Part 938

"Sicilian history begins when the great colonizing nations of antiquity, the Phœnicians and the Greeks, began to settle in Sicily. … It was a chief seat for the planting of colonies, first from Phœnicia and then from Greece. It is the presence of these Phœnician and Greek colonies which made the history of Sicily what it was. These settlements were of course made more or less at the expense of the oldest inhabitants of the island, those who were there before the Phœnicians and Greeks came to settle. … Phœnician and Greek settlers could occupy the coasts, but only the coasts; it was only at the corners that they could at all spread from sea to sea. A great inland region was necessarily left to the older inhabitants. But there was no room in Sicily, as there was in Asia, for the growth of great barbarian powers dangerous to the settlers. Neither Phœnician nor Greek was ever able to occupy or conquer the whole island; but neither people stood in any fear of being conquered or driven out, unless by one another. But instead of conquest came influence. Both Phœnicians and Greeks largely influenced the native inhabitants. In the end, without any general conquest, the whole island became practically Greek. … Carthage at a later time plays so great a part in Sicilian history that we are tempted to bring it in before its time, and to fancy that the Phœnician colonies in Sicily were, as they are sometimes carelessly called, Carthaginian colonies. This is not so; the Phœnician cities in Sicily did in after times become Carthaginian dependencies: but they were not founded by Carthage. We cannot fix an exact date for their foundation, nor can we tell for certain how far they were settled straight from the old Phœnicia and how far from the older Phœnician cities in Africa. But we may be sure that their foundation happened between the migration of the Sikels in the 11th century B. C. and the beginning of Greek settlement in the 8th. And we may suspect that the Phœnician settlements in the east of Sicily were planted straight from Tyre and Sidon, and those in the west from the cities in Africa. We know that all round Sicily the Phœnicians occupied small islands and points of coast which were fitted for their trade, but we may doubt whether they anywhere in Eastern Sicily planted real colonies, cities with a territory attached to them. In the west they seem to have done so. For, when the Greeks began to advance in Sicily, the Phœnicians withdrew to their strong posts in the western part of the island, Motya, Solous, and Panormos. There they kept a firm hold till the time of Roman dominion. The Greeks could never permanently dislodge them from their possessions in this part. Held, partly by Phœnicians, partly by Sikans and Elymians who had been brought under Phœnician influence, the northwestern corner of Sicily remained a barbarian corner. … The greatest of all Phœnician settlements in Sicily lay within the bay of which the hill of Solous is one horn, but much nearer to the other horn, the hill of Herkte, now Pellegrino. Here the mountains fence in a wonderfully fruitful plain, known in after times as the Golden Shell (conca d'oro). In the middle of it there was a small inlet of the sea, parted into two branches, with a tongue of land between them, guarded by a small peninsula at the mouth. There could be no better site for Phœnician traders. Here then rose a Phœnician city, which, though on the north coast of Sicily, looks straight towards the rising sun. It is strange that we do not know its Phœnician name; in Greek it was called Panormos, the All-haven, a name borne also by other places. This is the modern Palermo, which, under both Phœnicians and Saracens, was the Semitic head of Sicily, and which remained the capital of the island under the Norman kings. … Thus in Sicily the East became West and the West East. The men of Asia withdrew before the men of Europe to the west of the island, and thence warred against the men of Europe to the east of them. In the great central island of Europe they held their own barbarian corner. It was the land of Phœnicians, Sikans, and Elymians, as opposed to the eastern land of the Greeks and their Sikel subjects and pupils. … For a long time Greek settlement was directed to the East rather than to the West. And it was said that, when settlement in Italy and Sicily did begin, the earliest Greek colony, like the earliest Phœnician colony, was the most distant. It was believed that Kyme, the Latin Cumæ in Campania, was founded in the 11th century B. C. The other plantations in Italy and Sicily did not begin till the 8th. Kyme always stood by itself, as the head of a group of Greek towns in its own neighbourhood and apart from those more to the south, and it may very well be that some accident caused it to be settled sooner than the points nearer to Greece. But it is not likely to have been settled 300 years earlier. Most likely it was planted just long enough before the nearer sites to suggest their planting. Anyhow, in the latter half of the 8th century B. C. Greek settlement to the West, in Illyria, Sicily, and Italy, began in good earnest. It was said that the first settlement in Sicily came of an accident. Chalkis in Euboia was then one of the chief sea-faring towns of Greece. Theokles, a man of Chalkis, was driven by storm to the coast of Sicily. He came back, saying that it was a good land and that the people would be easy to conquer. So in 735 B. C. he was sent forth to plant the first Greek colony in Sicily. The settlers were partly from Chalkis, partly from the island of Naxos. So it was agreed that the new town should be called Naxos, but that Chalkis should count as its metropolis. So the new Naxos arose on the eastern coast of Sicily, on a peninsula made by the lava. It looked up at the great hill of Tauros, on which Taormina now stands. The Greek settlers drove out the Sikels and took so much land as they wanted. They built and fortified a town, and part of their walls may still be seen. … Naxos, as the beginning of Greek settlement in Sicily, answers to Ebbsfleet, the beginning of English settlement in Britain."

