Sicilia (Roman province)

Sicilia (; ) was the first province acquired by the Roman Republic. The western part of the island was brought under Roman control in 241 BC at the conclusion of the First Punic War with Carthage. A praetor was regularly assigned to the island from c.227 BC. The Kingdom of Syracuse under Hieron II remained an independent ally of Rome until its defeat in 212 BC during the Second Punic War. Thereafter the province included the whole of the island of Sicily, the island of Malta, and the smaller island groups (the Egadi islands, the Lipari islands, Ustica, and Pantelleria).
During the Roman Republic, the island was the main source of grain for the city of Rome. Extraction was heavy, provoking armed uprisings known as the First and Second Servile Wars in the second century BC. In the first century, the Roman governor, Verres, was famously prosecuted for his corruption by Cicero. In the civil wars which brought the Roman Republic to an end, Sicily was controlled by Sextus Pompey in opposition to the Second Triumvirate. When the island finally came under the control of Augustus in 36 BC, it was substantially reorganised, with large Roman colonies being established in several major cities.
For most of the Imperial period, the province was a peaceful, agrarian territory. As a result, it is rarely mentioned in literary sources, but archaeology and epigraphy reveals several thriving cities, such as Lilybaeum and Panormus in the west, and Syracuse and Catania in the east. These communities were organised in a similar way to other cities of the Roman Empire and were largely self-governing. Greek and Latin were the main languages of the island, but Punic, Hebrew and probably other languages were also spoken. There were several Jewish communities on the island and from around AD 200 there is also evidence of substantial Christian communities.
The province briefly fell under the control of the Vandal kingdom of North Africa shortly before the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476, but was soon returned to the Kingdom of Italy and eventually passed to the Byzantines.
History.
First Punic War.
Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse from 317 and King of Sicily from 307 or 304 BC, died in 289 BC. A group of his Campanian mercenaries, called the Mamertines, were offered compensation in exchange for leaving the city. They took control of Messina, killing and exiling the men, and holding the women in bondage.
In response to this, the Syracusan general Hiero, who had reorganised the mercenaries and was able to bring banditry under control in 269 BC, began advancing on Messina. The Carthaginians, always eager to prevent the excessive empowerment of a single force and to keep Sicily divided, offered aid to the Mamertines. Hiero had to return to Syracuse, where he assumed the title of king. Shortly thereafter, the Mamertines decided to expel the Carthaginian garrison and seek aid from the Romans instead.
At Rome, there was a debate on the appropriateness of helping the Mamertines. Previously, Rome had intervened against Campanian mercenaries who had followed the Mamertines' example and taken control of Rhegium (modern Reggio Calabria). Moreover, it seemed clear that intervention in Sicily would lead to conflict with Carthage. According to the lost historian Philinus of Agrigentum, who was favourable to the Carthaginians, there was a treaty between Rome and Carthage which defined their respective spheres of influence and assigned Sicily to the Carthaginians. This "Philinus Treaty" is known to us from Polybius, who mentions it in order to deny its existence. Polybius also claims that the Romans were encouraged to intervene by economic motivations, on account of the wealth of Sicily in this period. The Senate gave the decision on whether or not to help the Mamertines to the popular assembly, which decided to send help. This was not a formal declaration of war against Carthage, but the intervention in Sicily sufficed as a "casus belli" and thus marked the beginning of the First Punic War (264–241 BC).
This was the first time that Roman forces had campaigned outside the Italian peninsula. Hiero, allied with Carthage against the Mamertines, had to face the legions of Valerius Messalla. The Romans quickly expelled the Syracusans and Carthaginains from Messina. In 263 BC, Hiero changed sides, making a peace treaty with the Romans in exchange for an indemnity of 100 talents, thus ensuring the maintenance of his power. He proved a loyal ally of the Romans until his death in 215 BC, providing aid, specially grain and siege weapons, to the Romans. This assistance was essential for the conquest of the Carthaginian base at Agrigentum in 262 BC. Hiero's loyalty is reflected in the peace treaty imposed on the Carthaginians at the end of the war, in which they were forbidden to attack Hiero or his allies. It seems, however, that pro-Roman sentiment was not universal at Syracuse and that there was a group opposed to Hiero which favoured the Carthaginians.
At the end of the First Punic War, Rome had conquered the majority of the island, except for Syracuse, which retained a broad autonomy (although required to accept Roman supremacy in the region). In addition to Syracuse, the kingdom of Hiero was granted a number of centres in the eastern part of the island, such as Akrai, Leontini, Megara, Eloro, Netum and Tauromenium, and probably also Morgantina and Camarina.
In addition to the aforementioned Philinus, there were other accounts of the First Punic War written by authors opposed to Rome, such as Sosilus of Sparta. The work of Philinus was analysed and criticised by Polybius, while that of Sosilus was entirely rejected by him as the "vulgar gossip of a barber's shop." A pro-Roman account was written by the historian Fabius Pictor, which is criticised by Polybius as well. The resulting representation of the war in the ancient source material is very partial: the motivations of the Mamertines are left opaque and by the time of Polybius (about a hundred years after the war began) there were different opinions even at Rome. The ancient accounts' impression that a war between Carthage and Rome was inevitable also seems questionable. Even the traditional explanation that Carthage was threatening Rome at the Straits of Messina seems anachronistic according to Moses Finley, since Carthage had never shown any inclination to expand into Italy. Probably no one at Rome foresaw that intervention at Messina would lead to a conflict on such a scale. According to the account of Polybius, this changed only after the conquest of Agrigentum. Finley says "this argument appears too simple and schematic, but it is correct in the sense that only then did Rome take the essential decision of creating a fleet, without which there was no hope of fighting the Carthaginians on equal terms.". The reaction of the Carthaginians to Roman intervention, however, is easily explained: Sicily had always been fundamental for Carthaginian control of the seas.
In any case, the fact that the Romans ultimately conquered the island makes it difficult to produce a balance reconstruction of conditions on Sicily in this period. What is certain is that the First Punic War had a disastrous effect on the territory. Both Rome and Carthage carried out atrocities: 250,000 inhabitants of Agrigentum (Philinus' homeland) were sold as slaves in 262 BC and seven years later the Carthaginians demolished the walls of the same city and set it on fire. In 258 BC, the Roman conquest of Camarina saw the majority of the inhabitants sold into slavery and 27,000 inhabitant of Panormus suffered the same fate (although 14,000 were redeemed). In 250 BC, Selinus was razed to the ground by the Romans and it was not inhabited again until Late Antiquity. Lilybaeum resisted a Roman siege for ten years, until the conclusion of the war after the Battle of the Aegates.
The first Roman province.
The Roman victory in the First Punic War placed the entire island of Sicily in Roman hands. Previous Roman conquests in Italy had resulted in direct annexation or asymmetric treaties with Rome as hegemonic power. These treaties guaranteed substantial internal autonomy to the socii: they were required to contribute troops when requested but not to pay any form of tribute. Probably because of the island's complex mixture of ethnicities and perhaps also in order to recoup the expenses sustained during the war through a system of fiscal control, which excluded the concession of broad autonomy, Sicily came to be defined by a different institutional system.
Eventually, the provincial structure would consist of a praetor, assisted in financial matters by two quaestores, one based at Lilybaeum and one based at Syracuse. But it is not clear how this system took form. It has been suggested that from 240 BC the government of western Sicily was entrusted to a quaestor sent annually to Lilybaeum. Scholars like Filippo Coarelli and Michael Crawford consider it possible that the government of Sicily was entrusted to a "privatus cum imperio", that is an aristocrat with no official post and with a military command conferred on a personal basis, sent annually with administrative and judicial competence. Extraordinary governors of this kind were seen already during the First Punic War and occur again during the Second Punic War. Assuming that there was a quaestor at Lilybaeum, it is unclear whether this position was created immediately after the end of the war or sometime later, or if it was one of the quaestores which already existed, that is one of the "quaestores classici" (treasurers of the fleet), that had first been created in 267 BC, when the number of quaestores was increased from four to eight. Nor as it clear if there were two quaestores in the province from the beginning (one in Lilybaeum and one in Syracuse), since in all the provinces that were subsequently established, there was only one quaestor. According to Antonino Pinzone this difference is explained by the fact that Sicily "came under the control of Rome in two stages," so that "the position of the quaestor of Lilybaeum is to be considered a kind of fossil and his influence is to be imputed to the financial and military arrangements inherited from the quaestor (classicus?).".
Subsequently, in 227 BC, two new praetores were created ("praetores provinciales"): one, Gaius Flaminius, was sent to Sicily; the other, Marcus Valerius Laevinus, to the new province of Corsica and Sardinia. Originally, the term provincia indicated the jurisdiction of a magistrate (especially the possession of "imperium"); eventually it came to indicate the territory under their control. The change of 227 is reported by Gaius Julius Solinus:
