THE PHOENICIANS (1,300 ~ 800 BC)

             One of the early foreign incursions to Sicilia, before 1300 BC, was by the Phoenicians, from a Semitic civilization on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. There, it had established the cities of Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre, in the area of present-day Lebanon.  The Phoenicians were master seafarers, and over the next few centuries, they established trading posts, and influence, around the shores of the Mediterranean.  They introduced a written alphabet, precursor to the Greek version.  They had contact with the native Elami, who used the Phoenician alphabet, but wrote in their native Elymian language, so that remnants of their written records have yet to be translated.

          There were Phoenician settlements on the coasts of Sicilia by about 1000 BC (the time of King David of the Israelites, who referred to the Phoenicians as 'Canaanites').  These were often in the areas previously occupied by the Elymians, and  included Sis (or Ziz), the city called by the Greeks 'Panormos', by the Romans 'Panormus', or modern Palermo). The Phoenicians also established Drepanum (Trapani); Lilybaeum (Marsala); Eryx (Erice); as well as Soloeis near the site of present-day Bagheria, and Motya (later Mozia) on an island north of modern Trapani. 
          A question to ponder is whether Sis was so named because it was on the island of Sicilia, or whether Sicilia simply meant 'the island where Sis is'.  By 814 BC, the Phoenician 'city-state' of Carthage was founded at the site of the present city of Tunis in Africa.  Though founded by Phoenicians, Carthage became an independent power in the development of northern Africa and Sicilia, and controlled much of western Sicilia by 800 BC.  There are indications that as early as the Phoenician occupation, sulfur (zolfo, Sicilian zulfuru) was being exported from Sicilia to northern Africa.

THE GREEKS (800 ~ 241 BC)

       Concurrent with the Punic development of Sicilia's northwest in 800 BC, the ancient Greeks established a presence on the island, heavily colonizing the eastern shores and the interior previously occupied by the Siculi, as well as the southern reaches of the Italian peninsula.  This was before Greece existed as a unique nation, and here 'Greece' (their name for it was Hellas) refers to a region rather than a country.  It was the area between Italy and Asia minor, where many independent, powerful city-states such as Athens and Sparta vied for power.
        The first Greek settlement in Sicilia was in 735 B.C.E. by colonists from Chalcis and Ionia, who stopped at a bay of the Ionian Sea, near the foot of a small headland peak they called ^Ταύρος (Tauros, or the Bull).

         Although the group was made up mainly of Chalcidians, evidently some of their party were from the Greek island of Naxos, for Naxos was what they named their first settlement, on the seaside lowlands.  A town inhabited by indigenous Siculi sat on the slopes near the peak of Tauros.  The Greeks eventually overtook the town, which became known as Tauromenion, today called Taormina.
         Greek-Sicilian settlements were known as 'Siceliot' cities, and often warred among themselves just as their forebears did in Athens and Sparta.  These wars often resulted in complete destruction and leveling of the losing city-state, and massacre, enslavement, or diaspora of its residents.  Some city sites lay abandoned for generations before being re-settled and rising again, sometimes with the previous name, sometimes with an altogether different identification.
         As reported by sicilia.it, the main language of the Siceliots was the ancient Greek variant, Doric, spoken mainly in the cities they founded in eastern Sicilia.  The contribution made by the Siceliot Greeks in literature was remarkable. Some forms of 'Greek literature' actually developed in Sicilia: it would seem that the Sicilian-Doric comedy, whose main exponents were Epicarmo and Formide, served as a model for later classical Greek (Attic) comedy of the fifth century BCE.
         Many native Sicani, Siculi and Elami assimilated with the Greek settlers, and adopted their culture.  If these natives were in a Siceliot city that was on the losing side in a war, they too were killed, sold into slavery, or sent elsewhere.  As an alternative, many native Sicilians escaped to the interior of the island to avoid them.  This influx to the hills was to be a recurring theme as settlements of Sicilians, invaded or conquered by some new master, fled to the central expanses to avoid subjugation.
          Although the Greek presence in Sicilia spanned the lifetime of Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC), Alexander's conquests were to the East and South of Macedon.  He never set foot in Sicilia, though prior to his early death he had laid plans to conquer the island.
        The map below, from 'LIVIUS ~ Articles on Ancient History', shows the indigenous, Phoenician/Punic, and Siceliot cities during the period.  Some still exist with similar names, some have been lost.  Click on the map for a more readable image.

         The Greek-colonized area to the west of Hellas in the southern Apennine Peninsula and Sicilia  came to be known as Megara Hellas, or 'Greater Greece'.  It was called Magna Graecia by the Romans, who themselves were just beginning to develop into a distinct culture.  Much Greek influence on Rome came from Magna Graecia in the south, and contrary to the Romulus/Remus legends, Roman historian Livy (Titus Livius Patavinus) recounted that the city of Rome was founded by the Trojan refugee Aeneas, who escaped to the Apennine Peninsula and found the line of Romans through his son Iulus, namesake of the Julian dynasty of Julius Caesar. The Greek culture on the Italic peninsula began to decline by about 500 BC, but the island Sicilia remained Greek for another 240 years.   However the region from Neapolis (Napoli, Naples) south, comprised of Italy's 'foot' and the island of Sicilia, were to be linked throughout history.  Even today, that region, the 'Mezzogiorno' is referred to as 'le due Sicilie' (the two Sicilies).
        Nowadays, many think of Sicilia as an Italian island, but in in these years, it was in great part Greek, and many of the traditions, myths and great thinkers we associate with ancient Greece were in fact Sicilian.  Eventually, there were more Greeks in Sicilia than there were in 'Greece' itself!  Sicilia had cities such as Syracuse (now Siracusa), its name derived from the Greek 'Sirakous', ('sirako', 'swamp').  It was founded shortly after Naxos, by settlers from the Greek city of Corinth.  The later Roman philosopher Cicero called Syracuse "the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all".   Sicilia's most recognizable icon, Mount Etna, was named for the Greek goddess Αίτνα (Aetna), who bore the Palikoi, children of Hephaistos, the keeper of the gods' forge, inside the volcano.  The Palikoi were the gods of the thermal geysers around Etna.

         By about 300 BC, the Greeks began representing Trinakrias, or Sicilia, on coins as a triskelion, a three-legged figure, with the face of Medusa at the junction of the legs.  The triskelion almost certainly represents the physical shape of Sicilia: a natural triangle with a cape accessing the North and Europe via the Italic peninsula, from Messina (Capo Peloro); one extending towards the East and Greece near Siracusa (Capo Passero); and to the West, a cape at Lilibaeum (Marsala) or Capo Lilibeo, which meant, literally, 'opposite Libya' or Africa. 
        Some express dismay over the use of the 'horrible' face of the Gorgon to represent a nation, however, there seem to be valid reasons.  One is that Medusa was, in some legends, a goddess of Libya, whence may have come the first Sicilians, the Sicani.  Another is that in the classic Greek myth, Athena turned the golden hair of the beautiful Medusa into serpents.  Perseus later slew Medusa at Athena's command and presented the head to her.  The goddess attached the head to her Aegis or shield, where it then became a symbol to ward off enemies, who were turned to stone if they looked upon the head.  The symbol was then used to show that its bearer was under the protection of Athena.  Since Athena was the patron goddess of Trinakrias, the Medusa on the symbol of the island would ward off its enemies.
        I propose a third explanation: that the head is not that of Medusa, but of Demeter (Roman Ceres), goddess of wheat, and the mother of Persephone (Roman Proserpina) of Enna.   Persephone, as the wife of Hades, was the patroness of birth, death, and rebirth; goddess of the changes of the seasons. 

