A Smaller History of Rome Part 1

A Smaller History of Rome.

by William Smith and Eugene Lawrence.

NOTICE.

The present History has been drawn up chiefly for the lower forms in schools, at the request of several teachers, and is intended to range with the author's Smaller History of Greece. It will be followed by a similar History of England. The author is indebted in this work to several of the more important articles upon Roman history in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography.

The Table of Contents presents a full a.n.a.lysis of the work, and has been so arranged that the teacher can frame from it questions for the examination of his cla.s.s, the answers to which will be found in the corresponding pages of the volume.

The restoration of the Forum has been designed by Mr. P.W. Justyne.

W.S.

CHAPTER I.

GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY--EARLY INHABITANTS.

Italy is the central one of the three great peninsulas which project from the south of Europe into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded on the north by the chain of the Alps, which form a natural barrier, and it is surrounded on other sides by the sea. Its sh.o.r.es are washed on the west by the "Mare Inferum," or the Lower Sea, and on the east by the Adriatic, called by the Romans the "Mare Superum," or the Upper Sea.

It may be divided into two parts, the northern consisting of the great plain drained by the River Padus, or _Po_, and its tributaries, and the southern being a long tongue of land, with the Apennines as a back-bone running down its whole extent from north to south. The extreme length of the peninsula from the Alps to the Straits of Messina is 700 miles.

The breadth of northern Italy is 350 miles, while that of the southern portion is on an average not more than 100 miles. But, till the time of the Empire, the Romans never included the plain of the Po in Italy. To this country they gave the general name of GALLIA CISALPINA, or Gaul on this (the Roman) side of the Alps, in consequence of its being inhabited by Gauls. The western-most portion of the plain was peopled by Ligurian tribes, and was therefore called LIGURIA, while its eastern extremity formed the Roman province of VENETIA.

The name ITALIA was originally applied to a very small tract of country.

It was at first confined to the southern portion of Calabria, and was gradually extended northward, till about the time of the Punic wars it indicated the whole peninsula south of the Rivers Rubicon and Macra, the former separating Cisalpine Gaul and Umbria, the latter Liguria and Etruria. Italy, properly so called, is a very mountainous country, being filled up more or less by the broad ma.s.s of the Apennines, the offshoots or lateral branches of which, in some parts, descend quite to the sea, but in others leave a considerable s.p.a.ce of level or low country.

Excluding the plain of the Po, it was divided into the following districts:[1]

1. ETRURIA, which extended along the coast of the Lower Sea from the River Macra on the north to the Tiber on the south. Inland, the Tiber also formed its eastern boundary, dividing it first from Umbria, afterward from the Sabines, and, lastly, from Latium. Its inhabitants were called Etrusci, or Tusci, the latter form being still preserved in the name of _Tuscany_. Besides the Tiber it possesses only one other river of any importance, the Arnus, or Arno, upon which the city of _Florence_ now stands. Of its lakes the most considerable is the Lacus Trasimenus, about thirty-six miles in circ.u.mference, celebrated for the great victory which Hannibal there gained over the Romans.

2. UMBRIA, situated to the east of Etruria, and extending from the valley of the Tiber to the sh.o.r.es of the Adriatic. It was separated on the north from Gallia Cisalpina by the Rubicon, and on the south by the aesis from Picenum, and by the Nar from the Sabines.

3. PICENUM extended along the Adriatic from the mouth of the aesis to that of the Matrinus and inland as far as the central ridge of the Apennines. It was bounded on the north by Umbria, on the south by the Vestini, and on the west by Umbria and the Sabini. Its inhabitants, the Picentes, were a Sabine race, as is mentioned below.

4. The SABINI inhabited the rugged mountain-country in the central chain of the Apennines, lying between Etruria, Umbria, Picenum, Latium, and the country of the Marsi and Vestini. They were one of the most ancient races of Italy, and the progenitors of the far more numerous tribes which, under the names of Picentes, Peligni, and Samnites, spread themselves to the east and south. Modern writers have given the general name of _Sabellians_ to all these tribes. The Sabines, like most other mountaineers, were brave, hardy, and frugal; and even the Romans looked up to them with admiration on account of their proverbial honesty and temperance.

