What was Italy-Sicily and Dacia-Thraica like during this period?

[Osceola]

What were the cultures, types of warriors, weapons armour, yo know what were these 2 places like during this era?

[Zenith Darksea]

Not sure really. Not my area of study, I'm afraid. Though I know a little about Thrace. The Thracians were migrants from Illyria who had been booted out by another race who would become the Illyrians of the RTW period, and they migrated to what we now call Thrace. If you want more info, check out the Thracian faction description at www.troytw.com

[Revan The Great]

To my knowledge Italy was Latin townships, with perhaps SOME greek colonies. I beilieve (might be wrong) Etruscans and Samnites were in power about now, and would remain so until Rome became strong. Sicily was mostly Greek colonies at this point, and probably some Carthaginian colonies as well.

Note: All of these are simply "educated guesses" and I do not know for sure when the Greeks started colonizing, or when Etruscans became a big power in Italy.

-Revan

[Zenith Darksea]

The Greeks started their colonisation in earnest at around about the ninth and eigth centuries, so it's out of the time frame of the mod.

[Zhuge_Liang]

I don't think that is right, Corinth did exist at this time as a mycenaen settlement but they didn't start to colonise anywhere untill about 600BC. They encountered local tribes and lived relatively peacefully with them. These native barbarians are probably who were on sicily at this time.

Also in Italy the Villanovans were around before the Etruscans. Still, so little is known that it would be complete guess work if they were to be included in the mod. It is thought that they were even a spin off from lydia!

Altogether i think the east is a much more interesting place at this time, with egypt, babylon, assyria etc.

[Last Roman]

the Etruscans didnt come around until 9th century BC, or at least im pretty sure.

[Osceola]

I'm going to be reading a historical novel soon set in Italy immediately after the Trojan War, probably about Aeneas and the founding of Rome. It's called The Talisman of Troy, by the famous author Valerio Massimo Manfredi.

I'll let ya'll know on what I've gleaned once I'm finished if you like. ^^

[Zhuge_Liang]

It is about diomedes and his attempt to establish a new home in italy - it's kinda boring and doesn't really go anywhere

[SicilianVespers]

There were no Greek colonies in Sicily in this time period. Sicily was the center of the Siculan (ie Siculi/Sikeloi) culture. Our culture at this time had Aegeo-Anatolian influences. There were smaller scale cyclopean palaces, tholos rock cut tombs etc. Earlier in the bronze age the Siculi used rapiers similar to Mycenaean types. The Siculan culture also extended to modern Calabria, but this was a colonization that went from Sicily to Italy, and brought the Siculan culture there already formed (the rock cut tombs etc.).

If you seek to make models/skins for Trojan era Siculan warriors, your best bet would be to use the Shekelesh/Shiqalaya sea people (engraved on Egyptian temples) as a model. They had feathered crests breast plates, greaves, and wore a kilt type garment. Armaments would have been sword, shield, spears and javelins.

I believe at least some of the sea peoples that invaded Greece at the end of the bronze age were Siculi. The new types of fibulae, swords and daggers left behind have direct correlations in Sicily. (This is my own opinion, from my research)

A group of Shekelesh/Shiqalaya also ended up settling in Canaan (the area of Dor, if I am not mistaken) north of the Philistines.

The Etruscans (tursha/Tyrsenoi) and Sardi (Shardana) were also sea peoples.

I know the Shardana were similar to the Shekelsh, but wore horned helmets.

Perhaps a Siculi/Shekelesh/Shiqalaya Mercenary unit?

A Sardi/Shardana Mecenary unit would also be quite appropriate, as they are found in Egypt as the Pharoah's bodyguards. They are the guys with the horned helmets in the movie Moses.

I can scan some pictures if anyone needs them.

[EDIT]
I am home now, and have my books to refer to...

What I mentioned above regarding the Siculan finds in Greece & the Greek islands, forces us to re-examine the "Dorian" invasion.

So, before any one asks me to prove it....

See "The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe" page 290 - 295

On page 294 there are illustration of the knives, spear heads, and a Siculan fibula fron a destruction layer of a LH IIIC site.

These artifacts are identical to Sicilian examples in "La Sicilia nella preistoria" by Sebastiano Tusa

Fibulae - pages 574, 623
Short socket spear head - pages 562, 619, 620
Ring knives - pages 606, 618, 619
Knives - pages 573, 582, 602
swords - page 619

For English reader, you should see "Sicily Before History" by Robert Leighton

Fibulae - page 179
Short socket spear head - pages 211, 214
Knives - pages 199, 209, 179
swords - page 199
Ring knives - page 199

The Oxford book mentions foreign warrior graves on Cos, Crete, Naxos, Achaea, and Athens that show non-Aegean features. His illustrations are very familiar to any Sicilian archeologist.

The question is...whether these obviously Sicilian warriors were invaders that destroyed Mycenaean civilization, or were they mercenaries hired to defend the Mycenaean kingdoms, that settled and took control after if's fall.

Sorry for the rambling....The Siculan bronze age is one of my favorite periods.

[Zhuge_Liang]

There were no Greek colonies in Sicily in this time period. Sicily was the center of the Siculan (ie Siculi/Sikeloi) culture. Our culture at this time had Aegeo-Anatolian influences. There were smaller scale cyclopean palaces, tholos rock cut tombs etc. Earlier in the bronze age the Siculi used rapiers similar to Mycenaean types. The Siculan culture also extended to modern Calabria, but this was a colonization that went from Sicily to Italy, and brought the Siculan culture there already formed (the rock cut tombs etc.).

If you seek to make models/skins for Trojan era Siculan warriors, your best bet would be to use the Shekelesh/Shiqalaya sea people (engraved on Egyptian temples) as a model. They had feathered crests and breast plates, and wore a kilt type garment. Armaments would have been sword, shield, spears and javelins.

I believe at least some of the sea peoples that invaded Greece at the end of the bronze age were Siculi. The new types of fibulae, swords and daggers left behind have direct correlations in Sicily. (This is my own opinion, from my research)

A group of Shekelesh/Shiqalaya also ended up settling in Canaan (the area of Dor, if I am not mistaken) north of the Philistines.

The Etruscans (tursha/Tyrsenoi) and Sardi (Shardana) were also sea peoples.

I know the Shardana were similar to the Shekelsh, but wore horned helmets.

Perhaps a Siculi/Shekelesh/Shiqalaya Mercenary unit?

I can scan some pictures if anyone needs them.

Any help you can give will be appreciated, but work on the units is finished and we may be over the limits, however if we ever get the code finished then i may well go back and make some changes to the mentioned units. Please post whatever you feel will be helpfull here.

[Zenith Darksea]

Oh and Zhuge, Corinth wasn't the only Greek city to send out colonies... Take Sparta for instance. You don't normally think of them as a colonial city, but they founded Cyrene and Tarentum, among others.