Sirakous (Siracusa) Coin ~ 336 BC

Panormos (Palermo) Coin ~ 241 BC

Autonomous Region of Sicily ~ 2000 AD
Variations of the Triskelion

        Since the triskelion has also been interpreted as representing these cycles, could the symbol of Sicilia be the representation of the mother Demeter protecting her daughter Persephone, while showering her with the abundance of the earth?   Corns of wheat, rather than serpents, are shown  in some early representations, as well as in the most recent flag of Sicilia.
         Sicilia was like a huge mixing bowl.  Around the edges, there were continual cycles of settlement, rich commerce, war and disruption.  This served sometimes to homogenize the population of the coastal cities, and at other times to eliminate whole groups of people.  The interior was less rich, but safer, if not from natural dangers, from those imposed by man.  Even in the interior, there was probably a certain degree of ethnic mixing, as poor Greeks or Carthaginians might also hide there to avoid the latest war or purge that befell their cities.  But if remnants of the Sicani, Siculi or Elami remained past ancient times, they would most likely be found in the interior.
         As a portent of future suppression, often the natives were used as laborers and field workers for the more educated and prosperous immigrant Greeks.  The Greeks were resisted by the Phoenicians and later Carthaginians who controlled the northwest portions of Sicilia.   From 800 to 400 BC, conflicts were frequent between the Greeks in the east and the Carthaginians in the west.  By 500, Syracuse had become the island's major Greek city-state, with control over Akragas (now Agrigento), Gela, Catane (Catania), Himera (Termini Imerese), and Messana (Messina). 
            West of Catane, the town of Mene, now Mineo, was reportedly founded by one of the few native leaders of Sicilia known from this period, Ducetius.   He was a native Siculan born near Catane and educated in the Greek culture. He united his fellow Siculi in a revolt against the Greek-Sicilian cities in about 460 BC, and by 452 had occupied Morgantina, Etna, and Motyon, and founded the city of Palice, a site of geysers, and of temples to the 'Palici', or Palikoi gods.  The Siculi believed the Palici were sons of their ancient Sicilian fire god, Adranus.  Palice was a place of refuge for many runaway Siculan slaves.  Oaths taken in Palice were said to be sacred, and breaking them reportedly brought dire consequences, a theme to be repeated throughout Sicilian history. 
           In 450, Ducetius was defeated by the Siracusans and exiled to Greece proper.  He returned to organize Sicilia's northern Siculi and founded Cale Acte east of Messina, but when he died in 440 BC in a battle against the Siracusans, his 'native Sicilian Empire' came to an end.  The Siculi kept no recorded history, so what little is known of them was preserved in the writings of their conquerors, the Greeks; in this case by Diodorus Siculus, or 'Diodorus the Sicilian', ironically, a Greek who was born, raised and died in Sicilia.

            I have no explanation for the rabbit; it seems a serendipitous coincidence that my name, Coniglio, means 'rabbit' in the Italian language ('Cunigliu' in Sicilianu, 'Cunigghiu' in some dialects).

         The influence of Greece on the culture of Sicilia seems immeasurable.  Nor did Greek history and culture develop without significant impacts from this robust island. 
         In Greek mythology, there are numerous references to Sicilia: the goddess Athena dropped the island of Trinakrias (Sicilia) on Enkelados, one of the Giants who had warred with the Gods, and buried him under Mount Aetna;  Persephone, wife of Hades and goddess of life, death and rebirth, was born in Henna; Daedalus, after his son Icarus' waxen wings were melted by the sun, flew to Sicilia and joined the court of Kokalos, king of the Sicani; Arethusa, the beautiful nymph, was transformed by the goddess Artemis into a river that flowed underground from Greece and emerged at Ortygia, an island off the city of Syracuse;  Hephaistos, the god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, armorers and fire, had his mythical forge inside Mount Aetna, according to Sicilian Greeks; the myth of Medusa, one of the Gorgons, originated in Libya, whence came the Sicani, and images of her head have adorned insignia of Sicilia for thousands of years. 
         Sicilia played a role in ancient literature, as well.   The blind poet Homer wrote that during Odysseus' long journey home after the Trojan war, he and his men were held captive by the giant  Polyphemus of the shepherd Cyclopes tribe of Sicilia.  Homer also tells of the dreaded Scylla and Charybdis, the monsters guarding the ramparts of the Straits of Messina between Italy and Sicilia, were Odysseus' ship was destroyed.  And the Aeolian Islands, from which the Sirens and their songs enticed Odysseus' crew, are Sicilia's Isole Eolie.   Thucydides claims that the human Sicani tribes were preceded on Sicilia by the giant, somewhat mythical Laestrygonians and Cyclopes.
          The still-used phrase "under the sword of Damocles" originated in Sicilia during the time of the Greeks.  The tyrant of Syiracuse, Dionysius, was a Sicilian-born ruler who extended his control over most of Sicilia by the end of his reign in 367 B.C.E.  One of his advisors was the courtier Damocles, also Sicilian-born.  Once, to demonstrate to Damocles the fear that Dionysius himself felt, he had Damocles sit at dinner with him, under a sword that was suspended by a single horse- hair. Since then, anyone under threat or fear of uncertain fortune is said to be "under the sword of Damocles".
          Aside from the mythical and legendary, in Sicilia, Greek philosophy and science were nurtured by Archimedes, the father of invention, who was born and lived his life in Sicilia.  Among his other contributions to science, this native Sicilian from Syracuse was the first to develop the concept of P  or pi, the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter, and the basis of virtually all rational mathematics that followed. He invented the water screw for lifting water, and developed the concepts of buoyancy and fluid pressure.  Aeschylus, the great Greek dramatist and author of 'Prometheus Bound', was not born in Sicilia, but he lived there when he developed methods of production, acting, set design and other theatrical concepts that revolutionized the art.  Sicilian Greek artists Kimon and Euainetos produced coins that remain among the most coveted in the world

