Ducetius

Ducetius (Ancient Greek: Δουκέτιος) (died 440 BCE) was a Hellenized leader of the Sicels and founder of a united Sicilian state and numerous cities.

[2] His story is told through the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BCE, who drew on the work of Timaeus.

By 452 BCE he had united central Sicily and founded the city of Palice,[1] the seat of his power, near Lago Naftia [it], then two holy crater lakes and site of a sanctuary of a pair of Sicel gods called the Palici.

However, Ducetius did return and, according to Diodorus, in 446 BCE founded the city of Kale Akte (in the province of Messina[5]), supposedly on the instructions of an oracle.

[9] Possibly, Ducetius died before a more lasting colony could be established, and in the aftermath of his death, the Sicels revolted against Syracuse.

The Sicel federation fell apart almost immediately after Ducetius' death, and Palice was sacked shortly thereafter and its inhabitants sold into slavery.

Syracuse would have had an interest of establishing an allied Sicel-Greek colony on the north coast, without risking too much in a potentially hostile Sicel-dominated area.