A History of Rome ... New edition

Front matter

3. #. artjrifato. 811110 A HISTORY OF ROME ETRUSCAN TEMPLE AND ALTAR (restored). A HISTORY OF ROME TO THE DEATH OF CÆSAR BV W. W. HOW, M.A. FELLOW AND TUTOR OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD AND H. D. LEIGH M.A. FELLOW AND TUTOR OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD CONTORNIATE. URBS ROMA, AND WOLF WITH TWINS NEW EDITION LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1S98 All rights reserved Printed by Ballantvne, Hanson &* Co. At the Ballantyne Press

Preface

In writing this short history of Rome the authors have endeavoured to meet the requirements of the upper forms in schools and of the pass examinations at the Universities. With this object in view they have dwelt at some length on the more important and eventful wars, and on the history of the Roman army. Literature, which never at Rome reached the heart of the people, they have designedly omitted. A mere outline, which is all that space would allow, would have been worse than useless, since it might have led to the neglect of the separate histories of the subject. On the other hand they have attempted to describe clearly, if briefly, the de velopment of a constitution, interesting to Englishmen both from its likeness and its unhkeness to that of their own country. In so doing they have derived assistance from the researches of many scholars, both at home and abroad ; but their deepest debt is due to the master of all modern his torians of Rome, Professor Mommsen.

On constitutional and antiquarian questions they have bowed to his paramount authority, and even from his somewhat sweeping judgments of parties and persons they have never dissented without hesitation. Like other Oxford students they owe much to the lectures and articles of Professor Pelham ; they have also drawn upon Mr. Warde Fowler's works, and Mr. Strachan Davidson's Cicero and Polybius. From the latter, through the kindness of the Clarendon Press, they have been allowed PREFA CE to take a plan of Cannæ ; for other maps and plans they are indebted to Kraner's " Cæsar," to Mr. R. Bosworth Smith, and to Mr. R. F. Horton, who has been good enough to permit them to revise the useful series appended to his History of the Romans. It is needless to say that they are intended not to supersede but only to supplement the classical atlas.

For the insertion of numerous illustrations the authors have to thank Messrs. Longmans ; for their selection they are indebted to Mr. Cecil Smith of the British Museum. They are in all cases derived from authentic archæological sources, and have been taken, so far as possible, from well-known and accessible collections, above all from the British Museum. In the list which follows references have been given to standard works. The authors are not without hope that even scholars and teachers not primarily interested in history may welcome the appearance of trustworthy copies from many among the coins and inscriptions which illustrate the art, language, and writing of the Romans in the days of the Republic. The authors have as a rule adopted modern improvements in the spelling of Latin, but in accordance with English custom they have retained the familiar forms of well-known names, such as Pompey and Catiline, and in the Index they have sacrificed scientific accuracy to convenience of reference.

Oxford. April 1S96. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. THE LAND OF ITALY I II. PEOPLES OF ITALY II III. THE LEGENDS OF THE KINGS 20 IV. THE REGAL PERIOD 34 V. THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE NEW REFIJI1LIC ... 47 VI. THE FIRST STRUGGLES OF THE PLEBEIANS ... 52 VII. EARLY WARS AND ALLIANCES OF THE REPUBLIC . . 5S VIII. THE DECEMVIRATE 65 IX. PROGRESS OF THE PLEBEIANS 72 X. WARS FROM THE DECEMVIRATE TO THE FALL OF VEII . 77 XI. THE GAULS S4 XII. THE LICINIAN LAWS .AND THE EQUALISATION OF THE ORDERS 91 XIII. THE SUBJUGATION OF LATIUM AND CAMPANIA . . 97 XIV. THE SECOND SAMNITE W.^R 105 XV. THE CONQUEST OF THE ITALIANS II4 XVI. THE WAR WITH TARENTUM AND PYRRHUS . . . 120 XVII. THE POSITION AND RESOURCES OF ROME .AND CARTHAGE 131 XVIII. THE FIRST PUNIC WAR I49 XIX. THE EXTENSION OF ITALY TO ITS NATURAL BOUNDARIES 1 62 XX.

