The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1923-09-12

( prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington. D. CO
Etna Is an efficient if dangerous ad-
vertising feature for Sicily The great
volcano literally put the island ON the
map, according to biologists, and it
continues by its eruptions from time
to time to draw the eyes of the world
to land that quakes and spews- forth
lava now and then, to be sure, but
which has at all times some of the
most notable garden plots and beauty
spots of the world.
Not only has nature made a tenn
pestuous history for Sicily; man has
wrought in similar vein. Fifteen ma
lions have had a foothold there in its
historic span of nearly 5000 years-in
ancient times Phoenecia, Greece, Car
thage, Rome, Byzantium, and then, sue
cessively, the Goths, Vandals, Sar-
acens, Normans, Germans, Anjouans,
Aragonese, Spanish, Bourbons, French
and English. Nor does that list include
the period since 1860 as a part of the
kingdom of Italy, or the original dwell
ers, the Sikans, Sikels and Elymians.
In the days when Greece was the
great factor in the world, Syracuse in
/ Sicily was the Grecian metropolis, as
Athens was its art and intellectual
center. A wonder city was Syracuse
with a population of a million or more
and a commerce unrivaled in its day.
The city began as colony of Corinth
more than 700 years before Christ;
but 1t rose to prosperity and promi-
nence so rapidly that by 664 B. c. it
was establishing colonies of its own.
Ruled now by an oligarchy, now by
tyrants and at times as a democracy,
the city went on growing until in size
and power it outshone even Athens.
That city made war but got the worst
of the struggle, and Syracuse con-
tinued, a world city, until sacked by
the Romans. 1t was during the long
Roman siege that, Archimedes, the
Edison of his age, and probably the
most famous son Sicily has had, kept
the enemy at bay with his ingenious
devices. The great city fell in % B.
c. and though it has continued to exist
to this day it is but small reminder
of its past glories.
The Greeks had had TO share the
control of Sicily with the Carthagini-
ans, but after the fall of Syracuse the
whole island quickly came under the
sway of Rome. the power of Carthage
being crushed.
When the Saracens Held IL.
The most exotic influence in Sicilian
history was the occupation of the |
island by the Arabs or Saracens who |
took there, as they took TO Spain, the |
sway of an alien religion and an alien |
stock. Sicily had been largely demon |
allied since the breakup of the RO- |
a light control in S27 A. D. when the |
Saracens, coming over from northern /
Africa as the Carthaginians had come |
before them. gained their first foot
hold. Those vigorous people, at the I
height of the remarkable boiling up"
that they evidenced just after the es
adjustment of Mohammedanism, were
really a valuable constructive force in
decadent Sicily. They were the fore
most opponents of science and art at
that period and they made Sicily a
of their knowledge and
skill.
After a century or so, when the
Arabs in turn had become effete, sturdy
Norman Adventures from France
came and took control of Sicily, and
ushered in its most romantic period.
The Norman rulers took the well-or-
dered government machinery of the
Arabs for their own. increased liber-
ties, and ruled most wisely. Under :
them art and letters flourished for a
brief period in way TO provision the
that was to become gen
eral several centuries later.
With the loss of its Norman rulers :
Sicily slipped backward into turbu-
ence and was buffeted about from
nation to nation and ruler to I
uler until Garibaldi and his red
hirted revolutionists made ii l
,art of the new Italy in 1860 |
n gaining Sicily. Italy necessarily I
ook up the handicap of coun- |
ry impoverished by hundreds of years
f misgovernment and lack of develop 5
lent Government has been bettered I
nd by degrees railroads have been O
INSTRUCTED, harbors improved. and a
Their development carried out; bu. s
ven so the economic lot of the SiciliaI o
laSses is none too good, a fact which $
as been made obvious by the ire c
lendous emigration from Sicily to Fl
merica. b