From Rome to Spain

Chapter 1: From Rome to Spain Romans, Byzantines, Moslems, Normans, Hohenstaufen and Angevin The first millennium or so of Jewish life in Sicily stretches over diverse regimes and different political and social systems. It is said to have started during the rule of pagan Rome, continued under the domination of Christian Rome and the Byzantine Empire, went on from there to a long interval of Arab-Moslem dominion, only to return to Christian power under the Normans, succeeded by the Hohenstaufen and the Angevin. Under Rome, Sicily was a province, governed by a Roman official. That did not change substantially under the rule of the so-called Barbarians. In the fifth century Odoacer held Sicily or most of it for sixteen years (477y493). When the Ostrogoths under Theoderic defeated Odoacer and established their successor empire in 493, Sicily was included. Then Justinian’s armies under Belisar defeated the Ostrogoths in 535, and the Vandals in Africa, whence they had made incursions into Sicily. The island became part of the Eastern Empire, and so it remained until the Arab conquest. From now on, Sicily was ruled from Constantinople instead of Rome and governed by the emperor’s officials on the island.1 Relatively little is known of Sicily in Roman times. On Sicily, little happened that required the intervention of the central powers. One of the few exceptions was the revolt of the slaves in the time of the Roman Republic (135 and 104 B.C.E.). Sicily was never an independent 1 The publications on the history of Sicily are legion. These brief notes are based on Amari, Storia dei musulmani di Sicilia; Cohn, L’eta` degli Hohenstaufen in Sicilia; Cracco Ruggini, Sicilia fra Roma e Bisanzio, pp. 3f.; Gil, Sicily 827y1072, pp. 96f.; Houben, Roger II of Sicily; Kantorowicz, Friedrich der Zweite; Mack Smith, Storia della Sicilia, pp. 9f.; Norwich, The Normans in the South 1016y1130; Rizzitano, La conquista musulmana, pp. 97f.; Runciman, Sicilian Vespers; Straus, Sizilien; Tramontana, La Sicilia dall’insediamento normanno al Vespro, pp. 177f. For a more detailed bibliography the reader is referred to the numerous references quoted in these publications and in the List at the end of this volume. 1 Chapter 1: From Rome to Spain state, conducted no foreign policy and fought no wars. Agriculture was the mainstay of the Sicilian economy, much of it organized in estates (latifundia) mostly owned by non-Sicilians; and when the Roman Church obtained a foothold on the island, also by the Holy See. The emperor, Roman senators and in due course the Church were the great landowners. Trade with Africa flourished throughout, the southern coast in particular serving as emporia for the re-export and transit of goods from Africa to mainland Italy and elsewhere. Some urban centres, such as Palermo, thrived but apparently never grew to the size of big Roman cities. The urban population consisted of small craftsmen, professionals and traders, while the rural one supplied manpower for the estates. To judge by the surviving epitaphs, the principal source for Sicilian history in antiquity, the island attracted sizable immigration from other parts of the Mediterranean. That included a Jewish element. The great upheavals that shook and changed ancient Rome affected also Sicily. Among them was the victory of Christianity over paganism, the invasion and gradual ascendancy of the Teutonic tribes and, eventually, the transfer of the seat of power from Rome to Constantinople. All that notwithstanding, Sicily in those centuries has been described as tranquil and unaffected by the social turmoil that shook other Roman provinces. For a long time, the Sicilian Church was Latin dominated by Rome and so was its clergy. Even in the days of Gregory the Great, large tracts of Sicily belonged to the Church in Rome. However, by then the influence of the Byzantine patriarch made itself felt in Sicily. By the eighth century, the foundations for the schism between the churches of Rome and Constantinople had begun to be laid and Sicily became drawn into the orbit of the latter, but not totally so. Greek remained largely the language of the Sicilians even when Latin had been the official one on the island. That became even more pronounced after the Byzantine takeover and endured for long afterwards. By the second half of the seventh century, the Arab threat began to loom. The first raid on the Sicilian coast has been dated 652. But it was not until much later that the Moslem threat became serious. In the meantime, Byzantium continued to rule. Sicily was one of the last Byzantine bastions to fall to the Moslem onslaught. It had been preceded by many lands in the Orient and along the African littoral across to Spain right into the heart of Europe. The Mediterranean had largely become an Islamic mare nostrum. The Arab conquest of Sicily started in earnest in 827, when the Aghlabid army landed at Mazara. Palermo was conquered in 831. The war dragged on and on. It took the invaders half a century 2.

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