SICILY. 



SICILY. 



508 



The oppression of one of ita pra'tors Verres reduced the island almost 

 to a barren waste, and his robberies stripped the towns of all their 

 wealth and works of art. 



Daring the wars of the Triumvirate, Sicily was for a time in 

 possession of Sextos Pompeius, who was at last defeated and driven 

 away by Octavian. After his assumption of supreme power, Augustus 

 restored many towns of Sicily which had been devastated duriug th 

 late wan ; he sent colonies to Tauromenium, Catana, Thenua 

 Himerenses, Centuripi, Panormus, Thermae Selinuntise, Heraclea, 

 and Syracuse. Finding the extent of this last city too large tc 

 be filled again, ho contented himself with colonising the ialam 

 Ortygia, which has constituted ever since the modern town o 

 Syracuse. 



Christianity spread early into the island, and a persecution of the 

 Christians took place under Nero. In the 3rd century of oar :cra w< 

 find registered the names of bishops of Panormus. 



About A.D. 440 the Vandals, under Genseric, landed from Africa on 

 the western coast of Sicily and took Lilybamui. Theodoric, th 

 Gothic king of Italy, added Sicily to his continental dominions. In 

 the year 534 Belisarius reconquered Sicily for the emperor Justinian 

 and the island continued to be a dependence of the Eastern empire 

 and was administered by a governor styled ' Patrician,' who was sent 

 from Constantinople. 



About the year A.D. 826, one Eupbemius, a Byzantine officer who 

 commanded the imperial troops in Sicily, fell in love with a Sicilian 

 maiden of noble birth,jwho was a nun, and took her by force from her 

 convent. Complaints having been laid before the emperor, Euphemius 

 wa outlawed. He then revolted, and defeated the patrician Photiuus 

 but not being strong enough to withstand the imperial forces, ho 

 ailed over to Africa and invited the emir of Kairwau to eifect the 

 conquest of the island. In Jane 827 the first Saracen expedition 

 landed in Sicily, took Agrigentum and Miuoa, Messina in 831, ant 

 Panormus in 835. It was not till 878 that the Saracens took Syracuse 

 by storm. Soon after the Saracens of Sicily threw off their depend 

 race on the emirs of Kairwan ; but it became subject to the fatimide 

 kalif El Mebad in 910. In 945 the fatimide kalif Al Mamur 

 appointed an emir as permanent and hereditary governor of Sicily, 

 who fixed his resdence at Panormus. Under the rule of the emirs 

 Sicily enjoyed a more orderly government and comparative tran- 

 quillity. Tauromenium, the last bold of the Byzantines, was taken 

 by the Saracens in 662. In 964 Nicephorus Phocas sent a strong 

 nt to recover Sicily. A battle took place near Rometta, in 



which the Saracens totally defeated the Byzantine army, with the low 

 of 10,000 men. After this Sicily was governed by a succession of 

 emirs, nominally dependent on the fatimide kalifs. In 1035 a revolt 

 broke out among the **"il'n Saracen* against the emir El Achal, who 

 was killed, and his brother Kl Hisesn was driven away. In every 

 town the [lading Saracen* assumed the local power, and thus Sicily 

 became a prey to anarchy, which favoured the invasion by the 

 Norman*. 



The Saracens never formed the bulk, nor more than about one- 

 aixtb, of the population. The Christians enjoyed the free exercise of 

 their religion, paying a tribute, like other conquered subject* in 

 Mohammedan state*; but they had no political rights, aud were 

 subject* of the conquering race. 



Of the numerous remain* of antiquity existing in Sicily the most 

 important are noticed under SIRACUS* and AOUOKKTUM. Taormina 

 has an ancient theatre in tolerable preservation. Other remains of 

 antiquity are *een at Catania, Lentini Alicata, Messina, Modica, 

 Patorno, and Segeste, or Egesta, near Trapani The antiquities of 

 Sicily have been described by Swinburne. 



The Norman* first entered Sicily a* auxiliaries of Maniaces, Katapan 

 of Apulia, whom they aided in recovering the island for the eastern 

 emperors from the ^"fHn fa 1037. But the weakness and mis- 

 management of the Byzantine rul-rs threw th* island once more into 

 the hand* of th* Saracens. About 1000 Pope Nicholas IL granted 

 the investiture of Sicily to Robert Quiscard, duke of Apulia and 

 CaUbria, who commenced the conquest of the viand in the following 

 year by taking Messina. In 1070, aided by his brother Roger, he took 

 Palermo, which he made his capital. At his death Robert left Sicily, 

 with the exception of Palermo, to his brother Count Roger, who 

 drove the last Saracen garrison in Sicily out of Noto, and assumed 

 the title of Great Count of Sicily. Roger introduced the feudal sys- 

 tem in the town* and district* which he had taken by force from the 

 Saracen* ; the rest of the country was considered crown domains, the 

 proprietors of which remained undisturbed under the name of 

 ' allodialixt*,' or burgensatici.' He instituted the Sicilian parliament, 

 or assembly of the great feudatories, both ecclesiastical and lay, who 

 met when convoked by the prince. In 1091 he sailed to Malta, and 

 obliged th* Gait, or Saracen governor, to pay tribute to the count of 

 Sicily. 



Count Roger of Sicily died in 1101, and was succeeded by his son 

 Roger, who, fa reward for aiding hi* cousin Duke William of Apulia 

 against his refractory vassals, obtained the city of Palermo, and thin 

 became monarch of all Sicily. On the death of Duke William in 1127 

 without issue, Count Roger of Sicily succeeded after much opposition 

 fa establishing his authority over all Apulia, Calabria, and Salerno. 