It was in 227 BC that an annual grain tribute was imposed on the Sicilian communities by a "lex frumentaria". This is best known for the province of Sicily from the 1st century BC context (as a result of Cicero's "Verrines"). At that time, the tribute consisted of a tenth of the harvest and it is possible that this system derived from the Syracusan kingdom (the lex Hieronica, derived in turn from the Ptolemaic grain tax). The tithe "decuma" was contracted out to the highest bidder (whoever promised to collect the largest amount of "modii"). These contractors were called "decumani". It seems that this "lex frumentaria" had results which were "not excessively grievous for the cities to pay ... and the small Italians proprietors livin on the island. It developed in the context of Gaius Flaminius' focus on the development of small proprietors and of their class.".
Second Punic War.
The Second Punic War, which ran from 212 to 202 BC, was initiated by Hannibal, who was aware of the importance of the Italian "socii" to Rome and accordingly decided to attack the Romans on their own turf, passing through Gaul, over the Alps and into Italy. In a particularly difficult moment for Rome after the defeat at the Battle of Cannae (216 BC), Hiero II died (215 BC). His successor was his fifteen-year-old grandson Hieronymus, who decided to switch to the Carthaginian side. This act arose from a period of intense conflict at Syracuse between the pro-Roman aristocratic faction and the pro-Carthaginian democratic faction. Hannibal himself had sent two brothers of Syracusan descent, Hippocrates and Epicydes, in order to rouse the people against the Romans.
The survivors from the Roman side of the Battle of Cannae were sent to Sicily and forbidden to leave until the end of hostilities. Hieronymus' decision to change sides caused Roman troops to be dispatched to the gates of Syracuse. The Carthaginians also sent troops to the island and contended with the Romans for control of the island. The conquest of Syracuse in 212 BC by the forces of Marcellus was a decisive moment for the war, which resulted either from the betrayal of the city by members of the Syracusan aristocracy, or by a Spanish mercenary in the Carthaginian camp. The conquest of Syracuse was costly for the Romans on account of the topography of the city, the defensive machines built by Archimedes, and the extensive fortifications, especially the Euryalus fortress, originally built by the tyrant Dionysius I (404–367 BC) to protect the western end of Epipolae. The city was sacked and many inhabitants were killed, including Archimedes.
Marcellus then dispatched a lot of booty to Rome, including works taken from temples and public buildings (and was criticised for this by Polybius): according to Livy, it was the arrival of this booty that first gave rise to Roman enthusiasm for Greek art. The Romans considered it opportune to replace Marcellus, hated by the Syracusans, with Marcus Valerius Laevinus. Following these events, Syracuse was incorporated into the province of Sicily, becoming its capital and the seat of its governor.
The whole of Sicily was now in Roman hands, except for Agrigentum, which held out until 210 BC, when it was betrayed by Numidian mercenaries. In the summer, the time came to hold the comitia centuriata at Rome, in order to elect the consuls. The task of organising the elections was expected to fall to Marcellus as senior consul, but he sent a letter to the Senate when it recalled him, declaring that it would be harmful to the Republic to leave Hannibal to his own devices. When the Senate received this, there was debate as to whether it was better to recall the consul from campaign even though he was unwilling or to cancel the elections of consuls for 209 BC. In the end it was decided to recall Valerius Laevinus from Sicily, even though he was outside Italy. The senate ordered the Urban praetor, Lucius Manlius Acidinus to take a letter to Valerius, along with that sent to the Senate by Marcellus, and to explain to him why they had decided to recall him.
Valerius Laevinus set out from Rome with ten ships and arrived in Sicily safely, entrusted control of the province and command of the army to the praetor Lucius Cincius Alimentus, then sent the commander of the fleet, Marcus Valerius Messalla to Africa with part of the fleet to investigate the preparations of the Carthaginians and to raid their territory. When he returned to Rome, he informed the Senate that no Carthaginian forces remained on the island, that all the exiles had returned home and work had resumed in the fields. This was an exaggeration, insofar as Laevinius spent almost all of 209 BC trying to revive Sicilian agriculture. Not only was all independence of Sicily brought to an end, but the majority of the islands commercial activities were redirected toward Italy. However, in 210 BC, the Senate decided to restore autonomy to Syracuse, which retained a large hinterland.
Late Republic.
Thereafter, Sicily became one of the most prosperous and peaceful Roman provinces, although it was disturbed by two serious rebellions. The first of these is known as the First Servile War (c.138–132 BC), was led by King Antiochus Eunus who established a capital at Enna and conquered Tauromenium as well. Eunus defeated the Roman army several times, but in 133 he was vanquished by Consul Publius Rupilius near Messina; the war ended with the capture of Tauromenium and Enna in 132 BC, and about 20,000 of the unfortunate slaves were crucified. The Second Servile War (104–101) was led by Athenio in the western part of the island and by Salvius Tryphon in the east. This war was terminated by Manius Aquillius. Both wars are described by Diodorus Siculus in terms which suggest that there were massive numbers of slaves from the eastern Mediterranean in Sicily (c.200,000), with significant economic and social implications for the island.
At the end of Sulla's second civil war, in 82 BC, Pompey, a very rich and talented young general, was sent to Sicily by the dictator, Sulla, to recover the island from the supporters of Marius and thereby secure the grain supply to Rome. Pompey crushed the opposition and, when the cities complained he responded with one of his most famous statements, reported by Plutarch as "why do you keep praising the laws before me when I am wearing a sword?" He expelled his enemies in Sicily, putting to death the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo.
The government of the island in this period was controlled by a praetor, who was assisted by two quaestores (who focussed on financial matters), one based at Syracuse and one at Lilybaeum. Some communities continued to possess a popular assembly, but there was an increasing concentration of power in the hands of local elites.
Praetorship of Gaius Verres.
From 73–71 BC, the praetor of the province was Gaius Verres who was denounced by the Sicilians for extortion, theft, and robbery and was prosecuted in Rome by Cicero whose speeches against him, known as the "Verrines", still survive. Since these speeches are the main evidence for Verres' actions, it is hard to get an objective idea of the impact of his activities on Sicily. Cicero emphasised Verres' very harsh implementation of the grain tax (for his personal profit rather than that of the Republic) and the theft of artworks, including sacred votive offerings. Verres had expected the power of his friends and the deft manipulation of legal procedure to ensure his acquittal, but after Cicero's blisteringly effective first speech, he fled into exile.
War on Pirates.
In 70 BC, the praetor Caecilius Metellus fought successfully against the pirates which infested the seas around Sicily and Campania, who went on to plunder Gaeta and Ostia (69–68 BC) and captured the daughter of Marcus Antonius Orator at Misenum. In the course of the subsequent war against the pirates in 67 BC, the sea around Sicily was assigned to Plotius Varus. In 61 BC, Clodius was sent to the island as quaestor.
Internal organisation.
In the Roman Republican period Marcus Valerius Laevinus introduced the "lex provinciae" in 210 BC, the law regulating cities in provinces. The specific version of this law for Sicily, the "Lex Rupilia", was completed after the First Servile War by the consul Publius Rupilius in 132 BC. All the Sicilian cities enjoyed a certain autonomy and issued small coins, but were divided into four legal and administrative classes:
1. "foederatae civitates" (allied communities)
This first order, which could also be called the "first class", included the cities that had remained loyal to Rome during the Punic wars of the 3rd century BC. They enjoyed a much greater freedom than non-federated cities. Rome had conceded to them, as a reward for their demonstrated friendship, a bilateral treaty that recognised the precise duties and rights of citizens and very rarely were they liable to pay the "decumena" (or tenth), or the tax on their harvest. They could also retain ownership of their lands, could govern themselves and therefore they were very similar to the allied cities of the Italian peninsula, except that the right of Roman citizenship was not granted to the islanders. There were three foederatae civitates: Messina, Tauromenium and Notum
2. "civitates sine foedere immunes ac liberae" (exempt and free communities without an alliance)
In the second order were the cities that had not entered into a bilateral treaty with Rome, but a unilateral one, in which Rome dictated their rights and duties. However these rights were very favourable compared to the subsequent classes. Although they were not allied, they were exempt from the payment of the "decuma" and could freely administer their internal affairs, without having to follow Roman law ("ius romanus"). They could elect their own magistrates, senate and, more significantly, they were free from the jurisdiction of provincial magistrates and their territory could not be legally administered by the praetor . These cities were: Halaesa Archonidea, Alicia, Centuripae, Segesta and Panormus
3. "civitates decumanae" (communities liable to the "decuma" tax)
