List of massacres in Italy

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The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Italy and its predecessors (numbers may be approximate):

Archaic Italy

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Battle of Selinus 409 BC Selinus 16,000 Carthaginian Army 16,000 citizens of Selinus killed in battle and massacre by Carthaginian Army under Hannibal Mago. City razed.[1]
Battle of Himera 409 BC Himera 3,000 Carthaginian Army 3,000 Greek prisoners of war tortured and sacrificed by Carthaginian Army under Hannibal Mago. City razed.[2]
Siege of Akragas December 406 BC Akragas Population of Akragas Carthaginian Army Greek population massacred by Carthaginian Army under Himilco[3]
Siege of Motya Summer 398 BC Motya Population of Motya Syracuse Phoenician population of Motya killed by Greek troops during assault on the city.

Roman Italy

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Ausona massacre 314 BC Ausona Entire Aurunci people Republican Roman Army Entire Aurunci people exterminated by Roman army
1st Cluviae massacre 311 BC Cluviae Roman prisoners of war Samnites Roman prisoners of war killed by Samnites
2nd Cluviae massacre 311 BC Cluviae Adult male population Republican Roman Army Adult male population of Cluviae put to death by Roman army under consul Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus
Aequi massacre 304 BC Aequi Most Aequians Republican Roman Army Majority of Aequi people killed by Roman army
Messana massacre 289 BC Messina Population of Messana Mamertines Population of Messana murdered by mercenary Mamertines
Taurasia massacre November 218 BC Taurasia Population of Taurasia Carthaginian Army Population of the Taurini capital of Taurasia exterminated by Carthaginian Army under Hannibal after three-day siege.[4]
Casilinum massacre August 216 BC Casilinum Pro-Carthaginian population of Casilinum Republican Roman Army Pro-Carthaginian population of Casilinum killed by Roman garrison.[5]
Leontini massacre 214 BC Lentini 2,000 Republican Roman Army 2,000 Roman deserters flogged and beheaded by troops of Marcus Claudius Marcellus.[6]
Enna massacre 213 BC Enna Population of Enna Republican Roman Army Defenceless crowd massacred by Roman garrison under governor Lucius Pinarius.[7]
Battle of Capua 211 BC Teanum, Cales 53 Republican Roman Army 53 Capuan aristocrats executed by Roman Army under Quintus Fulvius Flaccus.[8]
Agrigentum massacre 210 BC Agrigento Agrigentan elites Republican Roman Army Agrigentan elites massacred by Roman army under consul Marcus Valerius Laevinus. Population sold to slavery. Town looted.[9]
Tarentum massacre 209 BC Tarentum Population of Tarentum Republican Roman Army Population massacred by Roman Army under proconsul Fabius Maximus, 30,000 sold to slavery.[10]
Enna massacre 135 BC Enna Population of Enna Slave rebels Slaves under Eunus massacre town population and rape women
Asculum massacre 89 BC Asculum Majority of the population Republican Roman Army Population massacred by Roman Army under consul Pompeius Strabo
Rome massacres 87 BC Rome Several hundred Gaius Marius Several hundred supporters of Sulla massacred by Marius' rampaging army
Sulla's proscriptions 82 BC Roman Italy 4,700 Sulla 4,700 enemies of the state murdered on orders of Sulla
Appian Way crucifixions 71 BC Via Appia 6,000 Republican Roman Army 6,000 slave rebel prisoners crucified by Marcus Licinius Crassus
Proscription of 43 BC 43 BC Roman Italy 2,000 Second Triumvirate 2,000 enemies of the Second Triumvirate murdered[11]
Tiberius' purge Late 31 Roman Italy Supporters of Sejanus Imperial Roman Army Sejanus and his supporters killed on orders of Tiberius.[12]
Ticinum massacre 13 August 408 Ticinum 7+ Imperial Roman Army 7 high-ranking supporters of Stilicho killed by Roman army at the instigation of Olympius. Many civilians in Ticinum killed afterward.[13]
Massacre of Goths Late 408 Roman Italy Thousands Imperial Roman Army Thousands of Gothic soldiers in the Roman Army and their families killed in anti-Germanic pogrom.[14]

