Hegemony and Empire in Ancient Sicily, c. 410-70 BC

This is a study of how the three powers which dominated Sicily in the period 410-70 BC – Carthage, the various rulers of Syracuse, and eventually, Rome – exercised political power over the weaker Sicilian polities and peoples. The aim is to understand whether any of these ‘supremacies’ qualified as ‘empires’, as defined by interference with local autonomy; when powers respected local autonomy, we use the term ‘hegemony’ instead. These categories frequently correspond to the Weberian ideal types of rational-legal and charismatic authority respectively, which are used as tools for explaining the basis of imperial and hegemonic power. Chapter 1 considers rational-legal authority, and demonstrates that while Carthage and Rome developed institutional frameworks to cement their positions over time, there is little evidence (with a few exceptions) that the Syracusan rulers did the same. The next three chapters turn to consider more hegemonic strategies. Chapter 2 looks at economic supremacy – the control or appropriation of material resources at the expense of other powers – which, it is argued, was primarily achieved through harbour dues and the issuing of coinage. Chapter 3 considers the charismatic authority of individual potentates: the Syracusan tyrants themselves, and the generals acting on behalf of Carthage and Rome. Chapter 4 looks at demographic strategies, including population movements and ideology. Chapter 5 takes a slightly different approach, using two Greek poleis, Akragas and Messana, as case studies to explore how hegemony and empire worked ‘on the ground’. I conclude that while the rulers of Syracuse primarily used charismatic, hegemonic strategies, and the state powers of Carthage and Rome developed rational-legal frameworks over time, the latter two also used hegemonic methods alongside these imperial strategies. Informal, hegemonic strategies were thus fundamental to political supremacy in late Classical and Hellenistic Sicily.