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 exchange for leaving the city. They took control of
Messina, killing and exiling the men, and holding the women in bondage. In response to this, the Syracusan general
Hiero, who had reorganised the mercenaries and was able to bring banditry under control in 269 BC, began 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, 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 siege 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 suzerainty in the region). In addition to Syracuse, the kingdom of Hiero was granted a number of centres in the eastern part 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 "vulgar 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 opaque 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 creating 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 siege 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 guaranteed 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. , wife of
Hiero II, depicted on a
tetradrachm minted between 218 and 214 BC 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 is 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, was sent to Sicily; the other,
Marcus Valerius Laevinus, to the new province of
Corsica and Sardinia. Originally, the term
provincia indicated the jurisdiction 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: It was in 227 BC that an annual grain tribute was imposed on the Sicilian communities by a
lex 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 The Second Punic War (218-201 BC) was initiated by
Hannibal who was aware of the importance of the Italian
socii to Rome and accordingly decided to attack the Romans on their own turf, passing through Gaul, over the Alps and into Italy. In a particularly difficult moment for Rome after the defeat at the
Battle of Cannae (216 BC), Hiero II died (215 BC). His successor
Hieronymus, his fifteen-year-old grandson, decided to switch to the Carthaginian side. This act arose from a period of intense conflict at Syracuse between the pro-Roman aristocratic faction and the pro-Carthaginian democratic faction. Hannibal himself had sent two brothers of Syracusan descent, Hippocrates and
Epicydes, in order to rouse the people against the Romans. allegedly used by
Archimedes in the defense of Syracuse in 212 BC, depicted in the
frontespiece of
Opticae Thesaurus The survivors from the Roman side of the Battle of Cannae were sent to Sicily and forbidden to leave until the end of hostilities. Hieronymus' decision to change sides caused Roman troops to be dispatched to the gates of Syracuse. The Carthaginians also sent troops to the island and contended with the Romans for control of the island. The
conquest of Syracuse in 212 BC by the forces of
Marcellus was a decisive moment for the war, which resulted either from the betrayal of the city by members of the Syracusan aristocracy, or by Moericus, a
Spanish mercenary in the Carthaginian camp. The conquest of Syracuse was costly for the Romans on account of the topography of the city, the defensive machines built by
Archimedes, and the extensive fortifications, especially the
Euryalus fortress, originally built by the tyrant
Dionysius I (404–367 BC) to protect the western end of
Epipolae. The city was sacked and many inhabitants were killed, including Archimedes. Marcellus then dispatched a lot of booty to Rome, including works taken from temples and public buildings (and was criticised for this by Polybius): according to
Livy, it was the arrival of this booty that first gave rise to Roman enthusiasm for
Greek art. The Romans considered it opportune to replace Marcellus, hated by the Syracusans, with
Marcus Valerius Laevinus. Following these events, Syracuse was incorporated into the province of Sicily, becoming its capital and the seat of its governor. The whole of Sicily was now in Roman hands, except for Agrigentum, which held out until 210 BC, when it was betrayed by
Numidian mercenaries led by Mutines. In the summer, the time came to hold the
comitia centuriata at Rome, in order to elect the consuls. The task of organising the elections was expected to fall to Marcellus as senior consul, but he sent a letter to the Senate when it recalled him, declaring that it would be harmful to the Republic to leave Hannibal to his own devices. When the Senate received this, there was debate as to whether it was better to recall the consul from campaign even though he was unwilling or to cancel the elections of consuls for 209 BC. In the end it was decided to recall Valerius Laevinus from Sicily, even though he was outside Italy. The senate ordered the
Urban praetor,
Lucius Manlius Acidinus to take a letter to Valerius, along with that sent to the Senate by Marcellus, and to explain to him why they had decided to recall him. Valerius Laevinus set out from Rome with ten ships and arrived in Sicily safely, entrusted control of the province and command of the army to the praetor
Lucius Cincius Alimentus, then sent the commander of the fleet,
Marcus Valerius Messalla to Africa with part of the fleet to investigate the preparations of the Carthaginians and to raid their territory. When he returned to Rome, he informed the Senate that no Carthaginian forces remained on the island, that all the exiles had returned home and work had resumed in the fields. This was an exaggeration, insofar as Laevinius spent almost all of 209 BC trying to revive Sicilian agriculture. Not only was all independence of Sicily brought to an end, but the majority of the islands commercial activities were redirected toward Italy. However, in 210 BC, the Senate decided to restore autonomy to Syracuse, which retained a large hinterland.