          The Greeks left a profound heritage on the island, including the introduction of the cultivation of olives and grapes (how would we make 'Italian' dressing without them?), and the construction of classic Greek structures such as the Amphitheatre at Syracuse and, in the Valle dei Templi (Valley of Temples) in Agrigento, the Temple of Castor and Pollux.  The the temples are actually on a hill, but the area was called a "Val" (region) by later-arriving Saracens. The Arabic word "Val" is similar to the Sicilian "valle" (valley), so we have the contradiction of the "Valley" of Temples being situated on a hill! Near that Sicilian hill also stand the remains of the largest Greek temple in history, the Temple of Zeus. 
           Greek, though Sicilianized, became the common language, and even after the Roman conquest, when Latin was the 'official' language, Greek was spoken by a multitude of Sicilians, well into the Middle Ages.  And though Greek power was on the  decline while Roman fortunes were rising, the impacts of the Sicilian Greeks on Roman culture and civilization grew in the south and moved northward, starting from the shores of Sicilia and spreading throughout the Italian peninsula.   Sicilia, which would one day be subjugated by Rome, was, during its early Greek occupation, more civilized than the Rome of the same time.
            Carthage continued its overtures on Sicilia with attacks on Himera and later on Syracuse, each led by different rulers named Hamilcar.  In 406 BC, the first Hamilcar's admiral, Nicia, conquered a high rampart in central Sicilia, and built a fort there, named after him: Castro Nicia (Fort of Nicia, later to become Caltanissetta).  However, the Siceliot cities generally prevailed, and until 264 BC, most of Sicilia was controlled by Greeks, except for the far eastern reaches still held by Carthage.  The ports and larger towns were inhabited mainly by Greek colonists, their descendants, and native Sicilians who had been assimilated.  The interior held those natives who could eke out a living without incursions by outsiders.  The main language spoken throughout the island was Greek.  Sicilia, essentially, was Greek. Then came the Romans!

THE ROMANS (264 BC ~ 476 AD)

          Legend (and Livy) has it that Aeneas, a Greek ally of Troy, fled to the Apennine Peninsula after the Trojan War and founded Rome in about 1100 BC.  The Roman version says that Romulus founded the city in 753 BC, and murdered his brother Remus in the process.  Whichever version is true, the fact remains that as Rome developed, a great influence on its politics, its pantheon of gods, its ideals and even the fashions worn by its citizens was Hellas and its closest region to Rome, Magna Graecia, including Sicilia. Conversely, Rome's major influence on the island Sicilia did not begin until centuries later, in 264 BC, when Rome began hostilities against the Carthaginians there, waging the First Punic War.  After twenty-three years, by 241 BC, Rome had won the war, and the island Sicilia became the first external province of the Roman Empire.
        While 'Rome' is considered by many to be synonymous with 'Italy', and since Sicilia today comprises an autonomous region of Italy, some may believe that Sicilia remained under Roman or 'Italian' rule for most of its history.  The facts speak otherwise.  After the seven-hundred or so years of Roman dominance, Sicilia saw a wave of rulers from various other cities, states, or nations for nearly one and a half millennia, before becoming a part of the "reunified" nation of Italy.  That is not to say that the Romans' stay did not have ineradicable effects on the people, the culture, and the very fabric of Sicilia.
         With the Romans came their language, Latin.   Official, or 'High' Latin was spoken by the ruling classes, the nobility and privileged 'cives', or 'citizens'.  The common people, that is the subjects or slaves of Rome during this period, continued to speak Greek.  A local tongue developed slowly, with nuances of ordinary, 'vulgar' Latin.  
         Because of the closeness of the lower Appenine Peninsula to Sicilia, and the numerous social and political connections between the island of Sicilia and the region of the "two Sicilies" (not the least of which was the original influx of Siculi from the mainland), the language that developed throughout the region, including the southern mainland, was very similar to Sicilian.  Today, Calabrian, or Calabresi, is virtually a co-dialect of Sicilian.
.        The stage had been set for Rome's first expansion outside the Apennine Peninsula in 288 BC, when the Mamertines, southern peninsular Campanians who were former mercenaries of the Greek king of Syracuse, captured the strategic Siceliot town of Messana (now Messina), killing most of its citizens and making it a raiding base. After twenty years, when the Greeks tried to suppress the Mamertine activity, the raiders appealed to both Rome and Carthage for help.  When Carthage sent troops, Rome reacted by invading Sicilia, and the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage began in 264 BC.  The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca (father of Hannibal) was successful in his battles on land in in Sicilia, but the Carthaginians lost at sea, and by 241 BC, Rome had not only won the war with Carthage, but weakened the control of the Greeks.  Rome's position was solidified after the Second Punic War (311 BC).  Because Sicilia had sided with Carthage, Rome conquered and subjugated the island, which thus became Rome's first external province.  During the Third Punic War, fought outside of Sicilia, Rome further weakened Carthage and eventually eradicated it.
          The Roman Empire was in the midst of major expansion, and needed wheat, both to feed and quiet the populace at home, and to support its far-flung armies.  During this period, Sicilia became known as the granary of Rome, for its heavy production of grain.  Grain grew easily, with little oversight by landowners and little ingenuity required by the field hands.  Sicilia's wheat was, and still is,  grown during the winter to avoid the blazing sun of summer.  This winter wheat, or durum, is dense and hard and can be stored for long periods or shipped on equally long voyages, qualities that created a great demand for it in the ancient world. 
          The Romans wreaked ecological havoc, felling thousands of the island's trees to build ships for their navy, to gain farmland, and even to export lumber for construction of buildings in Rome itself.  Sicilia became a 'sub-colony', and the non-Roman inhabitants became slaves or servants, living in poverty.  Slave revolts broke out periodically, but were brutally suppressed.  In 63 BC, Roman general Pompey sacked Jerusalem and transported 30,000 Jews to Sicilia as slaves.  The role of slave and free Jews, and even of early Christians is not well recorded during the period of the Roman occupation of Sicilia; however it is known that Saint Paul preached in Siracusa on his way from Judaea to Rome.  Sicilia was evidently particularly receptive to Christianity, perhaps because of the large slave population, and among the earliest Christian martyrs (circa 250-300 AD) were Santa Agata of Catania and Santa Lucia of Siracusa.

          During this period, wealthy Roman citizens had 'latifundia', large estates surrounding their villas, in Sicilia.  The estates were vast, and the villas were in the Roman design with large buildings, baths and halls with Roman mosaic floors and walls, such as the Villa Romana del Casale near the present town of Piazza Armerina.   Often the Roman nobility and upper classes enslaved the Sicilian Greek natives as servants in the villas and workers in the fields; cruel class distinctions that would last for millennia.  The latifundia would eventually become the huge holdings, 'feudi', or fiefs of the medieval barons of ages to come.  Thus, he heritage left by the Romans can be summed up in this way: "land grabs, deforestation, and subjugation."  