5. The MARSI, PELIGNI, VESTINI, and MARRUCINI inhabited the valleys of the central Apennines, and were closely connected, being probably all of Sabine origin. The MARSI dwelt inland around the basin of the Lake Fucinus, which is about thirty miles in circ.u.mference, and the only one of any extent in the central Apennines. The PELIGNI also occupied an inland district east of the MARSI. The VESTINI dwelt east of the Sabines, and possessed on the coast of the Adriatic a narrow s.p.a.ce between the mouth of the Matrinus and that of the Aternus, a distance of about six miles. The MARRUCINI inhabited a narrow strip of country on the Adriatic, east of the Peligni, and were bounded on the north by the Vestini and on the south by the Frentani.

6. The FRENTANI dwelt upon the coast of the Adriatic from the frontiers of the Marrucini to those of Apulia. They were bounded on the west by the Samnites, from whom they were originally descended, but they appear in Roman history as an independent people.

7. LATIUM was used in two senses. It originally signified only the land of the Latini, and was a country of small extent, bounded by the Tiber on the north, by the Apennines on the east, by the sea on the west, and by the Alban Hills on the south. But after the conquest of the Volscians, Hernici, aequians, and other tribes, originally independent, the name of Latium was extended to all the country which the latter had previously occupied. It was thus applied to the whole region from the borders of Etruria to those of Campania, or from the Tiber to the Liris.

The original abode of the Latins is of volcanic origin. The Alban Mountains are a great volcanic ma.s.s, and several of the craters have been filled with water, forming lakes, of which the Alban Lake is one of the most remarkable. The plain in which Rome stands, now called the _Campagna_, is not an unbroken level, but a broad undulating tract, intersected by numerous streams, which have cut themselves deep channels through the soft volcanic tufa of which the soil is composed.

The climate of Latium was not healthy even in ancient times. The malaria of the Campagna renders Rome itself unhealthy in the summer and autumn; and the Pontine Marshes, which extend along the coast in the south of Latium for a distance of thirty miles, are still more pestilential.

8. CAMPANIA extended along the coast from the Liris, which separated it from Latium, to the Silarus, which formed the boundary of Lucania. It is the fairest portion of Italy. The greater part of it is an unbroken plain, celebrated in ancient as well as in modern times for its extraordinary beauty and fertility. The _Bay of Naples_--formerly called Sinus c.u.ma.n.u.s and Puteola.n.u.s, from the neighboring cities of c.u.mae and Puteoli--is one of the most lovely spots in the world; and the softness of its climate, as well as the beauty of its scenery, attracted the Roman n.o.bles, who had numerous villas along its coasts.

9. SAMNIUM was an inland district, bounded on the north by the Marsi and Peligni, on the east by the Frentani and Apulia, on the west by Latium and Campania, and on the south by Lucania. It is a mountainous country, being entirely filled with the ma.s.ses of the Apennines. Its inhabitants, the Samnites, were of Sabine origin, as has been already mentioned, and they settled in the country at a comparatively late period. They were one of the most warlike races in Italy, and carried on a long and fierce struggle with the Romans.

10. APULIA extended along the coast of the Adriatic from the Frentani on the north to Calabria on the south, and was bounded on the west by the Apennines, which separated it from Samnium and Lucania. It consists almost entirely of a great plain, sloping down from the Apennines to the sea.

11. CALABRIA formed the heel of Italy, lying south of Apulia, and surrounded on every other side by the sea. It contains no mountains, and only hills of moderate elevation, the Apennines running to the southwest through Lucania and the Bruttii.

12. LUCANIA was bounded on the north by Campania and Samnium, on the east by Apulia, and on the south by the Bruttii. The Apennines run through the province in its whole extent. The Lucanians were a branch of the Samnite nation, which separated from the main body of that people, and pressed on still farther to the south.

13. The BRUTTII[2] inhabited the southern extremity of Italy, lying south of Lucania; and, like Lucania, their country is traversed throughout by the chain of the Apennines.

Italy has been in all ages renowned for its beauty and fertility. The lofty ranges of the Apennines, and the seas which bathe its sh.o.r.es on both sides, contribute at once to temper and vary its climate, so as to adapt it for the productions alike of the temperate and the warmest parts of Europe. In the plains on either side of the Apennines corn is produced in abundance; olives flourish on the southern slopes of the mountains; and the vine is cultivated in every part of the peninsula, the vineyards of northern Campania being the most celebrated in antiquity.

The early inhabitants of Italy may be divided into three great cla.s.ses--the _Italians_ proper, the _Iapygians_, and the _Etruscans_, who are clearly distinguished from each other by their respective languages.

(1.) The _Italians_ proper inhabited the centre of the peninsula. They were divided into two branches, the _Latins_ and the _Umbro-Sabellians_, including the Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites, and their numerous colonies.