HAMILCAR AND HANNIBAL 169 XXI. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR UP TO THE BATTLE OF CANNÆ 1 74 XXII. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FRO.M CANNÆ TO ZAMA . .199 XXIII. FIFTY YEARS OF CONQUEST — THE WARS IN THE WEST . 234 XXIV. FIFTY YEARS OF CONQUEST — AFRICA .... 245 XXV. FIFTY YEARS OF CONQUEST — THE EASTERN STATES AND THE SECOND MACEDONIAN WAR 253 XXVI. FIFTY YEARS OF CONQUEST — THE WAR WITH ANTIOCHUS 265 XXVII. FIFTY YEARS OF CONQUEST — THE FALL OF pMACEDON AND GREECE 273 CONTENTS X CHAP. PAGE XXVIII. INTERNAL HISTORY (266-I46 B.C.)— RELIGIOUS AND CON- STITUTIONAL 2S7 XXIX. INTERNAL HISTORY (266-I46 B.C.) — POLITICS AND AD- MINISTRATION 302 XXX. INTERNAL HISTORY (266-I46 B.C.) — SOCIAL AND ECO- NO.M1C FROBLEMS 316 XXXI. CAUSES OF THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC . . . 322 XXXII. FOREIGN AND PROVINCIAL AFFAIRS (I46-I29 B.C.) . 326 XXXIII.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS AND TIBERIUS GRACCHUS (133B.C.) 33I XXXIV. GAIUS GRACCHUS 343 XXXV. THE RESTORED OLIGARCHY AND THE WAR WITH JUGURTHA 357 XXXVI. THE WARS IN THE NORTH 37I XXXVII. SATURNINUS, MARIUS, AND THEIR TI.MES . . . 384 XXXVIII. THE LAWS OF DRUSUS 394 XXXIX. THE SOCIAL WAR 399 XL. SULPICIUS, MARIUS, AND SULLA (SS B.C.) . . . 412 XLI. THE FIRST MITHRADATIC WAR 419 XLII. THE CINNAN REVOLUTION AND THE CIVIL WAR . . 434 XLIII. THE PROSCRIPTIONS AND THE NEW DICTATORSHIP . 445 XLIV. THE CONSTITUTION OF SULLA 449 XLV. THE RULE OF THE SULLAN RESTORATION . . . 460 XLVI. THE WARS WITH THE PIRATES AND MITHRADATES — POMPEY IN THE EAST 47 1 XLVII. CICERO AND CATILINE 484 XLVIII. THE FORMATION OF THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE . 496 XLIX. THE CONQUEST OF GAUL 503 L. THE RULE OF THE TRIUMVIRATE AND ITS DISSOLUTION 51G LI. THE CIVIL WAR r2g LII. THE RULE OF CÆSAR 539 APPEXDI.X I.— ASSE.MBLIES AT ROME c-->

Appendix

II.— LIST OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ROMAN ROADS OF REPUBLICAN TIMES r-r 5j5 ■ ■ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS f. ~r, PAGE Etruscan Temple and Altar, restored (Semper, Der Stil, plate xiii.) Frontispiece Contorniate— Urbs Roma, and Wolf with Twins (Sabatier, plate 14A) Title-page View of the Campagna, with -Aqueduct ...... 10 Model of a Primitive Etruscan House (Baumeister, fig. 146) . . 13 Wall and Gateway of Perugia, showing Etruscan Work ... 14 Contorniate. -Eneas leaving Troy — Head of Trajan (Sabatier, plate 14-10) 21 Wolf with Romulus and Remus. Bronze in the Palace of the Conservatori at Rome ......... 22 Denarius of First Century B.C. — Titus Tatius and the Rape of the Sabines (Babelon, ii. 496, 7) . . . . . . .23 Wall of Servius Tullius (Baumeister, fig. 1591) .... 27 Roman Coin after 26S B.C. — Head of Rome ; Castor and Pollux (Head, Coins of the Ancients, plate 44. 2) .... 34 Ficus Ruminalis, with Picus and Parra ; Urbs Roma ; and Wolf suckling Twins (Rom.

