THE ROMANS

3^rd century BCE - 535 AD 

Catania - Taormina - Morgantina - Villa del Casale

Thanks to the First Punic War, stemmed from Greek domestic problems and from those occurring Greeks and Carthaginians, the Romans had the chance to enter Sicily. In 260 BCE the consul Gaius Duilius defeated the Carthaginians in Milazzo and in 241 BCE the consul Gaius Lutatius Catulus led the final victory over the Carthaginians in the naval Battle of the Aegates Islands: Sicily became the first Roman Province. The Second Punic War (218 - 201) marks an increase in the power of the Romans in Sicily. In Syracuse Hieronymus succeeded to Hiero II, who died in 216, and the city confirmed his hostility towards the new rulers and, despite all efforts, in 212 M. Claudius Marcellus occupied and sacked the city, just as he would do in Agrigento two years later. In the following years there were revolts, hardly suppressed ( Eunus and Salvius); they outbroke because of the problems related to the latifundia that made the economy worsen deeply. In the ancient Rome, the site of Praetorians (then Propraetorians) and Quaestors was in Siracusa and in Lilibeo. It was Gaius Julius Caesar to give Sicily the Latin Law and Augustus made it a Senatorial Province.. The infrastructures realised by the Romans in Sicily are several and considerable: streets that still cross the whole island, aqueducts, amphitheatres, theatres. Amazing private villas such as the Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina (which is renowned worldwide) are unique. During the 1st century the Christianization of Europe began and, as usual, Sicily represents a crucial crossroad: in Siracusa  the first pagan temple of the whole continent transformed into a Christian church still stands.