A large Mediterranean island lying between North Africa and the Italian peninsula, Sicily occupied a strategically significant position throughout Byzantine history. It served Belisarius as a resupply and intelligence base during his sixth-century campaigns, was briefly used as an imperial capital by Constans II, and changed hands repeatedly over the centuries—falling to Muslim forces when Syracuse was lost in 878, and ultimately to the Normans by 1072. The island remained a point of contention into the eleventh and twelfth centuries, figuring in Basil II's unrealized reconquest plans and later sheltering Byzantine refugees from Andronicus I's reign of terror, whose Norman rulers used them as a pretext for invading the empire.
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What each episode says
Episode 8 (2 mentions)
Sicily served as a resupply and intelligence-gathering stop for Belisarius on his way to North Africa, where Procopius obtained crucial information about the Vandals' unpreparedness. It was also the first territory conquered in the Italian campaign, taken with barely an effort.
“over 500 men had been poisoned. Belisarius decided to stop in Sicily to get supplies and”
“start. Belisarius conquered Sicily with barely an effort, overcoming the only Gothic resistance at”
Episode 9 (1 mention)
The island where Justinian's incompetent overall commander sailed and then refused to leave, even as Naples was being starved into submission — used by Brownworth to illustrate the paralysis of Byzantine command in Italy.
“to Sicily and refused to leave it.”
Episode 11 (3 mentions)
Constans II moved the imperial capital here to better protect Italy, an unorthodox decision that was reversed after his assassination. Sicily also features as the proposed place of exile for Irene in the conspiracy hatched by senior army officers, and later as the site of a governor who declared independence and placed himself under Saracen protection after Irene's purge of the army.
“he took the unorthodox step of moving the capital to Sicily to better protect Italy.”
“In Sicily, the disgusted governor declared his independence, and then placed himself”
“Sicily and make Constantine the sixth emperor.”
Episode 12 (2 mentions)
One of the western territories Bardas failed to hold against Saracen invasion. Basil also failed to defend it, and its last imperial stronghold of Syracuse fell in 878.
“unable to hold either Sicily or the remnant of Italy”
“came to nothing, as well as the defense of Sicily,”
Episode 13 (1 mention)
Mentioned at the end as the island reconquered by Belisarius in the 6th century and then lost to the Muslims in the 9th — the target of the invasion Basil II was planning when he fell ill and died on December 15, 1025.
“This is how they suggested an invasion of Sicily, an important island reconquered by”
Episode 14 (1 mention)
Most of the island fell to Robert Giscard by 1072, completing his conquest of the south after taking Bari. Brownworth uses Sicily's fall alongside Bari's as evidence that by this point the Normans were without peer in brute strength and fighting ability.
“year most of Sicily had fallen as well.”
Episode 15 (1 mention)
The most common destination for Byzantines fleeing Andronicus's reign of terror, whose Greek court welcomed them and whose king William the Good used them—and a false Alexius II—as justification for a massive invasion of the Byzantine Empire.
“Their most common destination was the Kingdom of Sicily,”
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