Mitth., i. plate I, 1SS6) .... 36 Wall on the Aventine (Parker, Historical Photographs of Rome) . 39 Cloaca Maxima . . . . . . . . . .41 Ground-Plan and Elevation of the Temple of Vesta, restored (Jordan, Tempel der Vesta, plate 4) . . . . . -43 Sella Curulis and Fasces (Menard, La Vie Privee des Anciens, i. 4S2) 49 Etruscan Helmet (Dennis, Etruria, vol. ii. p. 103) . . . -63 Suovetaurilia. Sacrifice after the Numbering of the People (P. Bouillon, Musee des -Antiques, torn. ii. 98) .... 75 Etruscan Helmet dedicated by Hiero I. after his Victory in 474 B.C. (British Museum, Etruscan Saloon, c. 93) . . . .78 Etruscan Terra-Cotta Sarcophagus from Clusium (British Museum) . 83 Faliscan Vase in the British Museum, 4 feet 3 inches in height . . 89 The Libral As (Æs Grave). From a Cast in the British Museum . 93 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XII PAGE Romano-Campanian Coin, 33S-317 B.C. (Head, op. cit., plate 33. 5) 103 Chimæra.

Etruscan Bronze in the .Archæological Museum at Florence . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 3 Tomb of L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, now in the Vatican (Baumeister, fig. 1621) 117 Faliscan Vase in the British Museum . . . . . .121 Tetradrachm of Pyrrhus struck in Italy — Head of Zeus of Dodona, and the Goddess Dione (Head, op. cit., plate 46. 27) . . 127 King in Chariot. Terra-Cotta of Punic Workmanship (Heuzey, Les Figurines -Antiques de Terre Cuite du Musee de Louvre, plate v.) . . . . . . . . . 132 Plan of Roman Camp (Seyffert -Sandys, 117) ..... 140 The Smaller Cisterns at Carthage (Bosworth Smith, Carthage) . 144 Siculo-Punic Tetradrachm — Head of Persephone, with Dolphins, copied from Syracuse (Head, op. cit., plate 35. 3S) . . . 145 Siculo-Punic Tetradrachm — Head of Persephone, with Dolphins, copied from Syracuse (Head, op. cit., plate 35. 37) . . . 147 Siculo-Punic Tetradrachm — Head of Herakles (Melkarth), copied from -Alexander's Coins (Head, op. cit., plate 35. 36) . . 149 The Columna Rostrata, restored (Fougere, fig. 60S) . . 153 Epitaph of Lucius Scipio (Ritschl, plate 3S) 154 Denarius struck circa 133 B.C., to commemorate Victory of Panormus (Babelon, i. 263) I5S Milestone of P. Claudius Pulcher and of C. Furius, -Ediles (C. I. L., x. 6S3S, and Rom.

Mitth., iv. S4, 1SS9) ..... 150 Remains of the Town of Eryx (Duruy, i. 490) 161 Coin struck at Carthage— Head of Persephone (Head, op. cit., plate 35-35) 163 Denarius of circa 45 B.C.— Marcellus and Spolia Opima (Babelon, '■ 352) .' l68 Roman in Toga (Statue in the British Museum) .... 173 Tombstone of Roman Horse-Soldier from Hexham (by kind permission of the Society of Antiquaries of Xewcastle-on-Tyne, from Bruce's Roman Wall, handbook, p. 78) . . . tgs The Aufidus near Cannæ ...... loc Carthaginian Helmet found at Cannæ (British Museum) . . .198 Coin of Hiero II. of Syracuse (Head, op. cit., plate 46. 31) . . 205 Bust of Scipio Africanus, in the Capitoline Museum at Rome (Ber nouilli, Rbm.

