I am an American. My fathers side of the family came from Sicily so I have an interest in the North South issue. I do know a little bit of Italian ancient history and the issue with Sicily is not new. Some facts are needed to put this problem with Sicily in proper context.
The People of Sicily were not much different then the People of Southern Italy. Magna grecia the term used to describe " Greater Greece" included Southern Italy as well as Sicily. Sicily also had the Carthage connection but the Island spoke Greek just as Southern Italy. Most of us know the great cities of the South were founded and colonized by Greece. Even in the time of Augustus the south was mostly Greek speaking at least the major cities. As time went by the Greeks in the south became more and more Latinized. The gene pool in Italy would most likely show this.
Sicily was a Provence of Rome just as what we now call " the North". Northern Italy which was called " short haired Gaul by the Romans was not even a province of Italy until Julius Caesar made that part of the mainland a province. Before Caesar what we call the North was barbarian. Sicily had already been a province since the end of the third Punic war. Caesar was planning on giving Sicily full Citizenship but that plan was cut short by his assassination. Sicily however had Latin rights which was a kind of "Citizenship lite". The major cities may have had full citizenship to my knowledge. After the assassination Mark Anthony was going to put through those Citizenship rights but it was complicated by the civil war which must have taken precedent. To make a long story short towards the end of the civil war Sextus pompey had taken Sicily and made it his bace of operations. He fought what was left of the "triumvirate" (the alliance between Octavian, Mark Anthony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus) from Sicily. Sextus had a blockade around the Roman ports and effectively prevented grain from Egypt to get to Rome. Sicily basically went with the Republicans and against the Triumvirate and fought against Octavian. This I think is why he never put through Caesars legislation to give Citizenship to Sicily. After Octavian won the war he never forgave Sicily for siding against him. This prejudice is the genesis of the hate the North and even the south have for Sicily. Even then Sicily never had the benefit of Roman infrastructure. It was used for farming and milking the people of their money. Large slave estates were built to help to feed Rome along with Egypt. Sicily was considered second class and even though some areas had the coveted Roman Citizenship most of the people did not. And this Prejudice passed down through the ages, and that my friends is why most Italians consider Sicily second class and they don't even know the source of their own Prejudice.
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