Sicilia (Roman province)

First Punic War

Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse from 317 and King of Sicily from 307 or 304 BC, died in 289 BC. A group of his Campanian mercenaries, called the Mamertines, were offered compensation in excange for leaving the city. They took control of Messina, killing and exiling the citizens, and taking their wives for themselves.

In response to this, the Syracusan general Hiero, who had reorganised the mercenaries and was able to bring banditry under control in 269 BC, before advancing on Messina. The Carthaginians, always eager to prevent the excessive empowerment of a single force and to keep Sicily divided, offered aid to the Mamertines. Hiero had to return to Syracuse, where he assumed the title of king. Shortly thereafter, the Mamertines decided to expel the Carthaginian garrison and seek aid from the Romans instead.

At Rome, there was a debate on the appropriateness of helping the Mamertines. Previously, Rome had intervened against Campanian mercenaries who had followed the Mamertines' example and taken control of Rhegium (modern Reggio Calabria). Moreover, it seemed clear that intervention in Sicily would lead to conflict with Carthage. According to the lost historian Philinus of Agrigentum, who was favourable to the Carthaginians, there was a treaty between Rome and Carthage which defined their respective spheres of influence and assigned Sicily to the Carthaginians. This "Philinus Treaty" is known to us from Polybius, who mentions it in order to deny its existence. Polybius also claims that the Romans were encouraged to intervene by economic motivations, on account of the wealth of Sicily in this period. The Senate gave the decision on whether or not to help the Mamertines to the popular assembly, which decided to send help. This was not a formal declaration of war against Carthage, but the intervention in Sicily sufficed as a casus belli and thus marked the beginning of the First Punic War (264-241 BC).

This was the first time that Roman forces had campaigned outside the Italian peninsula. Hiero II, allied with Carthage against the Mamertines, had to face the legions of Valerius Messalla. The Romans quickly expelled the Syracusans and Carthaginains from Messina. In 263 BC, Hiero changed sides, making a peace treaty with the Romans in exchange for an indemnity of 100 talents, thus ensuring the maintenance of his power. He proved a loyal ally of the Romans until his death in 215 BC, providing aid, specially grain and seige weapons, to the Romans. This assistance was essential for the conquest of the Carthaginian base at Agrigentum in 262 BC. Hiero's loyalty is reflected in the peace treaty imposed on the Carthaginians at the end of the war, in which they were forbidden to attack Hiero or his allies. It seems, however, that pro-Roman sentiment was not universal at Syracuse and that there was a group opposed to Hiero which favoured the Carthaginians.

At the end of the First Punic War, Rome had conquered the majority of the island, except for Syracuse, which retained a broad autonomy (although required to accept Roman supremacy in the region). In addition to Syracuse, the kingdom of Hiero was granted a number of centres in the easternpart of the island, such as Akrai, Leontini, Megara, Eloro, Netum and Tauromenium, and probably also Morgantina and Camarina.

In addition to the aforementioned Philinus, there were other accounts of the First Punic War written by authors opposed to Rome, such as Sosilus of Sparta. The work of Philinus was analysed and criticised by Polybius, while that of Sosilus was entirely rejected by him as the "vuolgar gossip of a barber's shop." A pro-Roman account was written by the historian Fabius Pictor, which is criticised by Polybius as well. The resulting representation of the war in the ancient source material is very partial: the motivations of the Mamertines are left opacque and by the time of Polybius (about a hundred years after the war began) there were different opinions even at Rome. The ancient accounts' impression that a war between Carthage and Rome was inevitable also seems questionable. Even the traditional explanation that Carthage was threatening Rome at the Straits of Messina seems anachronistic according to Moses Finley, since Carthage had never shown any inclination to expand into Italy. Probably no one at Rome foresaw that intervention at Messina would lead to a conflict on such a scale. According to the account of Polybius, this changed only after the conquest of Agrigentum. Finley says "this argument appears too simple and schematic, but it is correct in the sense that only then did Rome take the essential decision of crating a fleet, without which there was no hope of fighting the Carthaginians on equal terms.". The reaction of the Carthaginians to Roman intervention, however, is easily explained: Sicily had always been fundamental for Carthaginian control of the seas.

