Sicily was the first land to be tilled by slave-gangs, on the estates both of rich natives and of Roman settlers. It became the granary of Rome and the free population naturally degenerated and died out. The slaves were most harshly treated, and even encouraged by their masters to rob. The land was full of disorder, and the praetors shrank from enforcing the law against offenders, many of whom, as Roman knights, might be their own judges. Of these causes came the two great slave-revolts of the second half of the 2nd century B.C. The first lasted from 136 to 132, the time of Tiberius Gracchus and the fall of Numantia. Enna and Tauro menium were the headquarters of the revolt. The second lasted from 104 to 99, the time of the Cimbrian invasion.
Pirates troubled the coast, and all other evils were outdone by the three years' government of Verres (73-71 B.c.). Verres plundered and impoverished everywhere, removing anything of value, especially works of art, that took his fancy, and there is hardly a city that had not to complain of what it suffered at his hands. Another blow was the occupation of Messana by Sextus Pompeius in 43 B.C. He was master of Sicily for seven years, and during this period the corn supply of Rome was seriously af fected. Augustus planted Roman colonies at Palermo, Syracuse, Tauromenium, Thermae, Tyndaris and Catana, but, as elsewhere, Latin in no way displaced Greek; it was simply set up alongside of it for certain purposes. In the division of provinces between Augustus and the senate, Sicily fell to the latter. Under the em pire it had practically no history. Christianity was not introduced until after the middle of the ist century A.D. Few emperors visited Sicily; Hadrian was there, as everywhere, in A.D. 126, and ascended Etna. Septimius Severus was proconsul of Sicily before he became emperor, probably in 189. In the division of Constan tine, when the word "province" had lost its meaning, when Italy itself was mapped out into provinces, Sicily became one of these last. Along with Africa, Raetia and western Illyricum, it became
part of the Italian praefecture; along with the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, it became part of the Italian diocese.
The earlier stages of Teutonic advance in the empire did not touch Sicily. Alaric thought of a Sicilian expedition, but a storm hindered him. Sicily was reached by the Vandals from Carthage; Gaiseric (44o) subdued the great island for which Roman and Phoenician had striven, and his capture of Sicily was not a piratical incursion, but part of a larger design. But eventu ally (476) he made a treaty with Odoacer and gave up the island on condition of a tribute, which was never paid by Theodoric.
Sicily was (from 491) ruled by a Gothic count and the Goths claimed to have treated the land with special tenderness. Theodoric gave Lilybaeum to the Vandal king Thrasamund as the dowry of his sister Analafrida, but it had returned to the possession of the Goths when Belisarius, conqueror of Africa, demanded it in vain as part of the Vandal possessions as a pretext for declaring war (533). In the Gothic war Sicily was the first land to be recovered for the empire, and that with the good will of its people (535). Panormus alone was stoutly defended by its Gothic garrison. In 55o Totila took some fortresses, but the Goths were driven out the next year.
See E. A. Freeman, History of Sicily Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopiidie, s.v. ELKENia for the ancient geography, history, etc. of the island (bibl.) ; B. Pace, "Arti ed artisti della Sicilia antica" (1922) (Memorie dei Lincei 5. xv. 469 sqq.) for a survey of the ancient art; and B. Pace, "I Barbari e i Bizantini in Sicilia" (from Archivio Storico Siciliano, vols. xxxv., xxxvi.) (Palermo, 191i), for the 5th-9th centuries after Christ. The very numerous rock cut churches, cata combs and habitations of this period are characteristic.