History of Sicily

This is a rather rudimentary history of Sicily as I tend to focus on historical events that interest me.  There was a section discussing a few battles between Hannibal and the Romans, but I cut them out as this would go on and on.  The Sicilians are a real mix of cultures, they have their own Sicilian dialect but they also speak Italian, not that we would know the difference.  We communicate by hand signals and a few necessary words.  It is amazing how well hand signals actually convey meaning that is understood.

Sicily is a fertile land in a strategic position in the Mediterranean, close to the Italian mainland and not very far from the coast of North Africa.  Sicily attracted migrants and conquerors intent on a new homeland.  Sicily’s history is one of foreign domination, much to the detriment of her people.  The list of invaders is long: Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, French, Germans, Spanish and Italians.

Based on the archaeological evidence of flint tools, modern humans likely occupied Sicily some time after 30,000 BC.  It was not until after 10,000 BC when the land masses that we have today were established, that sites of human habitation multiply.  Palaeolithic rock drawings in caves date to 9,000 BC.  Humans in the Palaeolithic were hunters, in the next period, the Mesolithic, there is evidence of the consumption of wild fruits and shellfish, then a substantial increase in the consumption of fish.  The age of plying the Mediterranean sea began long before the move to village settlements and agriculture.

In the Neolithic age, there was no evidence of population pressure to push the people into agriculture, the transition took place slowly.  Pottery is in use and the shift from living in rock shelters to establishing agricultural villages takes place.

When the navigation of the Mediterranean opened up, the flow of ideas, knowledge and trade took place over large distances.  There are no metal resources in Sicily, by 3,000 BC, the use of copper is evident, which would have come from the Aegean.  Bronze age artifacts came from Greece and the Aegean as well.  These metals were made into weapons and those bearing weapons would have arrived in Sicily.  The population was driven into the hills into new towns founded by Sicilean kings.

When the Greeks began to set up colonies in the 8th century BC, they claimed to have found early inhabitants:  the Sicels (from Italy) in the east, the Sicans in central Sicily and the Elymians in the west.  While the Greeks were settling or slightly before, the Phoenicians were also settling.  Carthage was founded on the coast of North Africa and settlements were founded in the west of Sicily,  Panourmus, Solus and the island of Motya.  The Carthaginians had good relations with the local Elymians.  The Elymians were often in conflict with Selinus.

The Carthaginians and the Greeks were often in conflict, during the Battle of Himera in 480 BC, Greeks from Siracusa and Akragas fought and defeated the Carthaginians.  To celebrate the victory, the Greeks would build new temples with the slave labour of the defeated.

Greek tyrants emerged as rulers, they destroyed cities, founded cities and repeatedly uprooted and moved tens of thousands of people to new cities.  They concentrated wealth for themselves and built many temples.  The democratic city-state of Greece never took hold; there was never a sense of community which was necessary to establish a self-governing city-state.  There were too many outside threats, too much uprooting of the people and too many mercenaries from Oscan-speaking Italy who fought for the tyrants and then raised havoc after their service ended or when the tyrants lost power.

The Carthaginians fought the Romans in three Punic Wars, the First Punic war lasted 25 years, from 264 - 241 BC.  The ruler of Siracusa and its dependent states in Sicily allied with Carthage, but soon switched to support the Romans, therefore, avoiding the horrors of the First Punic War.  The Romans defeated the Carthaginians, ending their control of western Sicily.  The Carthaginians were exiled and had to pay a large indemnity to Rome.  The First Punic war was a disaster for western and southern Sicily; when the Romans captured the Carthaginian cities in Sicily, the population was sold into slavery, 25,000 from Akragas alone, and the cities destroyed.

