432 



SICILY 



escorted by corabinieri. The Maflia (q.v.) is nut 

 dead yi't. iad (lie vendetta (worn down by affection 

 ate familiarity to 'vinnitta') is preferred to more 

 legal methods of punishment. This Htate of things 

 is largely to be traced to tin- low rate of wage* 

 and the excessive taxes, and to the deficient 

 administration of justice ; tin- two former causes 

 certainly are responsible for the emigration of 

 thousands of Sicilians every year to America. In 

 religion the people are devout, and superstitious to 

 a degree. They are very illiterate ; thre in every 

 four can neither read nor write. Education is free 

 and compulsory, but the law is not very strictly 

 enforced. In '1895 there were 3500 elementary 

 schools in the island, 13 normal schools, 67 'licei,' 

 &c., 46 technical schools, besides government tech- 

 nical institutes, industrial schools, schools of mer- 

 cantile marine, a military college at Palermo, a 

 government conservatoire at Palermo, schools of 

 agriculture and uni\ei-itie- at Catania, Messina, 

 and Palermo. The island is divided into seven 

 provinces (see ITALY), and its chief towns are 

 Palermo (pop. In 1897, 283,700), Messina (150,800), 

 and Catania (127, 100). 



See Franchetti and Sonnino, Ln Sifilia net 1876 

 ( 1877 ) ; German work* by Hoff weiler ( 1870 ), Th. Fischer 

 (1877), Von Adrian (1878), Von Lamulx ( 1879), Gregor- 

 ovius (7th ed. 1895), Schneegans ( 1889 ), and Gsell Fell 

 MXV.I': Mis T. KMi.iM. l>,,, ril .,{,,:. 1,H. W, ,, if 

 Sicily (1881): G. Chiesi, La .SinVrn flh,,lrata (18f2); 

 Bent Barin, Sieile (1892); W. A. Paton, Picturriiqw 

 .sVnV.i/(1898): besides the Anmiario Statittico Jtaliano 

 and the Consular Rejnrta. 



History. The earliest inhabitants of Sicily of 

 whom we know anything were the Sicani, who may 

 have )>een an aboriginal pre- Aryan people like the 

 Ligurians, Iberians, or the still surviving Basques. 

 Somewhere about the llth century B.c. the Simli, 

 most probably an Aryan race, were believed to 

 have crossed the strait from Italy ; and we hear of 

 \ "i another early stock mainly in the north-eastern 

 corner, the Elymoi, whose towns of Segesta and 

 Eryx showed a considerable progress in civilisation. 

 The PhuGiiicians from an early period began to 

 make settlements Motya and Panormus mostly 

 on the north and north-west coasts, for the pur- 

 poses of commerce ; but the real civilisers of Sicily 

 were the colonies of immigrant Greeks, both Dorian 

 and Ionian, who founded a number of nourishing 

 cities on the east and south coast*, such as Naxos 

 ("Vi B.C.), Syracuse (734), Leontini ami < 'at ana 

 (730), Megara Hybla-a (726), Gela (690), Hiniera 

 (648), Zancle or Messana (date uncertain), 

 Selinus (c. 628), Agrigentum (579). Tin- <..eek 

 settlers became known as Sikeliots, in < list i union 

 to the native Siculi, with whom, however, they 

 gradually became assimilated. Their cities were 

 long independent, and flourished first under oli- 

 garchical constitutions, then under the short-lived 

 rule of a succession of more or less enlightened 

 tyrant* like Phalaris and Theron of Agrigentum, 

 and Golon, who in 485 transferred the scat of his 

 power from Cela to Syracuse, thereafter the first 

 city of the island. The inevitable struggle with 

 Carthage soon began, and its first stage was closed 

 for seventy years by the great victory of Himera 

 (480), won over Hamilcar on the same day as 

 Salami-, by the united power of Gelon and Theron. 

 The long Pclo|M>nnesian war and the intrigued of 

 the mother rities in Creece drew Sicily into the 

 current of Greek history, but the fatal Athenian 

 expedition to Syracuse (415-413) under Nicias (q.v.) 

 ended for ever the Athenian dream of a wider empire 

 in the west. Next followed a Phoenician invasion 

 under Hannibal, grandson of the Hamilear who 

 perished at Hiniera. His course of compiest was 

 facilitated by internal jealousies, anil he took in turn 

 Selinus, Hiniera, and Agrigentum, leaving behind 



him nothing lint smoking ruins. Their strong for- 

 tress of Lily bieiim was founded about 397. lint the 

 vigorous reign of I liony-iiis the Tyrant at Syracuse 

 167) put a check to Carthaginian conquest. 

