Prehistory ,
Montalbano Elicona Humans first colonized Sicily towards the end of the
Late Pleistocene, around 16,000 years ago, by people associated with the
Epigravettian culture. Discoveries of
dolmens on the island (dating to the second half of the third millennium BC) seem to offer new insights into the culture of primitive Sicily. The impact of at least two influences is clear: the European one coming from the Northwest, and the Mediterranean influence of an eastern heritage. , a large and elaborate
Roman villa or palace located about 3 km from the town of
Piazza Armerina The original classical-era inhabitants of Sicily comprised three defined groups of the
ancient peoples of Italy: the
Sicani, the
Elymians and the
Sicels. The most prominent and by far the earliest of these were the
Sicani, who (
Thucydides writes) arrived from the
Iberian Peninsula (perhaps
Catalonia). Some modern scholars, however, suggest classifying the Sicani as possibly an
Illyrian tribe. Important historical evidence has been discovered in the form of cave drawings by the Sicani, dated from the end of the
Pleistocene epoch around 8000 BC. The
Elymians, thought to have come from the area of the
Aegean Sea, became the next tribe to join the Sicanians on Sicily. No evidence survives of warring between tribes, but the Sicanians moved eastwards when the Elymians settled in the northwest corner of the island. The
Sicels are thought The native Sicani and Sicel peoples became
absorbed into the
Hellenic culture with relative ease, and the area became part of
Magna Graecia along with the coasts of the
south of the Italian peninsula, which the Greeks had also colonised. Sicily had fertile soils, and the successful introduction of
olives and
grape vines fostered profitable trading. Politics on the island became intertwined with those of Greece;
Syracuse became desired by the
Athenians who set out on the
Sicilian Expedition (415–413 BC) during the
Peloponnesian War. Syracuse gained
Sparta and
Corinth as allies and, as a result, defeated the Athenian expedition. The victors destroyed the Athenian army and their ships, selling most of the survivors into
slavery. The Greek kingdom of Syracuse controlled most of eastern Sicily while
Carthage controlled the western side. The two cultures began to clash, leading to the
Greek-Punic wars (between 580 and 265 BC). The Greek states had begun to make peace with the
Roman Republic in 205 BC, before the Romans sought to
annex Sicily as their republic's first
province. Rome attacked Carthage's holdings in Sicily in the
First Punic War (264 to 241 BC) and won, making Sicily–with the exception of Syracuse–the first Roman province outside of the
Italian Peninsula by 242 BC. In the
Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), the Carthaginians attempted to recapture Sicily. Some of the Greek cities on the island who were loyal to Rome switched sides to help the Carthaginians, prompting a Roman military response.
Archimedes, who lived in Syracuse, helped defend his city from Roman invasion; Roman troops killed him after they captured Syracuse in 212 BC. The Carthaginian attempt failed, and Rome became more unrelenting in its annihilation of the invaders;
Roman consul M. Valerian told the
Roman Senate in 210 BC that "no Carthaginian remains in Sicily". on the mountain top of the mountain in Agira in central Sicily. As the Roman Republic's
granary, Sicily ranked as an important province, divided into two
quaestorships: Syracuse to the east and
Lilybaeum to the west. The prosperity of the island went into sharp decline during the governorship of
Verres (73 to 71 BC). In 70 BC, the noted statesman
Cicero condemned the misgovernment of Verres in his oration
In Verrem. Various groups used the island as a power base at different times: slave insurgents occupied it during the
First (135−132 BC) and
Second (104−100 BC)
Servile Wars.
Sextus Pompey had his headquarters there during the
Sicilian revolt of 44 to 36 BC. Christianity first appeared in Sicily during the years following AD 200; between this time and AD 313, when Emperor
Constantine the Great lifted the prohibition on Christianity, a significant number of
Sicilians had become
martyrs, including
Agatha,
Christina,
Lucy, and
Euplius.