In the year 1130 Count Roger assembled a parliament at Salerno, 



which decided that he should assume the title of King of Sicily. This 

 resolution was unanimously confirmed by the Sicilian parliament 

 which he soon after convoked at Palermo ; and on Christmas-Day of 

 that year Roger was solemnly crowned in the cathedral of Palermo by 

 the four archbishops of Palermo, Salerno, Capua, and Benevento. He 

 assumed the title of 'Bex Sicilian Ducatus Apulia), Principatus 

 Capuae.' Pope Innocent II., who refused to acknowledge Roger's new 

 dignity, inarched with troops into Campania, but was surprised and 

 taken prisoner in 1139 by Roger, who treated him with great respect, 

 and on the 25th of July a treaty was concluded between them, by 

 which the Pope granted to Roger the investiture of the kingdom of 

 Sicily, the king swearing allegiance to the see of Rome, and promising 

 the payment of an annual tribute. About the same time, on the 

 death of the duke Sergius, the Neapolitans chose Roger's eldest sou 

 for their duke, retaining their municipal laws and liberties. lu 1140 

 King Roger seized that part of Abruzzo which lies between the 

 Pescara and the Tronto, and thus the Sicilian kingdom attained its 

 compact form and the boundaries which it has retained to this day. 

 In this reign the silver coin called a ducat was first coined, and the 

 manufacture of silk was introduced into Sicily. 



Roger died in 1154, at the age of 59. He was the third great man 

 of his family. Robert Guiscard and Count Roger laid the foundations 

 of the monarchy by their conquests, and King Roger consolidated the 

 whole into a regular form, made a body of laws, and established an 

 orderly system of administration. 



The Norman dynasty ruled over Sicily till 1194, when it came with 

 the rest of the kingdom under the Suabmi dynasty, in the person of 

 Frederick II., son of the emperor Henry VI. and Constance the 

 posthumous daughter of King Roger. Frederick was the founder of 

 the third estate, or Commons, in the island of Sicily, having called to 

 sit in the Sicilian parliament two prud'hommes, or wise men, for 

 every demesne town. He also established a municipal body in every 

 commune, and introduced many other wise reforms into his states. 

 Frederick IL died in 1250. Conrad succeeded him, but died in 1254, 

 leaving his only son Conradiu two years of age. Manfred a natural 

 son of Frederick, assumed the regency of the kingdom of Sicily. 

 Manfred was crowned king at Palermo in 1258, with the assent of the 

 Parliament on the rumour of the death of Conradin. At the battle 

 of Benevento, fought in 1266, Manfred was defeated and killed by 

 Charles of Anjou, who was acknowledged king of Sicily, Apulia, 

 Calabria, tc. The young Conradin led an expedition in 1267 to 

 recover his paternal kingdom; but he was defeated by Charles of 

 Anjou at Tagliaooxxo, and publicly beheaded at Naples in 1269. 



The terrible massacre of the French in Sicily, known in history as the 

 Sicilian vespers, put an end to the French or Anjeviue rule in Sicily in 

 1282. The Sicilians called to the throne Pedro, king of Aragon, who had 

 married Constance, daughter of Manfred. Charles of Anjou retained 

 the continental territories, and fixed his residence at Naples. Both 

 styled themselves King of Sicily, and the usage began gradually to 

 prevail at Naples of calling the island ' Sicily ultra pharuni,' aud thu 

 continental territories ' Sicily citra pharum.' 



The island had a succession of Aragonese kings from this time till 

 1416, when Alfonso, son of Ferdinand (of Aragon), having succeeded 

 his father as king of Aragon and Sicily, appointed a viceroy to govern 

 Sicily. This was the beginning of the Spanish viceregal government 

 in Sicily, which lasted, with a few short intervals, for above three 

 centuries (till 1734), to the great disappointment and disadvantage of 

 the Sicilian*. 



By the peace of Utrecht, Charles V. resigned his claims to Spain, 

 nit retained Naples, Sardinia, and Milan, and by the express inter- 

 vention of England, Sicily was given to Victor Amadeus of Savoy, 

 with the title of king. Victor Amadeus made his ingress into Palermo 

 n 1714, and assembled the Sicilian parliament. The census of the 

 aland of Sicily, taken at this time, gave a return of 1,153,000 

 nbabitanta, of which Palermo reckoned 120,000. An expeditiou sent 

 >y Cardinal Alberoni in 1718 took Sicily from Victor Amadous, but 

 England and Austria obliged the Spaniards to evacuate the island, 

 and by a new arrangement Sardinia was given to Victor Amadous and 

 Sicily to the emperor Charles. Thus Sicily and Naples were again 

 united under a foreign crown. 



In 1734 a new war having broken out in Europe on the occasion of 

 .be disputed succession of Poland, Spain undertook to reconquer 

 K>th Naples and Sicily. The Infante Don Carlos (Carlo Borbone), 

 on of Philip V., marched with a well-appointed army and took 

 Naples from the Austriana. He then proceeded to Sicily, which he 

 also conquered after some resistance. At the same time Philip V. 

 nade a solemn renunciation of Naples and Sicily iu favour of his son 

 Jon Carlos (who assumed the title of King of the Two Sicilies) and 

 lis heirs. 



Carlo Borbone, under whom the country enjoyed peace, and a 

 egree of prosperity to which it had been a stranger for centuries, 

 laving by the death of his brother Ferdinand VI. of Spain succeeded 

 o the crown of that monarchy, resigned his kingdom of the Two 

 iicilies to his son Ferdinand, then eight years old, appointing a council 

 f regency during his minority. The first part of the reign of Ferdi- 

 nand, till the epoch of the French revolution, was spent, iu forwarding 

 be system begun by his father. He married in 1768 Maria Carolina of 

 untri.i, daughter of Maria Theresa and sister of Marie An tionetto. 



