the Normans. Today, it is an autonomous region of Italy. Who are some of history’s most famous Sicilians? Discuss