Lindsay Marie Morris

Sicily is steeped in multicultural heritage, and navigating the island's complex history can be challenging. Thanks to historians like Palermo-based Louis Mendola, we have several comprehensive yet approachable books to serve as a road map. A leading medievalist, Louis leads his readers through the island's layered past, challenging stereotypes, unearthing hidden and forgotten histories, and giving voice to descendants. 

I recently reached out to Louis after reading The Peoples of Sicily: A Multicultural Legacy, which he co-authored with Jacqueline Alio. The book serves as an essential starting point for exploring the region's roots, highlighting the many conquerors, wayfarers, and rulers who left their mark on its food, architecture, and language. Louis, who grew up in Upstate New York, has called Sicily home for the past 30 years. It's a return to the place of his ancestors and a base for first-hand research. He shared with me how he got his start, surprising discoveries, his favorite historical period, challenges, future projects, and his hopes for his readership.

 

What led you to specialize in Sicilian history?

Mostly because I'm Sicilian. I've been reading a lot of these things since I was a teenager. So, in my case, I like to say that I didn't look to join the field, but the field kind of sought me. It makes sense that somebody would study a field of history that pertains to their own ancestry instead of, let's say, just choosing someplace else. 

 

What are some of the most surprising discoveries you've made in your research?

It's the holy grail for historians to find original stuff that nobody else has published. In my case, some of the original things I've found have been slightly arcane. For example, I found a reference in the Vatican Library in an uncataloged manuscript to the Assizes of Ariano of 1140. We have two manuscripts of that, two codices that were discovered after 1700: one at Monte Casino, the other at the Vatican. And I actually found a reference to them. It was written about four or five years after that, which was rather interesting. So, it wasn't an earth-shattering discovery, but it reinforced the dating of the documents. 

 

How has Sicilian history shaped the island's identity?

In my books, I make the point that by 1300, we had what I refer to as a monoculture. It was essentially Latin. It's what you see today.  

We have to consider that the Jews of Sicily were expelled or converted in 1493, a year after Spain. So from that point onward, we ended up with the monoculture, and you might even refer to it sometimes as an ethnocracy, which is a government or a place based on one ethnic group instead of many.

In some of my recent books, I discussed whether there's a philosophy to the study of Sicilian history. Many of us believe that there is, and part of it is the multicultural element. Sicily had all kinds of different ethnic cultures, and for some periods, you had them all at one time.

During the Norman period, up until about 1200, there were Muslims, Jews, Latin Christians, and Orthodox Greek Christians. So, there were four essential societies.

 

Which period is your favorite?

I would say the Norman-Swabian period. It was more interesting than a lot of other periods of Sicilian history. It also represented a period when the Kingdom of Sicily was actually independent because in 1266, with the Battle of Benevento, the Hohenstaufen Dynasty of Frederick II was defeated. The capital was transferred under the Angevins to Naples from Palermo. And then a little bit after that, in 1282, with the War of the Vespers, it actually split. So, you ended up with the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily. That was true sovereignty and with kings in the case of Roger II, then Frederick II, his grandson, and all the others. These were people born in Southern Italy, even though their dynasties had come from elsewhere.

 

What challenges do you face researching and writing about Sicilian history?

Oddly enough, the greatest challenge is not the research or even the writing, which is very labor-intensive. That's not even it. The real issue is that you end up either debunking misconceptions to set the record straight, looking into things more profoundly, or expressing it in a cohesive way. Those are the real challenges. The work itself, a lot of people can do, and a lot of people do. It's a question of presenting the work in a cohesive, understandable way. That's the biggest challenge. 

 

Where is the biggest gap in understanding Sicilian history?

A few years back, there was a book that was written, and I remember verbatim the first lines in the prologue: "What's the first thing you think of when you think of Sicily? If you're like most people, you think of the mafia."

 

The mafia has only existed since about 1800, and it's evolved from that. So it was tantamount to somebody writing a book about Germany or the Germans and only talking about Hitler.

 

That's really rather recent, and for that matter, Fascism in Italy is frankly rather recent. So it's unfortunate that people look at this, and even a lot of Italian Americans, because there are people—screenwriters like David Chase writing The Sopranos and people on social media—who seem to promote this mafia-thug type of culture. It's not just professional actors and actresses. I could give them a pass because they have to work. But a lot of this ties in with the Guido macho, tough-guy mentality. I think it's just extremely unfortunate that in those circles, mostly in the U.S. and Canada, it has developed in that way. Because if you look at the diasporic Italians in places like Argentina or England—for example, I have cousins in England—it's nothing like that.

 

It's a very different view of the culture of Sicily or Southern Italy. So that's a matter of concern over time because some people in these other categories that seem to glorify that lifestyle or that limited view of Southern Italy can be very vociferous. They're adamant about their beliefs. They can even be obnoxious. And I've seen that on social media. That's extremely unfortunate because they've been sold a bill of goods and deceived. And it's not just the mafia stereotypes; it's even the idea that the unification of Italy saved Italy and that Garibaldi was greater than he really was and Meucci invented the telephone. These are ideas that, unfortunately, a lot of even Italian-American organizations support.

 

What's more, they have nothing to do with the people of Southern Italy. Southern Italy had a kingdom of its own until 1860. A lot of people who don't study history don't know that.

 

What future projects are you working on?

