The War Over Demeter

The Hellenic peoples, unlike the other Mediterranean peoples, preferred to cultivate barley rather than wheat as their main grain. The adaptation to the instability of precipitation in the Peloponnese, to an unexpected cold, or a dry month, led to the dominance of barley cultivation, which is hardier than wheat. But when the Greeks moved westward and began to settle new colonies, they discovered a different, more stable weather, where wheat cultivation had a significant yield advantage.

The colonies they established in Sicily, in the southern and eastern parts of the island, starting from the end of the 8th century BCE, quickly became a crucial source for feeding the inhabitants of the Greek city-states in the Peloponnese. From now on, the supply line of wheat from Sicily to Greece can't stop.

The agricultural wealth of Sicily, in the eyes of the Greeks, is a gift from the goddess Demeter to the peoples of Greece. Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, agriculture, and the earth. The seasons are intertwined with the visits of her daughter Persephone to Hades, the god of the underworld, who kidnapped her and returned her to Demeter on the condition that she would stay with him for half the year. Half a year of autumn and winter when Persephone descends to the underworld, and half a year of spring blossoms and the juiciness of summer fruits when she rises back to the surface to meet her mother.

But the Greeks did not arrive on an island empty of inhabitants. The original inhabitants of Sicily have been engaged in the cultivation of bread wheat and durum wheat for hundreds of years. The encounter with the Greeks leads on one hand to the adoption of Hellenistic culture, Hellenistic customs, and the Hellenistic pantheon of gods, primarily the worship of the goddess Demeter, who favors the island, and on the other hand, to tension – the locals keep the wheat for their consumption and sell the surplus northward, to the Romans.

The competition for Sicily's wheat is underway.

The Greeks initially dominated the trade with an iron fist. They are taking over many lands and farms across the island, forcing local rulers to grow wheat for them. They see the island's inhabitants as inferior, "Barbarians" in their language. Their nickname: "Millet Eaters" (ELYOMI). Millet is a grain that comes from East Asia, and its cultivation throughout the ages has symbolized poverty and hunger. Whoever cannot afford wheat or barley should eat millet. The inhabitants of Troy and Phrygia in Anatolia also received this designation from the Greeks to emphasize their cultural inferiority. By the way, unlike Anatolia, millet was not cultivated in Sicily...

The Roman victory over the Phoenicians in the Second Punic War, in 241 BCE, marks the turning point in the competition for control over the grain in Sicily. The Romans, who have long yearned for control over the island, do not intend to give up this time. The hearts of the local farmers are already leaning towards the Romans, but the latter are not satisfied with that. They want it all. They want to subordinate the Greek city-states of Sicily to their rule. One of the methods is a cultural appropriation that will hurt the Greeks more than anything: Demeter, the Romans claim, favors Sicily, not Greece. Hence, her place of residence and birth is not in Greece but in Sicily. In a clever maneuver, the Romans manage to convince the island's inhabitants that the goddess of the land is theirs and originates from their island. Who appropriated and stole her, were the Greeks.

The trick works.

The landowners refuse to sell their grain harvest, the gift of the goddess Demeter, to the Greeks.? Demeter's birthplace will be established in the Roman world in Sicily, not Greece. She gives her grace to Rome, and the abundance she bestows upon the Mediterranean is thanks to her being under Roman protection. This belief would fade with the arrival of Christianity, about 560 years later, but until then, the Roman victory over the wheat fields of Sicily would allow the Republic to grow and flourish, gain power, and play an important role in the expansion of Rome throughout the Mediterranean.

The wheat of Sicily laid the foundation for the Roman Empire.

The control over the cultivation and trade of grain throughout the Mediterranean was the source of wealth and power for the cities of Greece. Now, control over grain marks the rise of Rome. Later on, the decline of Rome and its transformation will also be linked to the grain.

In the next chapter: of the golden years of Rome and the transformation of the Mediterranean diet into a uniform one around the entire Mediterranean.