This book was written by British historian John Julius Norwich. I will attempt to cover the chapters one at a time, other than this first installment, since the chapters are smaller.
1 Greeks
The first true culture we encounter on Sicily is Mycenaean, from around 1600BC. Around 1400 BC, Sicily was absorbed into the Mediterranean trade routes. The Mycenaeans disappeared around 1200BC, no one knows why. There were some tribes that lived on the island: Sicans, Sicels, Elymians, but we know little of them.
Sicily’s earliest historical period people were Greeks who had come over to colonize areas of the eastern and southern coast. The first Greek-Sicilian settlement was Gela around 688BC. The next centuries saw the cities build up through Greek art, philosophy, and civilization. But we must recognize that “Greece” was something like the way we consider “Arab” today. It was a concept more than a particular nationality.
The Carthaginians had a footing on the western edge of the island at Marsala and Trapani. Carthage was originally a Phoenician outpost. The Phoenicians were canaanites from the Old Testament. They were a seafaring people, who had established trading outposts all over the Mediterranean. Carthage, modern day Tunis, was one of those cities, which had gained independence in 650BC.
There were occasional clashes between the Greek cities with appeals to Carthage to intervene by whatever city saw itself as undermanned in the looming fights.
Around 400, an agreement was made between Syracuse and Carthage whereby Carthage would limit itself to the western portion of the island.
2 Carthaginians
For the next hundred years, skirmishes continued between Greek Sicily and Carthaginian Sicily, but in 272, Rome captured Tarentum and effectively claimed control over the entire Italian peninsula. During the 200’s Sicily was going to have to make a choice between Rome and Carthage.
There were a series of 3 Punic wars (wars between Rome and Carthage) fought between 264 and 146BC. During that time, Sicily became a Roman territory.
3 Roman, Barbarians, Byzantines, and Arabs.
Roman
By 241BC Sicily was essentially run by the Romans. The Greek speakers were still there, but Greece was in no position to influence much on the Island. Carthage was a power during the first part of the 200’s, and indeed, Hannibal was causing all kinds of trouble on the Italian peninsula itself but, Carthage was not the influence on Sicily.
The Romans never considered Sicily more than a province… allies… but they were not considered citizens. The important fact was that Sicilians spoke Greek, not Latin. We know relatively little about the events on the island. But here are some ‘highlights’… or lowlights… you can decide….
There were several slave revolts on the island. The slave population dangerously outnumbered the free, and they were terribly abused. (Good combo for an uprising.) The first slave war broke out around 139BC, Rome was slow to react since it didn’t take the idea of slaves too seriously, and consequently wasn’t put down until 132BC, seven years later.
A second slave war broke out in 104BC, but this time Rome was quicker to respond. The second war was ended in 100BC after an epic effort by the slaves.
Gaius Verrus was governor/criminal from 80-70BC, which saw the island suffer terribly under his pillaging. He was excoriated in the Roman Senate by Cicero, who took the case on himself, and Verrus, who saw the writing on the wall, packed up his stuff and amscrayed to Marseille before the trial ended and he was put under arrest.
The final transition of Rome from Republic to Empire left Sicily with a much larger Roman element than before. By decree, all mainland Italians had gained Roman citizenship, but this was not true for Sicily. 6 cities however were included, and their citizens were given Roman citizenship: Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Tindari, Termini, and Palermo.
Sicily had become one of the most important sources of grain for the Roman empire.
Unfortunately, we know little of Sicilian history for the first 500 years of the Christian era. It seems to have prospered, as evidenced by the quality of the buildings that have survived from that period.
They were largely unconcerned by Constantine’s decision to move the capital of the Empire to Constantinople in 330. They were largely unconcerned with the decision to move the western capital to Ravenna in 395.
Constantine’s main contribution was the official status of Christianity, which spread rapidly across the island, replacing the old Greek religion.
By the 400’s there also seems to have been a large influx of Jewish immigration.
Barbarian
By the late 400s, the barbarians had arrived. Who you callin’ barbarian?? I’m sure the barbarians didn’t think they themselves were so deficient… after all, who just kicked who’s @$$ on Rome’s home field? The three “barbarian” tribes of interest to us are the Goths, Huns, and Vandals. Only the Vandals showed any interest in Sicily.
The Goths, under Alaric, had besieged Rome as early as 408.
The Huns attacked Italy by 452, but didn’t get to Sicily.
The Vandals however, had gone across Gaul (france), settled in Spain, then crossed into North Africa, attacked Carthage and raided Sicily.
The Roman empire, these days, is considered to have finally succumbed in 476.
Byzantine
In 533, Emperor Justinian launched a campaign to recover the western empire. His general, Belisarius, arrived in Sicily in 535, where he was universally welcomed by the Greek-speaking population. Sicily was once again an imperial province, ruled by a Byzantine governor, hooray! By the middle of the 600’s, the Greeks were concerned for their western provinces because of the surge of Islam. Emperor Constans II decided that a Roman empire without a Rome was kind of pointless, so he wanted to shift his capital westward, but after actually seeing the dump that Latin Rome had become, he decided in 663 on the more familiar Greek atmosphere of Syracuse. This should be good for the Greek speaking Sicilians, right? The next 5 years were a nightmare for the Sicilians, due to the extortions and heavy taxes laid on them. This may have gone on for God knows how long, except in 668 Constans was assassinated. His son picked up again and moved back to Constantinople.
Arab
Sicily had been left in peace for some time, but Arab raids were continuing. They now controlled the entire north African coast, and in 827, they invaded Sicily when a local governor, Euphemius, was ousted for an affair with a nun. He responded by proclaiming himself Emperor and then, realizing he didn’t have enough muscle to actually make that happen, invited the Arabs to come help. The Arabs came, shoved Euphemius out of the way, and started a slow takeover for themselves.
Palermo fell in 830; Messina fell in 843; Syracuse in 878. By that time, Sicily was effectively an Emirate of the Muslim world.
The Muslim conquest made Sicily a major player in Mediterranean commerce. The Arabs introduced terracing and siphon aqueducts, they introduced cotton and papyrus, melon and pistachio, citrus and date palm and sugarcane. Muslim, Jewish, and Christians all thronged the bazaars of Palermo.
But stability was not part of Arab rule, and there were always tensions between the various factions.