Sicily became a Roman possession, the Carthaginians built an empire in Spain and would battle the Romans again over control of Iberia and the western Mediterranean in the Second Punic War 218 - 201 BC.  From their base in Spain, Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees, marched across southern Gaul (France), crossed the Alps and entered Italy from the north after a march of five months.  The Gauls of the lower Po Valley (northern Italy) joined the Carthaginians.  Hannibal was a military genius, he used deception and brilliant tactics to defeat and destroy the Roman armies that greatly outnumbered him.  Hannibal moved through Italy and was in the south when the Romans tried again to defeat him.  Sicily was in a strategic position as she stood between the victorious Hannibal in southern Italy and his home base in Carthage.

The Sicilians were not pleased with Roman rule so they sided with Carthage, even Siracusa came onside.  Siracusa was under siege by the Romans for two years, but it finally fell in 212 as the result of treachery by the nobles.  The Roman soldiers looted the city and the Roman commander stripped the city’s temples and public buildings of vast quantities of statuary and paintings, he shipped these to Rome.  The last Carthaginian city to fall to the Romans was Akragas in 211, again, the population was sold into slavery.  The war dragged on until Hannibal was defeated in North Africa.  Carthage was destroyed as a power; thus, the Romans had control of the western Mediterranean.  Sicily lost what independence she had left and her economic output was directed to Italy.

Sicilians spoke Greek, not Latin; to the Sicilians, Rome was a foreign power.  The Sicilians used the Greek calendar, their festivals were Greek and the architecture was still Greek.

The Romans took 1/10 of the wheat and barley crop and shipped it to Rome, the Sicilians were not free to export their production, it had to go to Italy unless the Roman Senate permitted a special license, the Romans could take a second tithe at a price set by the Senate.  They implemented a 5% duty on all goods shipped out of a Sicilian harbour; there was a tax on wine, fruit, olives and vegetables and a pasture tax.  Prices were fixed by Rome for the maintenance of the Roman governor and his staff and the communities in Sicily had to provide ships and crews to protect the harbours from pirates.

Land in Sicily was confiscated from declared enemies and given to Roman veterans, Roman citizens or other ‘allies.’  As a result of wars in Greece and in the east in the 2nd century BC, huge populations were carried off by the armies.  What people remained were bought by slavers and sold to buyers in Italy and Sicily.  With the supply of free labour, the wealthy landowners increased their holdings of farms and pasture land, Sicily became a land of large estates.

The Slave Revolts

Many recent arrivals of slaves in Sicily were Greek speaking and of high education and birth, these slaves could organize and plan.  The treatment of slave herdsmen, shepherds and agricultural labourers was horrendous; they were branded, chained, beaten, undernourished and overworked.  The urban slaves, craftsmen and domestics were better off; therefore, most of the insurgents in the slave revolts came from the lower ranks, but were led by slaves of the higher ranks.

The history of the slave revolts is rather sketchy, it likely started in 139 BC in Enna, where the slaves of the exceedingly rich Damophilus of Enna, decided to kill him.  They asked Ennus (a recent arrival and charismatic individual who thought of himself as a prophet) if the gods approved of the plan to murder Damophilus.  Ennus led a band of slaves into the city and a riot ensued.  After some consternation among the slaves, the leaders of the riot killed Damophilus.  Ennus was proclaimed king and began to rule.  Damophilus’s wife was killed by her own slaves, the daughter, who had always tried to help the brutalized slaves, was spared.  All slave owners were either killed or put in chains to work in arms manufacture.

Meanwhile, another revolt began in near Akragas, the two leaders joined forces and may have amassed an army of 60,000 to 70,000.  The revolt was not crushed until 132 BC, when the Roman governor sent in trained Italian soldiers.  Many revolting slaves were killed and then life went on as before with new slave owners replacing those killed in the revolt.

In 104 BC, when Rome asked for military assistance from a client-king in Asia Minor, the king replied that no young men were available because the slavers, who were protected by Roman officials, had taken them all.  The Roman Senate then ordered the release of ‘allies’ reduced to slavery.  In Sicily, huge numbers of slaves appeared before the governor demanding their freedom.  He granted freedom to about 800 slaves, overwhelmed by the numbers, he told the rest to return to their masters.  The slaves revolted and soon after more slaves joined the revolt.  The Romans defeated the slaves again and the status quo resumed; agricultural production recovered and slaves did the work.

