{"id":324,"date":"2016-03-24T12:22:11","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T16:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/?p=324"},"modified":"2016-03-28T10:07:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T14:07:10","slug":"sicily-the-bread-basket-of-the-roman-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/sicily\/sicily-the-bread-basket-of-the-roman-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"Sicily: The Bread Basket of the Roman Republic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After\u00a0the sack of Syracuse in 212 BC, the Romans reigned in Sicily for the next six centuries. Due to the island&#8217;s\u00a0advantageous climate and fertile soil, Sicily offered a\u00a0prosperous source of grain.\u00a0Sicily was agriculturally\u00a0exploited in order to supply the Roman Republic with wheat, an act which likely\u00a0hindered\u00a0the economic development of the island. Nevertheless, due to the island&#8217;s status as a &#8220;breadbasket&#8221; for Rome and the fruitful abundance of the island,\u00a0the cult of Demeter became prominent throughout Sicily. In his\u00a0<em>Metamorphoses<\/em>, Ovid even places the myth of Persephone&#8217;s abduction by Hades and Demeter&#8217;s ensuing search for her daughter in Sicily. As we walked up and down the streets of Palermo, I couldn&#8217;t help but notice the ubiquitous statues and plaques celebrating\u00a0the goddess Demeter. Below are but three of many representations of Demeter and grain that can be found\u00a0throughout the city of Palermo.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-325\" src=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7666_2-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_7666_2\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7666_2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7666_2-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7666_2-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-326\" src=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7667_2-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_7667_2\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7667_2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7667_2-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7667_2-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-327\" src=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7689_2-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_7689_2\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7689_2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7689_2-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_7689_2-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After\u00a0the sack of Syracuse in 212 BC, the Romans reigned in Sicily for the next six centuries. Due to the island&#8217;s\u00a0advantageous climate and fertile soil, Sicily offered a\u00a0prosperous source of grain.\u00a0Sicily was agriculturally\u00a0exploited in order to supply the Roman Republic with wheat, an act which likely\u00a0hindered\u00a0the economic development of the island. Nevertheless, due to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sicily","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}