'Bikini room' at Villa Casale, 325 AD

              While rich individual Romans built luxurious estates such as the Villa at Casale, these were private enterprises. The vast public works of aqueducts, roads and temples that were iconic in Rome were not undertaken in Sicilia.  Rome used Sicilia as its breadbasket, and in doing so enslaved (that is, those that they did not kill) most of its Greek-Sicilian and remnant Carthaginian populace. Rome also imported to Sicilia tens of thousands of slaves from other conquered lands.  The more slaves, the more wheat was grown, to ship to Rome and its military legions.  And just as Sicilia became the first colony of Rome, it was the first place to have popular revolts against her, in 135 BC. when the slave Eunus led thousands in a revolution which marched from Enna to Siracusa, and again in 104 BC when the slave Salvio instigated an uprising in across the island.  Needless to say, both revolts were violently and mercilessly put down.  Some of Salvio's rebels were promised they would live if they surrendered.  They did so, only to be sent to Rome, to be torn apart by wild animals in the Coliseum's spectacles. 
          During this period Rome appointed governors, each of whom would oversee Sicilia for a one year term, ruling from Siracusa.  The great Roman lawyer Marcus Tullius Cicero spent time in Sicilia in the first century BC, and admired the land and its people.  A contemporary  of Cicero was the governor Gaius Verres, who managed to serve for not one, but three years, during which, according to Cicero, he plundered and raped his way through Sicilia, appropriating untold treasure which he sent back to Rome for his personal collection.  He stole priceless statues of Greek gods from Agrigento, Termini Imerese and Segesta, and in their place had statues of himself and his family erected at taxpayer's expense.  In her book Sicily - Three Thousand Years of Human History, Sandra Benjamin states: "Though he [Verres"] showed great talent in stealing from the Sicilians, he was just one such official in a long line that extends to the present day."    
          When Rome's first dictator Gaius Julius Caesar was killed in 46 BC, his great-nephew and nominal successor Octavian fought a war over his succession, with Pompey and his allies. The war was fought and won by Octavian in Sicilia and the seas around it, and Octavian emerged the victor.  He later was known as Augustus Caesar, the first to use "Caesar" as a title, meaning "Emperor".
           More and more often, Rome sent patricians and politicians to manage and populate Sicilia's larger cities.  These cities were taxed according to the favor they had curried with Rome. To the residents of those that had supported Rome in its conquest of Sicilia, Roman citizenship was granted.  Not so for cities that opposed Rome, or for the pre-existing Sicilian populace, whether they be "native" Greeks; aboriginal Elami, Sicani or Siculi; or slaves brought in from the far reaches of the empire.  Many of those "non-citizens" were relegated to the small interior towns and the lonely hills.  The Roman elite, including many absentee landlords, slowly absorbed the plots of most small farm-holders, growing wheat almost exclusively on ever-larger tracts, the latifundia.  Thus, northerners from the Apennine Peninsula ran the richest cities and the vast farms, while the Sicilians took orders and did the heavy labor.  Another theme that was destined to be repeated.
            It is said that the period of Roman dominance in Sicilia represents the longest period of 'peace' (if slave revolts are not counted) in the history of the island, as foreign incursions were few after the Second Punic War.  Yet for many, it was the peace of subservience and obedience. Slaves were generally treated harshly and fed poorly, and sometimes their recourse was to become 'briganti' (brigands) in small groups that hid in the hills and sustained themselves by poaching, stealing, and robbing whatever and from whomever they could.  This 'brigandage' was to haunt the hills of Sicilia into modern times.  Often the citizenry was fearful to report or punish the brigands, who were owned by powerful landlords, in fear of reprisal by their owners.  This practice of authority in essence condoning the brigandage also persisted, with variations, for generations.   Eventually, there grew to be two types of brigandage.  One was simple banditry, into which which some men felt forced, in order to survive in the face of brutal, unjust authority.  These bandits were outlaws without involvement or interaction with the "rightful" authorities.   The other form of brigandage was that which eventually developed into the Mafia, which used threats and force to serve its own purposes. It infiltrated and often was encouraged and even directed by elements of Sicilian authority: the nobility, the Church hierarchy, or the police.  
            And the great estates, the latifundia, would characterize the countryside for a millennium and more, from their ownership by Roman nobles until the twentieth century, when descendants of medieval nobility continued to own vast tracts, often poorly managed or even lying fallow.  Individual or family ownership and management of small tracts of land, or 'smallholding' was virtually non-existent.
            While Latin was used by the establishment, ordinary folk throughout the island still spoke Greek as their everyday language.  The strength of Greek influence was reflected in the fact that while its masters were Roman, the bulk of Sicilia's citizens followed Greek customs, spoke Greek, and considered themselves Greek.  One of the greatest Greek historians was Diodorus Siculus (Diodorus the Sicilian), born in Agyrium (Agira), who wrote a Library of World History in about 60 BC.  The remains of the Library of World History are the largest surviving corpus of any ancient Greek historian.  
           Vernacular language was tinged by the previous languages spoken by the masses, and by their unique local customs and culture.  These variations eventually became identified, each with a particular region, as a 'dialect' or language of that region.  So the beginnings of the first 'Romance language' appeared in the mixture of Latin and Greek spoken in Sicilia, with roots in the now forgotten Sicanian, Siculan, and Elymian tongues, as well as sprinklings of Phoenican.  The most persistent of these effects may be in names of places: Erice was the Eryx of the Elami; Enna the Henna of the Sicani; Mozia  and Lilibeo were the Phoenicians' Motya and Lilibaeum; and Trapani was Drepanon, Greek for 'sickle', the shape of its harbor, while Messina was the Greek's Messana.   Dozens of other examples exist. 
         The language of the masses eventually developed into a version of the modern Sicilian language.  That language, sadly, is not the 'official' language of Sicilia, since the Italian government now requires that 'Italian' be taught in Sicilian schools.  Young Sicilians now speak 'Italian', and 'la lingua Siciliana' (the Sicilian language) is an anachronism, spoken by the elderly, and by tourists from America and other lands; descendants whose forebears brought the Sicilian tongue with them when they emigrated. 

THE SARACENS (827 AD ~ 1072 AD)

              Saracens, Moors, Arabs - the rulers of Sicilia during this period, at the end of the 'Dark Ages', were called by various names, applied generally to the peoples united under the practice of Islam, and those who spoke Arabic.   Because they included both dark-skinned Caucasians and sometimes negroes, 'Moor' often is taken as synonymous with 'black', but the equivalent Sicilian term 'Mauro' evidently was used to describe appearance, not racial background.  The two-and-a- half centuries of Arab occupation of Sicilia were to bring profound influences on agriculture, science, engineering, cuisine, and social interactions. 

          In 827 AD, over ten thousand Arab and Berber troops landed at Cape Granitola near Mazara in the western part of the island.  The siege was a result of the Byzantine admiral Euphemius' offering the governorship of the island to Ziyadat Allah, the Aghlabid Emir of Al Qayrawan (in Tunisia) in exchange for his support against the Byzantine emperor. 
          The practical result of the 'Arab assistance' was that the Arabs eliminated all the Byzantines (including Euphemius), and by 965 AD the Moors had completely taken over the island of Sicilia, which became known as the Emirate of Sicily.  Panormos became Bal'harm (it is now Palermo); Enna became Kasr' Yanni, then Castrogiovanni, and is now once again Enna; Marsala is from the Arabic Mars' Allah, Port of Allah.   Castrum Niciai, where the Moors reconstructed the castle of Pietrarossa (Red Rock), was the 'Fort of Nicia', a Carthaginian admiral who invaded Sicily.  'Fort' in Arabic is 'qalat', and the Moors thought Niciai sounded like the Arabic word 'nisaà' (which means 'women'), so it was renamed by them Qalat al Nisaà (Fort of Women), which today is called Caltanissetta.