Caesar had defeated Pompey during the struggle to rule Rome.  After Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, Pompey’s son Sextus, who was based in Sicily, took control of the sea with the aid of slaves who crewed the ships.  Sextus prevented the transport of Sicilian grain to Rome.  Rome agreed to recognize Sextus’ authority in Sicily and promised to free the slaves in his service; therefore, Sextus lifted the blockade.  War resulted and Sextus was defeated, Caesar’s great-nephew and adopted son and heir, Octavian, the first Roman emperor, was merciless.  The slaves went back to their owners and Sextus was killed.  Large land holdings were confiscated and retained by Imperial Rome, smaller holdings were granted to Legion veterans who were loyal to Rome.  Thus, began a concentration of Latin speaking people in Sicily for the first time.

During the Roman Imperial period, the Sicilians had no interest in advancing themselves in Roman government and society, as often happened in southern Gaul (France), Spain, North Africa and Asia Minor.  Few Sicilians joined the legions or entered the imperial career service.

Sicily caused no trouble for Rome until the Vandals, a Germanic tribe, took military control in 468 AD.  The Vandals sold Sicily to the leader of the Ostrogoths who had taken Italy.  During this period, the Roman Empire in the west was in a state of crisis and collapse.  The Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 AD and by 476, the once great western Empire was a collection of barbarian kingdoms.  The eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) based in Constantinople (Istanbul) was much stronger and endured until 1453.

The Byzantines and Goths fought over Italy and the Byzantines fought the Persians in the east.  In 535, the Byzantines defeated the Goths in Sicily in a relatively easy conquest.  In 663, the Byzantine Emperor Constans moved the capital to Siracusa after more than 300 years in Constantinople.  This lasted for only five years,  Constans was assassinated in 668 and the capital was moved back to Constantinople.

The Byzantines controlled Sicily until the Arab conquest began in 827, the war went on for 50 years as Constantinople fought hard to retain her last western outpost.  The war brought famine and plague to Sicily.   Sicily likely suffered more during the Arab wars than during the two  Punic Wars.  Siracusa fell in 878 and this marked the end of ancient Sicily.  The population of Siracusa was massacred and the city looted.

The Arabs did much to benefit Sicily and their influence is abundantly evident today.  The Arabs were skilled farmers from Mesopotamia, they transformed Sicily by introducing and planting citrus fruits, sugar cane, cereal crops and palms.  They also processed food and by some accounts, invented spaghetti.  Prior to this, pasta was made with soft grain flour which would not keep.  Dry pasta could only be made with the paste from hard durum wheat, which at the time of the Arab conquest, was only farmed in Sicily and other hot countries of the Mediterranean.  Most of the durum processed in Sicily today comes from the Canadian prairies.

Arab design is visible in architecture, old historic town centres, ceramics and mosques.  The cuisine of Sicily has many Arab influences as well, couscous is a popular dish in western Sicily.

The next conquerors were the Normans in the 11th century, the Normans drove out the emirs but did not kill or expel the Arab people.  The Normans adapted to the Arabic, Latin, Greek and Jewish traditions already present in Sicily.

After the Normans came Swabians, then Angevins, Aragonese (Spanish) and then the Bourbons.  In 1860, Garibaldi and his band landed in Sicily and defeated the Bourbons, this led the way to the unification of Italy.  It can be argued that unification benefited the industrial north at the expense of Sicily and southern Italy.  Sicilians suffered greatly from poverty and hunger, between 1895 and 1910, half the population emigrated to the USA and Australia.

Had a bit of a breezy and rainy day today, this is a really nice beach in southwestern Sicily.  We wanted to hike along the beach but the weather was too brutal.

Flowering shrub in Sciacca.

The area is home to many ceramic artisans, these large ceramic pots are all over the town.