Syracuse

The region where current day Syracuse is to be found was inhabited by various peoples from the prehistoric era. The first Greeks, from Corinth, arrived in the eighth century B.C. and, in a short time, were at the origin of a large, flourishing and powerful city. Until the Roman conquest, in the third century B.C Syracuse had several tyrannical and short lived democratic regimes, becoming a point of reference for writers, poets, playwrights and philosophers. It was an ally of Sparta in the Peloponnesian war and there where Plato projected the foundation of his ideal Republic. The mathematician and inventor Archimedes, from  Syracuse, died during the siege of the Romans in 212 B.C. The city lost a great part of its power and privileges during the long Roman domination (third century B.C.- fifth century A.C), but asserted itself as one of the foremost centres of the dissemination of the Christian religion in the West. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Syracuse passed, as all of Sicily, under the domination of powers in the medieval and early modern periods: Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Swabians, the House of Anjou, the Aragonese and the Spanish. In 1693, after the disastrous earthquake which ravaged southeastern Siciliy, the city was rebuilt in a Baroque style which even today distinguises its historic centre. After the brief interval of the rule of the House of Savoy and the Austrians, Syracuse and Sicily passed under the control of the House of Bourbon from 1734 onwards. (photo: Syracuse Cathedral, rebuilt in Baroque style after the earthquake of 1693).

Read more:

• F.F. Gallo, Siracusa barocca. Politica e cultura nell’età spagnola (secoli XVI-XVII), Roma 2008.