In any case, the fact that the Romans ultimately conquered the island makes it difficult to produce a balance reconstruction of conditions on Sicily in this period. What is certain is that the First Punic War had a disastrous effect on the territory. Both Rome and Carthage carried out atrocities: 250,000 inhabitants of Agrigentum (Philinus' homeland) were sold as slaves in 262 BC and seven years later the Carthaginians demolished the walls of the same city and set it on fire. In 258 BC, the Roman conquest of Camarina saw the majority of the inhabitants sold into slavery and 27,000 inhabitant of Panormus suffered the same fate (although 14,000 were redeemed). In 250 BC, Selinus was razed to the ground by the Romans and it was not inhabited again until Late Antiquity. Lilybaeum resisted a Roman seige for ten years, until the conclusion of the war after the Battle of the Aegates.

The first Roman province?

The Roman victory in the First Punic War placed the entire island of Sicily in Roman hands. Previous Roman conquests in Italy had resulted in direct annexation or asymmetric treaties with Rome as hegemonic power. These treaties guarenteed substantial internal autonomy to the socii: they were required to contribute troops when requested but not to pay any form of tribute. Probably because of the island's complex mixture of ethnicities and perhaps also in order to recoup the expenses sustained during the war through a system of fiscal control, which excluded the concession of broad autonomy, Sicily came to be defined by a different institutional system.

Eventually, the provincial structure would consist of a praetor, assisted in financial matters by two quaestores, one based at Lilybaeum and one based at Syracuse. But it is not clear how this system took form. It has been suggested that from 240 BC the government of western Sicily was entrusted to a quaestor sent annually to Lilybaeum. Scholars like Filippo Coarelli and Michael Crawford consider it possible that the government of Sicily was entrusted to a privatus cum imperio, that is an aristocrat with no official post and with a military command conferred on a personal basis, sent annually with administrative and judicial competence. Extraordinary governors of this kind were seen already during the First Punic War and occur again during the Second Punic War. Assuming that there was a quaestor at Lilybaeum, it is unclear whether this position was created immediately after the end of the war or sometime later, or if it was one of the quaestores which already existed, that is one of the quaestores classici (treasurers of the fleet), that had first been created in 267 BC, when the number of quaestores was increased from four to eight. Nor as it clear if there were two quaestores in the province from the beginning (one in Lilybaeum and one in Syracuse), since in all the provinces that were subsequently established, there was only one quaestor. According to Antonino Pinzone this difference is explained by the fact that Sicily "came under the control of Rome in two stages," so that "the position of the quaestor of Lilybaeum is to be considered a kind of fossil and his influence is to be imputed to the financial and military arrangements inherited from the quaestor (classicus?).".

Subsequently, in 227 BC, two new praetores were created (praetores provinciales): one, Gaius Flaminius Nepos, was sent to Sicily; the other, Marcus Valerius Laevinus, to the new province of Corsica and Sardinia. Originally, the term provincia indicated the extent of the competences of a magistrate (especially the possession of imperium); eventually it came to indicate the territory under their control. The change of 227 is reported by Gaius Julius Solinus:

The two islands under the control of Rome were made provinces in the same moment when in that year [227 BC] M. Valerius was assigned as praetor of Sardinia by lot and C. Flaminius of the other island.

It was in 227 BC that an annual grain tribute was imposed on the Sicilian communities by a ex frumentaria. This is best-known for the province of Sicily from the 1st century BC context (as a result of Cicero's Verrines). At that time, the tribute consisted of a tenth of the harvest and it is possible that this system derived from the Syracusan kingdom (the lex Hieronica, derived in turn from the Ptolemaic grain tax). The tithe decuma was contracted out to the highest bidder (whoever promised to collect the largest amount of modii). These contractors were called decumani. It seems that this lex frumentaria had results which were "not excessively grievous for the cities to pay ... and the small Italians proprietors livin on the island. It developed in the context of Gaius Flaminius' focus on the development of small proprietors and of their class.".

Second Punic War

During the Second Punic War, Syracuse was allied with Hannibal, but was taken by the Roman commander Marcellus in 212 BC, and was absorbed into the already existing province. It was divided into two quaestorships, Syracuse and Lilybaeum. The Latinizing of the island continued, though the Greek element never entirely disappeared.

