Sicilia (Roman province)

Sicilia was the first province of the Roman Empire. For area of ​​the province were the islands of Sicily and Malta.

After the end of the first Punic War in 241 BC the Carthaginian possessions in Sicily fell to Rome and were administered from 227 BC by a praetor; the first was Gaius Flaminius. However, the territory of Hiero II of Syracuse in the east of the island at first remained untouched. Only after Hiero's death 215 BC and a victory over the Greek cities of Syracuse and Akragas was all over Sicily Roman dominion. The headquarters of the praetor was Syracuse (Latin Syracusae ); he was supported by two Quaestors in Syracuse and Lilybaeum.

27 BC the province of Augustus was reorganized as " senatorial " province with a proconsul from the class rank of the former praetors. Then there were seven coloniae in Sicily:

  • Catina (Catania)
  • Lilybaeum ( Marsala)
  • Panormus (Palermo)
  • Siracusae ( main town, Syracuse)
  • Tauromenium (Taormina )
  • Thermae Himeraeae ( Termini Imerese )
  • Tyndaris ( Tindari )

In addition, there were eight cities with the rank of municipium:

In late antiquity, Sicily belonged to dioecesis Italiae. 439 fell Sicilia to the Vandals and the Ostrogoths from 493 to, from 535 it came under Byzantine rule and remained lower until the Arab conquest 827

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