Sicily between Constantinople and Rome

This chapter examines the web of connections linking Sicily to the Greek Christian world of the eastern Mediterranean and, simultaneously, to the Latin Christendom of Rome and the Franks during the Byzantine period. It describes travel along the Sicily–Constantinople route under Byzantine rule and how the island served as a useful tool for Constantinople in its diplomatic and military relationships with the western regions. It shows that Sicily could and often did function as an extension of the political authority of Constantinople into Italy, which was both useful and necessary as part of the larger program of the Byzantine empire at the time. Finally, it considers how Sicily operated both as the far western frontier of the empire and as a center of official communication between Constantinople and the western Mediterranean world—particularly, Latin Rome and the emergent powers of Muslim North Africa and Frankish Europe.