It was very important during the republican period for its role in supplying grain to the city of Rome, however it started to lose importance with the conquest of Africa and especially with the annexation of the Ptolemaic kingdom. Nevertheless, the province was to regain its importance centuries later, when Rome lost control over these areas and was forced to turn back to Sicily for her needs.

The land fell into the hands of a few great landholders, who cultivated the rich soil by the labour of immense bands of slaves. These slaves rebelled in 135 in the First Servile War, proclaiming Eunus, one of their number, king. Eunus defeated the Roman army several times, but in 133 he was vanquished by Rufilius near Messina; the war ended with the capture of Tauromenium and Enna (132), and about 20,000 of the unfortunate slaves were crucified. The Second Servile War occurred between 103 and 100 under "King Trypho" and the leadership of Athenio.

Sicilia remained a province of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire for six centuries. It was important for its grainfields, which were a mainstay of the food supply for the city of Rome. Latin speakers from the mainland were settled mainly in the western part of the island. The empire did not make a deliberate much effort to Romanize the region, which remained largely Greek-speaking in the east. A notable event affecting Sicilia in the Late Republic was the notorious misgovernment of Verres, as prosecuted by Cicero in 70 BC in his speech In Verrem.

The historian Diodorus Siculus and the poet Calpurnius Siculus both came from Sicilia, as indicated by the surname Siculus. The most famous archeological remains of this period are the mosaics of a nobleman's villa in present-day Piazza Armerina.

Sicilia was home to one of the earliest Christian communities and some of the earliest Christian martyrs, including Saint Agatha of Catania and Saint Lucy of Syracuse.

In 468 Sicilia fell to the Vandal King Geiseric but reunited with Italy in 476 under Odoacer with a toe-hold allowed in the port of Lilybaeum.

Culture

In the Republican period, the main language employed in Sicily was still Greek, since the Romans had no policy of enforcing their language on communities. Even in the period of Cicero, Greek was the main language used by the elite and almost all the Sicilians mentioned by Cicero in the Verrine Orations have Greek names. Cicero also refers to the Greek calendar (in use throughout Sicily in this period), Greek festivals, relations between the Sicilian cities and panhellenic sanctuaries like Delphi, Sicilian victors of the Olympic Games, and Greek civic architecture. Literature remained almost exclusively Greek, with authors like Diodorus Siculus and Caecilius of Calacte.

The non-Greek languages of Sicily (Sican, Sicel, Elymian, and Punic) probably continued to be spoken in the countryside and employed in traditional religious cults, but were absent from elite and written contexts. There is direct testimony only for Punic (a brief inscription of the 2nd or 1st century BC from Aegusa). Some Mamertines probably retained their Italic dialect.

With the establishment of six Roman coloniae at the beginning of the Imperial period, Sicily received a large influx of Latin speakers for the first time and a Latin-Greek bilingualism developed which continued until the Byzantine period. Generally, in the Imperial period, Latin replaced Greek in an ever increasing number of areas, while Greek was confined to lower registers, although it retained its historic prestige and was widely used by the population. Latin became firmly established as the elite language, with Calpurnius Siculus, Flavius Vopiscus, and Julius Firmicus Maternus producing literary works in Latin, although there are also examples of Sicilian authors who wrote in Greek during the Imperial period, such as Pantaenus, Aristocles of Messene, Probus of Lilybaeum, and Citharius. In this period the non-Greek languages must have definitively disappeared, although Punic may still have been spoken at the end of the Imperial period based on the testimony of Apuleius. Numerous Jewish and Samaritan communities are attested on the island in the Imperial period, although they usually appear in the record using Greek or Latin.

