Soil, Agriculture, etc.—The soil of the island is so fertile that very little labor is required to r..ise the crops. In many valleys there is rich soil to the depth even of 40 Let. In Catania deco:nposed lava is spread over the ground, greatly increasing its fer tility. The crops of grain are large, and might be prodigious if agriculture were better understood. The harvests are such that they recall to mind the words of Livy, in speak ing of Sicily, "Popu/oque Romano, pace ac hello, fidi.minzum ammnun subsalium" xxvii. 5). In the most ancient times agriculture was sedulously prosecuted, but it began to decEu3 when the island was deprived of its independence by the Carthaginians, In more recent times the restrictions on the exportation of grain served not only to keep agriculture from making any progress, but also to put a drag upon the commerce of the country; which, on every attempt made to raise itself, was met by fresh obstacles in the shape of new taxes. The Italian government has greatly alleviated the obstacles to agri culture, and the salutary effects of the change of system are already apparent. The soil produces corn, maize, flax, hemp; excellent cotton near Mazzara, and in Catania; sugar, equal to that of the East Indies, along the southern coast; grapes (3•0,000 acres), olives (125,000 acres, with an annual yield in oil of 15.000 tuns), saffron, oranges, lemons, cit rons, pomegranates, figs, pistachios, dates, castor-oil, mulberry, sumach, tobacco, and manna. The vine has been cultivated with the greatest care at Marsala since 1789, when an English firm, settled there, began to export it. Now. upward of 5,000,000 gallons are annually exported to England, America, and ludia.—Sicily possesses the best tummy fisheries in the Mediterranean. The fisheries for coral at different places on the coast are also industriously carried on, and on an average about 2,100 pounds are annually obtained.
Manufactures, Commerce, etc.—The manufactures of Sicily are insignificant, and are nearly altogether confined to silk, cotton, and leather.—The roost important articles of export are sulphur, sumach, fruits, and wine; of import—cottons, woolens, silks, linens, earthenware, hardware. Great Britain, France, and the United States are the countries with which the Sicilians chiefly carry on commerce. The statistics of exports and imports are untrustworthy, but the latter considerably exceed the former. More than 200 miles of railways have recently been constructed.
Education., etc.—With the exception of about 53,000 Greeks, and a few thousand Jews, the inhabitants arc all Roman Catholics; but though equally ignorant, they are not so superstitious as the Neapolitans; at least their superstition has not destroyed their love of political freedom, as has repeatedly heen evinced in their history —most reccutly in the ardor with which they responded to the summons of Garibaldi to liberate themselves from the tyranny of the Bourbons. There are three utiversities at Palermo, Catanla, and Messina; and also a collegio de' Nobile at Palermo.
Po!ificsa Dirisisa—Sieily is divided into 7 provinces or prefectures—viz., Palermo, Messina, Catania, Noto or Siracusa, Caltanisetta, Girgenti, and Trapani. Each province is subdivided into 3 or 4 districts, and these again into numerous COMM?' or "town ships." Over the province is placed au intendente, or, as be is now called, a " prefect ;" over the district a sub-prefect; and over the commune a sindaco (" syndic," or "mayor"). The prefect presides over every department of time provincial administration, and also over the provincial council—a body composed of from 15 to 20 land-holders, who meet once a year. and sit for 20 days, examining the accounts of the province, and framing the provincial budget. The two subordinate divisions have also their "councils;" and the members of all three are appointed either by the king, or by the prefect. Of course this insular self-government does not supersede the necessity of sending Sicilian deputies to the national parliament at Rome.
