THE

JUVENILE INSTRUCTOR & COMPANION.

Our Youths' Department.

THE HISTORY OF ROME,

FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE CITY TO THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC.

Chapter J.

ITALY AND ITS EARLIEST INHABITANTS.

1. Influence of Ancient Rome on the Nations of Modern Europe-2. Latin Language | -Old Roman Towns-Roman Colonization-Laws and Legislators-3. Situation and Extent of Modern Italy-4. Physical Features-Climate-Plain of Lombardy -The Apennines-Rivers-5. Geological Formations-Minerals-Straits of Messina-Islands-6. Boundaries of Ancient Italy-Early Civilization-7. Earliest Inhabitants-The Pelasgians-Settlements of the Various Tribes-8. The Opicans or Ausonians-The Cascans and Priscans-The Siculians-The Latins-The Umbrians-Origin of the Latin Language.

1. AFTER Great Britain, no country has so many claims on our attention as Ancient Rome. All the great civilizations of the old world seemed to end there. The precious art treasures and literatures of ancient Greece to a great extent were taken care of by her, and many of the higher elements of our modern civilization are only extensions, outgrowths of her civilization. As all the great nations of antiquity terminated in Rome, so all our great modern nations spring out of Rome. Even when trampled down by the barbarians of the North, her spirit yet lived and in its turn trampled out the very barbarism that subdued her. Though much of her outward glory was destroyed, yet everywhere she left images of her greatness.

2. All through Southern and Western Europe we have marks of Roman affluence and power. In the languages of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and, to a less extent, of England the Romans have impressed themselves for ever. Up to the eighteenth century Latin

was the tongue in which all great scholars and philosophers throughout Europe clothed the riches of their genius. The science and literature of the Middle Ages were all preserved in the language of ancient Rome, and the foundation of numberless towns in Southern and Central Europe still bears witness of her past greatness. Her splendid system of colonization-only rivalled by the still more wonderful system of Great Britain-did much to preserve and perpetuate in many lands her enterprise and her glory. Rome military, and Rome political, fell; but the spirit of her institutions yet lives and influences almost every State in Europe. The greatest of all her monuments-the Roman law-still has and will continue for ages to have a wide and potent influence. As legislators, no Pagan nation ever displayed the wisdom of the ancient Romans, and by no modern nation has that wisdom ever been surpassed.

3. Italy is situated in the South of Europe, and forms a considerable peninsula running in a south-easterly direction into the Mediterranean Sea. On the north modern Italy is bounded by France, Germany, and Switzerland; on the south by the Mediterranean (Mare Internum); on the east by the Adriatic, or "Upper Sea" (Mare Superum); and on the west by the Tyrrhenian, or Lower Sea" (Mare Inferum). No European country has a better coast line, whether for defensive or commercial purposes. The greatest length of Italy is about 750 miles, its greatest breadth about 350, though its average breadth would not exceed 150 miles. It extends from the foot of the Alps to the Straits of Messina.

4. Italy is a rich and beautiful country, with mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, atmosphere and climate rarely equalled in any other part of the world. Its natural scenery and brilliant sky are the delight of travellers, while its fruitful plains, covered with vineyards and orchards, make it in reality the " Garden of Europe." The lofty Alps-by which it is cut off from the great European continentprotect it in its widest part from the north winds. Here, in the north, is the great Plain of the Po, probably the richest spot in Europe, where the vineyards teem with fruit, and the meadows yield five or six crops a year. The Plain of Lombardy occupies the whole tract of country comprised within the Alps, the Apennines, and the Adriatic Sea, and is watered by the River Po and its tributaries. The mountain range, called the Apennines, issuing from the Western Alps, and often covered with fine timber-trees, runs from north to south, and forms a kind of backbone, whence issue branches east and west, from which again rivers descend and make gay and fertile the

lovely plains and valleys from the banks of the Arno to Cape Spartivento. Italy has numerous rivers, among which are the Po, the Tanaro, the Ticino, the Adda, the Adige, the Arno, the Tiber, the Volturno, and the Garigliano, several of which are navigable.