In the third order were the cities that had to pay Rome the tax of one tenth, called the "decuma". This was regulated by the "lex Hieronica", named for King Hiero II, which established the amount to be taxed on each crop of the territory. These cities did not enjoy the rights of the two previous classes as they had been conquered after offering resistance. Most of the Sicilian population centres were "civitates decumanae"
4. "civitates censoriae" (communities subject to the censor)
The last category was for cities that had been conquered in war and for this reason they enjoyed neither rights nor privileges. Cicero reports that there were very few cities that fell into this category. Their land was given to the Romans as an "ager publicus", that is it no longer belonged to the citizens but to the Roman conquerors of the city. The names of all the civitates censoriae are not known; some say they were only six and some say they were many. Syracuse and Drepanum were civitates censoriae.
Sicilian Revolt.
After Verres, Sicily recovered rapidly, although not reimbursed for the robberies of the former praetor. Nor did Caesar's Civil War (49–45 BC) interrupt business as usual. Caesar's opponents had grasped the strategic importance of the island of Sicily as a base for attacking North Africa or for defending against an attack from Africa. However, after Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and began the civil war he took control of the island; Asinius Pollio was sent as Caesar's emissary, to remove the governor of the island at the time, Cato the Younger. The Caesarians were therefore able to embark from Lilybaeum to attack the supporters of Pompey in North Africa.
The situation changed with the assassination of Caesar (44 BC). In 42 BC, Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey Magnus, was appointed commander of the Roman fleet gathered at Massalia by the Senate. He came into conflict with the Second Triumvirate, consisting of Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus and was proscribed under the "lex Pedia" for collecting other proscribed individuals and slaves from Epirus and carrying out various acts of piracy. He therefore took control Mylae, Tyndaris and then Messana. After this, all of Sicily had to submit to him. First he killed the praetor, Aulus Pompeius Bithynicus and then he defeated Octavian's legatus, Quintus Salvidienus Rufus in a naval battle off Rhegium (40 BC). Sextus Pompey was able to prevent the supply of grain to Rome from Sicily. Initially, Octavian could do little about this, but then the people at Rome forced a compromise. Thus in 39 BC, Sextus Pompey and the Second Triumvirate signed the Pact of Misenum, which recognised Sextus Pompey's control of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica and granted freedom to the slaves in his custody. In exchange, Sextus Pompey promised to end the blockade of Rome, resume the Sicilian grain supply to Rome and not to gather any more slaves. The agreement did not hold and triumvirs turned their attention on Sicily. The conflict involved perhaps 200,000 men and 1,000 warships and wrecked great devastation on Sicily. The territory of Tyndaris and Messina was the most damaged.
Octavian was defeated at sea in the Battle of Messina (37 BC) and again in August 36 BC. But Octavian's lieutenant, Agrippa, a commander of great talent was able to destroy Sextus' fleet a month later at the Battle of Naulochus in September 36 BC. Octavian imposed a heavy indemnity on Sicily of 1,600 talents and the cities that had resisted him were harshly punished. Thirty thousand slaves in Sextus Pompey's service were captured; the majority were returned to their masters, but about 6,000, who had no masters, were impaled.
After the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian had sole power over the Roman Republic. In 27 BC, the Senate formalised this situation and he assumed the title of Augustus.
Augustan reorganisation.
At the end of the conflict between the triumvirs and Sextus Pompey, Sicily was devastated: cities and countryside had been damaged by warfare and a lot of land remained uncultivated because the proprietors were dead or had fled, or their land had been confiscated by Octavian as punishment. A portion of Sicily remained imperial property, while large areas, probably in the Plain of Catania, were given to Agrippa. When he died, the majority of his property passed to Augustus and it is possible that other Sicilian land came into Augustus' possession in a similar way. Other farmland, especially on the eastern and northern coasts, was given to Italian veterans who had served in Augustus' legions.
Augustus carried out an administrative reorganisation of the empire as a whole and of the province of Sicily in particular. A number of "coloniae" – cities composed of veterans – were established by Augustus on Sicily, but the exact chronology is unclear. We know for certain that the first measures were taken in 36 BC, when Tauromenium was made into a "colonia". Subsequently, Augustus visited Sicily in 22 or 21 BC, the first stop on a journey through the empire, and other reforms were carried out. At the end of the process, six Sicilian cities had become "coloniae": Syracuse, Tauromenium, Panormus, Catania, Tyndaris, and Thermae Himerenses. The influx of population represented by these foundations may have been intended to compensate for a demographic slump resulting from the war with Sextus Pompey, or from Augustus' excorciation of the island after his victory. It is not clear what happened to the pre-existing Greek inhabitants of these cities: this fact is interesting because normally the citizens of "coloniae" had Roman citizenship and could therefore participate in the highest levels of the Roman state. It may be that these privileges were restricted to the aristocracy. In any case, the influx of Italian veterans played a decisive role in the diffusion of Latin language in Sicily.
Messina, Lipara, and perhaps Lilybaeum, Agregentum, and Halaesa were made into "municipia" – a status significantly lower than that of "colonia". No veterans were settled in these settlements; they were simply compensated for their loyalty by Augustus.
Centuripa, Notum, and Segesta were converted into "Latin" cities, while the remaining cities retained the same status that they had had since the creation of the province in the third century BC – foreign communities under the control of Rome.
None of the privileges conceded to the various centres automatically implied exemption from paying tribute to Rome. It is reasonable to presume that, like other "coloniae" outside Italy, the Sicilian "coloniae" paid tribute. The grain tithe was replaced by the "stipendium", a property tax, and there may also have been a poll tax. It is possible that Augustus made this reform as a result of the new role played by Egypt as the source of the grain supply, although the produce of the Emperor's Sicilian farms continued to be sent to Rome.
Imperial province.
There is little documentation on the history of Sicily between Augustus and Diocletian. In AD 68, there was disorder on the island, probably linked to the revolt of Lucius Clodius Macer in North Africa. Emperor Vespasian (69–79) settled veterans and freedmen at Panormos and Segesta.
The latifundia, or great private estates, specialising in agriculture destined for export (grain, olive oil, wine) played a large role in society and in the economy in this period. During the first two centuries AD Sicily underwent economic depression and urban life declined, the countryside was deserted and the wealthy owners were not resident, as indicated by the lack of dwellings at various levels. In addition, the Roman government neglected the territory and it became a place of exile and refuge for slaves and brigands.
According to the "Historia Augusta" (a notoriously unreliable fourth century text), there was a slave revolt in Sicily under the Emperor Gallienus (253–268).
Rural Sicily entered a new period of prosperity at the beginning of the 4th century, with commercial settlements and farm villages that seem to reach the pinnacle of their expansion and activity.
The reasons seem to be twofold: first of all, renewed commercial links with North Africa expanded for the supplies of grain to Italy, while the Egyptian production, which had so far satisfied the needs of Rome, was sent to the new capital of Constantinople in 330 AD; Sicily consequently assumed a central role in the new commercial routes between the two continents. Secondly, the most prosperous equestrian and senatorial ranks began to abandon urban life by retreating to their country estates, due to the growing tax burden and the expenses they were obliged to sustain the poor masses. Their lands were cultivated no longer by slaves, but by colonists. Considerable sums of money were spent to enlarge, embellish, and make their villas more comfortable.
Traces of renewed construction are found in Filosofiana, Sciacca, Punta Secca, Naxos and elsewhere. An obvious sign of transformation is the new title assigned to the governor of the island, from a "corrector" to "consularis".
In the 4th century therefore, Sicily was not merely the “granary of Rome”, but also became a favourite residence for families of the high Roman aristocracy, like the Nicomachi and the Caeionii, who brought with them the luxury and taste of the capital of the empire.
The most famous archaeological remains of this period are the Villa Romana del Casale. Others include the Villa Romana del Tellaro and Villa Romana di Patti.
Latifundia.
The origin of the latifundia in Sicily, as elsewhere, was the ager publicus from the spoils of war, confiscated from conquered peoples from the early 2nd century BC. Latifundia could be used for livestock (sheep and cattle) or cultivation of olive oil, grain, and wine. They distressed Pliny the Elder (died AD 79) as he travelled, seeing only slaves working the land, not the sturdy Roman farmers who had been the backbone of the Republic's army. He argued that the latifundia had ruined Italy and would ruin the Roman provinces as well.
The latifundia quickly started economic consolidation as larger estates achieved greater economies of scale and senators did not pay land taxes. Owners re-invested their profits by purchasing smaller neighbouring farms, since smaller farms had a lower productivity and could not compete, in an ancient precursor of agribusiness. By the 2nd century AD, latifundia had displaced small farms as the agricultural foundation of the Roman Empire. This effect contributed to the destabilising of Roman society; as the small farms of the Roman peasantry were bought up by the wealthy and with their vast supply of slaves, the landless peasantry were forced into idleness, relying greatly on handouts.