The first one is called Sicily by Sicilians. It's going to be 17 or 20 chapters, each written by a different person. And what they have in common is that they all have roots in Sicily or Southern Italy. So it's autohistory, which is what I promote in my other work. It's people writing about their own history and their own ancestors. The topics range from philology, which is a study of linguistic origins, to music, to the history of women, which doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. And it's a very interesting group of people, some of whom have not really written that much in these fields before, even though they're experts. And as it stands right now, three-quarters of the work is going to be written by women, which, again, is a little bit unusual.

 

Another project after that will be a general history of Sicily, which goes from pre-history up until the present. 

 

How do you hope your work influences the understanding of Sicilian history and culture?

The greatest impact of my work is in anglophone circles because I don't usually publish in Italian. My work until now—the books themselves—is in English. Most of the readers are not actually Italian descendants, but that is the growing percentage that we see—for example, Canadian Italians, Italian Americans, and Australian Italians. So there's certainly an interest there. And it's gratifying that, in some cases, we're setting the record straight about the history of Sicily because people don't always get that from other things that have been published in English. 

 

 

 

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One of the highlights from my last trip to Sicily was a visit to the Solunto ruins just above my grandparents' former home in Porticello. Founded between the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. on the promontory of Sòlanto, Solunto was refounded after the tyrant Dionysius I's destruction of Syracuse on Mount Catalfano in the 4th century B.C. It represented a key settlement occupied between the Phoenician and Roman eras.

 

Getting there is part of the experience as you hike along a rambling path behind homes with wisteria-covered walls and sweeping views of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

I recently had the opportunity—thanks to the support of the team of Uncovered Sicily—to speak with Gabriella Sciortino, a Palermo-based archeologist specializing in Phoenician-Punic Sicily, who shared more about this special place, its multicultural roots, and its historical significance. 

 

 

What is the significance of Solunto and its location?

The location of the earliest Solunto reproduces a colonial settlement pattern that shows significant topographical similarities with the Phoenician foundations in the Mediterranean, particularly the ones of eastern Andalusia (such as Morro de Mezquitilla, Almuñecar or Toscanos). This colonial settlement was open from the most archaic stage to a multiplicity of socioeconomic relationships with the indigenous communities of this part of the island and the Greek communities, particularly with the very close colony of Himera.

 

The site was open to the Tyrrhenian Sea and its traffic and people, such as the Etruscans or the Greeks. Solunto was a very important economic and trade route in the Mediterranean between the East and the West; moreover, it was strongly connected with Southern and Central Italy. So, the location, in this case, is a key element of the importance of this ancient settlement. It mirrors some patterns already outlined by other Phoenician settlements in the Mediterranean.

 

 

How did various cultural influences shape Solunto?

Solunto was shaped by the influence of Phoenician and Punic culture, as well as Greek-Hellenistic and Roman elements. If we look at the name Solunto, we see the Greek name Soloeis or Solous, meaning "the rock." We call it by its Roman or Latin name, Solus or Soluntum. So, just beginning from the name, we can see how many layers there are about this culture. In fact, the original Phoenician name was connected to a toponym, Kfr, which is Semitic for "the village." We know that in the fifth century B.C., there were some coins with a double legend with the Greek name and also with the Semitic toponym Kfr. This strongly reflects the mix of cultures at this settlement.

 

 

Of course, we can recognize part of this cultural influence just by looking at the settlement and the ruins. For example, the sacred areas of the settlement are connected to the Phoenician and Punic religion. Along the main street, the agora street, there is a three-pillar altar, which is very typical of Semitic religion and culture. Another important area is close to the agora, on the terrace above the theater. It's a temple with two naves separated by a central wall and covered by a vault, where the niches and structural podiums in the rear must have housed two statues. The first is a bearded male statue seated on a throne, identified with Baal Hammon, in the Greek guise of Zeus, now preserved at the Salinas Museum. The second is the female one, probably depicting Astarte—the most important goddess of the Phoenician pantheon—seated on a throne, with two lions side by side, according to a widespread oriental iconography and dated in the Archaic period.

 

Tell us about the daily life of Solunto residents.

The settlement was very full of life. It can be demonstrated, for example, by the number of beautiful Roman houses that are quite well-preserved and also by the fact that there were important public buildings such as the theater. So it demonstrates that it was very alive. Moreover, along the main street, there were shops and commercial activities. So surely, the richest people of Solunto had to be involved in trade and agriculture. They had the possibility to have a rich life and enjoy all kinds of cultural activities.

 

What contributed to the downfall of Solunto?

The First Punic War was a very difficult period. At the time, Solunto was Punic. The city finally surrendered to the Romans in 254 B.C. Under Roman rule, we have information about Solunto, as Cicero names it, between the "civitates decumanae" vexed by Verre and later others. The historical source is a dedication on epigraph—dated between 202 and 205 A. D.—and some coins of the Commodo's age (180-192 A.D.). Finally, the city was naturally abandoned by its inhabitants since the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. as the territory was subjected to a progressive ruralization as usual during Late Antiquity.

 

The Ruins of Solunto. The Gymnasium by Pietro Volpes (photographed by Gabriella Sciortino)

What do you hope visitors will take away from a visit?

The experience can be strongly connected to the natural and cultural heritage, as it is possible to admire the painting by Pietro Volpes, The Ruins of Solunto. The Gymnasium (1891), exhibited at Villa Zito, the Pinacotheca of Fondazione Sicilia, in Palermo. There are very important archeological sites in Sicily, but Solunto's surroundings are very charming, and it is a very well-preserved settlement with a rich antiquarian constituting an added value for the visitors for a complete understanding of the site. It can be very interesting to visit and understand the daily life of a city on a mountain in ancient times.

 

 

 

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