First evidence of Sicilian migration in Lipari (Castellaro Vecchio). Manufacture and commerce of obsidian objects was highly developed until introduction of metals.
1600 – 1250 BC
During the Bronze Age, the Aeolian prosper by means of maritime commerce in an area extending from Mycenae to the British isles, from where tin was imported. Villages on the Eolian islands flourished on Capo Graziano (Filicudi), Castello (Lipari), Serro dei Cianfi (Salina), Capo Milazzese (Panarea), and Portella (Salina). All these settlements are destroyed by the new Italic invasions in 1250 BC.
1240 – 850 BC
The Aeolian Islands are occupied by the Ausonians led by Liparus. Liparus is succeeded by Aeolus whose house, according to Homer, gave hospitality to Odysseus.
6th – 4th century BC
In 580 BC Greek exiles from Rhodes and Knidos land at Lipari begin a period of Greek domination, which was known for acts of piracy against Etruscan and Phoenician shipping. Fine work in the production of vases and other ceramics.
3rd c. BC – 3rd c. AD
The islanders are allies of the Carthaginians against Rome. The Romans sack Lipari and their domination leads to a period of decadence and poverty.
4th – 10th century AD
At the fall of the Roman empire, the Aeolian Islands came under the sway of the Barbarian Visigoths, the Vandals and the Ostrogoths, followed by the harsh domination of the Byzantine empire. In the year 264, a coffin containing the body of Bartholomew is washed upon the beach of Lipari, with the result that Bartholomew is immediately elected the Patron Saint of the Aeolian Islands. Calogerus the hermit was active on Lipari during the first half of the 4th century and he gave his name to the thermal springs. In 836 the Saracens sack Lipari, massacre the population, and enslave the survivors.