Arrival of Christianity in Sicily.
The first reference to a Christian presence on the island appears in "Acts" (28.12–13): "We landed in Syracuse, where we remained for three days and then we travelled along the coast and arrived at Rhegion." In this way, Paul of Tarsus, on his voyage from the Levant to Rome, which is described at the end of "Acts", travelled through Sicily. He stopped in Syracuse after having been shipwrecked and forced to disembark on Malta. From Malta, according to the account in "Acts", Paul travelled to Syracuse, but it is not clear why he stopped there. It is clear that Syracuse was still used in this period as a stop on the way to Rome on commercial trade routes. Perhaps Paul was hosted by a Jewish community, such as existed in many ports of the Mediterranean – the Jewish community at Catania is well-attested epigraphically. After Paul, there are no sources before the 3rd century AD which expressly mention a Christian presence on the island.
There are various legends which link the arrival of Christianity in Sicily with Paul's brief sojourn on the island, while other traditions report that Paulmet Christians who had already arrived before him and that this was the reason why he stopped on the island. But "Acts" doesn't mention any of this and these traditions may respond to the desire to make the arrival of Christianity in Sicily as early as possible (60 or even 40 AD), in order to reinforce the authority of the Sicilian church.
The first certain reference to a Sicilian church is found in an official letter ("Epist." 30.5.2), sent from Rome to Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. This document dates between 250 and 251 during the Decian persecution and discusses the "lapsi" – Christians who had performed acts of worship to pagan deities in the face of Roman persecutions. The letter mentions a similar letter sent to Sicily, which suggests that apostasy was considered a problem on the island as well and that the Christian presence on Sicily was already significant enough to have a hierarchical relationship with Rome. It is possible that this community developed at the end of the 2nd century AD or at the beginning of the 3rd century – the period in which the first archaeological evidence appears.
The Decian (AD 250) and Diocletianic Persecutions (304) are the setting for the stories of two important Sicilian martyrs, Saint Agatha and Saint Lucy. These saints are known only from hagiographies written about two hundred years after the events, which represent them as young and beautiful virgins, victims of two persecutors called Quintianus and Pascasius. It is likely that these sources respond to a desire to link the two most important cities of eastern Sicily: Catania, home of Saint Agatha, and Syracuse, home of Saint Lucy. Significantly, all the principal saints of the island are women – in addition to Agatha and Lucy, there are the Palermitan saints, (4th century martyr), Olivia (5th century martyr), and Christina (martyred in 304), who was introduced into the cult of Saint Rosalia by the Palermitans. Perhaps this emphasis on female figures in Sicilian Christianity reflects the emphasis on female deities in pre-Christian Sicilian religion (e.g. Venus of Eryx, Isis, Demeter and Kore).
Two important Christian inscriptions have been discovered from the period. One is the , discovered at Catania in 1730 (in the necropolis on the site of the modern via Dottor Consoli) and now in the Louvre in Paris. It is a funerary inscription, dating to the end of the 3rd century AD at the earliest, which records in Latin the death of a child of little more than a year in age, buried next to the "Christian martyrs" (but it is not clear whether this refers to Agatha and Euplius). The inscription is the first direct evidence for Christianity on the island. The other inscription, also sepulchral, is the so-called Inscription of Euskia in Greek, which was discovered at the end of the 19th century in the Catacombs of San Giovanni in Syracuse and dates to the beginning of the 5th century. The document indicates a local cult of Lucy. At the time of the inscription's creation, the cult of Agatha is already attested at Rome and Carthage.
With the end of the period of the persecutions, the church entered a phase of expansion, even as fierce debates arose within the church on doctrinal point, leading to the convocation of synods. Eusebius includes a letter of Constantine to Crestus, Bishop of Syracuse, in his "Church History" (10.5.21), which invites him to participate in the Council of Arles of AD 314. Cresto was assigned an important organisational role at Arles, which indicates the relevance of the Sicilian church at the time.
The beginning of monasticism in Sicily came in the 4th century. The hagiographic tradition reports that the ascetic Hilarion travelled from Egypt to Pachino and then spent three years in Sicily (perhaps near modern Ispica), where he sought a retreat in which to practice the life of an anchorite. He subsequently departed as a result of his growing fame in the region. More significant for Sicily was the arrival of cenobitic monasticism: there are many reports of different kinds of ascetics gathering together to share a religious life, especially under the Basilian rule (there were no monasteries in Sicily organised under the Benedictine rule until the Norman period). Some monks followed the Byzantine Rite, others the Latin rite. The growth of monasticism in Sicily was probably due to its insularity, as well as the fact that the region, excepting a few slave revolts, was one of the most peaceful in the west – at least until the Vandal conquest of 439, and then again until the 9th century Arab conquest.
The fall of the Western Empire and Sicily.
The 5th century Migration Period was a period of serious crisis for the Roman Empire. In 410, the Visigoths under Alaric sacked Rome. In 476, the general Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus traditionally considered the last Western Roman Emperor. The relative tranquility of Sicily in this period attracted many people. Just as in earlier periods, many senatorial families had been spurred to acquire vast estates of fertile land. High functionaries and religious officials (both Christian and pagan) travelled to Sicily to dedicate themselves to study, hunting and entertainment. We know that Nicomachus Flavianus the Younger, "praefectus urbi" between 361 and 362, had an estate near Enna, where he produced a revised edition of the first ten books of Livy in 408. Others came as refugees, such as Melania the Younger, who fled Alaric's sack of Rome and took refuge at Messina with her husband and friends in 410.
Alaric attempted to attack Sicily itself and got as far as Rhegium, but the Gothic fleet was destroyed in the Straits of Messina by a storm and Alaric therefore abandoned the plan.
Genseric, King of the Vandals, occupied the province of Africa in the 430s and began to practice piracy, first raiding the Sicilian coast in 437. Then, after seizing part of the Western Roman fleet berthed at Carthage after taking the city in October 439, the Vandals organised attacks throughout the Mediterranean, especially in Sicily and Sardinia (the main sources of grain for the western empire), Corsica, and the Balearic islands. In 441, since the western Roman fleet had proven incapable of defeating the Vandals, Theodosius II sent an expedition in 442 but it accomplished nothing and was recalled because of attacks by Persians and Huns along the northern and eastern borders. The Western Roman empire continued to defend Sicily, with the general Ricimer active there in 456 and then Marcellinus and his Dalmatian legions in 461. The Vandal presence in Sicily was limited to piratical raids, similar to those undertaken in southern Italy. A panegyric of 468 by Sidonius Apollinaris indicates that in this period, Sicily was still part of the Western Roman Empire. In 468 the island fell to the Vandal King Geiseric but was reunited with Italy in 476 under Odoacer with a toe-hold allowed the Vandals in the port of Lilybaeum. This was ceded to Theodoric in 493.
Culture.
In the Republican period, the main language was still Greek, since the Romans had no policy of enforcing their language on communities. Even in the period of Cicero, Greek was the main language used by the elite and almost all the Sicilians mentioned by Cicero in the "Verrine Orations" have Greek names. Cicero also refers to the Greek calendar (in use throughout Sicily in this period), Greek festivals, relations between the Sicilian cities and panhellenic sanctuaries like Delphi, Sicilian victors of the Olympic Games, and Greek civic architecture. Literature remained almost exclusively Greek, with authors like Diodorus Siculus and Caecilius of Calacte.
The non-Greek languages of Sicily (Sican, Sicel, Elymian, and Punic) probably continued to be spoken in the countryside and employed in traditional religious cults, but were absent from elite and written contexts. There is direct testimony only for Punic (a brief inscription of the 2nd or 1st century BC from Aegusa). Some Mamertines probably retained their Italic dialect.
With the establishment of six Roman "coloniae" at the beginning of the Imperial period, Sicily received a large influx of Latin speakers for the first time and a Latin-Greek bilingualism developed which continued until the Byzantine period. Generally, in the Imperial period, Latin replaced Greek in an ever-increasing number of areas, while Greek was confined to lower registers, although it retained its historic prestige and was widely used by the population. Latin became firmly established as the elite language, with Calpurnius Siculus, , and Julius Firmicus Maternus producing literary works in Latin, although there are also examples of Sicilian authors who wrote in Greek during the Imperial period, such as Pantaenus, Aristocles of Messene, Probus of Lilybaeum, and Citharius. In this period the non-Greek languages must have definitively disappeared, although Punic may still have been spoken at the end of the Imperial period based on the testimony of Apuleius. Numerous Jewish and Samaritan communities are attested on the island in the Imperial period, although they usually appear in the record using Greek or Latin. From the 5th century the Greek
language appears to have experienced a recovery that lasted into the period of Muslim domination.
Major centres.
Catania.
