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A History of Sicily #1
A History of Sicily: Ancient Sicily to the Arab Conquest
A History of Ancient Sicily to the Arab Conquest
226 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1968
7 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Moses I. Finley
72 books64 followersSir Moses I. Finley was an American and English classical scholar. His most notable work is The Ancient Economy (1973), where he argued that status and civic ideology governed the economy in antiquity rather than rational economic motivations.
He was born in 1912 in New York City as Moses Israel Finkelstein to Nathan Finkelstein and Anna Katzenellenbogen; died in 1986 as a British subject. He was educated at Syracuse University and Columbia University. Although his M.A. was in public law, most of his published work was in the field of ancient history, especially the social and economic aspects of the classical world.
He taught at Columbia University and City College of New York, where he was influenced by members of the Frankfurt School who were working in exile in America. In 1952, during the Red Scare, Finley was fired from his teaching job at Rutgers University; in 1954, he was summoned by the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and asked whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party USA. He invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer.
Unable subsequently to find work in the United States, Finley moved to England, where he taught classical studies for many years at Cambridge University, first as a Reader in Ancient Social and Economic History at Jesus College (1964–1970), then as Professor of Ancient History (1970–1979) and eventually as Master of Darwin College (1976–1982). He broadened the scope of classical studies from philology to culture, economics, and society. He became a British subject in 1962 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1971, and was knighted in 1979.
Among his works, The World of Odysseus (1954) proved seminal. In it, he applied the findings of ethnologists and anthropologists like Marcel Mauss to illuminate Homer, a radical approach that was thought by his publishers to require a reassuring introduction by an established classicist, Maurice Bowra. Paul Cartledge asserted in 1995, "... in retrospect Finley's little masterpiece can be seen as the seed of the present flowering of anthropologically-related studies of ancient Greek culture and society".[1] Finley's most influential work remains The Ancient Economy (1973), based on his Sather Lectures at Berkeley the year before. In The Ancient Economy, Finley launched an all-out attack on the modernist tradition within the discipline of ancient economic history. Following the example of Karl Polanyi, Finley argued that the ancient economy should not be analysed using the concepts of modern economic science, because ancient man had no notion of the economy as a separate sphere of society, and because economic actions in antiquity were determined not primarily by economic, but by social concerns.
He was born in 1912 in New York City as Moses Israel Finkelstein to Nathan Finkelstein and Anna Katzenellenbogen; died in 1986 as a British subject. He was educated at Syracuse University and Columbia University. Although his M.A. was in public law, most of his published work was in the field of ancient history, especially the social and economic aspects of the classical world.
He taught at Columbia University and City College of New York, where he was influenced by members of the Frankfurt School who were working in exile in America. In 1952, during the Red Scare, Finley was fired from his teaching job at Rutgers University; in 1954, he was summoned by the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and asked whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party USA. He invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer.
Unable subsequently to find work in the United States, Finley moved to England, where he taught classical studies for many years at Cambridge University, first as a Reader in Ancient Social and Economic History at Jesus College (1964–1970), then as Professor of Ancient History (1970–1979) and eventually as Master of Darwin College (1976–1982). He broadened the scope of classical studies from philology to culture, economics, and society. He became a British subject in 1962 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1971, and was knighted in 1979.
Among his works, The World of Odysseus (1954) proved seminal. In it, he applied the findings of ethnologists and anthropologists like Marcel Mauss to illuminate Homer, a radical approach that was thought by his publishers to require a reassuring introduction by an established classicist, Maurice Bowra. Paul Cartledge asserted in 1995, "... in retrospect Finley's little masterpiece can be seen as the seed of the present flowering of anthropologically-related studies of ancient Greek culture and society".[1] Finley's most influential work remains The Ancient Economy (1973), based on his Sather Lectures at Berkeley the year before. In The Ancient Economy, Finley launched an all-out attack on the modernist tradition within the discipline of ancient economic history. Following the example of Karl Polanyi, Finley argued that the ancient economy should not be analysed using the concepts of modern economic science, because ancient man had no notion of the economy as a separate sphere of society, and because economic actions in antiquity were determined not primarily by economic, but by social concerns.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 17, 2022
breadbasket nightmares
The strongest impression I got from reading Finley's history of ancient Sicily (prehistoric times to the Arab invasion of the 9th century) is of unending disaster and human brutality in a land of plenty. Lacking much information on the common people, on agriculture, crafts, religion, culture, family relationships, and language, any author would be forced to concentrate on available materials---in this case, the story of kings, generals, armies, invasions, sieges, and battles as recorded in classical times. Unremitting massacres, depopulations, exile, slavery, impalings, lootings, piracy, cruelty, exploitation and chaos mark most of the pages of this book. It is indeed an insightful comment on the nature of humanity, which has not changed much since then, I fear.