Ostrogothic Italy

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Ravenna massacre 537 Ravenna Roman aristocrats Ostrogothic Kingdom Roman aristocratic hostages executed on orders of Witiges
Milan massacre March 539 Mediolanum All males of Milan Ostrogothic Kingdom Male population of Milan slain by Ostrogothic troops after siege. Women enslaved.[15]
Ticinum massacre 539 Ticinum Gothic women and children Merovingian Franks Gothic women and children sacrificed alive by Franks under Theudebert I[16]
Totila's sack of Rome 550 Rome Most inhabitants of Rome Ostrogothic Kingdom Population of Rome massacred after siege by Ostrogothic troops under Totila. Women spared.
Massacre of aristocratic children Late 552 Po Valley 300 Ostrogothic Kingdom 300 Roman aristocratic children killed by Ostrogoths

Medieval Italy

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Siege of Syracuse (877–878) 21 March 878 Syracuse 4,000 Aghlabids 4,000 Syracusans massacred by Aghlabid Muslim army[17]
Sack of Taormina 1 August 902 Taormina Population of Taormina Aghlabids Population of Taormina massacred, 15,000 enslaved
Siege of Rometta May 965 Rometta Population of Rometta Kalbids Population of Rometta massacred, survivors enslaved, city colonized by Muslims.[18]
Sicilian Vespers 1282 Sicily 3,000 Ghibelline Sicilians 3,000 French men and women killed by rebels
Lucera massacre 1300 Lucera Muslim population Kingdom of Naples Muslim population of Lucera massacred and 9,000 sold to slavery
Cesena bloodbath 1 February 1377 Cesena 2,500 Papal States 2,500 people massacred by Breton troops under Cardinal Robert of Geneva during the War of the Eight Saints
Trinci family massacre 10 January 1421 Nocera Umbra 5 Pietro di Rasiglia Pietro di Rasiglia kills most of the Trinci family in a personal vendetta
Massacre of the Assumption 15 August 1474 Modica 360 Christian mob Christians kill 360 Jews in Modica's La Giudecca

Early Modern Italy

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Sack of Rome (1527) 6 May 1527 Rome 6,000 Army of the Holy Roman Empire
Spanish Army		 Rome sacked by troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Massacre of Waldensians in Calabria May/June 1561 Calabria 600–6,000 Roman Inquisition
Spanish Army		 600–6,000 Waldensians killed by Inquisitorial and Spanish forces
Piedmontese Easter April 1655 Piedmont 1,000–6,000 Savoyard Army Waldensians killed by ducal troops[19][20][21]
Lauria massacre 9 August 1806 Lauria 1,000 Grande Armée City destroyed and population massacred by French Army under Marshal André Masséna

Risorgimento

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Ten Days of Brescia 1 April 1849 Brescia 16 Austrian Army 16 Brescians executed by Austrian Army[22]
Bronte riots 2 August 1860 Bronte 21 Red Shirts 16 people killed in the riots, 5 sentenced to death as rioters by a drumhead court
Turin massacre 21 September 1864 Piazza Castello, Turin 62 (+138 wounded) Royal Italian Army
Carabinieri		 Royal Army and Carabinieri kill unarmed civilians

Kingdom of Italy

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Caltavuturo massacre 20 January 1893 Caltavuturo 13 (21 wounded) Royal Italian Army and Carabinieri 13 Fasci Siciliani protesters shot by army and police[23]
Giardinello massacre 10 December 1893 Giardinello 11 (12 wounded) Royal Italian Army 11 Fasci Siciliani protesters shot by army and guards[24]
Lercara Friddi massacre 25 December 1893 Lercara Friddi 7–11 (12 wounded) Royal Italian Army 7–11 Fasci Siciliani protesters shot by army[25]
Bava-Beccaris massacre 9 May 1898 Milan 118-450 (+400-2,000 wounded) Royal Italian Army troops under General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris fired on rioters[26]
Itri massacre 13 July 1911 Itri 8 (+60 wounded) Carabinieri Carabinieri kill Sardinian workers
Panicale massacre 15 July 1920 Panicale 6 (+14 wounded) Carabinieri Carabinieri suppress farmers' demonstration
Palazzo d'Accursio massacre 21 November 1920 Bologna 10 (+58 wounded) Red Guards Red Guards kill 10 Italian Socialist Party officials with hand grenades
Diana hotel massacre 23 March 1921 Milan 17 (+80 wounded) Anarchists Anarchists kill 17 in bombing

Fascist Italy

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
1922 Turin massacre 20 December 1922 Turin 11 (+26 wounded) Squadrismo Fascist Squadrismo under Piero Brandimarte kill 11 communists and trade unionists
Librizzi massacre 25 June 1925 Messina 9 (+4 wounded) Rosario Tranchita Spree shooting
San Giovanni in Fiore massacre 2 August 1925 San Giovanni in Fiore 5 (+28 wounded) Squadrismo Fascist Squadrismo kill communists, socialists and farmers

