Sicily’s Revolutionary Spirit … From Ducetius (450 BC) to Brigandage (1866 A.D.) … and then … The Spirit Died!

Tom Verso (June 16, 2015)

In 1860, seeking an independent State of Sicily, Sicilians were revolting against the Naples based Bourbon government of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. /// /// Never missing an opportunity for war and expansion, the King of Piedmont Italy, Victor Emmanuel II, in direct violation of international legal precepts and the specific terms of the 1815 Congress of Vienna, clandestinely dispatched his greatest and most devoted general, Garibaldi, and 1,000 Piedmont ‘liberty-loving-freedom-fighters’ to Sicily, to begin the process of ‘regime change’ in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. /// /// Garibaldi and his ‘liberty-loving-freedom-fighters’ took military control of the many thousands of Sicilian revolutionaries who were planning to attack the Bourbon garrison at Palermo. /// /// In turn, Victor Emannule’s devoted profoundly egotistic general Garibaldi took credit for the Sicilian brigandage victory and the liberation of Palermo. /// /// In the three months after the Sicilian People’s Palermo victory, Victor Emmanuel II clandestinely sent an additional 21,000 more Piedmont ‘liberty-loving-freedom-fighters’ to Sicily. Piedmont General Garibaldi, at the head of this Piedmont ‘freedom-loving-liberation-army’, declared himself “Dictator of Sicily” and presented Sicily to his revered King, Victor Emmanuel II. /// /// By 1866, the Sicilians realizing that they went from the proverbial ‘frying pan into the fire’ (the Piedmontese occupation of Sicily was far worst than anything experience with the Bourbons), like the Mezzogiorni before them, reignited a civil war that was magnitudes greater than any ever engaged against the Bourbons. /// /// The Bourbons were Mediterranean people with long historical, cultural and ethnic (not racial) ties to southern Italy and Sicily. The Bourbon King spoke the Neapolitan language (not dialect!) fluently and delighted in going to the market to banter with the merchants. //// /// The northern Piedmontese – historically, cultural and ethnically (not racially) Germanic with no knowledge and experience of the South – were brutal dehumanized foreign occupiers. /// /// The 1860s brigandage wars against the Piedmont Garibaldini were only the most recent in a near 2,500 year history of Sicilian will of independence and revolutionary spirit. Sadly (to my mind) the last! The mid-twentieth century Autonomy movement was the last flicking coal of that once mighty revolutionary flame. /// /// The Sicilian Revolutionary Spirit died after the 1866 defeat, and the cultural implications were (are) profound. Emigrating in mass, Sicilians by the millions left their Island and families. Those who stayed gave up their language, substituting the Tuscan dialect; and gave up their revolutionary history, substituting Victor Emmanuel/Garibaldi mythology.

Tools

In the ancient world there were four major Sicilian Wars of liberation (two Sicel and two slave).

Below is a map indicating the locations of significant events during those wars (red – Sicel; green – first slave; blue – second slave). The narrative below the map will reference those map locations.

The Birth of Sicilian Revolutionary Spirit – Two Sicel Wars of Liberation

Ducetius (ducebat 466-440 B.C.)

The earliest know inhabitants of Sicily (i.e. the ‘original’ Sicilians so to speak) were the Sicels, Sicans and Elymians. Generally but certainly not exclusively (‘rule of thumb’ – as it were), the Sicels occupied the eastern part of the Island, the Elymians the west and the Sicans the middle. Accordingly, when the Greeks began colonizing the western shore of the Island in 735 B.C., they encountered the Sicel people and culture.

The Sicels were not as an advanced culture as the Greeks. However, as the great classical scholar Edward A. Freeman writes in his definitive four-volume history of ancient Sicily “The History of Sicily from the Earliest Times”:

“In Sicily the inland neighbors of the Greeks [i.e. Sicels] were neither savages doomed to die out … nor yet powerful neighbors who threatened the existence or the independence of the Greek settlements.” (Vol. I, p.3 emp.+)

Two points are significant in this quote:

1) “inland”, in this context, is about 15 miles. The furthest “inland” Greek settlement was Lentini, 15 miles from the coast. The Sicels occupied the land west of Lentini and north to the Tyrrhenian Sea – see map above #1, 2 & 6.