Late Republic Thereafter, Sicily became one of the most prosperous and peaceful Roman provinces, although it was disturbed by two serious rebellions. The first of these is known as the
First Servile War (c.138–132 BC), was led by King
Antiochus Eunus who established a capital at Enna and conquered Tauromenium as well. Eunus defeated the Roman army several times, but in 133 BC he was vanquished by Consul
Publius Rupilius near Messina; the war ended with the capture of Tauromenium and Enna in 132 BC, and about 20,000 of the unfortunate slaves were crucified. The
Second Servile War (104–101) was led by
Athenion of Cilicia in the western part of the island and by
Salvius Tryphon in the east. This war was terminated by
Manius Aquillius.
Internal organisation In the Roman Republican period
Marcus Valerius Laevinus introduced the
lex provinciae in 210 BC, the law regulating cities in provinces. The specific version of this law for Sicily, the
Lex Rupilia, was completed after the
First Servile War by the consul
Publius Rupilius in 132 BC. All the Sicilian cities enjoyed a certain autonomy and issued small coins, and were divided into four legal and administrative classes, but none of them had the right of Roman citizenship: 1.
foederatae civitates (allied communities) This "first class" included
Messina,
Tauromenium and
Notum that had remained loyal to Rome during the Punic wars of the 3rd century BC. They enjoyed greater freedom as a reward for their demonstrated friendship; their duties and rights as citizens were recognised and very rarely were they liable to pay the
decuma (or tenth), or the tax on their harvest. They could also retain ownership of their lands, govern themselves and therefore were similar to the allied cities of the Italian peninsula. 2.
civitates sine foedere immunes ac liberae (exempt and free communities without an alliance)
Halaesa Archonidea,
Alicia,
Centuripae,
Segesta and
Panormus were those in which Rome dictated their rights and duties. Although they were not allied, they were exempt from the payment of the
decuma and could freely administer their internal affairs, without having to follow Roman law (
ius romanus). They could elect their own magistrates, senate and, more significantly, they were free from the jurisdiction of provincial magistrates and their territory could not be legally administered by the
praetor. 3.
civitates decumanae (communities liable to the
decuma tax) Most of the Sicilian cities were
civitates decumanae and did not enjoy the rights of the two previous classes as they had been conquered after offering resistance, having to pay Rome the
decuma. This was regulated by the
lex Hieronica, named for King Hiero II, which established the amount to be taxed on each crop of the territory. 4.
civitates censoriae (communities subject to the censor)
Syracuse and
Drepanum and at least four others had been conquered in war and thus they enjoyed neither rights nor privileges, although Syracuse became the capital of Sicily from 212 BC. Their land was taken by the Romans as an
ager publicus, state land.
Sullan Period At the end of
Sulla's civil war, in 82 BC, the young general
Pompey was sent to Sicily by the dictator,
Sulla, to recover the island from the supporters of
Marius and thereby secure the
grain supply to Rome. Pompey crushed the opposition and, when the cities complained he responded with one of his most famous statements, reported by
Plutarch as "why do you keep praising the laws before me when I am wearing a sword?" He expelled his enemies in Sicily, putting to death the consul
Papirius Carbo. The government of the island in this period was controlled by a praetor, who was assisted by two quaestores (who focussed on financial matters), one based at Syracuse and one at Lilybaeum. Some communities continued to possess a popular assembly, but there was an increasing concentration of power in the hands of local elites.
