sicily and sardinia-corsica: the first provinces 53 SICILY AND SARDINIA-CORSICA: THE FIRST PROVINCES Jonathan Prag 1. Introduction The moment when the Romans crossed the narrow straits of Messina in 264 BC is consistently seen as one of the most important in the history of Roman imperialism. Polybius chose to begin with this (Pol. 1.5.1); for Theodor Mommsen, ‘It was a moment of the deepest significance in the history of the world’. But, as Polybius and Mommsen also saw, one of the principal results, the development of the provinces of Sicily and Sar- dinia-Corsica, was in no way foreseen in 264. For Polybius (1.20.1-2) it was only in 261, after the sack of Agrigentum, that the Senate decided on driving Carthage from Sicily and thereby increasing their own power; for Mommsen, what had begun as a continuation of the expansion of the ‘Ital- ian confederacy’ ended instead with ‘the extension of Italy to its natural boundaries’. This chapter will focus upon why, and how, these islands were transformed into what can reasonably be called the first ‘regular’ prov- inces of the developing empire: in other words, the beginnings of formal territorial annexation outside Italy. The concept of the provincia before the 1st Century BC was primarily that of the task or responsibility of a magistrate or promagistrate (usually cum imperio). Precisely when the term acquired a distinct territorial or geographical sense continues to be a subject of debate. The word provincia does not, for example, constitute part of the description of the Roman empire as found in a law of the Roman people of 122 BC: ‘[quoi socium no]- minisue Latini exterarumue nationum, quoiue in arbitratu dicione potestate amicitiau[e populi Romani...], ‘[from whomever of the allies] or of the Lat- in name or of the foreign nations, or from whomever within the discretion, sway, power or friendship [of the Roman people...]’.1 What is certain is that 1 Mommsen 1894, 2.165, 167, 203-5. First Punic War: Lazenby 1996; also de Sanctis 1967 (= Storia dei Romani 3.1). The causes: e.g., Hoyos 1998, 5-115; Eckstein 1987, 73-101; Harris 1985, 63-7, 182-90; Heuss 1970; cf. Loreto 2007. Richardson 2008, 2-4 on modes of imperial control in relation to the development of Rome’s empire in this period. Provincia: Lintott 1993, 22-42; Kallet-Marx 1995, 18-29; Richardson 2008; Bertrand 1989. Quotation from Lex Repetundarum, l, line 1 = Crawford 1996, 65; contrast Cic. Mil. 87; cf. Richardson, 44-5, 79-80. From: D. Hoyos (ed.), A Companion to Roman Imperialism (History of Warfare, volume 81). Brill: Leiden.