Walking in Historical Taormina  TAORMINA, Sicily -- History oozes from the pavement here. The first Greek colony in Sicily was at Naxos, founded by the Chalcidians from Euboea in 734 BC. When Dionysius the Elder, Tyrant of Syracuse, destroyed Naxos, the survivors fled to Taormina and joined the Sicilians that had been living there since the 4th century BC. In 215 BC it became a federal state under the Roman Empire, and when Syracuse fell became the capital of Byzantine Sicily. The remains of this period prevail to this day, the most important being the ruins of Naumachia, a monumental nymphaeum, and the Odeon, a small imperial theatre used for rehearsals. The Arabs destroyed Taormina twice in the 10th century, while under the Normans it became a flourishing centre of art. Taormina shared the fate with the rest of the island, declining as it fell under the Swabians, the Aragons, the Angevins and Spanish, the Houses of Savoy and Habsburg of Austria.
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