Second World War

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Biscari massacre 14 July 1943 Biscari (now Acate) 71 United States Army, 180th Infantry Regiment POWs killed by US troops in two incidents[27]
Canicattì massacre 14 July 1943 Canicattì 8 United States Army US troops under Colonel McCaffrey fired on looters[28][29]
Boves massacre 8 September 1943 Boves 45 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler mass killing by German occupation troops under Joachim Peiper
Ardeatine massacre 24 March 1944 Rome 335 Schutzstaffel mass killing by German occupation troops (SD-Gestapo led by Herbert Kappler)[30]
Guardistallo massacre 19 June 1944 Guardistallo 57 19th Luftwaffe Field Division 57 Italian civilians killed in massacre by Luftwaffe Field Division[31]
Piazza Tasso massacre 17 July 1944 Florence 5 Italian fascist militia, German Army 5 Italian civilians killed in massacre by Fascists and German Army
Cascine massacre 23 July 1944 Florence 17 German Army 17 Italian civilians suspected of being partisans killed by German troops
Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre 12 August 1944 Sant'Anna di Stazzema 560 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, 36th Brigata Nera mass killing by German occupation troops (16th SS Division) and Italian collaborators (16th Brigade)[32][33][34]
San Terenzo Monti massacre 17–19 August 1944 Fivizzano 159 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division 159 Italian civilians killed by SS soldiers as reprisal for partisan activity
Padule di Fucecchio massacre 23 August 1944 Padule di Fucecchio, Tuscany 184 26th Panzer Division Up to 184 Italian civilians as a reprisal for a partisan attack on two German soldiers. Massacre carried out by soldiers of the 26th Panzer Division.[35]
Vinca massacre 24–27 August 1944 Fivizzano 162 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division 162 Italian civilians killed by SS soldiers as reprisal for partisan activity
Certosa di Farneta massacre 2 September 1944 Certosa di Farneta 44 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division mass killing by 16th SS Division of 44 civilians at monastery in near Lucca[36]
Marzabotto massacre 29 September 1944 Marzabotto 770+ 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division mass killing by German occupation troops (16th SS)[37]
Bombing of Gorla 20 October 1944 Milan 614 US Army Air Force USAAF bombers discarded their bombload on a densely inhabited area: among the victims, 184 pupils of the Gorla elementary school
Salussola massacre 9 March 1945 Salussola 20 (1 wounded) Blackshirts 20 Italian partisans tortured and executed by Fascist Blackshirts[38]
Rovetta massacre 28 April 1945 Salussola 43 Partisans under British SOE command 43 National Republican Guard prisoners executed by partisans under British command:[39]
Schio massacre 6 July 1945 Schio 54 Partisans a group of ex partisans of the Garibaldi Partisan Division "Ateo Garemi" and officers of the auxiliary partisan police kill suspected fascists among 99 inmates detained in the city jail.