 He fought Carthage in four wars, and carried hi- 

 coni|ue.-ts into Southern Italv. After the tyranny 

 of Dionysius and his son followed Dion and Timo- 

 leon. next the splmdid hut fatal reign of Agath- 

 ocles (317-289). The Sicilian war of Pyrrhus of 

 Kpirus (278-276) was but the prelude to the long 

 struggle between Rome and Carthage, the first 

 stage of which was the war for Sieilv. First Car- 

 thaginian Sicily in 246, then the wliole island in 

 210 passed into a Unman /imr, /,,-<. on the death 

 of Hieron, for fifty years a steadfast ally of Rome. 

 The chief event* in Sicily's Roman history were 

 the two insurrections of slaves ( 135-132 and 102- 

 99), the infamous pro-prn'torship of Vcrres (73-71 ), 

 its occupation by Sextus Pompeius (42), the con- 

 quest by the Vandal Genserie (44(1 A.I'.), his <-c -ion 

 of the island to Theodoric, and its recovery to the 

 eastern empire by Belisarius (535). So it re- 

 mained till 827, the date of the beginning of the 

 Saracen occupation. Syracuse itself was taken in 

 877 ; the last stronghold, Rametta, fell in 965. 

 For nearly a hundred years the Moslem rule was 

 not seriously disturbed, but at length George 

 Maniakes was sent by the eastern empire to win 

 hack the island (1038). HU army included many 

 Normans, who saw with eager eyes the goodliness 

 of the land. Town after town was taken Mes- 

 sana, Syracuse, all save Panormus. The recall of 

 Maniakes brought back a return wave of Saracen 

 conquest, but at length, after much hard fighting, 

 the Normans conquered the whole island ; Panor- 

 mus (Palermo) fell in 1071; Syracuse in 1085; 

 I ! an iet t a (Noto), the last stronghold to hold out, 

 in 1090. Robert Guiscard, son of Tancred of 

 Hauteville, now took the title of Duke of Apulia 

 and Calabria ; his brother Roger, that of Count of 

 Sicily. The Norman dominions were united under 

 his son Roger, the great Count of Sicily, who took 

 the title at Palermo in 1130 of 'King of Sicily 

 and Italy.' He was followed by William the Bad 

 (1154-S6) and William the Good (1166-89), on 

 whose death childless the Sicilians chose Tancred, 

 an illegitimate grandson of King Roger. But 

 Tancred died in 11!>4, whcreuiMin the crown fell to 

 the German Emperor Henry VI., who had married 

 Constance, daughter of King Roger I. Henry 

 forced the Sicilians to acknowledge him as king, 

 and died in 1197, leaving the kingdom to his 

 son Frederick, afterwards the famous Emperor 

 Frederick II. On his death in 1250 the succession 

 fell to his son Conrad, next to his grandson Con- 

 radin, under w horn Frederick's natural son Manfred 

 governed Sicily. The latter declared himself king 

 at Palermo in 1258 on an unfounded report of 

 Conrad in's death. But the popes pursued him 

 with rancorous enmity, and on the nominal and 

 shameless fiction of over-lordship offered his rmwn 

 for money to Richard of Cornwall, brother of 

 Henry ifl. of England, and next to Henry's 

 younger son Edmund. At length l'pe I'rhan 

 '" a Frenchman, opened up the most un- 



iv 



worthy chapter of Sicilian history by granting it 

 (1264) to Charles, Count of Anjo'u. Manfred fell 

 lighting heroically against tin; invader at Grandella 

 near Benevento in 1286, and Anjou entered Naples 

 in triumph. But Peter, king of Aragon, who 

 had married Constance, the daughter of Manfred, 

 laid formal claim to Sicily in her right. The 

 j,'o\ eminent of the French proved intolerable to 

 the Sicilians, and the massacre of the Sicilian 

 Vespers (q.v.) opened up a long struggle, which 

 ended with the crowning of Peter's son Frederick 

 in 1296, and his being acknowledged at the peace 

 of 1302 king of Trinacria for life. But he soon 