2) Emphasis on: Sicels were “[not] savages [and not] doomed to die out”. Rather, the Sicel people retained their unique cultural and political identity and co-existed and co-developed with the Siceliots [i.e. Greek-Sicilians]. Freeman writes:

“Something that may be truly called a rivalry with the [Sicels] may be seen. The Sikeliots had to strive with the [Sicels] who were nearly on their own level.” (Vol. I, p.18 emp.+)

This is to say: For approximately 300 years a synergistic relationship existed between the indigenous Sicels and the colonists Sikelots. They competed with each other and yet complemented and co-developed their respective societies.

However, circa 450 B.C. the synergistic “rivalry” transitioned into military revolt. Near three hundred years after the Greeks came, the still culturally and politically intact Sicels revolted against the dominant Sikeliots; seeking to establish an independent Sicel state. Another definitive classical scholar A.J. Toynbee writes:

“Ducetius’s original enterprise, with its ambitious aim of uniting all the Sicel communities into a single commonwealth ...”(“A Study of History vol. vi”, p. 235 emp+)

The Sicel leader Ducetius led two revolts in an effort to establish a Sicel state, the first with its capital at Palice (contemporary Paligonia approximately 15 miles from present day Lentini). And, after that failed, he led a second revolt centered on the town of Calacte (modern Caronia) on the northern coast near Messina (see map above: Red # 1 & 2). However, as with the first, the second revolt failed to achieve a “Sicel commonwealth.”

{Note: for a detailed discussion of Sicel history visa vis the Greeks see ‘Related Articles’ # 2}

Sicilian Revolutionary Spirit in Roman Times

The Sicilian Vortex

Somewhat before circa 1,000 B.C. (actual dates unknown), the original Sicilians (Sicans, Sicels and Elymians) began to arrive on the island from most likely Mediterranean locations (Spain, Italy, Turkey). Subsequently, in the early centuries of the first millennium B.C. the Phoenicians from Lebanon arrived on the west coast founding the present day city of Palermo. At about the same time, the Greeks came to the east Sicilian coast near present day Taormina (734 B.C.). Later still, the Romans and the Carthaginians, from present day Tunisa, battled for control of the Island (218-201 B.C.)

Thus, for over a thousand years up to the end of the Roman-Carthaginian wars, Sicily drew people from various parts of the Mediterranean. However, it was only after the Roman victory over Carthage in 201 B.C. that Sicily became a virtual Mediterranean vortex. Toynbee writes:

“… a vast concourse of immigrants from all the countries around the Mediterranean were brought to Italy as slaves during those two terrible centuries between the outbreak of the Hannibalic war and the establishment of the Augustan Peace.. (“Study …” vol.ii, p. 213 emp.+)

Specifically, unlike the pre-Hannibalic immigrants who came to Sicily from the Mediterranean shores (Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, North Africa), the post-Hannibalic wave of immigrants, came from present day Middle East. Toynbee:

“In the Hellenic World in the second century B.C. [199 to 100 B.C.] thousands of Syrians and other highly cultivated Orientals were deprived of their freedom, uprooted from their homes, separated from their families, and shipped overseas to Sicily and [southern] Italy to serve as a 'labour-force' for plantations and cattle-ranches in areas that had been devastated in the Hannibalic War (ibid vol. vi, p. 119 emp. +)

Moreover, these “uprooted Orientals” were subjected to ‘horrific’ living and work conditions. Toynbee:

“The handicap under which these slave-immigrants began their new life is almost beyond imagination... branded as human chattels ... uprooted from their homes and separated forever from their families ... subjected to new conditions of life which were almost beyond bearing... (ibid vol. ii, p.214 emp.+)

The magnitude of the brutality that their Roman and Siceloit (Greek-Sicilian) masters imposed on these “oriental slaves” gave rise to two Sicilian Slave Wars

Two Sicilian Slave Wars (gerebantur circa 135-131 B.C. et circa 104-100 B.C.)

