History of Sicily politics in Greece itself, leading Athens, for example, to mount the disastrous Sicilian Expedition in 415 BC during the Peloponnesian War. In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena threw Mount Aitna onto the island of Sicily and upon either the gigante Enceladus or Typhon during the giants' war against the gods. The Greeks came into conflict with the Punic trading communities, by now effectively protectorates of Carthage, with its capital on the African mainland not far from the southwest corner of the island. Palermo was a Carthaginian city, founded in the 8th century BC, named Zis or Sis ("Panormos" to the
Valdrada of Sicily Valdrada of Sicily Valdrada of Sicily (died c. 1252) was a Sicilian princess and the Dogaressa of Venice by her marriage to Doge Jacopo Tiepolo (r. 1229–1249). Born at the very latest in 1194, Valdrada was the youngest child of King Tancred of Sicily and Sibylla of Acerra. She married the Doge in 1242, two years after the death of his former dogaressa Maria Storlato. Valdrada has been described as dominant and forceful, and is said to have had a great deal of control over her husband and the affairs of Venice. Following Jacopo's resignation in early 1249, she lived