During the Greek Golden Age many Greek settlements were founded in Sicily and the southern areas of The Italian peninsula. The Carthaginians were really just the Phoneticians from the area around Lebenon/Israel who settled in Northern Africa and then became their own empire after Alexander the Great took over the areas of the Middle East. The Carthaginians then expanded in the western Mediterranean and fought the Greeks for control of Sicily. By the time the Carthaginians won the Romans were expanding and eventually made Sicily one of their provinces by defeating the Carthaginians in the first Punic War.

(Book – The Rise of Rome – Anthony Everitt)