“The two great slave-wars in Sicily ... these two Sicilian outbreaks were perhaps the largest in scale and the longest-drawn-out of the slave-revolts on the western plantations and ranches of the Hellenic World in the post-Hannibalic Age (ibid vol. v, p 69)

The map above indicating the principle locations of those wars will be referred to in the following discussion (Green locations 3,4,5 for the first war and Blue 6,7,8 the second). Importantly, note, as the map indicates, the wars covered a vast swath of the Island.

In the history of slavery worldwide, it is not unusual to find slave revolts. However, the particular political and religious characteristics of these Sicilian revolts are significant. Toynbee first notes the political aspects of the revolts:

“For these expatriated slaves, whose need for a way of escape out of the Present was extreme … when their oppression became intolerable and they were goaded into physical revolt, the objective which they set before their eyes, in order to give themselves heart in the almost desperate enterprise …

They made it their aim to establish a kind of inverted Roman Commonwealth in which the existing order of Hellenic Society was to be turned upside down by an exchange of roles between the present slaves and their present masters. (ibid, vol. vi., p 119 emp.+)

Further, regarding the religious character of the wars, two hundred years before another Syriac religion would sweep through the south of Rome slave populations in “The Sign of The Cross”, these second century B.C. Sicilian slaves found meaning and courage in a Syriac goddess. Toynbee:

“To call a god in aid is not, of course, in itself an unusual procedure. It is probably as old a practice as Religion itself ... and it would have been strange if the Syrian slaves had not called upon the name of the Dea Syra, Atargatis, when they rose in revolt against their Greek masters and Roman rulers in Sicily… (ibid, vol. vi., p. 124-5 emp.+)

The First Sicilian Slave-War (circa 135 BC – 131 B.C.)

The First War is generally thought to have begun in 135 B.C. and had a distinctive religious character. In his absolutely incredible two-volume scholarly work on post-Hannibal Italy, Toynbee writes:

"...135 B.C. the traditional date for outbreak of the First Sicilian Slave-War (some say: 141B.C or 143 B.C.) … organized armies of insurgent slaves whose spearheads were slave-shepherds and slave-herdsmen. This insurrection had its religious aspect and inspiration (“Hannibal’s Legacy” vol. ii p 321 emp.+).

This first revolt began in the present day town of Enna (map: green 3) and was inspired and led by the Syrian slave Eunus.

Eunus

Toynbee writes regarding the Syrian slave Ennus and the religious character of the revolt that he led:

“An insurrection was plotted by the [plantation] slaves around Enna. This move was inspired by the slave Eunus, a native of [Syria].

Ennus's contribution was to give the conspirators confidence by convincing them that they had the Syrian mother-goddess on their side (ibid p324 emp.+)

“In the days before he rose in revolt, Eunus preached insurrection and promised to lead his insurgent followers to victory on the strength of a divine commission. He declared that the Syrian Goddess has granted him an epiphany and had told him that he was to become a king' (“Study…” vol. vi, p.34, fn.5 emp.+)

Regarding the political dimensions of the revolt, Toynbee:

“The [plantation] slaves broke into Enna and captured the city. The victorious insurgents were joined by the urban slaves in Enna.

“They assembled in the theater at Enna and elected Eunus king. He took the throne-name ‘Antiochus’ and named his subjects ‘the Syrians’

“Evidently the insurgents’ policy was the positive one of establishing a replica of the Syrian Seleucid Monarchy on Sicilian soil. (“Hannibal…”, p. 324-5 emp.+)

Agrigento (map: green 4) falls to the ‘Slave-Army’ lead by the Turkish slave Cleon.

“The insurgents were as efficient in building an army as they were in organizing a state….