Praetorship of Gaius Verres From 73 to 71 BC, the praetor of the province was
Gaius Verres who was denounced by the Sicilians for extortion, theft, and robbery and was prosecuted in Rome by
Cicero whose speeches against him, known as the
Verrines, still survive. Since these speeches are the main evidence for Verres' actions, it is hard to get an objective idea of the impact of his activities on Sicily. Cicero emphasised Verres' very harsh implementation of the grain tax (for his personal profit rather than that of the Republic) and the theft of artworks, including sacred votive offerings. Verres had expected the power of his friends and the deft manipulation of legal procedure to ensure his acquittal, but after Cicero's blisteringly effective first speech, he fled into exile.
War on Pirates In 70 BC, the praetor
Caecilius Metellus fought successfully against the pirates which infested the seas around Sicily and
Campania, who went on to plunder
Gaeta and
Ostia (69–68 BC) and captured the daughter of
Marcus Antonius Orator at
Misenum. In the course of the subsequent
war against the pirates in 67 BC, the sea around Sicily was assigned to
Plotius Varus. In 61 BC,
Clodius was sent to the island as quaestor.
Sicilian Revolt After Verres, Sicily recovered rapidly, although not reimbursed for the robberies of the former praetor. Nor did
Caesar's Civil War (49–45 BC) interrupt business as usual. Caesar's opponents had grasped the strategic importance of the island of Sicily as a base for attacking North Africa or for defending against an attack from Africa. However, after
Julius Caesar crossed the
Rubicon and began the civil war he took control of the island;
Asinius Pollio was sent as Caesar's emissary, to remove the governor of the island at the time,
Cato. The Caesarians were therefore able to embark from Lilybaeum to attack the supporters of Pompey in North Africa. The situation changed with the assassination of Caesar (44 BC). In 42 BC,
Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey Magnus, was appointed commander of the Roman fleet gathered at
Massalia by the Senate. He came into conflict with the
Second Triumvirate, consisting of
Octavian,
Mark Antony, and
Lepidus and was
proscribed under the
lex Pedia for collecting other proscribed individuals and slaves from Epirus and carrying out various acts of piracy. He therefore took control
Mylae,
Tyndaris and then Messana. After this, all of Sicily had to submit to him. First he killed the praetor,
Aulus Pompeius Bithynicus and then he defeated
Octavian's
legatus,
Quintus Salvidienus Rufus in a naval battle off Rhegium (40 BC). But Octavian's lieutenant,
Agrippa, a commander of great talent was able to destroy Sextus' fleet a month later at the
Battle of Naulochus in September 36 BC. Octavian imposed a heavy indemnity on Sicily of 1,600 talents and the cities that had resisted him were harshly punished. Thirty thousand slaves in Sextus Pompey's service were captured; the majority were returned to their masters, but about 6,000, who had no masters, were impaled. After the
Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian had sole power over the Roman Republic. In 27 BC, the Senate formalised this situation and he assumed the title of Augustus.