I am scarcely an expert on Sicily. Well, that's why I read the book, isn't it ? I learned a lot. Though at times the flood of names ran a bit heavy, the several maps helped greatly to sort it all out. The early Sicilians---the Sicans, Sicels, and Elymians---are little known. Sicily got its start in history as a kind of Wild West of the ancient Greek world. Settlers came from the many city states in Greece to found towns and farm the rich land of the island. They soon began to fight each other as they had in the mother country. Sicily became involved in the endless struggles of the Greek polities, being the scene of Athens' worst defeat in the fifth century BC. Etruscans, Carthaginians, and later, Romans all came to trade with the Greek Sicilians, but eventually fought over the island as well. Syracuse became one of the greatest powers, most cultured centers of the Greek world. Centuries of warfare, razing of cities, constant deportations and resettlings meant that no city had an ancient population, and that Sicilians turned into a mixed population of native, Greek, Italic, and Carthaginian origin. Sicily supplied grain, olives, fruit, wine, and animals to the ancient world, as did Egypt and North Africa. It was one of the breadbaskets of the time, small as it may seem today. Even when it finally slipped under Roman rule, Sicilians spoke Greek. Though we think of it today as an integral part of Italy, the reality is that Sicily remained in the Greek world throughout ancient history. The Roman Imperial period provided several centuries of peace to the troubled island and although the Romans established political and economic controls, Sicily's language and much tradition remained Greek. When Rome's power finally waned, and after short, turbulent Vandal and Gothic periods, the Byzantines managed to retain Sicily and keep it Greek until the Arab conquests of the late 800s. This brief picture sums up some of what I learned. I don't know of any recent works on Sicily's early history; there may be more modern data gleaned from archaeology and DNA studies conducted since 1979 (and this was a revised edition of an earlier work). If not, I suspect ANCIENT SICILY must be THE work on the subject.
Finley's work originally consisted of three volumes, I believe, and this is only the first. If I can gather my strength, I may read the others, because they are likely to be as informative and well-written as this one.
The strongest impression I got from reading Finley's history of ancient Sicily (prehistoric times to the Arab invasion of the 9th century) is of unending disaster and human brutality in a land of plenty. Lacking much information on the common people, on agriculture, crafts, religion, culture, family relationships, and language, any author would be forced to concentrate on available materials---in this case, the story of kings, generals, armies, invasions, sieges, and battles as recorded in classical times. Unremitting massacres, depopulations, exile, slavery, impalings, lootings, piracy, cruelty, exploitation and chaos mark most of the pages of this book. It is indeed an insightful comment on the nature of humanity, which has not changed much since then, I fear.
I am scarcely an expert on Sicily. Well, that's why I read the book, isn't it ? I learned a lot. Though at times the flood of names ran a bit heavy, the several maps helped greatly to sort it all out. The early Sicilians---the Sicans, Sicels, and Elymians---are little known. Sicily got its start in history as a kind of Wild West of the ancient Greek world. Settlers came from the many city states in Greece to found towns and farm the rich land of the island. They soon began to fight each other as they had in the mother country. Sicily became involved in the endless struggles of the Greek polities, being the scene of Athens' worst defeat in the fifth century BC. Etruscans, Carthaginians, and later, Romans all came to trade with the Greek Sicilians, but eventually fought over the island as well. Syracuse became one of the greatest powers, most cultured centers of the Greek world. Centuries of warfare, razing of cities, constant deportations and resettlings meant that no city had an ancient population, and that Sicilians turned into a mixed population of native, Greek, Italic, and Carthaginian origin. Sicily supplied grain, olives, fruit, wine, and animals to the ancient world, as did Egypt and North Africa. It was one of the breadbaskets of the time, small as it may seem today. Even when it finally slipped under Roman rule, Sicilians spoke Greek. Though we think of it today as an integral part of Italy, the reality is that Sicily remained in the Greek world throughout ancient history. The Roman Imperial period provided several centuries of peace to the troubled island and although the Romans established political and economic controls, Sicily's language and much tradition remained Greek. When Rome's power finally waned, and after short, turbulent Vandal and Gothic periods, the Byzantines managed to retain Sicily and keep it Greek until the Arab conquests of the late 800s. This brief picture sums up some of what I learned. I don't know of any recent works on Sicily's early history; there may be more modern data gleaned from archaeology and DNA studies conducted since 1979 (and this was a revised edition of an earlier work). If not, I suspect ANCIENT SICILY must be THE work on the subject.
