Middle Roman Republic, Between the First and Second Punic Wars (241-218 BC): Sicily (241 BC)

By driving the Carthaginians out of Sicily the Romans had made themselves responsible for the control and administration of the island. At first alliances were made with Messana and Syracuse, following the methods that they had employed on the peninsula, i.e. alliances, military obligations, confiscations of territory and the planting of colonies.

The Romans soon realised that extending this system to the whole island would be unpopular since many of the natives had little or no experience of political or military life, and the Sicilians themselves would resent leaving their villages and farms to fight in wars that were not their concern; they would surely prefer to pay tribute as had been the custom during the rule of Carthage and Syracuse. Thus began the whole provincial system that was to extend into the future. 

Hieron’s kingdom, which comprised about a quarter of the island, was immune from taxation because of the alliance he made in 248 BC, but after his death Syracuse and several subject cities were made to pay tribute. Messana, another ally of Rome, like many of the Greek cities of Southern Italy, was required to supply one warship per year (civitates foederatae).

Cities that had helped Rome during the war, e.g. Centuripa, Halaesa, Halicyae, Panormus and Segesta – all in Sicily, were free from taxation though not allied to Rome (civitates immunes), a privilege that depended on their good behaviour. At the other extreme, tribute-paying lands could be declared public property (ager publicus), which the censors would then rent leasehold to its former owners.

In 241 BC a quaestor (magistrate) was sent to control western Sicily from a base in Lilybaeum, and the founding of Sicily as the first province soon followed, whose first governor was ⁰¹Flaminius Nepos. The governor’s staff included a quaestor (assistant), legati (senators without office) to whom he could delegate any type of duty, and comites (‘companions’) whom he initiated into official life. Theoretically, provincial governors exercised less authority than the consuls but in practice, being far away from their control, he wielded almost total power.