5. The two portions into which Italy is divided by the Apennines are totally different geologically. Eastward, on the side of the "Upper Sea," the country is of secondary and often of tertiary formation; westward, and towards the "Lower Sea," it is volcanic and similar to the formations in Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia. Vesuvius, in the Bay of Naples, and other volcanos are still active. The interior of the Apennines is of granite, but over this are formations of limestone. Italy is not without mineral wealth. Its mines, however, have not been well worked, but its fine and varied marbles have been celebrated for more than twenty centuries. In the Apennines are found alabaster and jasper. Tradition tells of a time -far beyond the reach of authentic history—when Sicily was united to the mainland, but affirms that, by some volcanic convulsion, they were torn asunder, the sea let into the rent, and the Straits of Messina formed. These straits are from two to five miles in width. The principal islands, after the fruitful Sicily, are on the western coast. Amongst them are Corsica, Sardinia, Ischia, the twelve Lipari Isles, and Elba.

6. The name Italy (Italia) was at first confined to the southernmost part of the peninsula, afterwards called Bruttium; it was then extended to the whole country south of the River Laos westward, and of the town of Metapontum eastward-Tarentum, further east, being beyond the limits. Later still, Italia embraced all the country south of a line drawn from Paestum on the west coast to Tarentum. When the Romans had conquered all the South of Italy (B.c. 278) the entire territory south of the Tiber, and part of Picenum northeastward, were comprised in Italia; and, at length, about the time of the historian Polybius (B.c. 204-122) Italia comprehended the whole country from the rivers Macra and Rubicon to the straits of Sicily. The country from these rivers to the foot of the Alps was inhabited by Gallic tribes, and called Cisalpine Gaul. Italy, through its whole extent, has been thickly peopled, and well cultivated from the earliest times, nor have we any reason to believe that its inhabitants were ever naked, savage, acorn-eaters, left by Providence to a state of barbarism. The traditions of the Greeks, and the monuments which remain of the ancient inhabitants, indicate a comparatively advanced civilization.

7. It is probable that, in the earliest times, two distinct peoples inhabited Italy, the one residing chiefly on the coasts and plains, the other dwelling among the mountains, inland. The people of the coasts and plains are generally regarded as a portion of the extensive race known as the Pelasgians, who are supposed to have originally peopled Greece, and the west coast of Asia Minor, down as far as Mycale. They were principally agriculturists, though some were probably traders, herdsmen, and fishers. They settled mostly in plains, where they built on the streams rude castles of huge stones without mortar or cement. These castles-larissa—were, in later ages, called Cyclopian, as if built by the mythical giants called Cyclopes, and are still to be seen in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. Of the other people who lived in the mountains little is known further than that they were of the Caucasian race. When they entered Italy, not even a reasonable conjecture can be formed, and under certain restrictions they have been regarded as the aborigines, though the Pelasgians, by some writers, have been so considered. It has been thought probable that the Pelasgians entered Italy on the north-east, and occupied the fruitful Plain of the Po, and probably the east coast as far as Mount Garganus, where they were known as Venetians and Liburnians. From this point to the Bay of Tarentum and westward they lived under the names of Peucetians, Daunians, and Messapians; then they probably spread over the country, from the "Upper" to the "Lower Sea," down to the southernmost point of Italy, as Chones, Morgetes, and Oenotrians, and, finally, they were settled as Tyrrhenians and Siculians along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, as far as the Tiber, and perhaps the Umbro in Tuscany. Thus we see the Pelasgians, under different names, encircled the whole peninsula.

8. From some unknown cause the peoples of the mountains, at length, descended to the plains and conquered the Pelasgians. A tribe named Opicans, sometimes called Oscans, beat and partly expelled and partly absorbed the Daunians, and other Pelasgians on the east coast, and being afterwards known as Apulians they named that part of the country Apulia. Thence these Opicans fought their way across the peninsula to the west coast and northwards towards the Tiber. Here they bore the names of Saticulians, Volscians, Aequians and Sidicinians, but were all known under the general term of Ausonians. Another mountain tribe, called Cascans and Priscans, pressed from behind, probably by the Sabines, descended from their heights and pushed along the Anio conquering the Siculians, now named Latins. Some of the Siculians fled southward