Eunus was joined by Cleon, a Cilician from the Taurus [i.e. Turkey], who captured a number of Sicilian cities including Akragas (i.e. Agrigento) the second biggest city in the island, and overran its extensive territory. (ibid, p 326 emp.+)

First War Ends

While Sicilian Slaves had significant successes, needless to say once the might of the legendary Roman Legions was brought to bear, the slave revolt gave way.

In the third year of the revolt, Eunus’s Seleucid Syro-Sicilian kingdom was overthrown. The turning-point in the war was when the Romans recaptured Tauromenium (present day ‘Taormina {‘Taurmina’ in Sicilian language}; map: green 5) ) and then Enna itself. (ibid p327)

The Second Sicilian Slave-War: 104 BC – 100 BC

“The second Sicilian Slave-Insurrection was planned, by escapees from Syracuse, in the precincts of the Palici – Sicilian chthonic divinities who were traditionally champions of the oppressed. (ibid, p.405)

[Note: Toynbee is vague about “precincts of the Palici”. This could mean the area near ancient Sicel town present day Lentini (map: blue 6); also present town of Palagonia (map: red 1) known in Latin as Palica. More generally the “Plain of Catania”(Sicilian language: La Chiana di Catania) where large plantations were worked]

Like the First War, the Second had a distinct religious/political character.

Salvius

“Like the First, it occured in Enna povince. The insurrgence took control of Morgantina (map: blue 7).

The revolutionaries elected as their king a slave named Salvius ‘who had the reputation of being a master of the art of divination from the entrails of sacrificial victims and who was also dancing dervish of the female gods’ {note: prominent role of female gods in both revolts is interesting.}

Like Eunus, who had the Turkish military leader Cleon at his side in the First War, Salvius drew to his side another prophet and competent Turkish military leader Athenio.

“Athenio was Cilician and a prophet, like Eunus and Salvius. He laid siege to Lilybaeum (present day Marsala map blue 8).

Amazingly, while Athenio was battling on the far western end of Island (Marsala), Salvius was conquering the East.

Salvius overran the plain of Leontini (i.e. La Chiana di Catania; map blue 6) – the most fertile tract of Sicily.

On this expedition Salvius visited the shrine of the Palici, offered sacrifice there and took the throne name Tryphon – significantly the original Tryphon was a Hellenistic Syrian King 142-138 B.C (ibid p 329 emp.+)

Nevertheless, like the First War, the Second, no matter how well organized and motivate the slaves, they were no match for Roman Legions. When the Romans brought to bear the full force of their military might the Second Slave War ended.

However, the Sicilian revolutionary spirit of Ducetius, Eunus, Salvius, et al prevailed and manifested itself again in the thirteenth century A.D. with the vigor of the ancients.

Sicilian Vespers 1282 A.D.

Beginning circa 1060 A.D. the Normans began a military and political process that ultimately lead to the political unification of southern Italy and Sicily (that came to known as “The Two Sicilies”) circa 1130 A.D. under the Kingship of Roger II.

Sicily, at the time, was a coveted island both for its economic wealth (e.g. agriculture) and its strategic location in the Mediterranean. Control of the sea-lanes between Sicily and Italy, and Sicily and Africa (50 miles) entailed enormous commercial and military advantages. Accordingly, Sicily (i.e. The Two Sicilies) was coveted by virtually all the powers in Europe after the death of Norman King Roger II in 1154 A.D.

The political machinations and military confrontations for the control of Sicily began with the death of Roger II and continued unabated until 1266 A.D, when the brother of the French King, Count Charles I of Anjou, gained control of both southern Italy and Sicily.

Charles made his capital of “Two Sicilies” in Naples, which did not sit well with the Sicilian islanders. Also, and much more importantly, he brought in French soldiers, monks and priests to govern the Island. He taxed the Sicilians heavily and, projecting an air of French superiority, treated the Sicilian people contemptuously.

Finally, the Sicilians essentially said: Abbastanza!

