inherited so
much from the failure of more brilliant races, came at last, and
tightened so firm a hold upon the island, that from the end of the
thirteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century, with one
brief exception, Sicily belonged to the princes of Aragon, Castile,
and Bourbon. These vicissitudes have left their traces everywhere.
The Greek temples of Segeste and Girgenti and Selinus, the Roman
amphitheatre of Syracuse, the Byzantine mosaics and Saracenic villas
of Palermo, the Norman cathedrals of Monreale and Cefalu, and the
Spanish habits which still characterise the life of Sicilian cities,
testify to the successive strata of races which have been deposited
upon the island. Amid its anarchy of tongues, the Latin alone has
triumphed. In the time of the Greek colonists Sicily was polyglot.
During the Saracenic occupation it was trilingual. It is now, and
during modern history it has always been, Italian. Differences of
language and of nationality have gradually been fused into one
substance, by the spirit which emanates from Rome, and vivifies the
Latin race.

The geographical position of Sicily has always influenced its
history in a very marked way. The eastern coast, which is turned
towards Greece and Italy, has been the centre of Aryan civilisation
in the island, so that during Greek and Roman ascendency Syracuse
was held the capital. The western end, which projects into the
African sea, was occupied in the time of the Hellenes by
Phoenicians, and afterwards by Mussulmans: consequently Panormus,
the ancient seat of Punic colonists, now called Palermo, became the
centre of the Moslem rule, which, inherited entire by the Norman
chieftains, was transmitted eventually to Spain. Palermo, devoid of
classic monuments, and unknown except as a name to the historians of
Greek civilisation, is therefore the modern capital of the island.
'Prima sedes, corona regis, et regni caput,' is the motto inscribed
upon the cathedral porch and the archiepiscopal throne of Palermo:
nor has any other city, except Messina,[1] presumed to contest this
title.

[1] Messina, owing to its mercantile position between the
Levant, Italy, and France, and as the key to Sicily from
the mainland, might probably have become the modern
capital had not the Normans found a state machinery ready
to their use centralised at Palermo.

Perhaps there are few spots upon the surface of the globe more
beautiful than Palermo. T