"Catana" or "Catina" (Catania) was conquered at the beginning of the First Punic War, in 263 BC, by the Consul Manius Valerius Maximus Corvinus Messalla. Part of the booty from the conquest was a sundial which was set up in the Comitium in Rome. Additionally the city was required to pay tribute to Rome ("civitas decumana"). The conqueror of Syracuse, Marcus Claudius Marcellus built a gymnasium in the city. Around 135, in the course of the First Servile War, the city was conquered by the rebel slaves. Another revolt in the area, led by the gladiator Seleurus in 35 BC, was probably suppressed after the death of its leader. In 122 BC, following volcanic activity on Etna, there was heavy damage from the volcanic ash raining down on the rooves of the city which collapsed under the weight. The territory of Catina was further impacted by eruptions in 50, 44, 36 BC and finally by the disastrous lava flow of 32 BC, which ruined the countryside and the city of Aitna, as well as the disastrous war between Augustus and Sextus Pompey, but with the beginning of the Augustan period, a long and difficult socio-economic recovery began. At the end of the war, all Sicily is described as heavily damaged, impoverished, and depopulated in a wide range of areas. In book 6 of Strabo in particular there is reference to the deleterious state of Syracuse, Catania, and Centuripe. After the war against Sextus Pompey, Augustus established a "colonia" in Catania. Pliny the Elder lists the city, which the Romans called Catina among the cities which Augustus promoted to the rank of Colonia Romana in 21 BC, along with Syracuse and Thermae (Sciacca). Groups of veterans of the Roman army were settled in the cities which had received this new status. The new demographic situation certainly contributed to change the style of municipal life in favour of the new "Middle Class." Catania retained a notable importance and wealth in the course of the late Republic and the Empire: Cicero calls it the "richest" of the cities and it must have remained thus in the later Imperial period and Byzantine times, as the literary sources and numerous contemporary monuments suggest, which makes the city almost unique among those of Roman Sicily. In order to pay the "stipendium", the large coastal cities like Catania, extended their control in the course of the High Empire, over a vast swath of the interior of the island which had become depopulated as a result of the large estates which dominated agriculture in the period. Christianity spread rapidly; among the martyrs during the persecutions of Decius and Diocletian, were Saint Agatha, patron saint of the city, and Euplius. The Diocese of Catania was established at the end of the 6th century.
Centuripe.
"Centuripe", surrendered spontaneously to the Roman consuls Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Titus Otacilius Crassus in 262 BC. As a result, the city was declared free and exempted from taxation, as Cicero mentions in his "Verrine Orations". After this a spectacular pace of development is detectable which led it to become one of the most important cities in Roman Sicily. This is attested both by the statements of Cicero and archaeologically by the great quantity of pottery and the imposing funerary monuments. A Greek inscription from the 2nd century BC recounts a Centuripan diplomatic mission to Rome and Lanuvium and part of a treaty with Lanuvium by which the two communities were declared twins. In 39 BC, Sextus Pompey took the city by siege and destroyed it for its loyalty to Octavian, but the latter rebuilt it and gave the inhabitants Roman citizenship as well. In the Imperial period, Centuripe produced imposing monuments whose remains still survive today. These include the Temple of the Augustales of the first or second century AD, of which columns and two monumental tower tombs can be seen on one side; the "Dogana", of which only a raised flat area can now be seen; and "Castle of Conradin". In the northwest of the town, in contrada Bagni, a paved street leads to the remains of a nymphaeum, suspended over a torrent of water, of which a brick wall with five niches survives, as well as remains of a pool for collecting the water and part of the aqueduct. Notable also is the continued production of coinage by the city in the Roman Republican period.
Tauromenium.
Tauromenium (Taormina) remained under the control of Syracuse until 212 BC when all of Sicily became a Roman province. Its inhabitants were considered "foederati" of the Romans and Cicero says in the Verrine Orations that it was one of three "civitates foederatae" (allied cities) and calls it a "civis notabilis". As a result of this, the community did not have to pay the grain tax or provide ships and sailors in emergencies. In the course of the First Servile War (c.135–132 BC), Tauromenium was occupied by the rebel slaves who used it as a stronghold. Besieged by the consul Pompilius, the starving garrison surrendered only when one of the leaders, Serapion, betrayed his companions and admitted the Romans to the city. In 36 BC, during the war between Sextus Pompey and Octavian, the latter's troops disembarked at Naxos and reoccupied the city. Later, in 21 BC, Augustus founded a Roman "colonia" in the city for his supporters, expelling those inhabitants who had opposed him. Strabo speaks of Tauromenium as a smaller city than Messana and Catana. Pliny and Claudius Ptolemy mention it as a Roman "colonia".
Messana.
Messana (Messina) surrendered by the Mamertines to the Romans in 264 BC, received the status of "civitas libera et foederata" (free and allied community) after the First Punic War, along with Tauromenium. During the Republican period, it suffered attacks during the Servile Wars (102 BC). Cicero mentions the city in the Verrine Orations as "civitas maxima et locupletissima" (a very large and wealthy community). In 49 BC, Pompey attacked the fleet of Julius Caesar and drove it into Messana's port. Subsequently, the city became one of the many bases of Sextus Pompey and it was sacked by the troops of Lepidus. Afterwards, it probably became a municipium.
Of the fate of the city during the Roman Empire, we know almost nothing. There is a tradition that St Paul visited the city on his way to Rome and preached the Gospel there. After the division of the Roman Empire it became part of the Eastern empire. In 407, under the Emperor Arcadius, Messana was made the "protometropolis" of Sicily and Magna Graecia.
Tyndaris.
Tyndaris (Tindari) was the control of Hieron II during the First Punic War and became a Carthaginian naval base early in the war. The Battle of Tyndaris was fought nearby in 257 BC, in which the Roman fleet commanded by Gaius Atilius Regulus defeated the Carthaginians. Later, it was a naval base for Sextus Pompey, captured by Octavian in 36 BC. He founded a Roman "colonia", Colonia Augusta Tyndaritanorum, on the site, one of five "coloniae" founded in Sicily. Cicero calls the city a "nobilissima civitas". In the first century AD it suffered a major landslide, while in the fourth century AD it was damaged by two destructive earthquakes. It became the seat of a bishopric, was conquered by the Byzantines in 535 and fell to the Arabs in 836, who destroyed the city.
Thermae Himerae.
Thermae Himerae (Termini Imerese) was the site of a serious Roman defeat by Hamilcar Barca in 260 BC, during the First Punic War, but was subsequently conquered by them in 253 BC. Thereafter it remained loyal to Rome and was among the cities subject to tribute. After the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC Scipio Aemilianus returned works of art which had been taken by the Carthaginians to Thermae, including a statue of Stesichorus, who had spent time in the city. The base of one of these statues is preserved, with part of the inscription. After defeating Sextus Pompey, Octavian established a "colonia" on the site; this was probably a punishment of the city for having links with the Pompeian party. The impact of this action is clear from the numerous Latin inscriptions which survive at the site and from the extraordinary number of Roman and Italian names attested on the site. The former Greek inhabitants of the city practically disappear from record at the beginning of the Imperial period.
Panormus.
Panormus (Palermo) remained under Carthaginian control until the First Punic War and was site of one of the main conflicts between the Carthaginians and the Romans, until the Roman fleet attacked the city in 254 and made the city a tributary. Hasdrubal attempted to recapture the city but was defeated by the Roman consul, Metellus. Another attempt at reconquest was made by Hamilcar Barca in 247 BC, but the city remained loyal to the Romans, for which it received the title of "praetura", the eagle of gold, and the right to mint coinage, remaining one of the five free cities of the island.
Drepanum.
"Drepanum" (Trapani), conquered along with Eryx at the end of the First Punic War, became a flourishing commercial city, owing primarily to the port, its geographic location on Mediterranean sea routes, its active sea salt industry, which had been developed already in Phoenician times, and the extraction of coral.
Lilybaeum.
Lilybaeum (Marsala), already prosperous under the Carthaginians, was the seat of one of the quaestores which Rome sent to Sicily annually. It was enriched by splendid mansions and public buildings. Among others, one of the quaestores at Lilybaeum was Cicero in the year 75 BC, who referred to Lilybaeum as "splendidissima civitas" (the most splendid community). Under Emperor Pertinax, the city became a large Roman colonia, called Helvia Augusta Lilybaitanorum.
Syracuse.
Syracusae became the capital of the new Roman province after 212 BC. Despite the misgovernment and systematic despoliation of its artistic heritage by Gaius Verres, Syracuse remained the capital of the province and seat of its praetor. It continued to be a key port for commercial interaction between east and west. St Paul and Marcian of Syracuse (the first Bishop of Syracuse) spent time in the city proselytising. As a result of the Roman persecution of the Christians before the Edict of Constantine in AD 313, a deep network of catacombs were built under the city, second only to those of Rome. Successive attacks, starting with those of the Vandals in 440, impoverished the city until it was conquered by the Byzantine general Belisarius in 535. From 663 to 668, the city was the residence of Emperor Constans II and the metropolis of all churches in Sicily.


