Local Governments in Sicily

During the three-year research project the Project-Leader Doz. L.Cappelletti together with her Scientific Co- Workers, Dr. J.Piccinini, Dr. F.Russo and Mag. N.Rafetseder aims at gathering and studying all the available evidence - literary, epigraphic, archeological as well as numismatic sources - concerning the administrative and constitutional history of the Greek, Elymian, Sikel, Sikan, Phoenician-Punic and Oscan communities in Sicily from the 8th century BC through the 2nd century AD. The Project-Leader plans a parallel as well as synoptic analysis of the forms of political organisation in Sicily, which will demonstrate links, reciprocal intervention and local or regional differences. The analysis has to take into account the well known political and institutional particularism of the numerous Sicilian communities. We might find e.g. a magistrate exclusively in one community as well as in separate communities with different functions; moreover, the same function could be administered by different officials in yet other cities. This institutional variety attested by our sources (mainly Greek inscriptions) disappeared at the end of the 1st century BC, when the governments of colonies and municipia estabilished by Rome in Sicily were all committed to duoviri. Necessarily our research must start with the collection and analysis of all relevant sources for each single community. This documentary collection will be presented in the first part of the related monograph, and it will form also the basis of single questions posed in the second part of the volume (e.g. description and analysis of the characteristics of the most important political institutions and magistrates). Furthermore, selected epigraphic and literary documentation particularly relevant to the constitutional history of ancient Sicily and its communities will be presented, in original language, provided with English and Italian translations and updated bibliographical references, in the Documental Archive of the Project-website www.arcait.it, ARchive of Constitutions of Ancient ITaly, currently the first and unique internet presence offering to students and researchers as well as to a broad general audience open-access bibliographical, documentary and photographic data on these topics. Up to now no extensive investigation of this subject in this way has been undertaken and this gap shall be filled by the project. For the first time the institutions of all Sicilian communities in pre-Roman and Roman times will be compared jointly and comprehensively. For the first time too, all sources on the subject will be collected and studied and this completed, updated dossier of information is to be used as the starting point for future research in this field and also for comparisons with national and international research results on political-institutional history and structures of other areas of the ancient Mediterranean world.

The main reason that led us to choose our research theme was to study for the first time the great and well-known events of the political-institutional history of ancient Sicily from a different perspective, that is from the point of view of the individual, numerous Sicilian communities. We asked ourselves several questions: e.g. which government bodies chose the leaders of a city army and how did they appoint them? And in what urban spaces? And how was the citizen body of a certain community organized and according to what criteria? And what were the laws that governed the public and private life of the citizens of a Sicilian community? Who produced laws and decrees, who declared war against e.g. Carthage and according to what procedures? And what degree of influence have had the institutional models of the Greek settlers on those of the Sikel, Phoenician, etc. centres? Are there and what are the legal and institutional traces of a mutual influence between communities of different ethnicities on their respective local government and administrative systems? And what effective institutional, territorial and administrative repercussions did the definitive Roman conquest of the island have in the second half of the 3rd cent. BC? It was difficult to delete all at once local, hellenic and anhellenic, rights and governments. And, in fact, it did not happen and it was not either in the initial Roman plans. Necessarily our research started with the collection and analysis of all relevant sources - literary, epigraphic, archeological - concerning the political, administrative and constitutional history of each single Greek, Elymian, Sikel, Sikan, Phoenician-Punic and Oscan community in Sicily from the 8th century BC through the 2nd century AD. The project's most significant result is a reconstructed and well documented panorama of the political-institutional history of each single Sicilian center presented for the first time in a monograph (in preparation), and also in articles and talks, but especially in the open-access Database www.arcait.it, ARchive of Constitutions of Ancient Italy. Up to now no extensive investigation of this subject in this way has been undertaken and this gap will be filled thanks to the results of this project and those of the next follow-up project on Sicily. For the first time the institutions of all Sicilian communities in pre-Roman and Roman times were compared jointly and comprehensively. For the first time too, all sources on the subject have been collected and studied and this completed, updated dossier of information is to be used as the starting point for future research in this field and also for comparisons with national and international research results on political-institutional history and structures of other areas of the ancient Mediterranean world.