Augustan reorganisation (around AD 7) At the end of the conflict between the triumvirs and Sextus Pompey, Sicily was devastated: cities and countryside had been damaged by warfare and a lot of land remained uncultivated because the proprietors were dead or had fled, or their land had been confiscated by Octavian as punishment. A portion of Sicily remained imperial property, while large areas, probably in the
Plain of Catania, were given to Agrippa. When he died, the majority of his property passed to Augustus and it is possible that other Sicilian land came into Augustus' possession in a similar way. Other farmland, especially on the eastern and northern coasts, was given to Italian veterans who had served in Augustus' legions. Augustus carried out an administrative reorganisation of the empire as a whole and of the province of Sicily in particular. A number of
coloniae were established by Augustus for his veterans on Sicily, but the exact chronology is unclear. We know for certain that the first measures were taken in 36 BC, when Tauromenium was made into a
colonia. Subsequently, Augustus visited Sicily in 22 or 21 BC, the first stop on a journey through the empire, and other reforms were carried out. At the end of the process, six Sicilian cities had become
coloniae: Syracuse, Tauromenium, Panormus, Catania, Tyndaris, and Thermae Himerenses. The influx of population represented by these foundations may have been intended to compensate for a demographic slump resulting from the war with Sextus Pompey, or from Augustus' excoriation of the island after his victory. It is not clear what happened to the existing Greek inhabitants of these cities as normally the citizens of
coloniae had
Roman citizenship and could therefore participate in the highest levels of the Roman state. It may be that these privileges were restricted to the aristocracy. In any case, the influx of Italian veterans played a decisive role in the diffusion of Latin language in Sicily. Messina, Lipara, and perhaps Lilybaeum, Agregentum, and Halaesa were made into
municipia, a status significantly lower than that of
colonia. No veterans were settled in these settlements; they were simply compensated for their loyalty by Augustus. Centuripa, Notum, and Segesta were converted into "Latin" cities, while the remaining cities retained their status as foreign communities under the control of Rome. None of the privileges conceded to the various centres implied exemption from paying tribute to Rome. It is reasonable to presume that, like other
coloniae outside Italy, the Sicilian
coloniae paid tribute. The grain tithe was replaced by the
stipendium, a property tax, and there may also have been a
poll tax. It is possible that Augustus made this reform as a result of the new role played by Egypt as the source of the grain supply, although the produce of the Emperor's Sicilian farms continued to be sent to Rome.
Imperial province In AD 68, there was disorder on the island, probably linked to the revolt of
Lucius Clodius Macer in North Africa. Emperor
Vespasian (69–79) settled veterans and freedmen at Panormos and
Segesta. During the first two centuries AD Sicily underwent economic depression and urban life declined, the countryside was deserted and the wealthy owners were not resident, as indicated by the lack of dwellings at various levels. In addition, the Roman government neglected the territory and it became a place of exile and refuge for slaves and brigands. According to the
Historia Augusta (a notoriously unreliable fourth century text), there was a slave revolt in Sicily under the Emperor
Gallienus (253–268). The
latifundia, or great private estates, specialising in agriculture destined for export (grain, olive oil, wine) played a large role in society and in the economy in the imperial period. Rural Sicily entered a new period of prosperity at the beginning of the 4th century, with commercial settlements and farm villages that seem to reach the pinnacle of their expansion and activity. The reasons seem to be twofold: first of all, renewed commercial links with North Africa expanded for the supplies of grain to Italy, while the Egyptian production, which had so far satisfied the needs of Rome, was sent to the new capital of Constantinople in 330 AD; Sicily consequently assumed a central role in the new commercial routes between the two continents. Secondly, the most prosperous equestrian and senatorial ranks began to abandon urban life by retreating to their country estates, due to the growing tax burden and the expenses they were obliged to sustain the poor masses. Their lands were cultivated no longer by slaves, but by colonists. Considerable sums of money were spent to enlarge, embellish, and make their villas more comfortable. Traces of renewed construction are found in
Filosofiana,
Sciacca,
Punta Secca,
Naxos and elsewhere. An obvious sign of transformation is the new title assigned to the governor of the island, from a
corrector to
consularis. In the 4th century therefore, Sicily was not merely the “granary of Rome”, but also became a favourite residence for families of the high Roman aristocracy, like the
Symmachi,
Nichomachi and the
Caeionii, who brought with them the luxury and taste of the capital of the empire. The most remarkable archaeological remains of this period are the
Villa Romana del Casale. Others include the
Villa Romana del Tellaro and
Villa Romana di Patti.