Roman and Germanic viceregal rule (469–535) in
Syracuse The
Western Roman Empire began falling apart after the invasion of
Vandals, Alans, and Sueves
across the Rhine on the last day of 406. Eventually the Vandals, after roaming about western and southern
Hispania (present-day
Iberia) for 20 years, moved to North Africa in 429 and occupied Carthage in 439. The Franks moved south from present-day Belgium. The Visigoths moved west and eventually settled in Aquitaine in 418; the Burgundians were settled in present-day Savoy in 443. The Vandals found themselves in a position to threaten Sicily – only 100 miles away from their North African bases. After taking Carthage, the Vandals, personally led by King
Gaiseric, laid siege to Palermo in 440 as the opening act in an attempt to wrest the island from Roman rule. The Vandals made another attempt to take the island one year after the 455 sack of Rome, at Agrigento, but were defeated decisively by
Ricimir in a
naval victory off Corsica in 456. The island remained under Roman rule until 469. The Vandals lost possession of the island 8 years later in 477 to the
East Germanic tribe of the
Ostrogoths, who then controlled Italy and Dalmatia. The Ostrogothic conquest of Sicily (and of Italy as a whole) under
Theodoric the Great began in 488. The Byzantine Emperor
Zeno had appointed Theodoric as a military commander in Italy. The Goths were Germanic, but Theodoric fostered Roman culture and government and allowed freedom of religion. In 461 from the age of seven or eight until 17 or 18 Theodoric had become a Byzantine hostage; he resided in the great palace of Constantinople, was favored by Emperor
Leo I () and learned to read, write and do arithmetic.
Byzantine period (535–827) landing in Sicily commanded by
George Maniaces conquest of the Byzantine stronghold Syracuse,
Siege of Syracuse (877–878) After taking areas occupied by the Vandals in North Africa,
Justinian I retook Italy as an ambitious attempt to recover the lost provinces in the West. The re-conquests marked an end to over 150 years of accommodating policies with tribal invaders. His first target was Sicily, leading to the
Gothic War (535–554) between the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the
Byzantine Empire. Justinian's general
Belisarius was assigned to the military task. Sicily was used as a base for the Byzantines to conquer the rest of Italy, including
Naples, Rome, and
Milan. It took five years before the Ostrogoth capital
Ravenna fell in 540. At the time of the reconquest Greek was still the predominant language spoken on the island. Sicily was invaded by the
Arab forces of
Caliph Uthman in 652, but the Arabs failed to make permanent gains. They returned to Syria with their booty. Raids seeking loot continued until the mid-8th century. The Eastern Roman Emperor
Constans II moved from
Constantinople to
Syracuse in 660. The following year he launched an assault from Sicily against the
Lombard Duchy of Benevento, which occupied most of southern Italy. His son
Constantine IV succeeded him. A brief usurpation in Sicily by
Mezezius was quickly suppressed by this emperor. Contemporary accounts report that the Greek language was widely spoken on the island during this period. In 740 Emperor
Leo III the Isaurian transferred Sicily from the jurisdiction of the church of Rome to that of Constantinople, placing the island within the eastern branch of the Church. In 826
Euphemius, the Byzantine commander in Sicily, having apparently killed his wife, forced a nun to marry him. Emperor
Michael II caught wind of the matter and ordered general Constantine to end the marriage and cut off Euphemius' head. Euphemius rose up, killed Constantine, and then occupied Syracuse; he, in turn, was defeated and driven out to North Africa. He offered the rule of Sicily to
Ziyadat Allah, the
Aghlabid Emir of
Tunisia, in return for a position as a general and a place of safety. A
Muslim army was then sent to the island consisting of
Arabs,
Berbers,
Cretans, and
Persians. A description of
Palermo was given by
Ibn Hawqal, an
Arab merchant who visited Sicily in 950. A walled suburb, called the Al-Kasr (the palace), is the centre of Palermo to this day, with the great Friday mosque on the site of the later Roman cathedral. The suburb of al-Khalisa (modern
Kalsa) contained the
Sultan's palace, baths, a mosque, government offices, and a private prison.