Secusses

Secusses was the name of a tribe belonging to the Venetic peoples that are sometimes confused with Illyrians.


Bela Palanka

Bela Palanka (Serbian Cyrillic: Бела Паланка, ) is a town and municipality located in the Pirot District of southeastern Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the population of the town is 8,143, and the population of the municipality is 12,126. In ancient times, the town was known as Remesiana in Dacia Mediterranea. The name "Bela Palanka" means 'white town'.
Geography.
Bela Palanka is a small town in the southeast of the country and is surrounded by countryside and mountains. The town is accessible from the nearby city of Niš by the Niš Express buses that run from Niš to Pirot, Babušnica, Dimitrovgrad, and Sofia.
Climate.
Bela Palanka has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: "Cfb"), that's very close to a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: "Dfb").
History.
The town was originally settled by the Dacians and was known under the ancient name of Aiadava or Aeadaba. Thracians inhabited the area until their assimilation into contemporary ethnic groups in the area.
After the Romans conquered Moesia in 75 BC, the new castrum (imperial domain with estates) and municipium was known initially as "Ulpianorum" and then "Remesiana" (Moesi) and stood along the Via Militaris between Naissus and Serdica.
Emperor Justinian had following strongholds in the district of Remesiana:
The patron saint of Romania, Nicetas of Remesiana, was a 4th-century bishop at Remesiana. Peter the Hermit was defeated by the Byzantines in the north and regrouped at an evacuated Bela Palanka, gathering the harvest before heading to Constantinople.
Excavations include well-preserved castrum dating to 4th century and a hoard of 260 coins minted during the rule of Constantine I, Theodosius I, Tiberius Claudius Nero (3rd century AD). During the 1096 People's Crusade the town, left abandoned by its inhabitants, was briefly occupied by the pilgrims led by Peter the Hermit, Walter of Breteuil and Rainald of Breis.
From 1929 to 1941, Bela Palanka was part of the Morava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Settlements.
Aside from the town of Bela Palanka, the municipality consists of the following villages:
Demographics.
According to the 2011 census results, the municipality has 12,126 inhabitants.
Ethnic groups.
The ethnic composition of the municipality:
Economy.
The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018):


Vice-voivode of Transylvania

The vice-voivode of Transylvania (; ) was the deputy of the voivode of Transylvania in the Kingdom of Hungary. The office first appeared in contemporary sources in 1221. From the early 15th century, the voivodes rarely visited Transylvania, permanently leaving the administration of the counties to the vice-voivodes, who often belonged to their voivodes' allegiance.


List of administrators of Allied-occupied Austria

This article lists the administrators of Allied-occupied Austria, which represented the Allies of World War II in Allied-occupied Austria () from the end of World War II in Europe in 1945 until the re-establishment of Austrian independence in 1955, in accordance with the Austrian State Treaty.
Officeholders.
Source:


Dora Line


William Birchall

William Birchall (1769–1817) was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Promoted to lieutenant in 1790, he served aboard at the Glorious First of June. Birchall was made a commander for acting with "zeal and intrepidity" during a boat action with a French privateer and promoted to post-captain following the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. Later, in 1803, Birchall commanded the Chester region Sea Fencibles. He died in Exeter in 1817.
Early life and career.
Birchall was born in Bath, Somerset, in 1769. His father was a cabinetmaker and upholsterer. Very little is known about his early life but his examination for lieutenant in 1790 and eventual promotion on 18 June 1793, were recorded in the "Bath Chronicle", which added that he had served 13 years as a midshipman. Birchall served on at the time of his promotion, continuing in her to the West Indies and was probably still on board when she fought at the Glorious First of June (1794).
Birchall had joined by 1796, as second-in-command to Captain Thomas Byam Martin. Towards the end of October, "Santa Margarita" was involved in two actions with French privateers in the English Channel. Having already taken the 16-gun "Buonoparte" earlier in the day, on the night of 23 October, "Santa Margarita" was approached by two other ships, that came almost within hailing distance before suddenly moving away in different directions. "Santa Margarita" gave each a broadside before setting off in pursuit of the larger vessel. In the meantime, Birchall had gathered five others in a boat and set off after the other, which had been badly damaged and was now disabled. The ship they eventually boarded and captured, turned out to be the "Potomac", an ex-British merchantmen from Poole, possessed by a French prize-crew. "Santa Margarita" caught up with, and after a few more shots, forced the surrender of the 16-gun "Vengeur". Being almost outnumbered by their prisoners, the British then put into Plymouth.
Command.
Having earned a mention in dispatches for his "Zeal and intrepidity" in the boat action with "Potomac", Birchall was made a commander in 1797 and by 1798, had commissioned the lightly armed but fast troopship, "Hebe". In May, she was serving in a squadron under Home Popham, sent to prevent the movement of a large number of enemy barges from Vlissingen to Dunkirk. The large flat-bottomed boats were to be used to convey troops across the Channel for Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom. At that time, the flotilla was travelling along the inland waterways of Belgium to Ostend, where the British hoped to stop them by destroying the lock gates and sluices there. A force was gathered at Margate, comprising 25 small vessels, of which Popham's 26-gun "Expedition" was the largest, and over 1,000 troops, a good proportion of which were held aboard "Hebe".
The expedition set off on 14 May and arrived, while still dark, on the morning of 19 May. The troops were landed in bad weather while Popham's squadron provided covering fire. Some of the smaller vessels were badly damaged by the enemy batteries and had to withdraw but "Hebe", being more heavily constructed, was able to kedge in close to the shore to continue the bombardment. The troops accomplished their mission but were prevented from re-embarking by the worsening weather and were captured by a superior French force, the following day.
Birchall was given command of the 18-gun brig in March 1800. On 9 January 1801, "Harpy" and the revenue cutter "Greyhound", recaptured the 12-gun cutter, "Constitution". She had been taken earlier that day by two French privateers off the Isle of Portland. Immediately prior to the Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801, "Harpy" was one of the smaller vessels that took soundings and marked channels in the Hollands Diep and around the Middle Ground shoal, allowing all but three of Horatio Nelson's squadron to pass safely and engage the Danish fleet. After the action, Birchall noticed the Danes attempting to warp away one of their ships. He ordered a line attached to "Sjaelland" and towed her away as a prize.
Birchall and "Harpy" were ordered to remain off Copenhagen to ensure that terms of the armistice were honoured and to let other British ships know that Nelson had taken the fleet to Bornholm. He was promoted to post-captain for his actions.
Marriage.
Birchall married three times during his life but left no children. He was very young and still a midshipman, when he met and married his first bride in Lyme Regis in 1786. Esther Delaney was his senior by some years and died in 1806 at Bathampton. Birchall took another wife almost immediately, marrying Jane Cross from Bath, in Marylebone. She died in 1811 in Ilfracombe. He eventually remarried again in 1815. His last wife was Leonora, one of the Binghams from Bingham's Melcombe in Dorset.
Later career and death.
In 1803, Birchall was given command of the Chester region Sea Fencibles and, according to the "Bath Chronicle", caused a riot on 26 December when he impressed one of the local militia. Following their Christmas parade, the militia responded angrily, attacking the gaol and meeting house, where they tore down Birchall's flag. Birchall was asked to leave town while the army restored order.
Birchall died in Exeter in 1817, then was buried at its Sidwell's church (now chapel) which the Luftwaffe destroyed in the Exeter Blitz of 1942.


