Professor Sang-Geun Kim, a humanist who showed the true colors of Rome, Venice, and Florence in Italy through the 'Humanities for Travelers' series, meets readers again with a new book about the history of Sicily, 'Sicily Does Not Believe in Tears'.
Sicily, which served as a granary of the Mediterranean and a bridge connecting Africa and Europe, had to endure constant exploitation and invasion for 2,800 years.
There were fourteen invasions by foreign powers, including Greece, Rome, Islam, France, Germany, Austria, and Spain, and the sighs and tears of the Sicilian people piled up in the land trampled by these forces.


Through this book, the author seeks to provide insight into Sicily's turbulent history while also focusing on the island's "true face."
For this purpose, I chose as the cover a photo of a fisherman I met in a fishing village in Sicily.
Wary eyes and trembling lips, but courage and strength in every deep wrinkle.
His face is soon to be that of Sicily.
What can we, and should we, sense from the faces of the Sicilians, who at first glance appear indifferent, yet whose eyes brim with tension and alertness? The history of a land ultimately leaves its mark on the people who inhabit it.
Only when readers turn the last page of this book will they encounter the true face of Sicily.
The true wounds of the island hidden in the rough waves and sea breeze.

The reason Sicilians raise their eyebrows and glare at trivial matters is because they do not fully understand the causes of the events taking place around them.
For the past 2,800 years, the Sicilians have never been able to forge their own destiny or develop their own civilization.
All the monuments of the past they see are left behind by foreign occupiers who invaded their land.
Around 800 BC, the Phoenicians, who first colonized Sicily, followed in succession by the Greeks, the Romans, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, the Saracens, the Normans, the German Hohenstaufen dynasty, the French Capetians, the Spanish Aragonese dynasty, the Northern Italian Kingdom of Savoy, the Austrian Habsburgs, and the Spanish Bourbons.
So, they are unconditionally wary of and hate anything 'outside', but they never make an effort to understand it.

---From "Introduction pp.10~11"

Sicily took its first steps toward civilization with the arrival of the Greeks.
The natives, including the Sikeloi, had to accept Greek mythology while also accepting the tyrant's oppressive rule.
Since the first Greek settlers settled on Naxos in 735 BC, the prelude to tyranny began with Phalaris of Agrigento.
Gelon, Hiero I, Dionysius I, Dionysius II, Timoleon, Agathocles, and Pyrrhus of Epirus appeared in succession, bringing a long period of suffering to Sicily.
Even Agathocles, who was highly praised by the Renaissance political thinker Machiavelli, was nothing more than a cruel tyrant to the Sicilians.
Most of the tyrants were under great military pressure from Carthage, which controlled the seas of North Africa and the Mediterranean.
But now a new power was rising that would overtake Carthage and seize control of the Mediterranean: Rome.

---From "Chapter 3 | Sicily Incorporated into the Roman Province, p.112"

William II died in 1189, and was nicknamed 'King William the Good'.
His rule, which respected all races and religions and continued the family's policy of cultural integration, left a deep impression on the Sicilian people.
With his death, the Norman Hautevilles' rule in Sicily ended.
Beginning with William the Iron Fist, who conquered Syracuse in 1040, and continuing through 1130, when Roger II was recognized as king by the Pope, the era of two Rogers and two William's reigns came to an end.
(Omitted) If the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and Saracens shaped the Sicilian countryside into what it is today, the Normans shaped the Sicilian cities into what they are today.
Norman openness, which fused Latin Christianity, Byzantine Orthodoxy, and Islamic faiths, enabled Sicily to leap from being a Mediterranean granary to a European cultural hub.

---From "Chapter 6 | Norman French Rule in Sicily pp. 221-222"

Sicily is gaining attention as a popular travel destination among Korean tourists.
With beautiful natural scenery, a museum-like island where you can experience both Greek and Roman civilizations, relatively low prices, and a bountiful dining experience, it has all the makings to attract Korean tourists.
However, we must be careful not to skim the surface of Sicily.
Even the sadness of Sicily that director Coppola tried to portray through the performance of renowned actor Pacino in the final scene fails to fully reveal the depth of the wounds they had to endure.
Sicily is a land of sorrow.
It is a land that has suffered from exploitation and oppression.
It is a place that has been invaded by foreigners 14 times over a period of 2,800 years.
Even today, the land remains politically neglected and unable to escape extreme economic isolation.
Sicily's past is Sicily's inevitable future, they say.
There is no tomorrow for us… .

---From "Going Out | Sicily Doesn't Believe in Tears p.356"

The geopolitical reason for being a stepping stone in the Mediterranean does not justify or explain the chronic invasions by foreigners.
The result is more important than the cause.
The current findings, "The Psychological State of a Terrified Island," are sufficient to explain the hardships and frustrations that Sicily has had to endure in the past.
Their suffering thus makes it unnecessary to identify the cause.
When Sicilians habitually frown, it is not because they hate or are wary of anything external, but because they are sad and weeping.
But they do not shed tears, their tear ducts parched under the scorching Sicilian sun.
No, to be more precise, it is because Sicily does not believe in tears.

---From "Going Out | Sicily Doesn't Believe in Tears p.360"