Latifundia The origin of the latifundia in Sicily, as elsewhere, was the
ager publicus from the spoils of war, confiscated from conquered peoples from the early 2nd century BC. Latifundia could be used for livestock (sheep and cattle) or cultivation of olive oil, grain, and wine. They distressed
Pliny the Elder (died AD 79) as he travelled, seeing only slaves working the land, not the sturdy Roman farmers who had been the backbone of the Republic's army. He argued that the latifundia had ruined Italy and would ruin the Roman provinces as well. The latifundia quickly started economic consolidation as larger estates achieved greater economies of scale and senators did not pay land taxes. Owners re-invested their profits by purchasing smaller neighbouring farms, since smaller farms had a lower productivity and could not compete, in an ancient precursor of
agribusiness. By the 2nd century AD, latifundia had displaced small farms as the agricultural foundation of the Roman Empire. This effect contributed to the destabilising of Roman society; as the small farms of the Roman peasantry were bought up by the wealthy and with their vast supply of slaves, the landless peasantry were forced into idleness, relying greatly on handouts.
Arrival of Christianity in Sicily (Cod. Bodmer 127, fol. 39v, end of the 12th century) depicted in the
Breviarium of Martin of Aragon ( 2nd century AD) and in the background the
Church of San Biagio, built in the 18th century after the massive
earthquake of 1693 on the location where tradition claims St Agatha was martyred in a furnace The first reference to a Christian presence on the island appears in
Acts (28.12–13): "We landed in Syracuse, where we remained for three days and then we travelled along the coast and arrived at Rhegion." In this way,
Paul of Tarsus, on his voyage from the Levant to Rome, which is described at the end of
Acts, travelled through Sicily. He stopped in Syracuse after having been shipwrecked and forced to disembark on Malta. From Malta, according to the account in
Acts, Paul travelled to Syracuse, but it is not clear why he stopped there. It is clear that Syracuse was still used in this period as a stop on the way to Rome on commercial trade routes. Perhaps Paul was hosted by a Jewish community, such as existed in many ports of the Mediterranean – the Jewish community at Catania is well-attested epigraphically. After Paul, there are no sources before the 3rd century AD which expressly mention a Christian presence on the island. There are various legends which link the arrival of Christianity in Sicily with Paul's brief sojourn on the island, while other traditions report that Paul met Christians who had already arrived before him and that this was the reason why he stopped on the island. But
Acts doesn't mention any of this and these traditions may respond to the desire to make the arrival of Christianity in Sicily as early as possible (60 or even 40 AD), in order to reinforce the authority of the Sicilian church. The first certain reference to a Sicilian church is found in an official letter (
Epist. 30.5.2), sent from Rome to
Cyprian,
Bishop of Carthage. This document dates between 250 and 251 during the
Decian persecution and discusses the
lapsi – Christians who had performed acts of worship to pagan deities in the face of
Roman persecutions. The letter mentions a similar letter sent to Sicily, which suggests that apostasy was considered a problem on the island as well and that the Christian presence on Sicily was already significant enough to have a hierarchical relationship with Rome. It is possible that this community developed at the end of the 2nd century AD or at the beginning of the 3rd century – the period in which the first archaeological evidence appears. The
Decian (AD 250) and
Diocletianic Persecutions (304) are the setting for the stories of two important Sicilian martyrs,
Saint Agatha and
Saint Lucy. These saints are known only from
hagiographies written about two hundred years after the events, which represent them as young and beautiful virgins, victims of two persecutors called Quintianus and Pascasius. It is likely that these sources respond to a desire to link the two most important cities of eastern Sicily: Catania, home of Saint Agatha, and Syracuse, home of Saint Lucy. Significantly, all the principal saints of the island are women – in addition to Agatha and Lucy, there are the Palermitan saints, (4th century martyr),
Olivia (5th century martyr), and
Christina (martyred in 304), who was introduced into the cult of
Saint Rosalia by the Palermitans. Perhaps this emphasis on female figures in Sicilian Christianity reflects the emphasis on female deities in pre-Christian Sicilian religion (e.g. Venus of Eryx, Isis, Demeter and Kore). Two important Christian inscriptions have been discovered from the period. One is the , discovered at Catania in 1730 (in the necropolis on the site of the modern via Dottor Consoli) and now in the
Louvre in Paris. It is a funerary inscription, dating to the end of the 3rd century AD at the earliest, which records in Latin the death of a child of little more than a year in age, buried next to the "Christian martyrs" (but it is not clear whether this refers to Agatha and
Euplius). The inscription is the first direct evidence for Christianity on the island. The other inscription, also sepulchral, is the so-called Inscription of Euskia in Greek, which was discovered at the end of the 19th century in the Catacombs of San Giovanni in Syracuse and is now housed in the
Museo archeologico regionale Paolo Orsi. The grave
stele indicates a local cult of Lucy at the beginning of the 5th century. At the time of the inscription's creation, the cult of Agatha is already attested at Rome and Carthage. With the end of the period of the persecutions, the church entered a phase of expansion, even as fierce debates arose within the church on doctrinal point, leading to the convocation of
synods.
