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* SICILY. 137 SICKLES. Finally, Pyrrhus (q.v. ), King of Epirus, was invited over to help his countrymen, and in B.C. 278 he landed in the island. The brilliant adventurer for a time swept everything before him. Panormus, Ercte, and Eryx were captured ; and though he failed to make himself master of Lilyba?um, he might probably have forced the Carthaginians to surrender it, had he not been thwarted in his designs by the miserable dis- cords and jealousies of the people whom he came to save. As it was, Pyrrhus left Sicily in about two years; and in all likelihood the island would have sunk into a Carthaginian possession, had not a new power. Rome, appeared to engage the Carthaginians. In B.C. 241. at the close of the First Punic War, Carthaginian Sicily was given up to the Romans, and in B.C. 210. in the course of the Second Punic War, the whole island be- came a Roman province — the first Rome ever held. In b.c. 13.5-132. and again in B.C. 103-100, it was the scene of formidable slave insurrections. Its fertility and the wealth of its citizens and landholders were powerful temptations to greedy and unscrupulous Governors. In ..D. 440 Sicily was conquered tiy the Van- dals under Genseric. The Vandals, in their turn, were dispossessed half a century later by the Ostrogoths, in whose hands it remained till a.d. 535, when Belisarius conquered it and annexed it to the Byzantine Empire. In 827-87S the Saracens made themselves masters of the island, which flourished under their rule. In 10(11 the Normans, under Robert CJuiscard and his brother Roger, engaged in the conquest of Sicily, which was completed in 1090, a few years after the death of Robert. In 1127 Roger II., Count of Sicily, was recognized as Duke of Apulia and Calabria and in 1130 he assumed the title of King of Sicily. In 1194 the Norman rule was succeeded by that of the House of Hohenstaufen ( q.v. ), whose dynasty was overthrown by Charles of Anjou in 1266. In 1282, after the Sicilian Vespers (q.v.), Sicily became independent and chose for its King Pedro III. of Aragon, who was connected by marriage with the House of Hohenstaufen. In 1296 it was separated from Aragon and for more than a century was ruled by a branch of the Aragonese d.vnasty. when it was reunited with that kingdom. Ferdinand the Catholic made himself master of the Kingdom of Naples in 1503, and the Spanish Crown retained both coim- tries until the War of the Spanish Succession. By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Sicily was separated from Naples, and handed over to Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, wlio ceded it to Austria seven years later, receiving in exchange the island of Sardinia. In 1734-35 Don Carlos estab- lished the Spanish Bourbon d.ynasty in Naples and Sicily (the Two Sicilies ), and down to 1860 Sicily was ruled by Bourbon kings. { See Two Sicilies, Kingdom of the.) In 1860 Garibaldi's invasion (see Italy; Garibaldi) resulted in the annexation of Sicily to the dominions of Victor Emmanuel, which in 1861 became the Kingdom of Italy. Bibliography. Hare, Cities of Soiitlier>i Hah/ and SicUy (London, 1883) ; Colajanni, Gli av- venimcnfi di SiciJia € le loro cause (2d ed., Palermo. 1896) : San Giuliano. Le coiulizioni presenti della .S'lcih'a (Milan. 1896) ; Paton, Pic- turesque Sicily (New York, 1898) ; Capuana, L'isola del sole (Catania, 1898) ; Sladen, In Hicily, 18'J(l-iyuU (London, 1901) ; Rumpelt, Sici- lien- und die Sicilianer (Berlin, 1902) ; Holm, fleschichte tiicilieiis im Altertum (Leipzig, 1870- 98); Freeman, History of Hicily (Oxford, 1891- 94) ; Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders (ib., 1880-85) ; Bracci, .l/e»ion'<' storielie intorno al yorerno di >Sirilia del ISl'i alia dUtatura di (lari- baldi (Salerno, 1870); Di Marzo. t'n periodo di Sieilia ilal 177'/ al 1S(!0 ; Paterno, Hayyiu stor- ico poUtieo della aicilia dal coniineiare del secolo -XI. . fino al 1S30 (Catania, 1848) ; La Farina, Ktoria documentata delta rlrotuzione di Sieilia net IS-'iS-yj (Capolago, 1851). SICKEL, sik'el. Theodor Ritter von (1826 — ). A German historian, born at Aken, and ed- ucated at Halle and Berlin. He investigated the archives of Milan and Vienna for the French Gov- ernment, and became professor of history in Vien- na in 1857. He was also director of the Institute for Austrian History at Vienna, counselor in 1876, and director of the Austrian Institute at Rome. Among his works are: Monumenta Graph- ica Medii Aeei p,f Archiris et liihliolheeis Imperii Austriachi Coelesta (1859); Beitriige sur Dip- lomatik (1861) ; Ziir Gescltichte des Konzils von Trient (1872); Kaiserurkunden in Abbildunyen 1 1881 ) ; and Das rrivilegium Ottos I. fiir die romisclie Kirche (1883). SICKINGEN, Fraxz von (1481-1523). A celebrated German kniglit. born near Kreuznach. Very early in life he began his military career, and speedily became recognized as a champion of the oppressed. In defense of an injured citizen he began a long feud with the city of Worms in 1513, and besieged the town, though in vain. For similar reasons he fought the Duke of Lorraine and the city of Metz. He also participated in the war of the Swabian League against Ulrieh of Wiirttemberg. and when Stuttgart was taken in 1519 he protected the great scholar Reuch- lin. Through the influence of tTlrich von Hutten, whose protector he was, Sickingen be- came an ardent adherent of Luther, and sought to found a league of the lesser nobility and the cities to reorganize religious and political af- fairs in Germany. In 1522 he began war against the Archbishop of Treves, but failed in his attack on the city. He was besieged in his own castle and mortally wounded in May, 1523, dying five days later. Sickingen has become a favorite figure in German legend and literature and is one of the chief characters in Ctoethe's Giifz von Bcrlichinyeyt. and in Hauff's Lichten- stein. Consult Ulmann, Franz von Sickingen (Leipzig, 1872). SICKLES, sik"lz, D.4NIEL Edgar (182.5—). An American soldier and politician, born in New York City. He was educated at the New York University, studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1846. In the following years he sat as a Tanunany Democrat in the State Assembly. In 18.53 he was appointed corporation counsel of New York City, and was Secretary of Legation at London under United States Minister Buchanan from 1853 to 1855. when he returned to the United States and was elected to the New York State Senate. From 1857 to 1861 he was a Democratic member nf Congress. During this period he shot and killed Philip Barton Key, United States District At-