On Easter Monday 1282 A.D., while on the way to church for the Vespers (i.e. Evening Prays), a French soldier affront a Sicilian women. Her husband and the people in the vicinity became enraged. This was the proverbial “straw that broke the Camel’s back”. After years of French domination and diminution, the people of Sicily had enough. The Vespers incident sparked an Island wide revolt ultimately leading to French relinquishing control.

Sadly (tragically) this revolution, like the ancient revolts, while achieving a modicum of relief, fell far short of the ultimate goal of Sicilian independence. No sooner had the French left, the Spanish took control of the Island. In his very excellent history of Italy David Gilmore writes:

“From the end of the thirteenth century the island was effectively an outpost of Spain, tied torpidly to Iberia for over 400 years. (“The Pursuit of Italy…” e-book location L 1182-1183)

1866 A.D. – “the fourth revolutionary outbreak in 50 Years”

The first half of the ninetieth century may reasonably be characterized as a relentless revolution on the Island; the relentless demand for Sicilian independence. As the great Oxford Don, historian David Mack Smith, wrote:

“There was a major rebellion at Palermo in 1866 …the fourth such outbreak in half a century, and the series was accelerating with a shorter gap between them each time.

And, the Piedmontese responded, as was their wont, with – brutal force!

“The Italian navy shelled Palermo into submission and 40,000 troops succeeded in restoring order.

“For another decade a large part of the Italian army had to be stationed in Sicily, and many Sicilians continued to feel that they were living under foreign occupation or as participants in a submerged civil war. (“Modern Sicily …” pp. 460-2)

{Note: Respectfully, what Professor Smith refers to as “Italian navy and troops”, I believe may more accurately characterized as “Piedmont navy and troops”. Keeping in mind that the former Piedmont King and now (thanks to Piedmont general Garibaldi) Italian King, Victor Emmanuel II was de facto “commander and chief”, the Italian Parliament was dominated by northern Italians, and the Sicilian revolt was an extension of the viciously brutal brigandage civil war being fought during the early 1860s in the Mezzogiorno between the Piedmontese army and the southern Italian people.}

Gilmore concurs with Smith regarding the frequency of Sicilian revolts and the ‘Piedmont’ response. He writes:

“In Sicily, a large-scale revolt in 1866 following a smaller one three years earlier … armed bands emerged from the hills and occupied most of Palermo. (L-4305)

“As usual the government failed to consider whether it might have been responsible for the revolt; instead of perceiving the outbreak as a social insurrection provoked by the policies of Turin, ministers blamed the Mafia and sent in the army (L-4308)

{note: more accurately, northern ‘ministers’ and northern ‘army’, and ‘mafia’ was used at the time like ‘terrorist’ is used today – an excuse to bomb!}

Similarly, Smith writes:

“The revolt of 1866 was treated as mainly a police matter, its deeper social causes being left undisturbed and indeed largely unknown (p. 462)

Gilmore goes into detail about the military occupation of the Island. He writes:

“Once again force was the policy adopted by the government and carried out by generals who believed that Sicilians were too barbarous to understand anything else. While the navy bombarded Palermo, the army went on the rampage, arresting and executing islanders. (L-4310 emp.+) {note: exact same description of Piedmont army in Mezzogiorno by Dickie in his book “Darkest Italy”}

Sisyphyus Yields … Pushes the Rock for the last time

The 1866 Sicilian War for Independence and the ancient and medieval revolts discussed are only anecdotal illustrations of the relentless pattern of the Sicilian passion for Independence throughout its history up to 1866.

Like Sisphyus, the Sicilian people pushed the rock of revolution up the hill again and again, only to have it roll back to the bottom. Every revolt succeeds in achieving a moment of liberation, only to revert back to oppression and occupation.

Gilmore writes regard the 1866 revolt:

“The Sicilian desire for autonomy was not a new passion. It had reached insurrectionary point on many occasions over the previous six centuries and four times already in the previous fifty years; it remains an important political issue even though the island today enjoys an autonomous status (L-4312 emp.+)

But, the 1866 revolt was the last revolt.