Batavi (military unit)

The Batavi was an "auxilia palatina" (infantry) unit of the late Roman army, active between the 4th and the 5th century. It was composed by 500 soldiers and was the heir of those ethnic groups that were initially used as auxiliary units of the Roman army and later integrated in the Roman Empire after the "Constitutio Antoniniana". Their name was derived from the people of the Batavi.
In the sources they are usually recorded together with the "Heruli", and it is probable the two units fought together.
At the beginning of the 5th century two related units are attested, the Batavi seniores and the Batavi iuniores.
History.
"Batavi".
The "Batavi" belonged to the army of the "Caesar" Julian, and fought in the Battle of Strasbourg (357). Deployed in the second line, together with the "Regii", the "Batavi" sustained the assault of the outnumbering Alamannic infantry, which had broken the Roman first line. Pushed back until the hill where the Roman camp had been built, the "Batavi" were reinforced by the camp guards and repulsed and broke the enemy.
In 360, before Julian received the order of sending most of his troops to emperor Constantius II of a campaign in the East, the "Batavi", the "Heruli" and two "numeri Moesiacorum" were sent in Britain under the command of Lupicinus, Julian's "magister militum", probably to counter a rebellion. Later the "Batavi" and the "Heruli" returned on the continent, but it is unknown when this happened.
"Batavi seniores" and "iuniores".
The Emperors Valentinian I and Valens divided the army among themselves. Many units were divided into two sub-units, sharing the name of the original unit and each distinguished by the name "seniores", for the units of the "senior Augustus" Valentinian, and "iuniores", for the units of the "iunior Augustus" Valens, and aggregated respectively to the Western Roman army and to the Eastern Roman army.
In 365, when Emperor Valentinian I (364-375) had to confront the invading Germans and was defeated in battle, the inquires found that the "Batavi" ("seniores") had been the first to flee. Before the whole army, Valentinian put the shame on the Batavi, and ordered to strip them of their arms and to sell them as runaway slaves. The soldiers of the legion bowed to the Emperor begging him to forgive them and give them an opportunity to redeem themselves and, at his invitation, took up arms, left the camp and attacked the enemies, killing the great part of them. It happened too (it is unclear whether at this time or not) that the barbarians were able to subtract the banner of the "Batavi" and "Heruli" units, which were made the object of derision by the raiders.
In 367-369 there was a revolt in Britain against Valentinian I, known as Great Conspiracy and put down by the later emperor Theodosius I. In this occasion, both the "Batavi" and the "Heruli" were sent to Britain along with "Iovii" and "Victores". They landed at Richborough and headed for London.
The "Batavi" (probably "iuniores") also took part in one of the most significant battles of antiquity, the Battle of Adrianople (378), during which they were deployed in the reserve. When the "magister equitum" Victor joined them on the orders of Emperor Valens to start a desperate resistance, he discovered that they had already fled.
The "Notitia Dignitatum", a document prepared in the years 400-420, shows the deployment of the "Batavi seniores" and of the "Batavi iuniores". The "Batavi seniores" are listed both under the command of the "Magister militum praesentalis" in the East and under that of the "Magister peditum" for Italy in the West. The "Batavi iuniores" are listed under the command of the "Magister peditum" for Italy, but they were probably sent to reinforce the army of Gaul, since they are also under the "Magister equitum" of Gaul.
Military units.
The first Batavi commander we know of is named Chariovalda, who led a charge across the Visurgin (Weser) against the Cherusci led by Arminius during the campaigns of Germanicus in "Germania Transrhenana".
Tacitus ("De origine et situ Germanorum" XXIX) described the Batavi as the bravest of the tribes of the area, hardened in the Germanic wars, with cohorts under their own commanders transferred to Britannia. They retained the honour of the ancient association with the Romans, not required to pay tribute or taxes and used by the Romans only for war: "They furnished to the Empire nothing but men and arms", Tacitus remarked. Well regarded for their skills in horsemanship and swimming—for men and horses could cross the Rhine without losing formation, according to Tacitus. Dio Cassius describes this surprise tactic employed by Aulus Plautius against the "barbarians"—the British Celts— at the battle of the River Medway, 43:
It is uncertain how they were able to accomplish this feat. The late 4th century writer on Roman military affairs Vegetius mentions soldiers using reed rafts, drawn by leather leads, to transport equipment across rivers. But the sources suggest the Batavi were able to swim across rivers actually wearing full armour and weapons. This would only have been possible by the use of some kind of buoyancy device: Ammianus Marcellinus mentions that the "Cornuti" regiment swam across a river floating on their shields "as on a canoe" (357). Since the shields were wooden, they may have provided sufficient buoyancy
The Batavi were used to form the bulk of the Emperor's personal Germanic bodyguard from Augustus to Galba. They also provided a contingent for their indirect successors, the Emperor's horse guards, the "Equites singulares Augusti".
A Batavian contingent was used in an amphibious assault on Ynys Mon (Anglesey), taking the assembled Druids by surprise, as they were only expecting Roman ships.
Numerous altars and tombstones of the cohorts of Batavi, dating to the 2nd century and 3rd century, have been found along Hadrian's Wall, notably at Castlecary and Carrawburgh, Germany, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania and Austria.
Imperial Bodyguards of the Roman Empire.
The members of the German Bodyguard were recruited from the West Germanic-speaking tribes resident in, or on the borders of, the Roman province of Germania Inferior, with most recruits drawn from the Batavi but also from neighbouring tribes of the Rhine delta region, including the Frisii, Baetasii and Ubii. Little is known about their organisation; from inscriptions it is known that there existed, as in all Roman cavalry units, the officer rank of decurion. The exact size of the unit, which was at least partially mounted, is also unknown, but is described in ancient sources as a cohort, which in this period normally implied a strength of ca. 500 men, or less precisely as a "numerus", whose size could vary. Under the Emperor Caligula, the Bodyguard may have consisted of 500 to 1,000 men.
The German Bodyguard was valued as loyal and reliable. Emperors like Nero trusted the Germani especially because they were not of Roman origin.
The Bodyguard was disbanded briefly after the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, and was finally dissolved by Galba in 68, because of its loyalty to Nero (ruled 54-68), whom he had overthrown. The decision caused deep offence to the Batavi, and contributed to the outbreak of the Revolt of the Batavi in the following year. Their indirect successors were the "Equites singulares Augusti" which were, likewise, mainly recruited from the Germani. They were apparently so similar to the Julio-Claudians' earlier German Bodyguard that they were given the same nickname, the "Batavi".
Revolt of the Batavi.
Despite the alliance, one of the high-ranking Batavi, Julius Paullus, to give him his Roman name, was executed by Fonteius Capito on a false charge of rebellion. His kinsman Gaius Julius Civilis was paraded in chains in Rome before Nero; though he was acquitted by Galba, he was retained at Rome, and when he returned to his kin in the year of upheaval in the Roman Empire, 69, he headed a Batavian rebellion. He managed to capture Castra Vetera, the Romans lost two legions while two others (I Germanica and XVI Gallica) were controlled by the rebels. The rebellion became a real threat to the Empire when the conflict escalated to northern Gaul and Germania. The Roman army retaliated and invaded the "insula Batavorum". A bridge was built over the river Nabalia, where the warring parties approached each other on both sides to negotiate peace. The narrative was told in great detail in Tacitus' History, book iv, although, unfortunately, the narrative breaks off abruptly at the climax. Following the uprising, Legio X "Gemina" was housed in a stone "castra" to keep an eye on the Batavians.


Roman switch line

The Roman switch line was a German line of defense during World War II in Italy branching off the Caesar C line and running north of Rome towards coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The next line was Trasimene Line in central Italy which was intended to delay the Allies and allow the completion of the Gothic Line a major defensive works north of Florence.


Pristomyrmex rasnitsyni

Pristomyrmex rasnitsyni is an extinct species of ant in the genus "Pristomyrmex". The species is known from a single Late Eocene fossil which was found in Europe.
History and classification.
"Pristomyrmex rasnitsyni" is known from a solitary fossil, the holotype, specimen number 1.ii.1969, which is currently in the collections of the University of Copenhagen. The fossil is composed of a mostly complete adult worker which has been preserved as an inclusion in a transparent chunk of Scandinavian amber, also called Danish amber. Scandinavian amber is thought to be similar in age to Baltic, Bitterfeld and Rovno ambers, being approximately late Eocene in age. The four amber faunas have been shown to share 17 ant species in common, which make up over 80% of the specimens in amber collections studied for a 2009 paper. Though a large portion of specimens from Scandinavian amber are of species found in the other ambers, the overall fauna found is notably different from the other three. About twenty-four genera with thirty-five species of ants have been identified as inclusions in Scandinavian amber.
The fossil was first studied by paleoentomologists Gennady M. Dlussky of the Moscow State University and A. D. Radchenko of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Their 2011 type description of the new species was published in the "Russian Entomological Journal". The specific epithet "rasnitsyni" is a patronym honoring Russian paleoentomologist Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn.
When described, "Pristomyrmex rasnitsyni" was the first member of the genus "Pristomyrmex" to have been described from the fossil record. The modern species are found primarily in Eastern Asia south through the eastern coast of Australia. Most species live in tropical regions, with the species "P. punctatus" ranging north to temperate Japan on the Southern portion of Hokkaido. "P. rasnitsyni" is also the first record of the genus from Europe.
Description.
The solitary "Pristomyrmex rasnitsyni" specimen is well preserved with an estimated length of around . The head is shorter than it is wide, with a clypeus sporting teeth on the sides and a single central tooth. The antennae are eleven segments long showing a fully exposed base and clubbed tips composed of three segments. While the mandibles are hard to see, they do show a blunt basal tooth in combination with a large tooth at the apex and an associated shorter tooth next to the apical tooth. The pronotum displays a pair of spines angled upward and rearward and a 40° angle. Both the alitrunk have a notable and coarse reticulated pattern, while the clypeus, petiole, and post-petiole areas are notably smooth.