Ikon., vol. i. plate I ) .... 2I6 Panoramic View of the Peninsula of Carthage . . 2,7 Carthaginian Dodecadrachm— Head of Persephone (Head op cit 47'42) ''234 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XIII PAGE Decree os L. Æmilius Paullus, Prætor of Further Spain, regulating the Position of a Spanish Client-Community, 1S9 B.C. (C. I. L., ii. 5041) 241 Remains of Ancient Harbours at Carthage (Bosworth Smith) . . 246 Trilingual Inscription on an Altar dedicated to the God Eshmun, by 252 Cleon, an Officer of the Salt-Revenue, circ. 150 B.C. (Cast in the British Museum) ........ 252 Tetradrachm of Philip V. — Athena Alkis hurling Fulmen (Head, op. cit., 41. 8) 259 Gold Octadrachm of Antiochus III. — .\pollo seated on Omphalos (Head, op. cit., 38. 19) 266 Cippus of a Roman Marine of late date (Schreiber-.\nderson, xliii. 20) 269 Tetradrachm of Perseus ( Head, op. cit., 54. 10) ... 275 Temple and Acropolis, Corinth ....... 2^4 Dedicatory Inscription of L. Mummius (Ritschl, 51A) . . . 286 p\ Roman sacrificing (Baumeister, fig. 1304) ..... 2S9 Letter of the Consuls to Local Magistrates, containing the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus (Ritschl, plate 18) . . . 292 Extispicia (Schreiber- Anderson, plate 17. 3) 293 Epitaph of P. Cornelius Scipio, Flamen Dialis, (?)

Son of Africanus, who died young (Ritschl, plate 39F) 301 Roman in Toga (Baumeister, fig. 1 91 7) 307 Roman Soldiers with Scutum, of a late period (Schreiber-.\nderson, 42. S) 314 Lamp with Circus Scene (British Museum, Terra-Cotta Room, Case C.) 319 Gladiators. From a Pompeian Wall- Painting ( Les Ruines de Pompeii, F. Mazois, vol. iv. plate 48) 321 Milestone set up by P. Popillius Lænas, in Lucania, as Consul, 132 B.C. (C. I. L, i. 551, Ritschl, plate 51B) . . . -339 Termini set up by the Land Commission in the Land of the Hirpini, 130-129 B.C. (Ritschl, plate 55C.D.) 344 Ruins of Aqueduct, Carthage 34§ A Camillus, or Attendant at Sacrifice (Baumeister, fig. 1305) . . 355 View of Cirta (Delamare, Expedition Scientifique d'Algerie) . . 363 Plan and Section of the Mamertine Prison. (MidJleton, Ancient Rome) 370 Roman Soldier (Lindenschmidt, Tracht und Bewaffnung, plate 1. 6) 376 Combat of Gladiators : the vanquished Combatant appealing to the Audience.

From a Pompeian Painting (Baumeister, fig. 2347) . 3S0 Denarius struck 101 B.C. — Triumph of Marius the Goddess, Rome (Babelon, i. 515) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PACiE Part of a Statue of a Vestal (Museo alle Terme, Rome) . . ■ 386 Denarius of the Confederates— Taking the Oath ; and Head of Italia (Head, op. cit., plate 6S. 14) 4°o Denarius of Mutilus— Samnite Bull goring Wolf; Head of Bacchante (Head, op. cit., plate 6S. 15) 4°4 Sling-Bullets from Asculum (Duruy, ii. 570) 4°9 Temple of Fortuna (?) at Rome (so-called Fortuna Virilis) . . 4'5 Tetradrachm of Mithradates VI.[(Head, op. cit., plate to. 2) . . 421 Tetradrachm struck by Sulla in Athens— Athena and the Owl (British Museum) 43° Etruscan Arch at Volaterræ 444 Head of Pompey on a Coin struck circ. 3S-36 B.C. (Babelon, s. v. Nasidius, ii. 251, 2) 4^3 Gladiators— Combats of Secutor and Retiarius (Baumeister, fig. 2352) 467 Helmet of a Gladiator (Baumeister, fig. 2346) 469 Coin of Tigranes struck in Syria before 69 B.C.— (1) Head of Tigranes ; (2) Antioch seated on a Rock (Head, op. cit., 61. 13) 473 Gold Stater of Mithradates VI.