Eusebius includes a letter of
Constantine to Crestus, Bishop of Syracuse, in his
Church History (10.5.21), which invites him to participate in the
Council of Arles of AD 314. Cresto was assigned an important organisational role at Arles, which indicates the relevance of the Sicilian church at the time. The beginning of
monasticism in Sicily came in the 4th century. The hagiographic tradition reports that the ascetic
Hilarion travelled from Egypt to
Pachino and then spent three years in Sicily (perhaps near modern
Ispica), where he sought a retreat in which to practice the life of an
anchorite. He subsequently departed as a result of his growing fame in the region. More significant for Sicily was the arrival of
cenobitic monasticism: there are many reports of different kinds of ascetics gathering together to share a religious life, especially under the
Basilian rule (there were no monasteries in Sicily organised under the
Benedictine rule until the
Norman period). Some monks followed the
Byzantine Rite, others the
Latin rite. The growth of monasticism in Sicily was probably due to its insularity, as well as the fact that the region, excepting a few slave revolts, was one of the most peaceful in the west – at least until the Vandal
conquest of 439, and then again until the 9th century Arab conquest.
The fall of the Western Empire and Sicily The 5th century
Migration Period was a period of serious crisis for the Roman Empire. The relative tranquility of Sicily in this period attracted many people. Just as in earlier periods, many senatorial families had been spurred to acquire vast estates of fertile land. High functionaries and religious officials (both Christian and pagan) travelled to Sicily to dedicate themselves to study, hunting and entertainment.
Nicomachus Flavianus the Younger,
praefectus urbi between 361 and 362, had an estate near
Enna, where he produced a revised edition of the first ten books of Livy in 408. Others came as refugees, such as
Melania the Younger, who fled Alaric's sack of Rome and took refuge at Messina with her husband and friends in 410.
Alaric I attempted to attack Sicily itself and got as far as Rhegium, but the Gothic fleet was destroyed in the Straits of Messina by a storm and Alaric therefore abandoned the plan.
Genseric, King of the
Vandals, occupied the
province of Africa in the 430s and began to raid the Sicilian coast in 437. Then, after seizing part of the Western Roman fleet berthed at Carthage after taking the city in October 439, the Vandals organised attacks throughout the Mediterranean, especially in Sicily and Sardinia (the main sources of grain for the western empire), Corsica, and the Balearic islands. In 441, since the western Roman fleet had proven incapable of defeating the Vandals,
Theodosius II sent an expedition in 442 but it accomplished nothing and was recalled because of attacks by Persians and Huns along the northern and eastern borders. The Western Roman empire continued to defend Sicily, with the general
Ricimer active there in 456 and then
Marcellinus and his
Dalmatian legions in 461. The Vandal presence in Sicily was limited to piratical raids, similar to those undertaken in southern Italy. A panegyric of 468 by
Sidonius Apollinaris indicates that in this period, Sicily was still part of the Western Roman Empire. In 469 the island fell to the
Vandal King
Geiseric but was reunited with Italy in 476 under
Odoacer with a toe-hold allowed the Vandals in the port of Lilybaeum. This was ceded to
Theodoric the Great in 493. == Language ==