The Island in Between: Sicilian Connections and Trade from the Vandals to the Coming of Islam

Sicily provides ample opportunity to explore the idea of the margins. Despite its central location in the Mediterranean, the island never developed a political or economic center of gravity within the empire, which arguably contrasts with the case of the Emirate of Sicily that would supplant Byzantine rule. In this paper, I examine facets of the connections between Sicily and other parts of the Byzantine Empire from the sixth through ninth centuries. Among the questions I seek to address are: What can we tell of the stance of Sicily within the empire from without and within? Was it even prior to the coming of the Muslims a frontier space, a place of the Latin other? An interface between west and east, as so often depicted? A pacific but unimportant place? What drew people to come and go from the islands, and what can we say about why? I will explore these questions primarily through the lens of travel and trade through an examination of the textual and material evidence as a précis of a larger, long-term study of the island.