Ruins of Pietrarossa

          The Arabs introduced irrigation qanats or canals, cotton agriculture, and the silk industry.  They introduced yasmin, or jasmine (gelsomino) for its sweet-scented flowers and use in tea. They also brought asparagus, oranges, lemons, limes, figs, dates, spinach and eggplant, rice, and sugar cane, all of which in turn affected Sicilian cuisine.  The Sicilian word for a fried dessert, sfinci, is from the Arabic sfang, fried dough;  the Sicilian aranciu (orange) and the English word for the fruit are from the Arabic naranj.  The Sicilian word for artichoke, carciofu, is of Arabic origin (al’qarshuf), as is the plant itself, as well as its relative, the thistle artichoke, or cardoon.  Spinaci or spinach is from the Arabic esbinakh; limone (lemon) from laimun; riso (rice) from ar-ruzz; and cotone (cotton) from qutn.  Many of these words, somewhat modified,  have since been absorbed into the English language.
          A sweet Sicilian confection with sesame seeds and almonds (torrone, in Italy) is cubbaita, from the Arabic concoction qubbayt.  The Arabs made sharbat (sherbet, sorbetto) from the snows of Mount Etna, flavored with the essences of flowers and citrus ('Italian ice'!).  The name of those beloved giuggiulena (sesame seed) cookies is from the Arabic giulgiulan; and babbaluci, or snails, are babus in Arabic. Magazzino, "warehouse" or "stockroom" is from the Arabic mahzan.  The quintessential Sicilian dessert, cannoli, is the plural of cannolo (little cane), so called because its shape (and taste) emulated the Arab sugar cane.  The Sicilian custom of breaking bread, rather than slicing it with a knife as in Italy, is an Arabic heritage.  
          The Arabs also started organized the tuna fishing or 'hunts' which became an important industry, in the Mediterranean Sea, near the island.  These tradition-steeped hunts still take place at a few sites near Sicilia's west coast.  The tuna hunt is la mattanza, from the Spanish for 'the killing'. Its leaders are still called rais (Arabic for 'chief'), and the fishing parties use chants so ancient that the fishermen themselves do not know the meaning of some of the words, probably archaic Arabic.
          Perhaps one of the most enduring contributions of the Arabs was the introduction of thoroughbred horses, and promulgation of breeding methods for the animals, for which Sicilia is world-renowned to the present day.  The prototypical Sicilian horse is the San Fratello, a strong, powerful breed, usually black or bay, known for its endurance.
          Like Caltanissetta, place names beginning with 'Calta' are from qalat, the Arabic word for 'fort', as in Caltabellotta, Caltagirone, Caltavuturo, and several others.  The word zero, in Sicilian and English, is from the Arabic sifr; ragazzu and ragazza, meaning 'boy' and 'girl', are from the Arabic raqqas, meaning 'messenger'.   The Sicilian word tazza, meaning 'cup' and zuccheru, as well as its English translation sugar, are derived from Arabic.  The Arabic kameesh (shirt) became camisa in Sicilian, and meskin (poor person) became mischinu.  And the Arabic word mahias, meaning 'bold man', is believed by some to be the origin of the Sicilian word mafia.
          In part due to the practice of male polygamy, the population of Sicilia doubled under Arab rule, and by 1066, about half its citizens were Muslim.  Arabic was widely spoken and it was a major influence on the developing Sicilian language.  Muslim practices dating from the medieval Arab domination of the island continued to be reflected in Sicilian nuptial customs, particularly as they existed before the twentieth century. The church may have eventually supplanted the mosque, but the idea of a young bride being betrothed, without her consent, to an older man she barely knew, was remarkably similar to the marital traditions that still exist in Saudi Arabia and several other Muslim countries.        

THE NORMANS (1061 AD ~ 1194 AD) Inroads by the Church and the British

              The name Normans literally means Norsemen, or Men from the North.  It was applied to the Scandinavians, including, in some cases Vikings, who raided, conquered and settled much of Europe during and after the Dark Ages.  One stronghold of these fair-haired, fair-skinned transplanted northerners was Normandy, in what is now France, where through intermarriage they acquired Frankish, Roman, and Celtic blood.  Though descended from Scandinavians, they spoke French.  From Normandy, they made excursions to other parts of Europe, west to the British Isles, and south to southern Italy, where Roger de Hauteville became Ruggieró d'Altavilla Conte di Calabria (Roger de Hauteville, Count of Calabria), on the "toe" of the peninsula.
           The de Hauteville family were important leaders of the Normans, and in 1061, landed a small armed force on Sicilia.  By 1066, while his cousin William the Conqueror was winning the Battle of Hastings to conquer Britain, Ruggieró (Roger) and his brother Roberto Guiscardo (Robert the Cunning) were well on their way to controlling Sicilia.  This took place with the blessings of the Papacy (the Latin, Catholic faction of the Christian church), which encouraged the suppression of Islam and Orthodox Christianity.  Thus, although Sicilia was not actively involved in the Crusades, Ruggieró's exploits were a prelude. 
           A history of the rulers of Sicilia starting with this period might also properly include 'THE POPES'.  Medieval Europe had a 'tripartite' organization consisting of the Roman Catholic Church, the nobility, and 'citizens'. ('Citizens' were only a privileged few: peasants, serfs and slaves had no franchise).  In many instances the rulers of nations or states were vassals of the popes, doing their bidding for heavenly rewards, and, more practically, for earthly gains.  It was important to the papacy that Sicilia, then considered essentially a part of Africa, be brought into the European (papal) sphere of influence.  Further, the Church owned vast lands and continually strove to add to its holdings, causing frequent disagreements between popes, kings and barons about to whom the land actually belonged (that is, who could use it, tax it, rent or sell it).

         Thus, while northern and central Europe were under the shadow of the 'Dark Ages', Sicilia was, literally, an island of culture, diversity, tolerance and civilization, as the era witnessed a proliferation of cultural activity.   The 'poets school', of which Ruggieró II was a patron, was frequented by many famous writers. The most prominent of these was Cielo D'Alcamo (Michele or 'Michael' of Alcamo), who reportedly wrote the most beautiful Medieval love poem, 'Il Contrasto' ('the Quarrel').  The school was to develop into the influential 'Sicilian School'.  The first sonnet, whose invention is attributed to Sicilian Giacomo da Lentini, was composed in the Sicilian language.

Author and critic Anthony Di Renzo summarizes Roger II's exceptional life as follows:

Roger II, Sicily’s greatest king, died 860 years ago on February 26 [1154]. The nephew of Robert Guiscard and son of Count Roger I, Roger II came to the throne at the age of nine and wrested control from his regent when he was sixteen. Crushing all opposition, Roger ruled Sicily until his death at the age of fifty-eight. Contemporaries claimed that he accomplished more in his sleep than other people did when awake.

Raised by Greek and Muslim tutors and secretaries in an island populated by Arabs and Greeks, Roger was more sophisticated than his hard-bitten, rough-and-ready Norman ancestors, most of whom were illiterate. Through shrewd diplomacy and sheer audacity, he outmaneuvered his lunkish Hauteville cousins and annexed Apulia and Calabria. He still lacked a royal title so when Innocent II and Anacletus II squabbled over the papacy, Roger supported the latter in return for a coronation on Christmas Day, 1130 in Palermo Cathedral. When Anacletus died, Roger defeated Innocent’s army the following year, took Innocent prisoner, and forced the pope to confirm his position as King of Sicily and overlord of Southern Italy. In a mosaic in Martorana Church Roger had himself depicted like a Byzantine emperor, being crowned by Christ.