The post WW II autonomy movement, Gilmore refers to, was merely a flickering coal of dead fire (see: Related Article #3). Like, all the previous revolts from Duecntius down to 1866, the dominant military force prevailed. Ultimately, the Piedmontese prevailed in both the Mezzogiorno and Sicily.

But, unlike previous defeated revolts, the profundity of the crushing 1866 defeat cannot be overemphasized. For a profound discussion the consequences of Piedmont victory in the Mezzogiorno see:Pino Aprile’s “Terroni” and John Dickie’s Darkest Italy”. So far as I know, a comparable history for Sicily has yet to be written in English. However, a few facts are available, scattered in various history books.

For example, Gilmore writes:

“This reverse [1866] marked the ultimate defeat of the south: over the next two decades millions of people from Sicily and the southern mainland gave up on Italy and emigrated to the continents of America

Those who remained continued to feel estranged from the new state. With the South’s industry ruined, its agriculture in decline and its people so poor that many were forced to leave, what improvements were they able to see …?

“Many southerners concluded that unification had been a mistake …Two of the greatest southern figures of the period pleaded early in the new century …

- Let the south grow, declared the Apulian historian Gaetano Salvemini …

- Leave us alone in the south, urged the Sicilian priest Luigi Sturzo, who became the inspiration for the future Christian Democratic Party.

- Leave us in the south to govern ourselves, plan our own financial policy, spend our own taxes, take responsibility for our own public works, and find our own remedies for our difficulties … we are not schoolchildren, we have no need of the North’s concerned protection (L 4300 and following emp.+)

The Rock Crushes Sisyphus

After the failure of the 1866 revolt, the Sicilain people gave up hope for an independent state governed By and For Sicilians.

Indeed, their sense of defeat was so profound that by the millions, they left their Island and families. Smith writes:

“The peasants began desperately to leave ...

For a people so attached to their families, this was a remarkable fact ... seasonal migration inside Sicily, and the remoteness of the latifondi, had already done a great deal of damage to family life. ... By 1900, Sicily was becoming one of ten chief emigration regions in the world. ... one and half million Sicilians left before the world war put a stop to this way of escape.

Here was one of the most prodigious facts in all Sicilian history. Some villages lost most of their male population, and were even reduced by as much as one-fifth in a single years ... Emigration caused enormous suffering and the loss to Sicily was irremediable (p. 503-4 emp.+)

As if that were not bad enough, the magnitude of the “Garibaldi Liberation” affects on emigration was so great that it in the middle of the twentieth century it was still ‘in play’. Smith writes:

A yet more serious kind of emigration, especially in the period 1955-60, concerned the population of the poorer agricultural areas who left in the tens of thousands …

Indeed the great economic development of Italy in the 1950s absolutely depended on this shift in man power as Sicilians discovered that a job in Turin or Switzerland could earn as much in a single month as could be earned in a year back home,

Possible some half million from a population of now nearly five million left Sicily in ten years, and some villages again lost almost all their younger males … the exodus of human capital an productive capacity was a great deprivation (p.542)

Further, the affects of the crushing defeat the Sicilians experienced after the 1866 revolt was not limited to emigration.

Perhaps more importantly, those who stayed gave up the essence of their culture ‘language’ and ‘history’.

- They substituted the Tuscan dialect for their millennia lu Sicilianu.

- They substituted Garibaldi mythology for the reality of the 1860 Piedmont Plague.

In short, Sisyphus was exhausted and could push the rock no more. The rock rolled back and crushed him. The Sicilians could revolt no more and the occupier drained them of the will to revolt.

The 2,500-year history of the Sicilian Revolutionary Spirit beginning with Ducetius came to an end with the Liberator Garibaldi.

That Palermo’s central boulevard should be named Via Vittorio Emmanuel and another Via Giuseppe Garibaldi gives a deliciously new meaning to the word ‘irony’.

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