ifi,story.—Sicily, was inhabited, in prehistoric timeq, by a people who bore the name of &soli or and wao, according to a. universally received-.tradition—crossed over into the island from the southern extremity of the mainland. Their names and every fact that we can ascertain about them, lead to the supposition that they were members of the great Latino-Italian family that, entering Italy from the• gradually pushed its way across the Apennines to the peninsula of Brutthim (see article RonE). Beyond this rational conjecture, however, we cannot proceed, and the actual history of gicily only begins to emerge out of utter darkness with the establishment of Greek and Phe niman colonies. The earliest Greek colony, that of Naxos, was founded 735 sic.; the latest, that of Agrigentum, 580 13 c. During the intervening century and a half, numer ous important colonies were established (either directly front Greece or as offshoots from the older Greek settlements in the island); Syracuse (1t34 sac.), Leontini and Catana (730 rs c.). Megara Ilyblrea (728 Gels (690 n.c.), Zancle, later Messana (date of origin uncertain), Acne (661 o.c.), Iditnera (648 tax.), Mylre (date of origin uncertain), Casmenas (644 n.c.), Santis (628 n.c.), Catnarina (599 sac.), Agrigentum (580 n.c.). The earlier history of these cities is almost unknown. What is recorded is vague and general. We read that they attained great conunercial prosperity, that they subjugated or wrested from the Sicull, Elymi, aatl other "native" tribes, large portions of neighboring terri tory; and that their governments (like those of the republics in the mother-country) were at first oligarchical, and latterly democracies or "tyrannies;" hut it is not till the period of the "despots" that we have detailed accounts. Then the caies of Agrigentum nod Gela acquire prominence—the former, under the rule of Phalaris (q.v.), becoming, for a short time, probably the most powerful state in Sicily; and the latter, under a succes sion of able tyrants, Cleander, Hippocrates, and Gelon (q.v ), forcing into subj. ction most of the other Greek cities. however, transferred his government to Syra cuse (one of his conquests), which now became the principal Greek city of Sicily—a dignity it ever after retained. Contemporary with Gelon, and possessed of the sane high capacity for governing, were Theron, " tyrant" of Agrigentum, and Anaxdaus, tyrant of Rhegium, and conqueror of Zapcle, to which he gave the came of Messana. Meanwhile, the Carthaginians—a people wholly different front the Greeks, in language, religion, origin, and civilization—had obtained possession of the Phenician settlements in Sicily. The first appearance of the Carthaginians in the island dates from 536 n.c.;
but the steady growth of the Greek cities in wealth and power, long confined their rivals to the north-western part, where their principal colonies were Panormus, Motya, and Soloeis. The first opmktrial of strength took place in the great battle of Himera, where the Carthaginian army was utterly routed by Gelon, and its leader, ilamiLar, slain. The .Gelonian dynasty at Syacuse fell 466 B.C., after experiencing various fortunes. During the next ',JO years the island had peace. In 410 B.C., however, the war between the Car thaginians and Greeks for the possession of the island was renewed. The successes of the former were great and permanent. Minus, Himera, Agrigentum, Gela, and Cama rina, fell into their hands in less than five years; and it was not till Syracuse had got a. new "tyrant," the famous Dionysius (q.v.) the elder, that fortune again began to smile on the Greeks. Even he, however, could not wrest from the Carthaginians what they had already won; and after the war of 383 B.C., a peace was concluded, which left Dionysins in possession of the eastern, and the Carthaginians of the western, half of the island. The dissensions and tumults that followed the decease of Dionysius, illustrate forcibly the peculiar dangers to which the Greek republics, either at home or abroad, were prone; but we can only afford to notice the triumph of the popular party under Thnoleon (343 n.c.), and the splendid victory of the latter over the Carthaginian generals, Hasdrubal and Hamilcar, at the river Crimisus, 340 B.C. Once more Greek influence was in the ascendant, but the rule of the bold and ambitious tryrant Agatho•les (317-289 n.c.) proved in the main disastrous to Greeks rupremacy. After his death Syracuse lost her hold over many of the Greek cities, which established a weak and perilous inde pendence, that only rend2re 1 the preponderance of