_E. A. Freeman, The Story of Sicily, chapters 1-4._

ALSO IN: _E. A. Freeman, History of Sicily, chapters 3-4 (volume 1)._

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SICILY: B. C. 480. Carthaginian invasion. Battle of Himera.

During the same year in which Xerxes invaded Greece (B. C. 480), the Greeks in Sicily were equally menaced by an appalling invasion from Carthage. The Carthaginians, invited by the tyrant of Himera, who had been expelled from that city by a neighbor tyrant, sent 300,000 men it is said, to reinstate him, and to strengthen for themselves the slender footing they already had in one corner of the island. Gelo, the powerful tyrant of Syracuse, came promptly to the aid of the Himerians, and defeated the Carthaginians with terrible slaughter. Hamilcar the commander was among the slain. Those who escaped the sword were nearly all taken prisoners and made slaves. The fleet which brought them over was destroyed, and scarcely a ship returned to Carthage to bear the deplorable tidings.

_C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 15._

ALSO IN: _G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 43._

SICILY: B. C. 415-413. Siege of Syracuse by the Athenians. Its disastrous failure.

See SYRACUSE: B. C. 415-413.

SICILY: B. C. 409-405. Carthaginian invasion.

The quarrels of the city of Egesta, in Sicily, with its neighbors, brought about the fatal expedition from Athens against Syracuse, B. C. 415. Six years later, in the same protracted quarrel, Egesta appealed to Carthage for help, against the city of Selinus, and thus invited the first of the Hannibals to revenge terribly the defeat and death of his grandfather Hamilcar, at Himera, seventy years before. Hannibal landed an army of more than one hundred thousand savage mercenaries in Sicily, in the spring of 409 B. C. and laid siege to Selinus with such vigor that the city was carried by storm at the end of ten days and most of its inhabitants slain. The temples and walls of the town were destroyed and it was left a deserted ruin. "The ruins, yet remaining, of the ancient temples of Selinus, are vast and imposing; characteristic as specimens of Doric art during the fifth and sixth centuries B. C. From the great magnitude of the fallen columns, it has been supposed that they were overthrown by an earthquake. But the ruins afford distinct evidence that these columns have been first undermined, and then overthrown by crowbars. This impressive fact, demonstrating the agency of the Carthaginian destroyers, is stated by Niebuhr." From Selinus, Hannibal passed on to Himera and, having taken that city in like manner, destroyed it utterly. The women and children were distributed as slaves; the male captives were slain in a body on the spot where Hamilcar fell—a sacrifice to his shade. A new town called Therma was subsequently founded by the Carthaginians on the site of Himera. Having satisfied himself with revenge, Hannibal disbanded his army, glutted with spoil, and returned home. But three years later he invaded Sicily again, with an armament even greater than before, and the great city of Agrigentum was the first to fall before his arms. "Its population was very great; comprising, according to one account, 20,000 citizens, among an aggregate total of 200,000 males—citizens, metics, and slaves; according to another account, an aggregate total of no less than 800,000 persons; numbers unauthenticated, and not to be trusted further than as indicating a very populous city. … Its temples and porticos, especially the spacious temple of Zeus Olympus—its statues and pictures—its abundance of chariots and horses—its fortifications—its sewers—its artificial lake of near a mile in circumference, abundantly stocked with fish—all these placed it on a par with the most splendid cities of the Hellenic world." After a siege of some duration Agrigentum was evacuated and most of its inhabitants escaped. The Carthaginians stripped it of every monument of art, sending much away to Carthage and destroying more. Hannibal had died of a pestilence during the siege and his colleague Imilkon succeeded him in command. Having quartered his army at Agrigentum during the winter, he attacked the cities of Gela and Kamarina in the spring, and both were believed to have been betrayed to him by the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius, who had then just established himself in power. A treaty of peace was presently concluded between Dionysius and Imilkon, which gave up all the south of Sicily, as well as Selinus, Himera, and Agrigentum, to the Carthaginians, and made Gela and Kamarina tributary to them. The Carthaginian army had been half destroyed by pestilence and the disease, carried home by its survivors, desolated Carthage and the surrounding country.