Republic of Italy

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Villarbasse massacre 5 July 1946 Villarbasse 10 Bandits 3 of the perpetrators were sentenced to death; this was the last time the death penalty was applied in Italy
Portella della Ginestra massacre 1 May 1947 Piana degli Albanesi 11 (+33 wounded) Bandits Attack on May Day celebrations by bandits[40]
Ciaculli massacre 30 June 1963 Ciaculli 7 Mafia car bombing of police by Mafia[41]
Cima Vallona massacre 25 June 1967 San Nicolò di Comelico 4 South Tyrolean Liberation Committee 4 soldiers killed by South Tyrolean secessionists
Viale Lazio massacre 10 December 1969 Palermo 5 Mafia clan warfare by Mafia[42]
Piazza Fontana bombing 12 December 1969 Milan 17 (+88 wounded) Ordine Nuovo bombing by terrorists[43]
Piazza della Loggia bombing 28 May 1974 Brescia 8 (+>90 wounded) Ordine Nuovo bombing by terrorists[44]
Italicus Express bombing 1974 4 August 1974 San Benedetto Val di Sambro 12 (+48 wounded) Ordine Nero bombing by terrorists[45]
Acca Larentia killings 7 January 1978 Rome 3 Left-wing extremists killing of right-wing activists by Left-wing terrorists
Ustica massacre 27 June 1980 Tyrrhenian Sea near Ustica 81 Unknown airplane brought down by a terrorist bomb or air-to-air missile (findings disputed)[46]
Bologna Station massacre 2 August 1980 Bologna 85 (+>200 wounded) Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari bombing by terrorists[47]
Train 904 bombing 23 December 1984 San Benedetto Val di Sambro 17 (+267 wounded) Mafia terrorist attack by Mafia[48]
Pizzolungo massacre 2 April 1985 Erice 3 (+5 wounded) Mafia attack on magistrate C Palermo by Mafia[49]
Fiumicino massacre 27 December 1985 Rome 16 Abu Nidal Organization attack at Rome's international airport, probably carried out by Abu Nidal Organization, which also struck at Vienna's international airport on the same day[50]
1988 Naples bombing 14 April 1988 Naples 5 (15 injured) Japanese Red Army 4 Italians and 1 American killed by Japanese Red Army car bomb.
Pescopagano massacre 24 April 1990 Pescopagano 5 (7 injured) Camorra 5 killed in inter-criminal conflict, 7 injured[51]
Capaci massacre 23 May 1992 Capaci 5 Mafia attack on magistrate G Falcone by Mafia[52]
Via D'Amelio massacre 19 July 1992 Palermo 6 Mafia attack on magistrate P Borsellino by Mafia[53]
Via dei Georgofili massacre 27 May 1993 Florence 5 (+48 wounded) Mafia car bomb by Mafia[54]
Via Palestro massacre 27 July 1993 Milan 5 (+12 wounded) Mafia car bombing by Mafia[55]
Massacre at Cermis 3 February 1998 Cavalese 20 United States Marine Corps airmen US Marine Corps aviators flying a EA-6B Prowler air surveillance aircraft cut the cable of an aerial gondola, killing 20.[56]
Castel Volturno massacre 18 September 2008 Castel Volturno 7 (+1 injured) Casalesi clan Seven people, including six African immigrants killed at random by the Casalesi clan.