the Carthaginians more certain. Finally, Pyrrhus (q.v.), king of Epirus, was invited over to help his countrymen, and in 278 B.C. he landed in the island. The lailliant adventurer—one of the most romantic fig••es in classic history—for a time swept everything before him. Panortons, Erete, and Eryx were captured; and though he failed to make himself master of Llybfemn, he might prob./lily have forced the Carthaginians to surrender it, had he not been thwarted in his designs by the miserable discords and jealousies of the people W110111 he came to save. As it was, Pyrrhus left Sicily in about two years; and in all likelihood the island would have sunk into a Carthaginian possession, had not a new power appeared on the stage—viz., the Roman. The struggle for supremacy between Rome and Carthage—the most tremendous struggle in ancient history—is sketched in the article ROME, and in the biographies of the leaning generals, and, therefore, need.not be narrated here. Suffice it to say, that in 246 loc., Carthaginian Sicily, and in 210 B.C., the whole island became a Roman "province"—the first Rome ever held. Henceforth it shared the fortunes c f the areat state to which it was annexed, and its special history need only be rapid glanced at. in 133-132 me., and again in 103-100 it was the scene of two formid able slave-insurrections, dining which it was frightfully devastated. Its fertility. and the wealth of its citizens and landholders, were also powerful temptations to greedy and unscrupulous governors, of whom we have a specimen in Verres (pretor 73-70 me.), "damned to everlasting. fame" in the orations of Cicero Augustus visited Sicily after the close of the civil wars, and established some colonies; but it does not seem to have prospered under the empire; and in 440 A.D. it was conquered by the 'Vandals under Genserie. The Vandals, in their turn, were compelled to cede it .(480 A.D.) to Theodnrie king of the Ostrogoths, in whose hands it remained till 533 A D , when Belisarius con quered and annexed it to the Byzantine empire. In this condition it remained till 827, when the Saracens invaded the island, and after a protracted stro;rgie. instill!". for 114 years, expelled the Byzantine Greeks, and made themselves masters of Sicily. They kept possession of it for upward of a century. bid after a contest of 30 years, were driven out by Robert Guiseard (q.v.) anti Roger de Hauteville, at the head of a body of Normans, aided ity the " native" inhabitants, whom we conjoeture to have been much the same as they were in the Old classic times—for the sticeessive waves of barbaric and Saracenie invasion that swept over the island, appear to have left little trace of their action. Even to this day it is highly probable that the people of Sicily are largely the descendants of the early Sienli. 'fie Normans held rule in the island froin102 to 1191; and the Norman kingdom of Sicily and Naples," or "kingdom of the two Sieilies," dates from 1130, when Roger iI. obtaining possession of most of the conti nental dominions of his uncle, Robert Guiscard. assumed the title of During the rule of the Swabian dynasty (see HoitENs•AuFEN, llousE OF), 1194-1258, the political history of Sicily is the same as that of Naples; but in 1282, after the dreadful massacre of the French, known as the Sicilian Vespers (q.v.), it again became independent, chose for its king Pedro III. of Aragon, who was the sole representative by marriage of the house of Hohenstaufen, and remained in the possession of the Aragonese sovereigns till 1505, when the union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon—in other words, the rise of the Spanish monarchy in the persons of Ferdinand and Isabella—placed it antler the dominion of Spain. The fortune of war also gave Ferdinand the possession of Naples; and the Spanish kings retained both countries until the war of the Spanish succession, 1700-10 (see StJCCSSSION 11'Ans). By the treaty of (1710), Sicily was separated from Naples, and handed over to Victor Amadeus, duke of Savoy, who, however, restored it to the crown of Naples by the treaty of Paris, seven years after, receiving in exchange the island of Sardinia. From 1720 the two countries continued under the same d' n :sty, the house of Austria, 1720-34; and the Spanish Dourbens, 173•-18C0 (if we aecLpL the brief rule of the French in Naples, 1806-15, when Joseph Bonaparte, and afterward Joachim 2Iurat, were kings), down to the period of Garibaldi's invasion (see ITALY, and Ganniaam), which resulted in the annexation of both to the new Kingdom of Italy under Victor Emmanuel.