CHAPTER I
THE ITALO-GREEKS IN THE PAST
The name Italo-Greek (Italo-Græcus) is a convenient one now commonly used for the inhabitants of Italy or its islands (Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica), who use the Byzantine rite in Greek. It denotes, therefore, a liturgical distinction, not one of race. As a matter of fact, the Italo-Greeks consist of three different races. There are the original Greek-speaking inhabitants of Lower Italy and Sicily. These had nearly become latinized by the fifteenth century, when their rite was much fortified, almost, one might say, revived, by an immigration of Albanians. Lastly, there are later immigrations and colonies of Levantines in these parts, though many of these people are Orthodox, and so do not enter into our scheme.
- 1. The Greeks in Southern Italy and Sicily.
It would perhaps surprise anyone, who heard of the fact for the first time, that for centuries there were large districts in Italy and Sicily where the Byzantine rite in Greek was used. Since the Roman rite has become so prevalent throughout all the West, since even in distant Norway, Greenland, and America Catholics are Latins, it may seem strange that here so near Rome itself there were, and still are, these Catholics who, in rite, are not Roman. The fact is explained by the political history of Southern Italy and Sicily.
This history begins with that of the Greek colonies, long before Christianity. There was, of course, a native population still earlier; but we know little about it. The original people of Sicily and Southern Italy, the barbarians whom the first Greek colonists found there, spoke some forms of the common Italian group of languages, not Latin.[1]
- ↑ Mommsen calls them "Iapygians." They were Aryans, but not the same race as the Latins or Samnites. They were easily hellenized by the Greek colonists ("History of Rome," Eng. trans.
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