ITALIANS OF THE SOUTH IN THE 11TH CENTURY: THE
BEGINNING OF THE CULTURAL GENOCIDE OF SOUTH ITALIANS. Stefano Sotiriou, Historian.
"Men of Sicily, Calabria, and Apulia! Take pride in your bravery, and do not let yourselves have the hearts of women. What cowardice makes you run? Remember your ancestors, whose courage made the whole world the subjects of the Greeks!
Hector, the bravest of all men, fell at the hands of
Achilles. Troy was handed over to the flames of Mycenaean wrath. India knew
Philip’s bravery. His son Alexander, with his valor, did he not make the most
powerful kingdoms submit to the Greeks?
The West, and indeed every part of the world, was once
afraid of us. What nation, hearing the name of the Greeks, dared to confront
them on the battlefield? Cities, fortresses, and states barely kept our enemies
safe from Greek rage.
Be brave! Remember the courage of your ancestors and
do not humiliate them by putting your confidence in your feet alone! He who
dares to fight like a man will overcome the enemy’s power. Follow in the
footsteps of your forefathers and abandon every thought of fleeing. The whole
world should know that you are men of courage. You should not fear these
Franks, for they are inferior both in numbers and in bravery."
— The speech of Exaugustus Boioannes, Byzantine
Catepan of Southern Italy, to his men before battling the Normans.
(The general mentioned is Exavgustos Boioannes
(Εξαύγουστος Βοϊωάννης), the son of the famous Basileios Boioannes. He was the Catepan
(Governor) of Italy in the mid-11th century. This speech reflects the desperate
attempts of the Byzantine Empire to maintain control over Southern Italy
against the rising power of the Normans (referred to in the text as
"Franks").
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“The ethnic and religious cleansing in the
South is still present in the collective imagination, which claims that the
Italo-Greeks—who, for example, founded monastic lordships such as Licusati, San
Giovanni a Piro, and Rofrano—came here as refugees from Constantinople’s
iconoclastic policy and were therefore not our ancestors, but
'foreigners'."
******************
The Greeks were not nomads, as
they are presented today by parts of Italian historiography and, most sadly,
South-Italian historiography. Some Sicilians today try in every way to erase
their roots, presenting the Greeks as just one of many
conquerors who passed through
and eventually evaporated. The Greeks have lived there since the Bronze Age,
uninterruptedly,
until the 13th century, when they were
violently Latinized by the Normans, Frederick II, and the Aragonese. Since
then, they continued to exist until today, but no longer as Greeks in language
and customs.
Greeks inhabited Southern Italy as early as the Bronze
Age. Mycenaeans and Pelasgians settled Southern Italy in an organized manner,
founding 92 cities (as many as have been excavated by archaeology to date). In
the 8th century BC, the new, Archaic colonization—started by the Chalcidians
and the Cumaeans with the founding of Naxos in Sicily and Cuma in Campania—was
the second organized wave. The Greek population eventually reached over 4 million
residents then.
The Greek population reached 4 million by the 4th
century BC. By the 11th century AD, when the Westerners arrived and Latinized
Southern Italy, there were 2 million inhabitants, 95% of them were Greeks, Greek-speaking, and
Orthodox Christians!
- 11th Century Demographics: When the Normans conquered the region, they
found a society that was administratively, religiously, and linguistically
Byzantine. The Church followed the Byzantine Rite, and the language of
daily life, poetry, and administration was Greek.
- Forced Latinization: The
process that began after the Council of Melfi (1059) was not a natural
evolution. It was a strategic choice by the Popes and Norman leaders to
replace Orthodox bishops with Latin ones, in order to sever Southern
Italy’s umbilical cord with Constantinople.
- Survival:
Despite the pressure, it took over 500 years for the Greek language to be
restricted to small enclaves. Even in the 15th and 16th centuries, many
inhabitants in the Calabrian and Apulian and Sicilian hinterland
identified as "Greci" and refused to abandon their customs.
- The Historical Injustice: It is lamentable that modern historiography
often downplays this "Byzantine miracle" of Italy, presenting it
as a foreign occupation, when in reality, it was the indigenous identity
of the inhabitants for over two millennia.
In Southern Italy, the Greeks have been THE
indigenous population for approximately 3,000 consecutive years, since about
1300 BC; all the others are the invaders
and the conquerors. This is the true history, not the fabricated version
created by certain modern historians and politicians in Italy in their attempt
to forge a different national identity.
Genetic reality from 1000 b.C. antil today
Genetic Reality of the
Mezzogiorno today! Challenging the myth and propaganda of Romanic,
Normanic, Germanic & Arab DNA ancestry.
“Contrary to popular belief
the many invasions in southern Italy and Sicilia, that followed the
fall of the Western Roman Empire, did not significantly alter the local genetic
landscape of the Apennine Peninsula. In fact, DNA studies show that
only the Greek presence in southern Italy had any lasting effect
on the genetic makeup of the peninsula”.
Source: Cavalli-Sforza (University of Stanford, USA),
Luigi Luca, Menozzi Paolo, Piazza Alberto (Turin Italy), "The History
and Geography of Human Genes. p. 295”. Also reserche of : Michaela
Sarno and the university of Peruggia and Max Plank institute,
Germany.
***************
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES
Read Read more information:English:
The Violent Latinization/Catholicization of
Sicily, Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, and Campania.
In the Blogg: sicilia-calabria.blogspot.com
·
Research Platforms: Academia.edu | Humanities
Commons
Leggi più informazioni in
Italiano: La
violenta latinizzazione/cattolicizzazione di Sicilia, Calabria, Puglia,
Basilicata e Campania.
·
In the Blog: sicilia-calabria.blogspot.com
·
Piattaforme di ricerca: Academia.edu | Humanities
Commons
***********
2. I VESPRI SICILIANI – SICILIAN VESPERS
English & Italiano:
·
In the Blog: sicilia-calabria.blogspot.com
·
Research Platforms: Academia.edu | Humanities
Commons
***********
Leggete in
Italiano:
3.
SICILIA E SUD ITALIA. Mitologia, preistoria e storia dell'Italia meridionale e della Sicilia
fino al III secolo. Stefano Sotiriou, storico.
Italiano: Per il libro completo, con tutti i dettagli,
consultare AMAZON al link sottostante.
·
Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/86CGscf
·
Blog (English): sicilia-calabria.blogspot.com
·
Blogg ( Italiano: sicilia-calabria.blogspot.com
·
Altre fonti: Academia.edu | Humanities
Commons
***********
Read the Book: 4. SICILY AND SOUTHERN ITALY. Mythology,
Prehistory and History until the 3rd Century. (English)
English: For the entire book, with full details, see AMAZON
at the address below:
·
Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/86CGscf
·
Blog: sicilia-calabria.blogspot.com
·
Other sources: Academia.edu | Humanities
Commons
The
redistribution and dissemination of articles by Stefanos Sotiriou is free,
without the need for special permission from the author.
