The History of Rome and Sicily

Though Sicily is officially the largest region in Italy, the relationship between the biggest island in the Mediterranean and its more powerful neighbour has always been an uneasy one. For centuries the island was essentially on its own and had almost nothing in common with the Italians, save water. After all, the country had been founded by Greeks in the 8th century B.C. at about the same time Rome was established.

But when Greek power waned and the Romans asserted their military might during the Punic Wars, Sicily fell into Roman hands. In fact, the island was the Eternal City’s very first province outside of Italy. For the centuries thereafter, Sicily was one of the Empire’s most important and profitable provinces.

What did they do? Sicily supplied the city with cheap grain, which was the most important food source at the time. The island was also a favourite vacation spot for rich Roman nobles, many of whom had villas on Sicily. Today Italy rentals inlcuding Rome and Sicily. can be found on these grounds.

But as the Roman Empire grew, they made almost no effort to Romanize the island. Therefore, Sicily remained a Greek island and never considered itself part of Italy. In fact, there were a number of famous Sicilian slave revolts that freed the Island from Roman rule for a bit before the empire asserted itself.

In the end, it was not the might of the empire that made the Sicilians more Roman, but rather a religion. Believe it or not, the Island was home to some of the first Christian churches and communities in the region, and some of the new religion’s first martyrs were, in fact, Sicilians.

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