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapters 81-82, with foot-note._

ALSO IN: _E. A. Freeman, History of Sicily, chapter 9 (volume 3)._

SICILY: B. C. 397-396. Dionysius, the Tyrant of Syracuse, and his war with the Carthaginians.

See SYRACUSE: B. C. 397-396.

SICILY: B. C. 394-384. Conquests and dominion of Dionysius.

See SYRACUSE: B. C. 394-384.

SICILY: B. C. 383. War with Carthage.

Dionysius, the Syracusan despot, was the aggressor in a fresh war with Carthage which broke out in 383 B. C. The theatre of war extended from Sicily to southern Italy, where Dionysius had made considerable conquests, but only two battles of serious magnitude were fought—both in Sicily. Dionysius was the victor in the first of these, which was a desperate and sanguinary struggle, at a place called Kabala. The Carthaginian commander, Magon, was slain, with 10,000 of his troops, while 5,000 were made captive. The survivors begged for peace and Dionysius dictated, as a first condition, the entire withdrawal of their forces from Sicily. While negotiations were in progress, Magon's young son, succeeding to his father's command, so reorganized and reinspirited his army as to be able to attack the Syracusans and defeat them with more terrific slaughter than his own side had experienced a few days before. This battle, fought at Kronium, reversed the situation, and forced Dionysius to purchase a humiliating peace at heavy cost.

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 83._

SICILY: B. C. 344. Fall of the Tyranny of Dionysius at Syracuse.

See SYRACUSE: B. C. 344.

SICILY: B. C. 317-289. Syracuse under Agathokles.

See SYRACUSE: B. C. 317-289.

SICILY: B. C. 278-276. Expedition of Pyrrhus.

See ROME: B. C. 282-275.

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SICILY: B. C. 264-241. The Mamertines in Messene. First war of Rome and Carthage.- Evacuation of the island by the Carthaginians. The Romans in possession.

See PUNIC WAR: THE FIRST.

SICILY: B. C. 216-212. Alliance with Hannibal and revolt against Rome. The Roman siege of Syracuse.

See PUNIC WAR: THE SECOND.

SICILY: B. C. 133-103. Slave wars.

See SLAVE WARS IN SICILY.

SICILY: A. D. 429-525. Under the Vandals, and the Goths.

"Sicily, which had been for a generation subjected, first to the devastations and then to the rule of the Vandal king [in Africa], was now by a formal treaty, which must have been nearly the last public act of Gaiseric [or Genseric, who died A. D. 477] ceded to Odovacar [or Odoacer, who extinguished the Western Roman Empire and was the first barbarian king of Italy], all but a small part, probably at the western end of the island, which the Vandal reserved to himself. A yearly tribute was to be the price of this concession; but, in the decay of the kingdom under Gaiseric's successors, it is possible that this tribute was not rigorously enforced, as it is also almost certain that the reserved portion of the island, following the example of the remainder, owned the sway of Odovacar."

