SICILY: CULTURE AND CONQUEST at the BRITISH MUSEUM
SICILY:
CULTURE AND CONQUEST at the BRITISH MUSEUM
"So scatter
brilliance over the island which Zeus Lord of Olympus gave to Persephone and,
his hair falling forward with his nod, promised that he would raise up fertile
Sicily with its high and prosperous cities to be pre-eminent on the plentiful
earth!
Pindar (c522-443BC)
First
Nemean Ode
Between 800 and 700BC the
early Greeks and Phoenicians began to colonise the island of Sicily and by 734
BC the Greeks had established their first settlement at Naxos. Earlier peoples had lived on the island but
little certain is known of them and the entire early period mostly consists of
legend. It is known that the early
peoples valued the volcanic rock obsidian, obtained from the volcano that
dominates the eastern half of the island, Mount Etna, but later peoples
imported metal for making weapons. Greeks
began leaving the mainland to seek colonies under the pressure of population
expansion. Sicily was only one colony
and these became known as Magna Graecia
or ‘Greater Greece’. Sicily is first mentioned in written sources by the Greek
historian Thucydides who mentions that Sicily is the island of the Cyclops and
the Laestrygonians depicted in Homer's epic poem The Odyssey. Thucydides
lists the people of Sicily as the Sicani from Iberia, Elymians from Troy,
Sicels from Italy, Phoenicians from the east and the Greeks.
Early artefacts and coins
reflect the Greek influence, these being embellished with the head of goddess
Pallas Athena and Greek style symbols such as the four horse chariot, dolphin,
horse and crab. For the early Greeks
Sicily was a legendary place, for instance the Straits of Messina were
apparently the place where the Greek hero Odysseus, on his return journey from
the sack of Troy, encountered the monster Scylla and the whirlpool
Charybdis. Furthermore, Pluto, god of
the underworld, is said to have abducted the goddess of fertility, Persephone,
at Enna in central Sicily in order to drag her down to Hades to make her his
bride. The Greeks created many shrines
on the island depicting this event. Enna
provides a good example of the difficulties offered by the rough Sicilian
terrain. Enna is built on a hilltop and,
since it has its own water supply, has always proven to be extremely difficult
to besiege. The Arabs attempted on
several occasions and eventually took the city after crawling up the city’s
sewers.
Greek settlements on the
island were ruled by aristocrats called Tyrannoi
(Tyrants). They were obviously unelected
and consequently there were frequent disputes over land and resources. The Greeks established some important
settlements such as Akragas (Agrigento).
Today Agrigento is famous for the Doric temples that stretch for a
kilometre or so and are known internationally as the Valle dei Templi, especially the Temple of Concord which is the
best preserved Greek-style temple in the western Mediterranean. (440BC) The
area is a designated world heritage site.
Early victories by the Sicilian city state known as Syracuse at the
Battle of Himera (480BC) over the Carthaginians, whose power base was in North
Africa, and the Battle of Cumae fought near Naples over the Etruscans brought
war trophies such as the inscribed Etruscan helmet which is part of this
collection. Recently mass casualties
from the Battle of Himera in north-western Sicily were discovered so evidence
from this early part of Sicily’s history is still being brought to light. 415-413BC comprised the most significant
episode in Sicily's ancient history, the Athenians invaded Syracuse and
suffered a catastrophic defeat leading to the loss of their empire. The Carthaginians eventually returned,
destroying Akragas, Gela, Selinous (Seinunte) by 405BC but the tyrant Dionysus
I of Syracuse defeated Carthage around 396BC securing his city's political
ascendency within Sicily. Herion II of
Syracuse united the island under the Greeks (270-215BC) and befriended the
Romans.
Sicily was a preferred
destination for Greek artists and intellectuals such as Aeschylus, Plato and
Archimedes. It began to rival Greece and
its many glories.
"You have often
heard that the city of Syracuse is the greatest of the Greek cities, and the
most beautiful of all. It is so."
Cicero, Oration Against Verres (70BC)
Sicily was eventually
conquered by the Romans after the end of the Punic Wars in which Rome had
fought a grim, lasting campaign against Carthage which eventually led to the
destruction of Carthage itself following the Battle of Zama (202BC). Sicily's fertile soils earned it the status
of Rome's grain bin and slaves worked the great estates of landowners and were
meant to produce wealth for Rome and die.
This uncaringness led to two Servile Wars that began in Sicily and were
eventually suppressed by Roman military might.
A Third Servile War, known today as Spartacus' Revolt, began at Capua, a
gladiatorial training camp near Naples but it too was eventually brutally
suppressed. Even under Rome the language
and culture of Sicily was still Greek leading to further alienation but this changed
after the rule of first Roman Emperor, Augustus, when fashions on the island
became Roman fashions and the language used was Latin.