(Head, op. cit., 60. 1) . . . 474 Tombs of the Kings of Pontus (Perrot, Exploration Arch, de la Galatie) 4§i Golden Gate of Temple at Jerusalem (Duruy, ii. 83 1 ) . . . 4S3 Bust of Cicero (Bernouilli, Rom. Ikon., i. plate n), in the Vatican . 489 Sacrarium in a House at Pompeii (Overbeck, Pompeii, p. 299) . 498 Bust of Julius Cæsar (Naples Museum) 501 Stater of Philip I. of Macedon — (1) Head of Apollo ; (2) Charioteer (Head, op. cit., plate 22. 17) 505 Gallic Imitation of Stater of Philip (Head, op. cit., plate 57. I) . 505 Figure-head of Roman Ship (Torr, Ancient Ships, plate 8) . . 509 Roman Arch at S. Remy (France) 515 Head of Cleopatra (British Museum) ...... 537 Denarius struck 44 B.C. — (1) Head of Cæsar ; (2) Venus with Victory (Babelon, ii. 20. 21) 539 Bust of C. Octavius, afterwards Augustus (in the Vatican) . . 543 Bust of Brutus (in the Capitoline Museum at Rome) . . . 549 Parody of a Scene in School (Rom.

Mitth., v. plate I. 1S90) . . 551 The Illustrations and Plans engraved by Messrs. Walker and Boutall. MAPS AN D PLAN S I. MAPS LITHOGRAPHED Italia before the Roman Conquest .... Before sage I Urbs Roma, Republic (Horton, Hist, of the ) Romans) .... . Between pages -si, and $<) Italia, showing the Colonies (Horton, Hist. ) „ of the Romans) . . . \ Between pages i3A and i2S Sicily (Bosworth Smith, Carthage) .... To face page 150 The Carthaginian Empire (Bosworth Smith, ) _ _ , . } between pages 174 and 17c Carthage) \ ° J Carthage and her Neighbourhood (Bosworth ) _ r ..,_,. } ■ To face pare 249 Smith, Carthage) , J r & -r* Rome and her Neighbours (Horton) . . Between pages 402 and 403 Gallia (after Kiepert, in Kraner's Cæsar) . ,, 506 and 507 The Roman Empire ..... ,, 552a;za'553 II. PLANS AND MAPS IN TEXT TAGE Battle of Ecnomus (Bosworth Smith) . . . . . .155 Battle of Lake Trasimene ......... 189 Battle of Cannæ (from Strachan Davidson, Polybius) . . . 197 Campania ............ 20S The Harbours at Carthage (Bosworth Smith) 250 The East when Rome began to interfere 256 Greece ............ 274 The East, temp.

Mithradates and Tigranes 423 Alesia (Kraner) . . 513 Ilerda (Kraner) . 53° Macedonia and Greece (Kraner) 532 Battles near Dyrrhachium (Kraner) ....... 533 ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA Page 37, line 8 from the bottom, " Roma Quadrata." The meaning of this term is disputed. Lanciani, Ruins of Ancie7it Rome, p. 60, denies its application to the Palatine city. Page 44, line 3 from bottom. The original meaning and derivation of the word " tribus" is far from certain. Pages 159, 160, for "Calatinus" the Fasti read " Caiatinus," and similarly Mommsen prefers " Caiatia " to "Calatia" on page 114, line

Chapter I The Land Of Italy

Rome and Italy. — The history of Rome is the history of Italy. It has been much more ; it has never been much less. Her early efforts aimed at predominance in Italy ; she wielded the strength of Italy in her wars of defence and aggression, and if in her selfish and centralising policy she merged the land in the city, and sacri ficed its population and prosperity to her own interests, she made Italy mistress of the world, and stood to the end as the head and representative of the Italian land. In her beginnings, and indeed constitutionally throughout, she was but a city-state of the sole type recognised by Pericles or Aristotle, as distinct and individual as ancient Athens or mediæval Florence : she became in later days an imperial power, stamping the civilised world with the unity of the Roman name.