_T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 4, chapter 4._

Under Theodoric the Ostrogoth, who overthrew Odoacer and reigned in Italy from 493 until 525, Sicily was free both from invasion and from tribute and shared with Italy the benefits and the trials of the Gothic supremacy.

_T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 4, chapter 9._

SICILY: A. D. 535. Recovered by Belisarius for the Emperor Justinian.

See ROME: A. D. 535-553.

SICILY: A. D. 550. Gothic invasion.

See ROME: A. D. 535-553.

SICILY: A. D. 827-878. Conquest by the Saracens.

The conquest of Sicily from the Byzantine empire, by the Saracens, was instigated in the first instance and aided by an influential Syracusan named Euphemios, whom the Emperor Michael had undertaken to punish for abduction of a nun. Euphemios invited the African Saracens to the island, and Ziadet Allah, the Aglabite sovereign who had established himself in power at Cairowan or Kairwan, felt strong enough to improve the opportunity. In June 827 the admiral of the Moslems formed a junction with the ships which Euphemios had set afloat, and the Saracens landed at Mazara. The Byzantines were defeated in a battle near Platana and the Saracens occupied Girgenti. Having gained this foothold they waited some time for reinforcements, which came, at last, in a naval armament from Spain and troops from Africa. "The war was then carried on with activity: Messina was taken in 831; Palermo capitulated in the following year; and Enna was besieged, for the first time, in 836. The war continued with various success, as the invaders received assistance from Africa, and the Christians from Constantinople. The Byzantine forces recovered possession of Messina, which was not permanently occupied by the Saracens until 843. … At length, in the year 859, Enna was taken by the Saracens. Syracuse, in order to preserve its commerce from ruin, had purchased peace by paying a tribute of 50,000 byzants; and it was not until the reign of Basil I, in the year 878, that it was compelled to surrender, and the conquest of Sicily was completed by the Arabs. Some districts, however, continued, either by treaty or by force of arms, to preserve their municipal independence, and the exclusive exercise of the Christian religion, within their territory, to a later period."

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, from 716 to 1057, book 1, chapter 3, section 1._

"Syracuse preserved about fifty years [after the landing of the Saracens in Sicily] the faith which she had sworn to Christ and to Cæsar. In the last and fatal siege her citizens displayed some remnant of the spirit which had formerly resisted the powers of Athens and Carthage. They stood above twenty days against the battering-rams and catapultæ, the mines and tortoises of the besiegers; and the place might have been relieved, if the mariners of the imperial fleet had not been detained at Constantinople in building a church to the Virgin Mary. … In Sicily the religion and language of the Greeks were eradicated; and such was the docility of the rising generation that 15,000 boys were circumcised and clothed on the same day with the son of the Fatimite caliph. The Arabian squadrons issued from the harbours of Palermo, Biserta, and Tunis; a hundred and fifty towns of Calabria and Campania were attacked and pillaged; nor could the suburbs of Rome be defended by the name of the Cæsars and apostles. Had the Mahometans been united, Italy must have fallen an easy and glorious accession to the empire of the prophet."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 52._

A hundred and fifty years after the fall of Syracuse Basil II. undertook its recovery, but death overcame him in the midst of his plans. "Ten years later, the Byzantine general Maniakes commenced the reconquest of Sicily in a manner worthy of Basil himself, but the women and eunuchs who ruled at Constantinople procured his recall; affairs fell into confusion, and the prize was eventually snatched from both parties by the Normans of Apulia."

_E. A. Freeman, History and Conquests of the Saracens, lecture 5._

SICILY: A. D. 1060-1090. Norman conquest.

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1000-1090.

SICILY: A. D. 1127-1194. Union with Apulia in the kingdom of Naples or the Two Sicilies. Prosperity and peace.

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1081-1194.

SICILY: A. D. 1146. Introduction of Silk-culture and manufacture.

See BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 1146.

SICILY: A. D. 1194-1266. Under the Hohenstaufen.

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1183-1250.

SICILY: A. D. 1266. Invasion and conquest of the kingdom of the Sicilies by Charles of Anjou.

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1250-1268.