Catania

Catana or Catina (Catania) was conquered at the beginning of the First Punic War, in 26 BC, by the Consul Manius Valerius Maximus Corvinus Messalla. Part of the booty from the conquest was a sundial which was set up in the Comitium in Rome. Additionally the city was required to pay tribute to Rome (civitas decumana). The conqueror of Syracuse, Marcus Claudius Marcellus built a gymnasium in the city. Around 135, in the course of the First Servile War, the city was conquered by the rebel slaves. Another revolt in the area, led by the gladiator Seleurus in 35 BC, was probably suppressed after the death of its leader. In 122 BC, following volcanic activity on Etna, there was heavy damage from the volcanic ash raining down on the rooves of the city which collapsed under the weight. The territory of Catina was further impacted by eruptions in 50, 44, 36 BC and finally by the disastrous lava flow of 32 BC, which ruined the countryside and the city of Aitna, as well as the disastrous war between Augustus and Sextus Pompey, but with the beginning of the Augustan period, a long and difficult socio-economic recovery began. At the end of the war, all Sicily is described as heavily damaged, impoverished, and depopulated in a wide range of areas. In book 6 of Strabo in particular there is reference to the deleterious state of Syracuse, Catania, and Centuripe. After the war against Sextus Pompey, Augustus established a colonia in Catania. Pliny the Elder lists the city, which the Romans called Catina among the cities which Augustus promoted to the rank of Colonia Romana in 21 BC, along with Syracuse and Thermae (Sciacca). Groups of veterans of the Roman army were settled in the cities which had received this new status. The new demographic situation certainly contributed to change the style of municipal life in favour of the new "Middle Class." Catania retained a notable importance and wealth in the course of the late Republic and the Empire: Cicero calls it the "richest" of the cities and it must have remained thus in the later Imperial period and Byzantine times, as the literary sources and numerous contemporary monuments suggest, which makes the city almost unique among those of Roman Sicily. In order to pay the stipendium, the large coastal cities like Catania, extended their control in the course of the High Empire, over a vast swath of the interior of the island which had become depopulated as a result of the large estates which dominated agriculture in the period. Christianity spread rapidly; among the martyrs during the persecutions of Decius and Diocletian, were Saint Agatha, patron saint of the city, and Euplius. The Diocese of Catania was established at the end of the 6th century.

Centuripe

Centuripe, surrendered spontaneously to the Roman consuls Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Titus Otacilius Crassus in 262 BC. As a result the city was declared free and exempted from taxation, as Cicero mentions in his Verrine Orations. After this a spectacular pace of development is detectable which led it to become one of the most important cities in Roman Sicily. This is attested both by the statements of Cicero and archaeologically by the great quantity of pottery and the imposing funerary monuments. A Greek inscription from the 2nd century BC recounts a Centuripan diplomatic mission to Rome and Lanuvium and part of a treaty with Lanuvium by which the two communities were declared twins. In 39 BC, Sextus Pompey took the city by siege and destroyed it for its loyalty to Octavian, but the latter rebuilt it and gave the inhabitants Roman citizenship as well. In the Imperial period, Centuripe produced imposing monuments whose remains still survive today. These include the Temple of the Augustales of the first or second century AD, of which columns and two monumental tower tombs can be seen on one side; the Dogana, of which only a raised flat area can now be seen; and Castle of Conradin. In the northwest of the town, in contrada Bagni, a paved street leads to the remains of a nymphaeum, suspended over a torrent of water, of which a brick wall with five niches survives, as well as remains of a pool for collecting the water and part of the aqueduct. Notable also is the continued production of coinage by the city in the Roman Republican period.

Tauromenium

Tauromenium (Taormina) remained under the control of Syracuse until 212 BC when all of Sicily became a Roman province. Its inhabitants were considered foederati of the Romans and Cicero says in the Verrine Orations that it was one of three civitates foederatae (allied cities) and calls it a civis notabilis. As a result of this, the community did not have to pay the grain tax or provide ships and sailors in emergencies. In the course of the First Servile War (c.135-132 BC), Tauromenium was occupied by the rebel slaves who used it as a stronghold. Beseiged by the consul Pompilius, the starving garrison surrendered only when one of the leaders, Serapion, betrayed his companions and admitted the Romans to the city. In 36 BC, during the war between Sextus Pompey and Octavian, the latter's troops disembarked at Naxos and reoccupied the city. Later, in 21 BC, Augustus founded a Roman colonia in the city for his supporters, expelling those inhabitants who had opposed him. Strabo speaks of Tauromenium as a smaller city than Messana and Catana. Pliny and Claudius Ptolemy mention it as a Roman colonia.