Narach (village)

Narach , ) is a village in Myadzyel District, Minsk Region, Belarus, by the Lake Narach.
It was earlier known as the village of Kobylnik or Kobylniki.
It is the Birthplace of the former First Lady of Poland, Maria Kaczyńska.


Phoenix Park Murders

The Phoenix Park Murders were the fatal stabbings of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke in Phoenix Park in Dublin on 6 May 1882. Cavendish was the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Burke was the Permanent Undersecretary, the most senior Irish civil servant. The assassination was carried out by members of the rebel group Irish National Invincibles, a more radical breakaway from the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
Murders.
The Invincibles failed numerous times to kill Chief Secretary "Buckshot" Forster before he resigned his office in protest at the Kilmainham Treaty. The group then settled on a plan to kill the Permanent Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke at the Irish Office. Newly installed Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish, on the very day of his arrival to Ireland, was walking with Burke to the Viceregal Lodge, the "out of season" residence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
The first assassination was committed by Joe Brady, who stabbed Burke with a 12-inch knife, followed in short order by Tim Kelly, who stabbed Cavendish. Both men used surgical knives, delivered by Mary Ann Byrne, in order to avoid making a lot of noise while carrying out the killings. Cavendish was not a target and his presence was happenstance. Thomas Myles, resident surgeon at the nearby Dr Steevens' Hospital, was summoned to render medical assistance to the victims.
The Lord Lieutenant, Lord Spencer, described hearing screams before witnessing a man running to the Lodge grounds shouting "Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke are killed." The assailants were driven away in a cab by James Fitzharris (nicknamed "Skin the Goat") who served as a getaway driver.
Investigation.
The hunt for the perpetrators was led by Superintendent John Mallon, a Catholic who came from Armagh. Mallon had a pretty shrewd idea of who was involved. He suspected a number of former Fenian activists. A large number of suspects were arrested and kept in prison by claiming they were connected with other crimes. By playing off one suspect against another Mallon got several of them to reveal what they knew.
The case was successfully prosecuted by the Attorney General, Solicitor General, James Murphy Q.C. (later Mr Justice Murphy), and Peter O’Brien, before Justice William O’Brien. Invincibles' leader James Carey, Michael Kavanagh and Joe Hanlon agreed to testify against the others. Joe Brady, Michael Fagan, Thomas Caffrey, Dan Curley and Tim Kelly were convicted of the murder, and were hanged by William Marwood in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin between 14 May and 9 June 1883. Others, convicted as accessories to the crime, were sentenced to serve long prison terms. The getaway driver, James Fitzharris, was acquitted of murder but retried as an accessory and convicted.
Only the case of Tim Kelly gave any real difficulty. He was 19 and generally said to look much younger, and by referring to him as "a child" his defence counsel created enough unease for two juries to disagree. Only after an unprecedented third trial was he found guilty.
Implications.
Charles Stewart Parnell's policy of allying his party to Gladstone's Liberal Party in 1886 to enable Home Rule was also ultimately defeated by the murders. Gladstone's Minister Lord Hartington was the elder brother of Lord Frederick Cavendish. Infuriated by the manner of his brother's early death, Hartington split with Gladstone on the Home Rule bills of 1886 and 1893 and led the breakaway Liberal Unionist Association which allied itself to Lord Salisbury's conservative governments. In the ensuing 1886 general election the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists swept the board. This delayed Home Rule by 28 years, until the Third Irish Home Rule Bill which was passed technically in 1914, but which was never effected.
Reaction.
Charles Stewart Parnell made a speech condemning the murders in 1882. This increased his already huge popularity in both Britain and Ireland. He had just enabled some reforms under the Kilmainham Treaty four days before the murders. Parnell's reputation increased in Ireland, being seen as a more moderate reformer who would never excuse such tactics.
In March 1887, "The Times" printed letters purportedly from Parnell claiming sympathy with the murderers and that his public denunciation of them was insincere. It emerged that the letters were forgeries written by journalist Richard Pigott, and Parnell was personally vindicated by the Parnell Commission in 1888–89.
Memorial.
There is a cross cut into the grass at the location of the killings. It is long, filled with a small amount of gravel and cut thinly.
In the summer of 1938 James T. Farrell visited Ireland and recalled:
External links.
[[Category:1882 crimes]]
[[Category:1882 in Ireland]]
[[Category:1880s in Dublin (city)]]
[[Category:1880s murders in Ireland]]
[[Category:Murder in 1882]]
[[Category:Assassinations in Ireland]]
[[Category:Murder in Ireland]]
[[Category:Murder in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:History of Ireland (1801–1923)]]
[[Category:History of County Dublin]]
[[Category:Phoenix Park]]
[[Category:Assassinations in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Anti-imperialism in Europe]]


Taliata


Stresa Front

The Stresa Front was an agreement made in Stresa, a town on the banks of Lake Maggiore in Italy, between French Prime Minister Pierre-Étienne Flandin (with Pierre Laval), British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini on 14 April 1935. Formally called the Final Declaration of the Stresa Conference, its aim was to reaffirm the Locarno Treaties and to declare that the independence of Austria "would continue to inspire their common policy". The signatories also agreed to resist any future attempt by Germany to change the Treaty of Versailles.
Patrick Buchanan's "Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War" considered the Stresa Front the last chance to stop Hitler before the Second World War.
The Stresa Front began to collapse after the United Kingdom signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in June 1935 in which Germany was given permission to increase the size of its navy. It broke down completely within two to three months of the initial agreement, just after the Italian invasion of Abyssinia.
Background.
The Stresa Front was triggered by Germany's declaration of its intention of building up an air force, increasing the size of its army to 36 divisions (500,000 men) and introducing conscription in March 1935. All of those actions were direct violations of the Treaty of Versailles, which limited the size of the German army to 100,000 men and prohibited Germany from using conscription and having an air force.
However, British politicians did not want to attack or occupy Germany but preferred to have agreements with it to maintain peace in Central Europe. Also, antiwar sentiment was very strong among the British public. In February 1935, a summit in London between French Prime Minister Pierre Laval and British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald led to an Anglo-French communiqué issued in London that proposed talks with the Germans on arms limitation, an air part and security pacts for Eastern Europe and the nations along the Danube.
Mussolini thought that the signing of the Stresa Front would mean that the United Kingdom and France would not interfere in the Abyssinian crisis.
Conference.
Even though the increasingly-belligerent Germany dominated discussions within the conference room, Mussolini was most clever outside it. With Britain, he discussed plans to pursue his aim of making Italy 'great, respected and feared' by the invasion and conquest of Abyssinia and the creation of an all-powerful empire. Mussolini made sure not to discuss his expansionist plans within the confines of the conference itself, as he knew of the risk of the Western democracies issuing a veto over it. Furthermore, Mussolini could not risk the conference being sidetracked from its main aims, reaffirming Locarno and opposing any more breaches of international agreements.
Mussolini got his way, and his plans to invade Abyssinia were not brought up. He took that silence as acquiescence to his colonial war and launched his invasion of Abyssinia in October 1935. That was the turning point for Mussolini, as he drifted away from Britain and France and toward Germany.
Dissolution.
The front collapsed completely with the Italian invasion of Abyssinia.
Mussolini had long held ambitions of controlling Abyssinia and was enraged by the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement without being informed. Mussolini had held back on his invasion plans to avoid alienating his allies, especially since Ethiopia bordered French Somaliland and British Somaliland. However, he felt betrayed by Britain and so decided that there was no reason against the invasion. He also believed that the agreement violated the Stresa Front.
On 6 January 1936, Mussolini told German Ambassador Ulrich von Hassell that he would not object to Germany taking Austria as a satellite state if it maintained its independence. On 22 February, Mussolini then agreed to Hitler's remilitarization of the Rhineland and stated that Italy would not honour the Locarno Treaty if it occurred.


List of years in Albania

This is a list of years in Albania. See also the timeline of Albanian history. For only articles about years in Albania that have been written, see .


List of wars involving Serbia in the Middle Ages

List of wars involving Serbia in the Middle Ages