Ibn Hawqal estimated there were 7,000 butchers trading in 150 shops. The Muslim rule introduced lemons, oranges, pistachios, and sugar cane, as well as cotton and mulberries for sericulture, and introduced the
Qanat to improve irrigation systems for agriculture. Around 1050, the western half of Sicily was ethnically and culturally distinct from central and eastern Sicily. During this time, there was also a small Jewish presence in Sicily, evidence seen in the catacombs discovered on the island. Palermo was initially ruled by the
Aghlabids; later it was the centre of the Emirate of Sicily, which was under the nominal suzerainty of the
Fatimid Caliphate. Muslim sovereignty was never absolute across the island, and the creation of three subdivisions served to distinguish different approaches to government. Under the Arab rule the island was divided in
three administrative regions, or "vals", roughly corresponding to the three "points" of Sicily:
Val di Mazara in the west;
Val Demone in the northeast; and
Val di Noto in the southeast.Western Sicily was more
Islamized and heavily populated by Arabs, allowing for full and direct administration; by contrast, the northeast region of
Val Demone remained majority Christian and often resistant to Muslim rule, prompting a focus on tax collection and maintaining public order, as a result, revolts by Byzantine Sicilians continuously occurred in the east where Greek-speaking Christians predominated. Parts of the island were re-occupied before revolts were quashed. By the 11th century, the
Emirate of Sicily began to fragment as intra-dynastic quarreling fractured the Muslim government. In 1068, Roger I was victorious at
Misilmeri. Most crucial was the siege of Palermo, whose fall in 1071 eventually resulted in all Sicily coming under Norman control. While Roger I died in 1101, his wife
Adelaide ruled until 1112 when their son
Roger II of Sicily came of age. Roger II appointed the powerful Greek
George of Antioch to be his "emir of emirs" and continued the syncretism of his father. During this period, the Kingdom of Sicily was prosperous and politically powerful, becoming one of the wealthiest states in all of Europe—even wealthier than the
Kingdom of England. The court of Roger II became the most luminous centre of culture in the Mediterranean, both from Europe and the Middle East, like the multi-ethnic
Caliphate of Córdoba, then only just eclipsed. This attracted scholars, scientists, poets, artists, and artisans of all kinds. Laws were issued in the language of the community to whom they were addressed in Norman Sicily, at the time when the culture was still heavily Arab and Greek. Governance was by rule of law which promoted justice. Muslims, Jews,
Byzantine Greeks, Lombards, and Normans worked together fairly amicably. During this time many extraordinary buildings were constructed. However this situation changed as the Normans imported immigrants from
Normandy,
England, Lombardy, Piedmont, Provence and
Campania to secure the island. Linguistically, the island shifted from being one-third Greek- and two-thirds Arabic-speaking at the time of the Norman conquest to becoming fully
Latinised. After Pope Innocent III made him Papal Legate in 1098, Roger I created several Catholic bishoprics while still allowing the construction of 12 Greek-speaking monasteries (the Greek language, monasteries, and 1500 parishes continued to exist until the adherents of the Greek Rite were forced in 1585 to convert to Catholicism or leave; a small pocket of Greek-speakers still live in Messina). File:Duomo cefalu msu2017-0797.jpg|The
Cefalù Cathedral File:Monreale Cathedral exterior BW 2012-10-09 10-23-10.jpg|The
Cathedral of Monreale File:Castello Enna2.jpg|The
Castello di Lombardia, a Norman castle at
Enna Kingdom of Sicily (1198–1860) After a century, the Norman
Hauteville dynasty died out; the last direct descendant and heir of Roger II,
Constance, married
Emperor Henry VI. Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the
Papacy led, in 1266, to
Pope Innocent IV crowning the
French prince Charles,
count of Anjou and
Provence, as the king of both Sicily and Naples. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, waves of
Greeks from the
Peloponnese (such as the
Maniots) and
Arvanites migrated to Sicily in large numbers to escape persecution after the
Ottoman conquest of the Peloponnese. They brought with them
Eastern Orthodoxy as well as the
Greek and
Arvanitika languages, once again adding onto the extensive
Byzantine/
Greek influence. The onset of the
Spanish Inquisition in 1492 led to
Ferdinand II decreeing the expulsion of all Jews from Sicily. The
earthquake in 1693 took an estimated 60,000 lives. There were revolts during the 17th century, but these were quelled with force, especially the revolts of Palermo and Messina.
North African slave raids discouraged settlement along the coast until the 19th century. The
Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 saw Sicily assigned to the
House of Savoy; however, this period of rule lasted only seven years, as it was exchanged for the island of
Sardinia with
Emperor Charles VI of the Austrian
Habsburg Dynasty. While the Austrians were concerned with the
War of the Polish Succession, a
Bourbon prince,
Charles from Spain was able to conquer Sicily and Naples. At first Sicily was able to remain as an independent kingdom under
personal union, while the Bourbons ruled over both from Naples. However, the advent of
Napoleon's
First French Empire saw Naples taken at the
Battle of Campo Tenese and Bonapartist
King of Naples was installed.
