This triumph we owe to Aulus Messius, chief of all the united Siculian clans. Under his leadership we first swept over the Carthaginian settlements, bringing droves of slaves back to Murgantia, our budding capital. We skillfully pacified the Syracusans while we waited for the moment to strike. After the Greek fools became bogged down in a war with the Bruttians, our armies marched east. In the end we erased the Greek power from our island, and ejected the Bruttians too, for good measure. Yet the descendants of the invaders have not gone. Messius, in his wisdom, has embraced them. Whether Punic or Greek in blood, nearly all of them now speak our tongue and worship our gods. Sicily is free, united, and owes nothing to anyone except her own brave sons. Under Messius, our people have increasingly embraced centralized governance and civilized refinements, and before long those who scoffed at as barbarians will choke on their arrogance.
The wars to unite the island have shown us what our people, united, are capable of. This is a rich and populous land, and it could become the beating heart of a great power. We now look further afield. We are building a navy to rival any in the Middle Sea, and our elders debate where we may seek glory next. Islanders that we are, some call for us to sail west, against the savage Sardinians and the Carthaginian colonies clinging to their shores. Others say we should march across the straits of Scylla and Charybdis, to campaign against the Italians and Greeks to the east. Just to their north, the Romans are carrying all before them, and it may not be long before we must confront their ambitions.
We have taken our freedom and our revenge. Now we will have empire.