Roger built and beautified churches, most notably the Cathedral of Cefalù, but most of his subjects were Muslims and Jews, who adored him. Much to the Rome’s dismay, Roger was a paragon of religious tolerance. His scarlet and gold-embroidered mantle was inscribed in Arabic and dated according to the Islamic calendar. His kitchen was staffed with Sephardic chefs, who kept the Christian king kosher. He flirted with Greek Orthodoxy, whether out of piety or spite. To project divine munificence, Roger kept an ostentatious court. Behind the scenes, however, he counted every penny to create an efficient civil service and a powerful navy. His fleet captured every North African port between Tunis and Tripoli, seized Malta and Corfu, harried the coasts of Greece, and abducted numerous Theban workers to staff Palermo’s silk factory. The king steered clear of crusading, but his ships sailed up the Bosphorus and impertinently fired arrows into the Byzantine Emperor’s garden.

Roger, however, valued peace more than war. Known for his intellectual curiosity and his regard for learning, he presided over Europe’s most glittering court among scholars from both the West and the Arab world. He discussed everything under the sun with philosophers and mathematicians, doctors and geographers, in French or Latin, Arabic or Greek, and he appointed a commission to collect, sift, and assemble all available knowledge about the physical world. After fifteen years, the commission produced “The Book of Roger,” which John Julius Norwich rightly calls “the greatest geographical work of the Middle Ages.”

“The earth,” it begins, “is round like a sphere.” And for forty years Roger made Sicily its center. When he finally died of overwork, he was buried in Palermo Cathedral in a porphyry tomb fit more for an emperor than a king, dressed in Byzantine royal robes and crowned with a tiara hung with pearl pendants. His third and last wife bore him a posthumous daughter Constance, who married Emperor Henry VI. Roger’s grandson Frederick II (called “Stupor Mundi,” the Astonishment of the World) would rule the Holy Roman Empire from Sicily. Many historians consider his reign the beginning of the Renaissance.
 

           With Ruggieró II's death in 1154, the Kingdom passed to his heirs, some abler than others.  His son Guglielmo Primo, in Sicilian Guglielmu Primu (William I) was known as "William the Bad", and his grandson Guglielmu Secunnu (William II) was called "William the Good", more to differentiate the two than because of any merits of the second.  Under the influence of his advisor, the English churchman Walter of the Mill (Gualtieri Ofamilio), William II married Joan Plantagenet, sister of the future King Richard Lion-Heart, and daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, further involving English influence in Sicilia's affairs.
            The realm was essentially ruled by Walter of the Mill, as 'Emir and Archbishop of Palermo', but Guglielmu II was responsible for the construction of Sicilian marvels including the mosaic-encrusted Basilica of Monreale, a world-famous cathedral near Palermo.  When he died without an heir, the barons of Sicily installed an illegitimate grandson of Ruggieró II, Tancredo II, as their king, and imprisoned Guglielmu II's wife, Joan of England.  This led to invasion of Sicilia by Philip Augustus of France, and shortly afterward by his Crusader ally Richard Lion-Heart, who demanded the release of his sister Joan. After capturing and sacking Messina, Lion-Heart negotiated with Tancredi for Joan's release.  The terms included the promised betrothal  of Tancredi's daughter to Lion-Heart's nephew, as well as a gift from Lion-Heart to Tancredi: a sword reputed to be King Arthur's Excalibur.  

Monreale Basilica



Lion-Heart's Arms

            Tancredi and Lion-Heart's agreements were moot, because in 1194, Ruggeru II's daughter Constance (Costanza), claimed the Sicilian throne by right of descent, and married Holy Roman Emperor Henry (Enrico) IV. The reign of Sicilia passed to his Swabian family, the Hohenstaufens.  But to this day, the Normans and their predecessors the Moors are memorialized in the common talk of the Sicilian people: if a girl or woman is swarthy, with dark eyes and black hair, she is called 'maura' or 'morra' (Moor); if she is pale, with blue eyes and light hair, she is called 'normana' (Norman).
               Though his Sicily was to be ceded to and dominated by numerous rulers, some from the island itself, but most from foreign capitals, Roger established the boundaries of Il Regnu as they would be recognized over the next seven hundred years; so beginning with the reign of the first Roger, for eight hundred years before the formation of the country know known as Italy, in one form or another there was a Kingdom of Sicily.  After the Normans, it passed first to the Hohenstaufens, whose crest is shown at the right.

GERMANY (THE SWABIANS) (1194 AD ~ 1266 AD)

