Page 33 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Sicily

INTRODUCING SICIL Y  31

THE HISTORY

OF SICILY

The most striking aspect of Sicilian history is whom it became one of the most
the enormous influence of all the different prosperous and tolerant lands in the
peoples who have colonized the island. Mediterranean. The next rulers were the
Even the Sikanians, Elymians, Sicels and Normans, who laid the foundations for
Ausonians, the first populations to leave the splendid court of Frederick II in
traces of their cultures in Sicily, came from Palermo. A long period of decadence
other parts of the Mediterranean. They coincided with the dwindling of the
were followed by the Carthaginians and Middle Ages. The Angevins, Aragonese
then by the Greeks, under whom Sicily saw and Bourbons in turn took power in Sicily,
its first real period of great splendour. Greek but these dynasties exploited the island
domination ended in 212 BC with the siege and treated it like a colony instead of
of Syracuse, in which the great inventor improving life for the people there.
Archimedes was killed. For the next six Giuseppe Garibaldi’s expedition in 1860
centuries, the island became the “bread- paved the way for the unification of Italy.
basket” of the Roman Empire, and during Despite initial neglect by the central Italian
this period acquired a social system that government, Sicilians were finally given
was to be its distinguishing characteristic control of their own affairs. Yet many long-
for centuries. After the fall of the Roman standing economic and social problems
Empire and the barbarian invasions, Sicily still need to be tackled and resolved;
was ruled by the Byzantines. The island in particular, the continuing presence
was then conquered by the Arabs, under of the Mafia.

Sicily in a 1692 print showing its three provinces: Val di Demona, Val di Noto, Val di Mazara
Sicilian ceramic tiles from Mazara del Vallo, Northwestern Sicily

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