From the Greek to the Roman domination

The earliest inhabitants of Sicily were the Sicani, Elimi and Siculi (their origin it’s not know); the first sign of organized life are dated back to 7th-8th millennium BC.

Also the Phoenician left sign of their presence in the island; they probably had only trading reasons that, especially after the arrival of the Greek, they practice only in the western regions.

The Greeks, on the contrary, attracted by the beauties of the island, started colonizing in 735 BC on the east cost of the island with an interest in making agriculture and trading centers.

The Greeks started their colonies in Naxos (735 BC), Syracusai (734 BC), Leontinoi and Katane (729 BC), Megara Iblaea (728 BC), Zancle and Selinunte (628 BC), Mylai and Gela (689 BC), Akragas (581 BC) and Lipara (576 BC). Siracusa (Syracusai) became the most important greek colonie.

Some of these towns were new foundations, while others were villages that got reorganized based on the Greek style: in each town there was a central square (Agorà) with theaters and space for public functions; the roads were organized in an orthogonal network of main roads and secondary roads, which cut out standard-sized city blocks.

In the 5th century BC all the greek colonies joined together to oppose the new invaders, the Carthaginians; after struggle, the colonies won (in reality the island saw the presence of the Carthaginians until the arrival of Romans).

From there on it was seen a period of beautiful growth in the most important colonies (Siracusa, Agrigento,..).

The 3rd century is a historically a decisive moment: the Greek come into contact with the Romans.

The Romans conquered the greek colonies and, winning the Punic wars, also the Carthaginianses. From that moment Sicily followed the growth of  Rome’s power and became its province, important for the politic and the economy of the Roman Republic and Empire. Sicily was divided in two provinces and its cities classified in four categories: “libere” (free), “foedertae” (those who had been allied of Rome), “decumanae” (those who were adversaries of Rome) and “censoriae” (everything was confiscated and given to Roman citizens).

The cultural life of Sicily didn’t get a lot of contributions from the Roman culture; also the development of the cities didn’t adopted the basic pattern of Roman settlement.

In the early empire there was an agricultural rebirth, and small villages with agrarian economies were formed (e.g. Piana of Gela). The Romans worked on primary routes of communications, territorial infrastructures (aqueducts, canals, ports, fortification).

In the late empire the policy of “latifundium” took place; the lands were delegated to produce wheat and other foodstuffs to feed the empire, to the point that the island won the nickname of “breadbasket of Rome”. At the center of each “latifundium” sumptuous villae (ex. Villa of Piazza Armerina) were built to host the person in charge of the administration of that huge land.

The economic role of Sicily became so importante that Diocletian made it a direct dependency of Rome (“regio suburbicaria”).