Download The Romans Part 4: Vandals and Goths

NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF VALLEDOLMO, PART III
THE ROMANS
Maybe it portends nothing, maybe it does: The last city to fall to the Romans was
Siracusae, and in that fall died the great mathematician and physicist, Archimedes.
Roman rule had begun.
Roman rule of Sicily began in 241 BC with the end of the First Punic War. The
conquest was complete with the end of the Second Punic War and the addition of
Siracusae. The island’s wheat harvest was of great importance to the empire; Sicily was
Rome’s breadbasket. Roman rule was harsh and fomented two slave revolts. The First
Servile war began in 135 BC, and ended in 132 with the capture of its leader, Eunus, and
the crucifixion of thousands of slaves. The Second Servile War lasted from 103 to 100
BC. During the abysmally corrupt rule of the governor Gaius Verres, Sicilians
successfully appealed to Rome in 70 BC to put him on trial on charges of extortion. They
wisely chose the great orator Cicero to prosecute their case. His great victory propelled
him to great fame and rid Sicily of a rapacious ruler. Sicily early hosted a vigorous
Christian community, and can claim two of the earliest martyrs: Santa Agata of Catania
and Santa Lucia of Syracuse.
During six hundred years of rule, Sicily was only a Roman breadbasket. The most
striking edifices constructed during these centuries were private palaces like the Villa
Romana del Casale. The Romans had so little impact on Sicilian culture that the people
of the island continued to be Greek speakers throughout their rule. Almost certainly the
most important and long-lasting impact of the Romans was the aggregation of small
landholdings into large estates called latifundia, traces of which could be found in Sicily
until the great land reforms of 1950-1962.
Christianity arrived in Sicily during Roman rule, but hardly because of it.
NEXT: VANDALS AND GOTHS