Sicily is often considered the “most Greek” region of pre-Roman Italy in terms of ancient Hellenic colonization and influence. This region requires its own separate section of analysis.
In the first place, it is important to note that Sicily was not a barren or deserted island when the first Hellenic colonists washed upon its shores in the 8th century BC. It was already inhabited by three major indigenous populations:
- Elymi (Italic tribe)
- Sicels or Siculi (Italic tribe whom Sicily is named after)
- Sicani (tribe of uncertain origin; possibly pre-Indo European or proto-Ligurian-Italic)
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Map: Ancient Sicily and its three main peoples: Elymi, Sicani, Sicels |
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Map: Ancient cities belonging to the pre-Hellenic indigenous populations of Sicily |
The Morgeti also lived in Calabria; they are thought to have been either a branch or parent of the Sicels, the latter possibly being a branch of the Enotrians (Italic tribe in Calabria-Basilicata); the precise relationship is lost in legend. The Ausones of Sicily were related to the Ausones of Campania, and are likewise thought to have been closely connected to the Enotrians. Both the Ausones and Morgeti were proto-Latin populations of Italic origin, and are generally lumped together with the Sicels.
The Hellenes were not the first ones to establish cities in Sicily either. Each of the native populations of Sicily had already established cities — such as Agira, Enna, Erice, Entella, Segesta, Sabucina, Morgantina, Modica, Noto, Pantalica, Cassibile, Halyciae, Ietas, Leontini, Inessa (Aetna) and Zancle (Messina) — all founded prior to the arrival of the Hellenes. Some of these settlements were later seized by the Hellenes.
The Greeks never managed to conquer all of Sicily; their colonial presence was confined mostly to the eastern seaboard of the island (from Messina to Syracuse), with a handful of colonies or sub-colonies established along the northern and southern coasts. Many of the indigenous Sicels were dispossessed or reduced to villenage under the Greek city-states, though many Sicels also remained free and unconquered; the latter continued to live in the hinterland territories of eastern Sicily. Many of the Sicani were likewise subjugated by the Greeks, though a large number of them were never conquered either and continued to inhabit their own lands in the center of the island. The Elymi instead were never subdued at all by the Greeks.
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Map: Principle areas of Sicily settled by ancient Greeks |
The territory of the Greek city-states consisted not only of proper Hellenic colonies, but also of subjugated Siculian and Sicanian settlements (such as Abacaenum, Netum, Camicus and Hybla Gereatis), as well as a large number of indigenous Sicilian slaves. There is evidence that for several centuries these peoples resisted full Hellenization and opposed Greek rule. In the 5th century BC, for example, a Sicel leader named Ducetius led a revolt of the native Sicels against the Greeks, freed the Siculian slaves, established an independent Sicilian state, and united nearly the entire interior of Sicily under his leadership. After his death in 440 BC the independence movement was suppressed by the Greeks, who once again enslaved a great number of Sicels.
These Hellenic city-states — the largest of which was Syracuse — in effect became mini empires, ruling over Greek and non-Greek populations (some of whom were gradually Hellenized). And just like on the southern Italian mainland, so too in Sicily these Greek city-states were in large part inhabited by indigenous Sicilians who outnumbered the ethnic Greek colonists.
It is important to keep in mind also that not all of the Hellenic colonies were coeval; many of them were relatively short-lived and ceased to exist thousands of years ago. Megara Hyblaea, for example, only existed for 247 years (728-481 BC); Himera only existed for 239 years (648-409 BC); Selinunte existed for 400 years (650-250 BC); Casmenae was abandoned after about 300 years (643 BC - 4th century BC). None of these cities existed anymore by the time of the Roman conquest. So even though when looking at a list or a map it may appear that there were so many ancient Greek colonies in Sicily, many of them in fact were destroyed or abandoned and did not exist at the same time as each other.
Still other ‘colonies’ were in reality sub-colonies of already-existing colonies, meaning that its inhabitants were often composed by men who had left another Hellenic colony in Sicily, and not by additional waves of fresh colonists coming from the motherland. From this one can understand how the Greeks’ demographic numbers could not be as large as is generally supposed.
There were also several instances in which territories controlled by the Greeks were given to the native Siculi. For example, the city of Alaesa and the former territories of Naxos were both gifted to the Sicels in 403 BC. Similarly, some cities which at one time were Greek had already ceased to be so as a result of hostile takeover. When the Romans arrived at Messina, for example, they did not find a Hellenic colony but a Mamertine city. The Mamertines were Italian mercenaries of Oscan (Italic) origin who had come to Sicily from Campania; they expelled the Greeks from Messina in 282 BC. Thus, already in the pre-Roman era there were a number of former Hellenic cities which were no longer Greek or were no longer in existence.
Erroneously imagining that all of the Hellenic colonies existed simultaneously, or that each colony represented a massive migration of Greeks, or that every colony always remained purely and homogenously Greek over the centuries, may give one the false impression that the ancient Greek presence was much greater or more widespread than it really was. In truth, the island of Sicily during the entire Hellenic period always remained predominantly populated by the three main Sicilian tribes. The estimates of the various populations are presented below.