             In 1194, the region today known as Germany was comprised of several duchies, one of which was Swabia.  The Holy Roman Empire included these German-speaking states, and its ruling family was the Hohenstaufens of Swabia.
           The Dukes of Swabia became Kings of Germany during the rule of the distinguished Frederick I "Barbarossa" ("Redbeard") in 1152.  From 1138 until 1254, the Hohenstaufens (from their ancestral home, the Castle of Stauf) ruled as emperors of a loose feudal confederation known as the Holy Roman Empire. The sovereign state of Swabia, in the 1190s, was the focal point of a vaguely defined German unity which was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, but it was Europe's most powerful monarchy, having been founded by Charlemagne in 800. 
           Enrico (Henry) IV was the second son of Barbarossa, and through his marriage to Ruggieró II's daughter Constance, claimed the throne of Sicilia.  Constance gave birth to Federicu Secondo who, like his grandfather Ruggeru II, was one of Europe's most enlightened rulers.  Though he was in fact Federicu II, he was the first King Frederick of Sicilia.  Later kings named Federicu further confused this naming process.  Enrico IV died in 1197. His widow raised their young son in Sicily, but many of his vassals reneged on their feudal obligations. Reaching the age of majority, Federicu II sought to remedy this in a realm which included regions from Saxony to Palestine.  He ruled from Palermo, though he traveled almost continually. To appease the papacy, which feared loss of power (and land) to a 'Holy Roman Empire' that might have included Sicilia and parts of Africa and Asia Minor, Federicu II ruled his kingdoms of Sicilia (which included Naples and the southern Italian peninsula) and Jerusalem separately. They were not strictly a part of the Holy Roman Empire; they were distinct realms which happened to be ruled by the same monarch, Federicu II.  In the early 1200s Federicu II passed important legislation, the Constitutions of Melfi, defining the world's first absolute monarchy, only a few years after the English had constrained the concept of their monarchy, with the Magna Carta.
          Some Norman influence continued under the Swabians.  What was to become the Italian language was developed in Sicilia, by the scholars of La Scuola Siciliana, "the Sicilian School", at the Palazzo dei Normanni (the Norman Palace) built by Ruggieró II.  La Scuola was a group of authors and poets who frequented the sumptuous halls of the palace under the reign of Ruggieró's grandson Federicu II. Because of his multilingual ability and his patronage of art and culture, Federicu II was called Stupor Mundi, Wonder of the World.  The influence of the Sicilian poetic school was felt as far away as Tuscany, where at the end of the 13th century Dante Alighieri incorporated its principles in his work.  The father of the modern Italian language, Dante, in his De Vulgari Eloquentia, said "In effect, this vernacular [Sicilian] seems to deserve a higher praise than the others, since all the poetry written by Italians can be called Sicilian". The new vernacular Italian, strongly influenced by the Sicilian language, as opposed to official Latin, was adopted and further refined by Dante into the Tuscan dialect, which was eventually selected as the one 'language' of the diverse states that later became 'unified Italy'. 
         But Sicilia changed profoundly under the Swabians.  Federicu II quarreled with the Papacy, leading to frequent excommunications, which affected him little.  But in spite of his seeming contempt for things religious, during his long reign, the Church in Sicilia became almost completely Latinized (Roman Catholic). He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1220, and ruled Germany and Burgundy in addition to Sicilia, though he deferred to the papacy's fears of hegemony by reigning Sicilia as a separate nation, not part of the Empire.  He gained Jerusalem in a bloodless Crusade, and when the papal representative refused to crown him, he placed the crown on his own head, becoming King of Jerusalem.
         In Sicilia, there were no Byzantine parishes by the year 1250, and only a few Orthodox monasteries remained. Thousands of Sicilian Muslim Arabs who had revolted were 'exiled' to the 'heel' of the Italic peninsula (at that time part of the Kingdom of Sicily).   They were sent to Lucera, in Apulia (Puglia), along with many Jews.  Thousands more Muslims and Jews remained on the island portion of Sicilia, but converted to Catholicism.  Mosques were a rare sight in Sicilia by 1250.  When Enrico IV had begun his reign, Sicilia was a multicultural kingdom; a mere half-century later, by the end of the Swabian era, it was  essentially 'European'.  Its customs, language (Sicilian), and law now were almost 'Italian', even though all bore the mark of Greek, Arab and Byzantine influences. 
          Federicu II's Kingdom of Sicily, with its capital at Palermo, still extended onto the Italian mainland to include most of southern Italy.  He returned to the Italic peninsula in 1237 and stayed there for the remaining thirteen years of his life, represented in Germany by his son by Yolande of Jerusalem, Conrad.  And, in a dark portent of the future (Hitler's yellow star), in a land that had known the greatest religious tolerance in all of Europe, Federicu II required Jews and other non-Christians  to wear identifying clothing.
          There was evident dislike of Federicu II by the Sicilian people because of his rapacious taxes.  Because he claimed all land as property of the crown with barons holding temporary rights which must be renewed after every generation, the nobility was often in philosophical if not physical rebellion.  Nevertheless, because of Federicu's force of personality and his power as Holy Roman Emperor, a stronger national identity was being forged among Sicilians, continuing what had begun in Norman times.  But Fredericu II died in 1250, and had weak successors: his son Conrad, his grandson Conradin, and his illegitimate son Manfredo (Manfred).  They were suppressed by the French pope Clement IV, who eventually installed a papal vassal, Charles I of Anjou, son of Louis VIII of France, as the king of Sicilia (Carlu Primu d'Angiu, Ré di Sicilia).  Carlu acceded to the pope's claim on the crown's lands, which further alienated the Sicilian barons.  This was the reign of the Angevins (Angioini) (kings from Anjou), who ruled from mainland Napoli (Naples), with a Viceré (Viceroy) in place in Sicilia.  Thereafter, the island rarely had a resident king.

SPAIN (THE ARAGONESE) (1282 AD ~ 1492 AD)

ITALY (1861 AD to 1922 AD) ~ HOUSE OF SAVOY

             Garibaldi was unhappy with the exclusion of Rome and the Papal States from the new, unified Italy.  He raised a troop to attack and take over Rome, but was opposed at Aspromonte, on the mainland, by forces of the new Kingdom of Italy, which he had actually helped create.  He refused to fire on them, but nevertheless was himself shot, and his dream failed.  After he recovered, he retired to Caprera, his small private island off Sardinia.  There, after several other forays into European conflicts and politics, he died in 1882.  As for Sicilia, from the first days of unification, there were signs of unrest there.  Rather than enfranchising the local populace, 'the North', as the mainland is called, sent military forces, police officials and public functionaries to Sicilia to fill important posts.  Rather than a partner that had contributed greatly to the unification, Sicilia was instead treated as a conquered nation.
            A grievance that sparked revolt was compulsory military service, which had not existed even under Spanish rule.  The king was a Sabaudu (a Savoyan, of the House of Savoy), and the Italian government was referred to as 'Sabaudu' or 'Piemontese' (Piedmontese).  The youth of the commoners were conscripted to fight for the Piemontese government on war fronts far to the north from Sicilia, while the nobility and privileged classes were allowed to purchase exemptions for their sons.  Many peasants were sent off while their fields lay fallow and their families had no means of support.  On New Year's Day in 1862, a crowd in Castellammare del Golfo in Trapani province attacked the Italian National Guard and killed the commandant and others, with cries of 'Out with the Savoy (Vittorio Emanuele)!', 'Down with the mercenaries (the Garibaldini)!', and 'Long live the Republic!'.  Guards and soldiers at Calatafimi and Alcamo in Trapani were beaten and chased by rebels.  Two days later, Sabaudu riflemen landed and put down the insurgents, killing hundreds, including some non-combatant women and children as well as priests.  Alfonso Maria Cerrati, who described the revolt, claims that such incidents were not reported, but rather 'covered up' by the government.
            Into this mix came Sicilia's greatest author-playwright, Luigi Pirandello, born in Caos, near Girgenti (Agrigento) in 1867.   He was the son of wealthy parents who had supported Garibaldi against the Borboni, but were disillusioned by the realities of unification.  Pirandello's works, especially the dramas written in his native Sicilian, echoed that climate of disillusion, eventually earning him the Nobel Prize for Literature.  A near-contemporary, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa of Palermo, wrote 'Il Gattopardo' ('The Leopard'), which related the life of a fictional Sicilian noble during and after the Risorgimento.  'The Leopard' was acclaimed as the Sicilian 'Gone With the Wind', and was the basis of an award-winning 1963 motion picture starring Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale.
             The period following the Risorgimento was marked by massive emigration from the Mazziurnu (southern Italy and Sicilia).  Some of the reasons for this efflux are explained by Nicola Colella, who writes:

             This is a history of Sicilia, not of America, but it must be noted that during this period about four and a half million Italians emigrated to the United States, from a country with only about 14 million people. Over three and a half million of them were from the Mazziiurnu region, the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies!  Unable to earn a living in southern Italy or Sicilia, many became migratory laborers.

             In the period just prior to 1900, nearly eighty percent of Italian immigrants were men in their teens and twenties, who planned to work, save, and eventually return to their homeland.  In fact, only twenty to thirty percent of these immigrants permanently returned to Italy.  Whether they ever planned to return or not, the fact remains that millions of young Sicilian men (as did many from other lands) left their fathers, mothers, and siblings, often never to see them again, to travel thousands of miles under severe conditions to a foreign land.   And often those who decided to remain in America were later joined by their wives: teenage girls with babes in arms, who sailed in the fetid holds of steamers plying waters infested with warships and hostile submarines.

       Rosa Alessi Coniglio, age 21, and her son Gaetano Coniglio, 11 months, sailed on the steamship 'Patria' from Sicily to Ellis Island, from November 28 through December 14, 1914.  They traveled in "steerage" with 1,848 other souls.