SICILY: A. D. 1282-1300. The Massacre of the Sicilian Vespers. Separation from the kingdom of Naples. Transfer to the House of Aragon.

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1282-1300.

SICILY: A. D. 1313. Alliance with the Emperor against Naples.

See ITALY: A. D. 1310-1313.

SICILY: A. D. 1442. Reunion of the crowns of Sicily and Naples, or the Two Sicilies, by Alphonso of Aragon.

See ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447.

SICILY: A. D. 1458. Separation of the crown of Naples from those of Aragon and Sicily.

See ITALY: A. D. 1447-1480.

SICILY: A. D. 1530. Cession of Malta to the Knights of St. John.

See HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN: A. D. 1530-1565.

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SICILY: A. D. 1532-1553. Frightful ravages of the Turks along the coast.

See ITALY: A. D. 1528-1570.

SICILY: A. D. 1713. Ceded by Spain to the Duke of Savoy.

See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.

SICILY: A. D. 1718-1719. Retaken by Spain, again surrendered, and acquired by Austria in exchange for Sardinia.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1713-1725; and ITALY: A. D. 1715-1735.

SICILY: A. D. 1734-1735. Occupation by the Spaniards. Cession to Spain, with Naples, forming a kingdom for Don Carlos.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1733-1735.

SICILY: A. D. 1749-1792. Under the Spanish-Bourbon regime.

See ITALY: A. D. 1749-1792.

SICILY: A. D. 1805-1806. Held by the King, expelled from Naples by the French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1805-1806 (DECEMBER-SEPTEMBER).

SICILY: A. D. 1821. Revolutionary insurrection.

See ITALY: A. D. 1820-1821.

SICILY: A. D. 1848-1849. Patriotic rising. A year of independence. Subjugation of the insurgents by King "Bomba."

See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.

SICILY: A. D. 1860-1861. Liberation by Garibaldi. Absorption in the new kingdom of Italy.

See ITALY: A. D. 1859-1861.

SICILY: End--------

SICULI, The.

See SICILY: THE EARLY INHABITANTS.

SICYON, SIKYON.

"Sicyon was the starting point of the Ionic civilization which pervaded the whole valley of the Asopus [a river which flows from the mountains of Argolis to the Gulf of Corinth, in northeastern Peloponnesus]; the long series of kings of Sicyon testifies to the high age with which the city was credited. At one time it was the capital of all Asopia as well as of the shore in front of it, and the myth of Adrastus has preserved the memory of this the historic glory of Sicyon. The Dorian immigration dissolved the political connection between the cities of the Asopus. Sicyon itself had to admit Dorian families." The ascendancy which the Dorian invaders then assumed was lost at a later time. The old Ionian population of the country dwelling on the shores of the Corinthian gulf, engaged in commerce and fishing, acquired superior wealth and were trained to superior enterprise by their occupation. In time they overthrew the Doric state, under the lead of a family, the Orthagoridæ, which established a famous tyranny in Sicyon (about 670 B. C.). Myron and Clisthenes, the first two tyrants of the house, acquired a great name in Greece by their wealth, by their liberal encouragement of art and by their devotion to the sanctuaries at Olympus and at Delphi.

_E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 2, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

See, also, TYRANTS, GREEK.

SICYON: B. C. 280-146. The Achaian League.

See GREECE: B. C. 280-146.

SIDNEY, Algernon, The execution of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1681-1683.

SIDNEY, Sir Philip, The death of.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1585-1586.

SIDON, The suicidal burning of.

About 346 B. C., Ochus, king of Persia, having subdued a revolt in Cyprus, proceeded against the Phœnician cities, which had joined in it. Sidon was betrayed to him by its prince, and he intimated his intention to take signal revenge on the city; whereupon the Sidonians "took the desperate resolution, first of burning their fleet that no one might escape—next, of shutting themselves up with their families, and setting fire each man to his own house. In this deplorable conflagration 40,000 persons are said to have perished; and such was the wealth destroyed, that the privilege of searching the ruins was purchased for a large sum of money."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 90._

SIDONIANS, The.

See PHŒNICIANS.

SIEBENBÜRGEN.