The small towns of Sicily in the transition from Republic to Principate

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Abstract

This paper revisits longstanding debates surrounding the political, economic, and
social changes that the communities of Sicily experienced in the transition from Republic to
Principate by considering new archaeological and epigraphic evidence emerging from the island’s
smaller urban centres. While the handful of coastal cities that became colonies in the Augustan
period or later have long dominated accounts of Sicily’s urban development under the Principate,
research on a number of smaller, more “peripheral” centres traditionally considered to have been
in terminal decline in the imperial period is enabling a more detailed and nuanced understanding
of how urban communities (and their ruling classes) weathered the events of the final decades
of the Republic and the transition to the new political order established by Augustus. This paper
suggests that the picture emerging, albeit very tentatively, is of communities of reduced means
that were still intent on establishing and commemorating their place in Augustus’ new imperial
order, often through the adaptation of older monumental public buildings. Moreover, local elites
particularly from Sicily’s new municipia were not indifferent to the opportunities for advancement
within and beyond their home communities that opened up during the reign of Augustus and his
successors. Therefore, although Sicily’s experience of the transition from Republic to Principate
was still unique in many respects, it was less of an outlier from Italy and other western provinces
than usually thought.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)53-71
Number of pages19
JournalGerion
Volume42
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 05 Dec 2024

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