Citations

  1. ↑ Diodorus Siculus 13.57.6
  2. ↑ Diodorus Siculus 13.62.4
  3. ↑ Diodorus Siculus 13.90.1
  4. ↑ Polybius, The Histories, III.61.
  5. ↑ Livy 2006, p. 155.
  6. ↑ Livy 2006, p. 229.
  7. ↑ Livy 2006, p. 239.
  8. ↑ Livy 2006, pp. 329–330.
  9. ↑ Livy 2006, p. 362.
  10. ↑ Livy 2006, p. 401.
  11. ↑ Dio, Cassius (1917). "XLVII". Roman History, Books 46-50 (Loeb Classical Library, Vol. V). [Earnest Cary, Trans.] Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674990913. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  12. ↑ Tacitus, Annals VI.19
  13. ↑ John Matthews, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court AD 364–425, Oxford: University Press, 1990, p. 281.
  14. ↑ The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 13, (Cambridge University Press, 1998), page 125.
  15. ↑ Procopius, History of the Wars VI.XXI
  16. ↑ Procopius, History of the Wars VI.XXV
  17. ↑ Vasiliev 1968, pp. 76, 77.
  18. ↑ Kaldellis 2017, p. 45.
  19. ↑ Cicero, Frank (2011). Relative Strangers: Italian Protestants in the Catholic World. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780897337311.
  20. ↑ Lovisa, Barbro (1994). Italienische Waldenser und das protestantische Deutschland 1655 bis 1989 (in German). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 30–31. ISBN 9783525565391. Retrieved 9 June 2018.
  21. ↑ H. H. Bolhuis (1 November 1986). "De geschiedenis der Waldenzen. Uit de diepte naar de hoogte". Protestants Nederland (in Dutch). Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  22. ↑ Sked, Alan (2011). Radetzky: Imperial Victor and Military Genius. New York.
  23. ↑ (in Italian) L’eccidio di «San Sebastiano», La Sicilia, February 8, 2009
  24. ↑ (in Italian) La strage di Giardinello, La Sicilia, December 11, 2011
  25. ↑ (in Italian) Natale 1893, la strage di Lercara, La Sicilia, December 31, 2010
  26. ↑ (in Italian) Continuano i disordini a Milano, Corriere della Sera, May 9, 1898
  27. ↑ Borch (2013), p. 2.
  28. ↑ Giovanni Bartolone, Le altre stragi: Le stragi alleate e tedesche nella Sicilia del 1943-1944 (in Italian)
  29. ↑ Ezio Costanzo, George Lawrence, The Mafia and the Allies: Sicily 1943 and the Return of the Mafia, Enigma, 2007, p.119
  30. ↑ Portelli, Alessandro (2003). The Order Has Been Carried Out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
  31. ↑ Bosworth (January 30, 2007). Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945. Penguin Group. p. 499. ISBN 978-0143038566.
  32. ↑ Leslie Alan Horvitz, Christopher Catherwood, Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide, 2009, ISBN 978-0816080830
  33. ↑ Mogherini, Federica (5 October 2014). "Minister Mogherini's message for the commemoration of the Marzabotto massacres". Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  34. ↑ "German and Italian presidents honor Nazi massacre victims". Deutsche Welle. 24 March 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  35. ↑ "The responsible". L'Eccidio del Padule di Fucecchio. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  36. ↑ Sciascia, Giuseppina, "The Silent Summer of 1944", in L'Osservatore Romano. English Weekly Edition, 2005, February 2nd. Republished as "Carthusian Booklets Series", no. 10. Arlington, VT: Charterhouse of the Transfiguration, 2006.
  37. ↑ "Italy convicts Nazis of massacre". BBC News. 2007-01-13. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
  38. ↑ "Zona Libera, 15 marzo 1945" Witness (in Italian) of Sergio Canuto Rosa "Pittore" filed, a few days after the massacre, at the Command of the Free Zone. Preserved in the Museum of Salussola.
  39. ↑ Spada, Grazia (2005). Il Moicano e i fatti di Rovetta. Pavia: Copiano. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-8-8769-8089-3.
  40. ↑ (in Italian) Una strage con troppi misteri, La Sicilia, May 1, 2011
  41. ↑ (in Italian) Strage Ciaculli: Lumia, "tenere attenzione sempre alta" Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine., ANSA, 30 June 2009
  42. ↑ (in Italian) La strage di viale Lazio spiegata dal pentito chiave, LiveSicilia, April 28, 2009
  43. ↑ "1969: Deadly bomb blasts in Italy". BBC News. December 12, 1965. Retrieved April 2006. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  44. ↑ "Strage di piazza Loggia, ergastolo ai neofascisti Maggi e Tramonte". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 2015-07-23.
  45. ↑ Charles Richards (1 December 1990). "Gladio is still opening wounds" (PHP). Independent: 12. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
  46. ↑ "Italian court: Missile caused 1980 Mediterranean plane crash; Italy must pay compensation". The Washington Post. Associated Press. 23 January 2013.
  47. ↑ "1980: Bologna blast leaves dozens dead", BBC News
  48. ↑ Italy: Tunnel of Death, Time Magazine, January 7, 1985
  49. ↑ Stille, Excellent Cadavers, p. 204
  50. ↑ "Twin Attacks at the Airports of Vienna and Rome (Dec. 27, 1985)". Israeli Security Agency.
  51. ↑ (in Italian)La Camorra voleva una strage di Neri - La Repubblica, May 5, 1990
  52. ↑ UNA STRAGE COME IN LIBANO - Repubblica.it » Ricerca
  53. ↑ Letizia, Marco. "Borsellino, 10 anni fa la strage di via D'Amelio". Il Corriere della Sera (in Italian). RCS. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  54. ↑ Tagliabue, John (15 July 1994). "Bombings Laid to Mafia War on Italy and Church". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  55. ↑ "Valutazione delle prove - Sentenza del processo di 1º grado per le stragi del 1993" (PDF).
  56. ↑ http://espresso.repubblica.it/attualita/cronaca/2012/01/20/news/cermis-il-pilota-confessa-1.39576

References

  • Borch, Fred. "War Crimes in Sicily: Sergeant West, Captain Compton, and the Murder of Prisoners of War in 1943". The Army Lawyer (March 2013): 1–6.
  • Kaldellis, Anthony (2017). Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0190253223.
  • Livius, Titus (2006). Hannibal's War: Books Twenty-One to Thirty. Translated by J.C. Yardley, introduction and notes by Dexter Hoyos. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283159-3.
  • Stille, Alexander (1995). Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, New York: Vintage ISBN 0-09-959491-9
  • Vasiliev, A. A. (1968). Byzance et les Arabes, Tome II, 1ére partie: Les relations politiques de Byzance et des Arabes à l'époque de la dynastie macédonienne (867–959) (in French). French ed.: Henri Grégoire, Marius Canard. Brussels: Éditions de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales.
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