Messana

Messana (Messina) surrendered by the Mamertines to the Romans in 264 BC, received the status of civitas libera et foederata (free and allied community) after the First Punic War, along with Tauromenium. During the Republican period, it suffered attacks during the Servile Wars (102 BC). Cicero mentions the city in the Verrine Orations as civitas maxima et locupletissima (a very large and wealthy community). In 49 BC, Pompey attacked the fleet of Julius Caesar and drove it into Messana's port. Subsequently, the city became one of the many bases of Sextus Pompey and it was sacked by the troops of Lepidus. Afterwards, it probably became a municipium.

Of the fate of the city during the Roman Empire, we know almost nothing. There is a tradition that St Paul visited the city on his way to Rome and preached the Gospel there. After the division of the Roman mpire it became part of the Eastern empire. In 407, under the Emperor Arcadius, Messana was made the protometropolis of Sicily and Magna Graecia.

Tyndaris

Tyndaris (Tindari) was the control of Hieron II during the First Punic War and became a Carthaginian naval base early in the war. The Battle of Tyndaris was fought nearby in 257 BC, in which the Roman fleet commanded by Gaius Atilius Regulus defeated the Carthaginians. Later, it was a naval base for Sextus Pompey, captured by Octavian in 36 BC. He ounded a Roman colonia, Colonia Augusta Tyndaritanorum, on the site, one of five coloniae founded in Sicily. Cicero calls the ity a nobilissima civitas. In the first century AD it suffered a major landslide, while in the fourth century AD it was damaged by two destructive earthquakes. It became the seat of a bishopric, was conquered by the Byzantines in 535 and fell to the Arabs in 836, who destroyed the city.

Thermae Himerae

Thermae Himerae (Termini Imerese) was the site of a serious Roman defeat by Hamilcar Barca in 260 BC, during the First Punic War, but was subsequently conquered by them in 253 BC. Thereafter it remained loyal to Rome and was among the cities subject to tribute. After the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC Scipio Aemilianus returned works of art which had been taken by the Carthaginians to Thermae, including a statue of Stesichorus, who had spent time in the city. The base of one of these statues is preserved, with part of the inscription. After defeating Sextus Pompey, Octavian established a colonia on the site; this was probably a punishment of the city for having links with the Pompeian party. The impact of this action is clear from the numerous Latin inscriptions which survive at the site and from the extraordinary number of Roman and Italian names attested on the site. The former Greek inhabitants of the city practically disappear from record at the beginning of the Imperial period.

Panormus

Panormus (Palermo) remained under Carthaginian control until the First Punic War and was site of one of the main conflicts between the Carthaginians and the Romans, until the Roman fleet attacked the city in 254 and made the city a tributary. Hasdrubal attempted to recapture the city but was defeated by the Roman consul, Metellus. Another attempt at reconquest was made by Hamilcar Barca in 247 BC, but the city remained loyal to the Romans, for which it received the title of praetura, the eagle of gold, and the right to mint coinage, remaining one of the five free cities of the island.

Drepanum

Drepanum (Trapani), conquered along with Eryx at the end of the First Punic War, became a flourishing commercial city, owing primarily to the port, its geographic location on Mediterranean sea routes, its active sea salt industry, which had been developed already in Phoenician times, and the extraction of coral.

Lilybaeum

Lilybaeum (Marsala), already prosperous under the Carthaginians, was the seat of one of the quaestores which Rome sent to Sicily annually. It was enriched by splendid mansions and public buildings. Among others, one of the quaestores at Lilybaeum was Cicero in the year 75 BC, who referred to Lilybaeum as splendidissima civitas (the most splendid community). Under Emperor Pertinax, the city became a large Roman colonia, called Helvia Augusta Lilybaitanorum.

Syracuse

Syracusae became the capital of the new Roman province after 212 BC. Despite the misgovernment and systematic despoliation of its artistic heritage by Gaius Verres, Syracuse remained the capital of the province and seat of its praetor. It continued to be a key port for commercial interaction between east and west. St Paul and Marcian of Syracuse (the first Bishop of Syracuse) spent time in the city proselytising. As a result of the Roman persecution of the Christians before the Edict of Constantine in AD 313, a deep network of catacombs were built under the city, second only to those of Rome. Successive attacks, starting with those of the Vandals in 440, impoverished the city until it was conquered by the Byzantine general Belisarius in 535. From 663 to 668, the city was the residence of Emperor Constans II and the metropolis of all churches in Sicily.