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An ancient history
From the book "The
Aeolian islands" published by the Tourist office - Lipari
 The history of the
Aeolian islands is basically identical to that of the island of
Lipari. The first human settlers came there from Sicily in the
Middle Neolithic period (from the fourth millenim BC), in small
rudimentary boats. They were farmers ans stockbreeders and also
made and decorated pottery and were skin flint cutters: they had
found deposits of Obsidian on the island, which was then the
most precious mineral. |
| Black and shiny, obsidian is a very
hard , vitreous volcanic rock that is not produced by all
volcanoes. It was due to these deposits that the
archipelago underwent an extraordinary development in Neolithic
times, leading to the growth of villages and the intensification
of sea trading, for obsidian was used for making much-needed
tools, knives, arrow heads, and blades that were less resistant
than those made of flint but much harder. Large quantities of
obsidian have been found in the Neolithic villages of
Sicily and the Italian peninsula and even on the coasts of
southern France and Dalmatia. |
 Pumice, a porous variety of obsidian, is also produced by
volcanoes and has the same composition ; it is of a greyish
white colour and is so light that it floats on water. It was
used in prehistoric times as an abrasive stone for finishing
tools. Today it is used as an industrial abrasive, in concrete
and for soundproofing. The large pumice quarries that have
pitted and whitened the slopes of Monte Pilato have provided
work for generations of local inhabitants, although quarrying
has shown a sharp decline in recent years. |
| The oldest settlements have been found
on the plateau areas of Castellaro Vecchio, while the
early centuries of the first millenium BC saw the growth of the
first settlement on the Rocca di Castello. Druring the period in
which the obsidian trade was in its height and economic
wellbeing led to population growth, the settlement expanded onto
the Diana plateau, at the foot of Rocca di Castello. |
| At the end of
the third millenium BC, in the early Bronze Age, new settlers
came to Lipari and the Aeolian Islands, thus injecting new
lifeblood into the economic and cultural life of the area.
This reawakening was due to the establishment of regular
contacts with the principalities of Mycenaean Greece, whose
navigators boldly explored the western seas in search of the raw
materials needed to maintain their power and ensure their
survival. During those times the islands were visited by
Myceanean peoples of Aeolian origins who had already settled in
Metapontus and used the islands as outposts for controlling
trading routes through the strait of Messina. The
islands have retained the name deriving from these Aeolian
travellers. The myth of king Aeolus, lord of the winds, that is
mentioned in Homer's Odyssey also derives form Aeolian
culture. |
 During the thirteenth century BC, the islands were settled by Ausinian
peoples from the coasts of Campania, who brought with them the myth
of King Liparus, which is were the town's name derives from.
The islands underwent a process of depopulation during the tenth
centuries BC - possibly due to rivalry between different races
for supremacy in the lower Tyrrhenian Sea - and they remained all
but deserted for several countries.
During the fiftieth Olympiad (580-576 BC), Lipari was colonised by
some Greeks of Doric origin from Cnidus and Rhodes, who
were led by a Heraldic named Pentathlos and had earlier made an
unsuccessful attempt to found a colony at modern-day Marsala. The
new colonists were the first and foremost faced with the need to
fight off Etruscan incursions. They therefore created a powerful
fleet, which led them to many victories and ensured them maritimes
supremacy. They used captured booty to erect some splendid votary
monuments in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi - over forty bronze
statues whose bases can still be seen. The ships of Lipari dominated
the lower Tyrrhenian area and in 393 BC they intercepted a Roman
ship on its way to Delphi with a large gold urn constituting a tenth
part of the booty taken following the sack of Veii.
 But their chief
magistrate, Timasiteus, made their return it because it was a sacred
offering to Apollo, the god worshipped by the people of Lipari. In
427 BC, during the first Atenian expedition to Sicily, the people of
Lipari entered into an alliance with the Syracusans, perhaps of
their common Doric origins. Thucydides reports that they were
attacked by the fleets of Athens and Regium, though with serious
consequence.
In
the carthaginian expedition of 408-406 BC, Lipari was again allied
with Syracuse: However, it was attacked by the Carthaginian general
Himilcon, who took control of the town and forced its inhabitants to
pay a randsom of 30 talents. Once the Carthaginian had left, Lipari
again became completely independent. |
During the time of Dionysius the Elder, Lipari remained an ally of
Syracuse and later of Tindari. In 304 BC, the island was
attacked by Agathocles, who imposed a tribute of 50 talents,
which he then lost while sailing to Sicily in a storm that was
attributed to the anger of Aeolus.