Population Estimates of Pre-Roman Sicily
Prof. Cappieri places the three native Sicilian peoples (Siculi, Sicani, Elymi) at 570,000. He places the total number of Greeks in Southern Italy and Sicily combined at 33,000 in 600 BC. In Sicily alone he estimates only 8,250 Greeks. This would give us a figure of 98.5% native Sicilians and 1.4% Greeks in Sicily in 600 BC. (Source: Mario Cappieri, La composition ethnique de la population italienne, 1977)
According to Beloch, the citizens of the Greek colonies in Sicily would have numbered about 90,000 at the beginning of the 4th century BC. However, the total population of the island (including the indigenous Sicilian peoples) in his estimation was no less than 800,000 inhabitants. Of these 800,000 inhabitants, about 600,000 of them — mostly Sicels and Sicanians — were concentrated in the territories dominated by the Greek city-states. The remaining 200,000 were Sicilian natives spread across the rest of the island beyond the Greek sphere of influence or control.
Beloch explains the demographic figures:
“Almost all the other Greek cities on the island had been destroyed in the wars around the turn of the [4th] century BC, but most of the inhabitants were able to get to safety and soon returned to their old homeland. Akragas and Gela remained important cities, the first after Syracuse. Only Selinus, which was taken by storm, never recovered from this catastrophe, and remained a small town ever since. Thermae and Tauromenion took the place of Himera and Naxos, which were not rebuilt. New cities were founded on the north coast, hitherto relatively deserted ... this results in a total number of at least 90,000 [citizens], or an total population of around 300,000. To these must be added the slaves and the Siculian or Sicanian subjects. ... At the time of the Peloponnesian War, the east coast [of Sicily] had only been inhabited by Greeks for about 3 centuries, the southern coast for only about 2 centuries, the northern coast and the interior were still virtually untouched by Greek culture. ... If the Peloponnese — which is approximately as large [as Sicily] but had to import grain — had a population of just over 1 million around 400 BC, Sicily could not have reached this number at that time. But considering the number of citizens in the Greek cities, we can not possibly go below 800,000 [total] inhabitants. ... About 600,000 of them would have lived in the Greek cities and surrounding areas, which must have had a denser population. ... The total population of the Greek world at the beginning of the 4th century BC was therefore approximately as follows: ... 600,000 in the [Greek-ruled] part of Sicily.”
(Source: Julius Beloch, Griechische geschichte, ed. 2, 1922, p. 304-306)
- 600,000 people in the Greek-controlled coastal areas of Sicily, of which only 90,000 were Greek citizens;
- 200,000 indigenous Sicilians in the rest of the island not controlled by Greeks;
- 800,000 total inhabitants in Sicily.
By way of calculation, this would give us the following estimates:
Greek city-states in Sicily: 15% Greek, 85% indigenous Sicilian
All of Sicily: 11.25% Greek, 88.75% indigenous Sicilian
The figures that we hear about in ancient Greek sources, which sometimes speak of Hellenic colonies with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, or armies with hundreds of thousands of soldiers — these are fictitious and highly exaggerated numbers, not borne out by archaeological evidence. The 3rd century AD Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius, for example, claimed that Akragas (Agrigento) had a population of 800,000 in the 5th century BC — a figure which all scholars unanimously reject as an astronomical exaggeration. Cities at that time were not that large and the population sizes were not that great. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to estimate that in all of Sicily there were less than 10,000 Greek settlers in 600 BC (according to Cappieri), while by the 4th century BC (according to Beloch) there were 90,000 Greek citizens in Sicily — many of whom would have been indigenous Hellenized Sicilians, rather than proper Greek people:
“There is no doubt that such an increase was due not so much to normal population progress as to the granting of citizenship rights to foreigners and [indigenous Sicilian] slaves, to immigration from the mother country and to the allocation of mercenaries who had taken their leave. Not all of these various elements were of Greek origin but all soon became Hellenized.”
(Source: Giulio Beloch, La popolazione del mondo greco-romano, 1909, p. 284)
Certain authors quibble about the precise numbers; some even provide grossly inflated estimations. However the end result does not change much. For example, the historian Adolf Holm placed the total population of Sicily at 3.620 million in 415 BC (1 million free Sicels and Sicani; 100,000 free Elymi; 2.22 million inhabitants of the Greek city-states; 300,000 inhabitants of the Phoenician emporia). Of these 3.620 million people, only 360,000 would have been of Greek origin according to Holm, which is equal to less than 10% of the total Sicilian population. (Source: Cited in Giulio Beloch, La popolazione antica della Sicilia, 1889, p. 22)
Although Holm’s numeric figures are certainly too high, the overall ratio of Greeks to non-Greeks is nearly identical to Beloch’s figure for Sicily (11.25% Greek). Whichever figures one finds more reliable, it is absolutely certain that the ancient Greeks were a minority in Sicily and were a minority even within their own city-states, which were mostly populated by the non-Hellenic native populations, in Sicily’s case the Sicanians and the Siculians (Sicels), many of whom had been enslaved or otherwise subjugated by the Greeks.
Sicily was never a “majority Greek” island. Indeed the Greeks never came close to ever forming a majority in pre-Roman Sicily.
Although Holm’s numeric figures are certainly too high, the overall ratio of Greeks to non-Greeks is nearly identical to Beloch’s figure for Sicily (11.25% Greek). Whichever figures one finds more reliable, it is absolutely certain that the ancient Greeks were a minority in Sicily and were a minority even within their own city-states, which were mostly populated by the non-Hellenic native populations, in Sicily’s case the Sicanians and the Siculians (Sicels), many of whom had been enslaved or otherwise subjugated by the Greeks.
Sicily was never a “majority Greek” island. Indeed the Greeks never came close to ever forming a majority in pre-Roman Sicily.
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