After the fall of Rome in
the 400s a revolving door of subsequent conquests rocked the island. First of all, Germanic Vandals and then Goths
ruled Sicily but eventually the Byzantines, the inheritors of the Roman Empire
in the eastern Mediterranean, took over.
They in turn were expelled by the Arab Aghlabid dynasty but they too
were eventually replaced by the Fatimids who ruled the island from Tunisia on
the north African coast. The Arabs
imported new crops like oranges, rice, cotton and dates and new agricultural
techniques too. The Arab conquest of
Sicily was vital to the islands history for they practised religious tolerance
so that other faiths such as the Greek Orthodox Church, Christians and Jews
were allowed so long as they paid their religious taxes.
The Arabs ruled Sicily
for over 200 years but were eventually replaced in 1061 when Norman mercenaries
under Count Roger exploited political instability on the island and conquered
it. Roger’s son later became King Roger,
the first Norman King of Sicily. Count
Roger and his heirs were faced with a large Muslim population so they therefore
decided that a policy of integration with local customs and culture was the
best course of action. The Normans
retained the Arab currency to mollify the Muslim population of the island. For instance, some of the Norman coins
presented show inaccurate Norman copying of Arabic indicating that they could
not understand the language of the people they ruled. One side of the coin would be in Arabic but a
T was stamped on the other side, implying a Christian cross.
Since the first Norman
invaders were not royalty they attempted to consolidate their rule by using
regal images of falcons and lions which were displayed on their battle
standards.
Poor island treated as
conquered territory! Poor islanders treated
as savages who must be civilised.
Luigi Pirandello
The
Old and the Young, 1928
Norman architecture
sought to synthesize the best of western, Arabic and Byzantine styles as a
symbol of tolerance and unity. Scholars
flocked to Sicily from Europe and the Muslim world and the Norman kings sought
to strengthen their ties with other courts especially the Norman court in
England.
In 1138 Roger
commissioned the Arab scholar and cartographer Al Idrisi to create a map of the
world called The Book of Roger. Roger wished to obtain a contemporary map of
the world for the only existing ones were Roman, over a thousand years old, and
of little practical use. Roger thus
sought to use Arab scholarship to further his trading ambitions in the
Mediterranean.
In 1208 aged 14 Frederick
II, grandson of Frederick Barbarossa and Roger, inherited the island. He was also ruler of the Holy Roman Empire as
well as other possessions such as Burgundy in France and territories in Spain. Frederick initiated a cultural renaissance on
the island and elsewhere which failed to impress the Popes who excommunicated
him twice. To the rest of the world,
however, he was Stupor Mundi (The
wonder of the world). He created art and
coinage that took its inspiration from Latin archetypes and even from the early
Greeks who first began to mint coins for use on the island. However, this period of harmony had come to
an end by the time of the Renaissance because Christianity had become the
dominant religion and the creativity and cultural importance of other
communities had declined, their members marginalised.
Then began a history of
occupation as the island was conquered by foreign rulers, Angevins, Hapsburgs
and Spanish Bourbons. The essential
creativity and cultural splendour the island had enjoyed under Roger and the
Arab Aghlabids declined. Even today the
explanation for the relative poverty and backwardness of the south is explained
in terms of this period of occupation.
This came to an end when Giuseppe Garibaldi invaded Sicily in 1860,
defeating the Bourbons with his army known as The Thousand (since this is the
exact number of volunteers he summoned to his cause). Italy was ultimately unified under Garibaldi
and Count Camillo Cavour, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia
and Piedmont’s King Victor Emmanuel ruled over a young Italian nation still
ultimately divided into two parts. The
problems of the south are multi-fold and include the mafia, pollution,
emigration and squalor. Great heaps of
rubbish still engulf areas of Naples and the rest of the south. This has been explained in terms of the
period of foreign occupation so that southern Italians do not regard public
space as being connected to them. They
therefore refuse to clear up the mess and regard only their own properties as
being their responsibility. Thus the
Camorra (the name used by the Neapolitan mafia) were given the contract for
rubbish disposal in Naples since they now see business as a better model than
criminality. The Bourbons, as did the
Romans, also wished to use their Kingdom of the Two Sicilies as a grain
bin. The Bourbon rulers feared
industrialisation since it would result in parliamentary democracy, unrest and
an educated, militant working class which would eventually replace autocracy
with elections. The antagonism of north
and south is still felt in Italy and remains a major force in Italian political
and cultural life.
Paul Murphy, the British
Museum, London, June 17th 2016
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