Ferdinand III, the Bourbon, was forced to retreat to Sicily which he was still in control of with the help of
British naval protection. Following this, Sicily joined the
Napoleonic Wars, and subsequently the British under
Lord William Bentinck established a military and diplomatic presence on the island to protect against a French invasion. Sicilian volunteers joined the British military to form the
Royal Sicilian Regiment, which saw action at the
Battle of Maida and then transferred to
Iberia. After the wars were won, Sicily and Naples formally merged as the
Two Sicilies under the Bourbons. Major
revolutionary movements occurred in 1820 and 1848 against the Bourbon government with Sicily seeking independence; the second of which, the
1848 revolution resulted in a short period of independence for Sicily. However, in 1849 the Bourbons retook control of the island and dominated it until 1860. File:Francesco Hayez 022.jpg|
Sicilian Vespers, a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out at
Easter 1282 against the rule of the French-born king
Charles I of Anjou File:Palazzina cinese 0001.JPG|The
Palazzina Cinese in
Palermo, built from 1799 to 1806 by
Ferdinand III of Sicily File:Sanesi - La rivoluzione di Palermo-12 gennaio 1848 - ca. 1850.jpg|The
Sicilian revolution of 1848, which was characterised by a wide use of the
Italian tricolour Italian unification lands in
Marsala in 1860, during the
Expedition of the Thousand, as part of the
Italian unification The
Expedition of the Thousand led by
Giuseppe Garibaldi captured Sicily in 1860, as part of the . Sicily became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia after a referendum in which more than 75% of Sicily voted in favour of the annexation on 21 October 1860 (although not everyone was allowed to vote). As a result of the
proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, Sicily became part of the kingdom on 17 March 1861. The Sicilian economy (and the wider
mezzogiorno economy) remained relatively underdeveloped after the
Italian unification, in spite of the strong investments made by the
Kingdom of Italy in terms of modern infrastructure, and this caused an unprecedented
wave of emigration. In 1894, organisations of workers and peasants known as the
Fasci Siciliani protested against the bad social and economic conditions of the island, but they were suppressed in a few days. This period was also characterized by the first contact between the
Sicilian Mafia (the crime syndicate also known as Cosa Nostra) and the Italian government. The Mafia's origins are still uncertain, but it is generally accepted that it emerged in the 18th century initially in the role of private enforcers hired to protect the property of landowners and merchants from the groups of
briganti who frequently pillaged the countryside and towns. The battle against the Mafia made by the Kingdom of Italy was controversial and ambiguous. The
Carabinieri (the military police of Italy) and sometimes the
Royal Italian Army were often involved in fights against the mafia members, but their efforts were frequently useless because of the weakness of the Italian judicial system and cooperation between the mafia and local governments.
20th and 21st centuries after the
1908 earthquake and tsunami. Taken at the northern section of the Palazzata in front of the harbour. The
Messina earthquake of 28 December 1908 killed more than 80,000 people. In the 1920s, the
fascist regime began taking stronger military action, led by
Cesare Mori (nicknamed the "Iron
Prefect" for his iron-fisted campaigns), against the Sicilian Mafia, the first that ended with considerable success. In the aftermath of World War II, Italy
became a republic in 1946. Under the
Constitution of Italy, Sicily is one of five
regions with
autonomy. Both the partial Italian
land reform and special funding from the Italian government's
Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (
Fund for the South) from 1950 to 1984 helped the Sicilian economy. During this period, the economic and social condition of the island was generally improved because of investments in infrastructure (such as
motorways and
airports) and the creation of industrial and commercial areas. In the 1980s, the Mafia was weakened by another campaign led by magistrates
Giovanni Falcone and
Paolo Borsellino. Between 1990 and 2005, the
unemployment rate fell from about 23% to 11%. The Cosa Nostra has traditionally been the most powerful group in Sicily, especially around Palermo. A police investigation in the summer of 2019 confirmed strong links between the Palermo area
Sicilian Mafia and American organized crime, particularly the
Gambino crime family. According to
La Repubblica, "Off they go, through the streets of Passo di Rigano, Boccadifalco, Torretta and at the same time, Brooklyn, Staten Island, [and] New Jersey. Because from Sicily to the US, the old mafia has returned." ==Geography==