The dialects of the Latins and Umbro-Sabellians, though marked by striking differences, still show clearest evidence of a common origin, and both are closely related to the Greek. It is evident that at some remote period a race migrated from the East, embracing the ancestors of both the Greeks and Italians--that from it the Italians branched off--and that they again were divided into the Latins on the west and the Umbrians and Sabellians on the east.

(2.) The _Iapygians_ dwelt in Calabria, in the extreme southeast corner of Italy. Inscriptions in a peculiar language have here been discovered, clearly showing that the inhabitants belonged to a different race from those whom we have designated as the Italians. They were doubtless the oldest inhabitants of Italy, who were driven toward the extremity of the peninsula as the Latins and Sabellians pressed farther to the south.

(3.) The _Etruscans_, or, as they called themselves, _Rasena_, form a striking contrast to the Latins and Sabellians as well as to the Greeks.

Their language is radically different from the other languages of Italy; and their manners and customs clearly prove them to be a people originally quite distinct from the Greek and Italian races. Their religion was of a gloomy character, delighting in mysteries and in wild and horrible rites. Their origin is unknown. Most ancient writers relate that the Etruscans were Lydians who had migrated by sea from Asia to Italy; but this is very improbable, and it is now more generally believed that the Etruscans descended into Italy from, the Rhaetian Alps.

It is expressly stated by ancient writers that the Rhaetians were Etruscans, and that they spoke the same language; while their name is perhaps the same as that of Rasena, the native name of the Etruscans. In more ancient times, before the Roman dominion, the Etruscans inhabited not only the country called Etruria, but also the great plain of the Po, as far as the foot of the Alps. Here they maintained their ground till they were expelled or subdued by the invading Gauls. The Etruscans, both in the north of Italy and to the south of the Apennines, consisted of a confederacy of twelve cities, each of which was independent, possessing the power of even making war and peace on its own account. In Etruria proper Volsinii was regarded as the metropolis.

Besides these three races, two foreign races also settled in the peninsula in historical times. These are the _Greeks_ and the Gauls.

(4.) The _Greeks_ planted so many colonies upon the coasts of southern Italy that they gave to that district the name of Magna Graecia. The most ancient, and, at the same time, the most northerly Greek city in Italy, was c.u.mae in Campania. Most of the other Greek colonies were situated farther to the south, where many of them attained to great power and opulence. Of these, some of the most distinguished were Tarentum, Sybaris, Croton, and Metapontum.

(5.) The _Gauls_, as we have already said, occupied the greater part of northern Italy, and were so numerous and important as to give to the whole basin of the Po the name of Gallia Cisalpina. They were of the same race with the Gauls who inhabited the country beyond the Alps, and their migration and settlement in Italy were referred by the Roman historian to the time of the Tarquins.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gate of Arpinum.]

[Footnote 1: The description which follows in the text must be compared with the map of Italy given in this work.]

[Footnote 2: The name "Bruttium," given to the country by modern writers on ancient geography, is not found in any cla.s.sical author.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Alban Hills.]

CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST FOUR KINGS OF ROME. B.C. 753-616.

The history of Rome is that of a city which originally had only a few miles of territory, and gradually extended its dominions at first over Italy and then over the civilized world. The city lay in the central part of the peninsula, on the left bank of the Tiber, and about fifteen miles from its mouth. Its situation was upon the borders of three of the most powerful races in Italy, the Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans. Though originally a Latin town, it received at an early period a considerable Sabine population, which left a permanent impression upon the sacred rites and religious inst.i.tutions of the people. The Etruscans exercised less influence upon Rome, though it appears nearly certain that a part of its population was of Etruscan origin, and that the two Tarquins represent the establishment of an Etruscan dynasty at Rome. The population of the city may therefore be regarded as one of mixed origin, consisting of the three elements of Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans, but the last in much smaller proportion than the other two. That the Latin element predominated over the Sabine is also evident from the fact that the language of the Romans was a Latin and not a Sabellian dialect.

The early history of Rome is given in an unbroken narrative by the Roman writers, and was received by the Romans themselves as a faithful record of facts. But it can no longer be regarded in that light. Not only is it full of marvelous tales and poetical embellishments, of contradictions and impossibilities, but it wants the very foundation upon which all history must be based. The reader, therefore, must not receive the history of the first four centuries of the city as a statement of undoubted facts, though it has unquestionably preserved many circ.u.mstances which did actually occur. It is not until we come to the war with Pyrrhus that we can place full reliance upon the narrative as a trustworthy statement of facts. With this caution we now proceed to relate the celebrated legends of the foundation and early history of Home.