             It has been said that during this period a 'criminal element' also emigrated, forming the basis for the 'American Mafia'.  However, it is plausible to assume that for many honest workers and peasant farmers, the growth of the 'mafia' in Sicilia was just one more reason to leave.  Those who remained were subject to conflicting social forces.  Most Church holdings, in all of Italy and Sicilia, including schools, were confiscated by the Piemontese government. There were strong anti-clerical feelings among the populace because of long-standing abuse of power by the church, but these feelings were conflicted with support of Church customs which had provided them with snatches of happiness during town religious festi, or feast days.
             During this period, marriages performed by the Church were not recognized as legal by the state.  Thus, a couple married in church received its blessings and the moral right to cohabit, but unless they were also married in a civil ceremony, their union was illegitimate, as would be their children.  Couples would marry in church, and later that day, or on the next day, would visit the town's offices to have a civil marriage performed and legally recorded, legitimizing any heirs.
            Schools were closed for long periods during the transfer from Church authority, and illiteracy became even more widespread.  Important new industries gradually emerged in the North, but not in Sicilia, where a majority of the greatest resources, the vast estates and the sulfur mines, were still owned by the aristocracy and exploited for their own gain.  Many contadini, or peasant, dirt farming sharecroppers, scratched out a meager existence on the depleted land, paying the 'noble'  landowners rent, forced to purchase equipment and supplies from them, and then to share half the land's produce.  Those who could not rent or own land turned to work as sulfur miners, or zolfatai, but their economic lot was even worse than the contadini, with a sulfur miner earning the equivalent of about $1.50 for a day's labor, from before dawn, until after dusk.   
            Officials and law officers from the north found themselves among a people they considered boorish and ignorant, notwithstanding the fact that if there had been no Sicilian uprisings, there would have been no Resorigmento, and no Kingdom of Italy.  The northerners scorned those who spoke Sicilian, erroneously considered by them to be not a true, history-filled language, but a corrupt 'dialect' of the 'refined' Italian spoken in the north.  Conditioned by centuries of repression by foreigners, Sicilians were mistrustful of the Italian National Police, or carabinieri, most of whom were from northern Italy.  The 'old ways', of protecting one's self and family, of honor, and of distrust of newcomers or strangers were deeply bred.  Omertà, or 'manhood' and the silence that accompanied it were a code of honor.  Sicilians did not inform the carabinieri of wrongs committed against them.  Many brought their complaints to local 'mafia' chiefs, who for a price would adjudicate disagreements, settle arguments, and even exact vengeance.  Ironically, if the chiefs were aligned with the authorities, or the perpetrators of the injustice, or if those paid more, it might be the victim who suffered the vengeance! 
            Italy's involvement in World War I had important impacts on Sicilia.  Conscription of the flower of Sicilian youth further reduced the worker base and caused more land to lie fallow, worsening already poor harvests.  Sicilian peasants went to war in the north, often with a few sons of Sicilian barons as commanders.  This led to some feeling of unity and hope of enfranchisement, if the workers ever returned safely.  However, because the northern factories must be kept productive, many northern youths were allowed to remain civilians, manning the factories, while poor Sicilians saw more and more of their fellows ordered into the trenches of war.  The end of the costly, mostly inconclusive war brought more social unrest and calls for reform in the north as well as the south.
             Amid the turmoil of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some existing Sicilian social 'institutions' strengthened, and new ones grew:  the 'modern' mafia as well as its competing Società, or Mutual Aid Societies, and even the socialist Fasci dei Lavoratori were essentially Sicilian in character and developed locally, while Fascism, which developed in the north with Mussolini, eventually enveloped Sicilia as well.  It is also ironic that in the early nineteen-twenties, two forces came to be that would, in the following years, impact both Sicilia and the Mafia: one was Fascism, the other was Salvatore 'Turiddu' Giuliano, called by some "The Sicilian Robin Hood".

            The mafia's goals and activities were intertwined with those of the traditional masters of Sicilia: the church, the nobility, the government, and the police; and in fact individual mafiosi were often members of that powerful quartet. Their interests were mutual. The evidence does not support the offhand claims by some that Giuliano was a mafioso.  Rather,  he appears to have been an independent bandit leader who struggled against the repressive authorities, including the Mafia and its influential patrons, for motives that may have been noble, or personal, or both. 

Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory ~ (1943 AD to 1944 AD)

               The CIS gained support after the armistice, and demanded the abdication of King Vittore Emmanuele III, but disbanded in 1944 with the formation of the Movimento Indipendentista Siciliano (MIS) (Sicilian Independence Movement).   Though the Allies ostensibly prohibited political activity, they tolerated the existence of the MIS, which adopted a flag showing the ancient trinacria, and nine alternating stripes, one for each Sicilian province, in the colors of Sicilia, red and yellow. 

               The MIS developed an armed force known as Esercito Volontario per l'Indipendenza della Sicilia (EVIS) (Volunteer Army for the Independence of Sicily). The popular hero, separatist and bandit Salvatore Giuliano was an MIS member and flew its flag.  Giuliano became a legend of mid-twentieth century Sicilia, and his persona is shrouded in controversy.  It seems evident, however, that like the Mafia, he was a phenomenon whose emergence was the result of millennia of subjugation of the Sicilian common man.  As it did for so many of his forebears, his life ended tragically and violently, with even the nature of his death in question.

ITALY (1944 AD to 1946 AD) ~ HOUSE OF SAVOY

               After the end of World War II, in late 1945, EVIS operations led the Italian central government to send its troops in Sicily. Following an armed clash with the Carabinieri (Italian State Police, under control of northern Italy), Antonio Canepa, head of EVIS, was murdered. Vittore Emanuele III reigned as King of Italy (including Sicilia) until his abdication in April, 1946, when he was replaced briefly by his son Umberto II.  A special council started working on a special autonomy statute for Sicilia. It was approved by Umberto on May 15, 1946.  Umberto stepped down on June 2, 1946, when the modern Republic of Italy was formed.

REPUBLIC OF ITALY (1946 AD to 1948 AD)

SICILIAN AUTONOMOUS REGION (REGIONE AUTONOMA SICILIANA)
(1948 to the Present)

                This period of the history of Sicilia is as contentious and violent as its past, and it will take the author some time to sort fact from fiction. 
                But even in 2015, the Italian parliament recognizes a need to protect and enhance every possible minority language that is spoken within its national territory, BUT IT EXCLUDES the SICILIAN Language, which is spoken by over 10 million people (5.6 million in Sicily, and then in central-southern Calabria and Salento, as well as an unknown number of emigrants or descendants of immigrants from geographical areas where the Sicilian native speakers, particularly those who moved in the past centuries; in the US, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Germany and southern France.)  Steadfast Sicilians suggest that this is because, as usual, Italy does not even consider Sicily as part of its territory!
                Sicilian patriots to this day bemoan the fact that there is no official jurisdiction called Sicilia, but rather only a 'Sicilian Region'.  The island, however, retains the name, and the loyalty of its expatriate sons: Sicilia, Sicilia, tu si la patria mia!