Lipari
later fell under the dominion of Carthage and was still in
Carthaginian hands at the outbreak of the first Punic War. The
archipelago became a solid Carthaginian stronghold because of
its excellent ports and important strategic position. |
| In 262 BC,
the Roman consul Cn. Cornelius Scipio, mistakenly
believed that Lipari could easily be taken and was captured with
all of his men by Hannibal. In 258 Aulius Atilius
Calatinus besieged Lipari. In 257 the waters around the
Aeolian Islands were the site of a fierce battle between the
fleets of Carthage and Rome. Lipari was conquered by the Romans
in 252 BC. Razed to the ground with "inhuman cruelty" it lost
independence and economic prosperity. This was the beginning of
a period of great decline. |
| The island still continued to
make great profits from alum, which was probably already being
extracted in the Bronze Age on the island of Vulcano and for
which Lipari held the monopoly in ancient times. The excellent
thermal springs in Vulcano and Lipari were very popular and also
very famous in Imperial Rome. Cicero wrote of Lipari and of the
injustices it suffered at the hands of Verres. |
| The Aeolian Islands were of
great strategic importance during the civil war between Octavian
and Sextus Pompey. Lipari, was fortified by Sextus Pompey and
conquered by Octivian's admiral, Agrippa, in 36
BC. He made the island of Vulcano his naval base during the
operations preceding the sea battle at Milazzo and for his
subsequent landing in Sicily. On this occasion, Lipari
again suffered devastation and disaster. It would appear that
the island subsequently enjoyed the status of municipium and it was defined by Pliny as oppidum civium romanorum.
|
| There is no mention of Lipari during
the entire period of Imperial Rome (first-fourth century AD).
All we know is that having his father-in-law Plautianus killed,
the Emperor Caracalla sent his wife, Plautilla, and his
brother-in-law, Plautius, into exile there for the rest of their
lives. During the Christian period, (perhaps from the fourth
century AD), Lipari was an episcopal see and the relics of Saint
Bartholomew were venerated in its cathedral at least as early as
the sixth century. According to traditions dating back to
Byzantine writers, the relics were brought there from Armenia by
miracle |
 |
| In the late Middle Ages, Lipari was
the destination of pilgrims from near and far. This was the
period in which a great variety of legends grew up around the
Aeolian Islands, particularly Lipari and Vulcano. The crater of
Vulcano was said to be the mouth of hell, in which the souls of
the wicked were burned. There is also a well-known legend
narrated by Saint Gregory the Great : apparently a local hermit
saw the soul of Theodoric, the Ostrogoth King thrown into
the crater on the day of his death by Pope John and the
patrician Simmac, whom had had murdered. |
| Other legends concerned Bishop Agathon and Saint Calogero, the
hermit who rid the island of devils and caused the water to flow
from the spring that bears his name. During the early Middle
Ages, the volcanoes on the island of Lipari suddenly became
active after being dormant for decades. It was then that new
craters opened on Monte Pelato, which threw out enormous masses
of pumice, and on Pirrera, the volcano closest to the town, from
which a flow of obsidian erupted. |
 In
839, Lipari was attacked and destroyed by
Muslim marauders, who massacred many
inhabitants, took others as slaves and
violated the relics of Saint
Bartholomew. The relics were then piously
gathered together by some old friars who had
escaped the massacre and transported to
Salerno in the following year and
subsequently to Beneventum. Lipari remained
almost completely deserted for several
centuries until the Normans reconquered
Sicily and sent Abbot Ambrogio and a small
group of Benedictines to settle on the
island in 1083. A small community began to
form again around the monastery, the remains
of which can still be seen at the side of
the cathedral. In 1131, the episcopal see
was reconstituted on Lipari and united with
the see at patti. In 1340, Lipari fell into
the hands of King Roberto I of Naples. In
1540, the town was sacked by the ferocious
pirate Ariadeno Barbarossa, who took the
unfortunate inhabitants into captivity.
Lipari was later rebuilt and repopulated
under Carlo V and after that its fortunes
followed those of Sicily and the Kingdom of
Naples.
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