Finley's work originally consisted of three volumes, I believe, and this is only the first. If I can gather my strength, I may read the others, because they are likely to be as informative and well-written as this one.
May 12, 2015
I read this book in preparation for my week in Sicily in June, and am a Latin teacher so I was especially interested in the Roman chapters of this book. It's a fascinating and comprehensive history of a very unique island that sees so many Mediterranean powers rise and fall. Unfortunately, it was pretty dry at times and is definitely not a text for someone who, like me, didn't know much about Sicily's history. It is an advanced and scholarly historical summary of the island, and I was almost completely lost during the Greek chapters because I lacked context. Nevertheless, I did learn a lot and took many notes. I'm glad I read it, but I can't say I looked forward to picking it up every time... On to the next Ancient Rome read, on women in antiquity!
April 20, 2020
Questo libro ha il pregio di presentare non solo i complicati e tortuosi eventi e rivolgimenti della Storia della Sicilia greca e romana con uno sguardo critico nei confronti delle fonti, ma anche di offrire uno scorcio della situazione sociale, politica ed economica delle diverse epoche, con un'ottica critica che può essere o meno condivisa, ma che a mio parere risulta molto interessante. Molto utile per me che faccio la guida turistica.
October 7, 2018
A very interesting read: Moses Finley had a wonderfully sceptical and realistic take on the ancient sources. This book makes most sense if you've been to Sicily but I heartily recommend this take on a unique and anomalous corner of the ancient Mediterranean world.
August 4, 2025
First it was Greek, then Roman,
Byzantine, Arab, and Norman,
German, French, Spanish and Austrian,
Spanish again... then Italian.
Byzantine, Arab, and Norman,
German, French, Spanish and Austrian,
Spanish again... then Italian.
March 4, 2015
This respectable survey gave me a good overview of the settlement of Sicily and of the complex interplay between Phoenician, Greek and Roman cultures that that set the pattern for this most-conquered of islands' polymorphously perverse history. Finley was one of the giants of 20th-century classics and the author of the superb and widely-read
The World of Odysseus
, and, while I read Ancient Sicily because I've been more than a little Sicily-obseessed since vacationing there with my wife last summer and I wanted some context for our temple-tourism, I guess I was hoping a little bit to be as wowed as I was by that other book. This title, though, was rather more pedestrian in style and substance, which is not entirely Mo Finley's fault. The ancient Sicilian historical record, particularly and most surprisingly during the Roman occupation, is spotty at best and a great deal of the story must be extrapolated from archaeological evidence.
February 23, 2023
'Breve Storia della Sicilia' (A short history of Sicily) is a complete account of the entire history of the biggest island of Italy: Sicily. The book covers the history from the Phoenicians and Greeks to the middle years of the twentieth century in this Italian region. This book comprises stories and myths that have been written in the past which makes it a fascinating narration to read.
I liked this book very much and, also because I read it a long time ago, I will re-read it again. It is amazing to understand the development of a culturally rich region such as Sicily that had been inhabited by humans since 12000 years BC. Be aware that it had been published in Italian and I'm not sure if there's an English edition (I hope that there is as I suggest to anyone interested in history, Italy and Sicily to read it.
I liked this book very much and, also because I read it a long time ago, I will re-read it again. It is amazing to understand the development of a culturally rich region such as Sicily that had been inhabited by humans since 12000 years BC. Be aware that it had been published in Italian and I'm not sure if there's an English edition (I hope that there is as I suggest to anyone interested in history, Italy and Sicily to read it.
December 26, 2015
Molto interessante e gradevole da leggere. Diventa troppo veloce nell'ultima parte (Sicilia post fascista)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews