Palermo

Ancient era

Evidence of human settlement in the area now known as Palermo goes back at least to the Mesolithic period, perhaps around 8000 BC, when a group of cave drawings at nearby Addaura represent a new level in the representation of the human figure. According to Thucydides, the Sicani people arrived from the Iberian Peninsula (perhaps Catalonia).
Phoenicians
During 734 BC the Phoenicians, a sea trading people from the north of ancient Canaan, built a small settlement on the natural harbor of Palermo. Some sources suggest they named the settlement "Ziz." It became one of the three main Phoenician colonies of Sicily, along with Motya and Soluntum. However, the remains of the Phoenician presence in the city are few and mostly preserved in the very populated center of the downtown area, making any excavation efforts costly and logistically difficult. The site chosen by the Phoenicians made it easy to connect the port to the mountains with a straight road that today has become Corso Calatifimi. This road helped the Phoenicians in trading with the populations that lived beyond the mountains that surround the gulf.

The first settlement is defined as Paleapolis (Παλεάπολις), the Ancient Greek world for "old city", in order to distinguish it from a second settlement built during the 5th century BC, called Neapolis (Νεάπολις), "new city". The neapolis was erected toward east and along with it, were built monumental walls around the whole settlement to prevent foreign threats' attacks. Some part of this structure can still be seen in the Cassaro district. This district was named after the walls themselves; the word Cassaro derives, indeed, from the Arab al-qsr (castle, stronghold). Along the walls there were few doors to access and exit the city, proving that the trades even toward the inner part of the island occurred frequently. Moreover, according to some studies, it may be possible that there were some walls that divided the old city from the new one too. For what concerns the urban evolution, the colony developed around a central street (decumanus), cut perpendicularly by minor streets. This street never got disused, and today it has become Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

Carthage was Palermo’s major trading partner under the Phoenicians and the city enjoyed a prolonged peace during this period. Palermo came into contact with Greek culture between the 6th and the 5th centuries BC which were followed by the Sicilian Wars, a conflict fought between the Greeks of Syracuse and the Phoenicians of Carthage for control over the island of Sicily. During this war the Greeks named the settlement Panormos (Πάνορμος) from which the current name is derived, meaning "all port" due to the shape of its coast. The conflict was documented by the Ancient Greek author Diodorus Siculus, giving a contemporary description of Palermo's port during the war. It was from Palermo that Hamilcar I's fleet (which was defeated at the Battle of Himera) was launched. Again Diodorus recounts that in 409 B.C. the city was looted by Hermocrates of Syracuse. The Sicilian Wars ended in 265 B.C. when Carthage and Syracuse reconciled in order to stop the Romans from gaining full control of the island during the First Punic War. In 276 B.C., during the Pyrrhic War, Panormos briefly became a Greek colony after being conquered by Pyrrhus of Epirus, but returned to Phoenician Carthage in 275. In 254 B.C. Panormos was besieged and conquered by the Romans in the first battle of Panormus (the name Latin name). Carthage attempted to reconquer Panormus in 251 B.C. but failed.
 
Middle Ages
As the Roman Empire was falling apart, Palermo fell under the control of several Germanic tribes. The first were the Vandals in 440 AD under the rule of their king Geiseric. The Vandals had occupied all the Roman provinces in North Africa by 455 establishing themselves as a significant force. They acquired Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily shortly afterwards. However, they soon lost these newly acquired possessions to the Ostrogoths. The Ostrogothic conquest under Theodoric the Great began in 488; although the Goths were Germanic, Theodoric supported Roman culture and government instead. The Gothic War took place between the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. Sicily was the first part of Italy to be taken under control of General Belisarius who was commissioned by Eastern Emperor Justinian I who solidified his rule in the following years.

After the Byzantines were betrayed by Admiral Euphemius, who fled to Tunisia and begged the Aghlabid leader Ziyadat Allah to help him, there was a Muslim conquest of Sicily in 831, which took until 904 against fierce resistance. The Emirate of Sicily was established. Muslim rule within the whole island lasted for about 120 years and was marked by cruelty and brutality against the native population, which was reduced into near slavery, as the story of Jawhar al-Siqilli demonstrates. Christian churches across the island were all completely destroyed, with not one remaining prior to the Muslim conquest. Palermo (Balarm during Arab rule) displaced Syracuse as the prime city of Sicily. It was said to have then begun to compete with Córdoba and Cairo in terms of importance and splendor. For more than one hundred years Palermo was the capital of a flourishing emirate. The Arabs also introduced many agricultural items which remain a mainstay of Sicilian cuisine.

After dynastic quarrels however, there was a Christian reconquest in 1072. The family who returned the city to Christianity were called the Hautevilles, including Robert Guiscard and his army, who is regarded as a hero by the natives. It was under Roger II of Sicily that Norman holdings in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula were promoted from the County of Sicily into the Kingdom of Sicily. The kingdom was ruled from Palermo as its capital, with the king's court held at Palazzo dei Normanni. Much construction was undertaken during this period, such as the building of the Palermo Cathedral. The Kingdom of Sicily became one of the wealthiest states in Europe, as wealthy as the fellow Norman state, the Kingdom of England.

Sicily, in 1194, fell under the control of the Holy Roman Empire. Palermo was the preferred city of the Emperor Frederick II. Muslims of Palermo emigrated and were expelled during Holy Roman rule. After an interval of Angevin rule (1266–1282), Sicily came under control of Aragon and Barcelona dynasty. By 1330, Palermo's population had declined to 51,000. From 1479, it was ruled by the Kingdom of Spain until 1713 and between 1717 and 1718. Palermo was also managed by Savoy between 1713 and 1717 and 1718–1720 as result of the Treaty of Utrecht. And by Austria between 1720 and 1734.