But the Rome of Augustus is, equally with the Rome of the Fabii, Italian in sentiment, interests, and policy. Her youth was singularly free from non-Italian influences ; and, however much her maturer age received and diffused an alien cultivation, she remained rooted and grounded in Italy, as Italy was in that West to which its face is turned. The struggle of Octavian and Antony, of East and West, is typical of her history from first to last. Hence to understand the place of Rome in history, we must understand the place of Rome in Italy, and the place of Italy in the Mediterranean basin. To comprehend the special character of her own laws and institutions, and of the ideas and civilisation which she implanted, we must comprehend the relation of Rome to Italian peoples, and of the Italian country to its immediate neighbours.

Historically, only those features of a country are important which affect the power of a nation for offence or defence, which A f determine its sphere of action and the nature of its resources, or which influence its national character and type of life. The work of Rome in history was twofold, — first and foremost to create Italian unity, and then, with the power so gained, to solve the problem her rivals could not solve, the maintenance of peace and order in the Mediterranean, the civilisation of the ruder races round its coasts, and the defence of that civilisation against the barbarians of the East and North. The place of Rome in Italy partly explains the union of Italy under Roman supremacy ; the place of Italy in the Mediterranean is a still larger factor in the extension of that supremacy over the civilised world.

Marked Features. — Italy, the central peninsula of the three masses of land projecting into the southern sea, with the islands that essentially belong to her, enjoys a position favourable to independent development, and, in the hands of a strong people with adequate sea-power, admirably adapted for the control of the Mediterranean. Apart from the untrustworthy barriers of the Alps and Po, her great depth and narrow front were a powerful aid to her defences on the north ; by her central position she severed the East from the West, and holding the inner lines, could meet with security the combinations of Hannibal or Pompey. She lay back to back with Greece, her more accessible coast turned to the lands and waters of the West. The tip of her toe touches Sicily, the meeting-place of Hellene, Phœnician, Sicel, and Latin, and, through Sicily, touches upon the hump of Africa which projects Carthage upon the Sicilian shores.

To her front lay Spain, the Eldorado of antiquity, blocked as yet by Phœnician cruisers. To the north the Celtic and Germanic tribes swarmed round and through the mountain-passes. In addition to these points in her position which materially influenced the destinies of Italy and Rome, the most striking features of the land are the projecting boot-like shape, the peculiar mountain-system which is its cause, the double length of coast which is its effect, and which exposes both flanks to naval attack as much as it opens them to friendly intercourse, and finally the marked contrast between the northern plain of the Po and the central and southern hill-country. Contrast with Greece and Spain.— Not only in position, but in form and character, Italy stands intermediate between the striking contrasts of Greece and Spain.

Greece has no single definite mountain-barrier ; Spain is abruptly severed from Europe by the frowning lines of the Pyrenees ; the Alps partially protect, but do not isolate, Italy. Italy, diversified by sweeping bays and fertile MOUNTAINS OF ITALY 3 coast-lands, by northern plain and southern slopes, remains one land, the land of the Apennines ; Spain surrounds her vast and single plateau with a regular and little-broken coast ; Greece is split by winding chains and deep indented gulfs into geographical and political atoms. Greece, facing eastwards, expanded eastwards, and early assimilated Oriental culture ; Spain, till Columbus the western limit of the world, remained for centuries a barbarous country fringed by factories ; Italy, expanding to the west, passed on to Spain what she had received from Greece, and returned with increased power to absorb the sources of her own culture.

Size. — The land of Italy lies roughly between parallels 37° and 46° of north latitude. Its greatest length, from N.W. to S.E., is a little over 700 miles ; its average breadth hardly exceeds 100, though from the western Alps to the head of the Adriatic it extends to 340 miles. The total area may be put at 90,000 square miles. In size, therefore, though not in shape, Italy bears some resemblance to Great Britain. Mountains. — The frontier of the peninsula to the north is formed by the wavering line of the Alps, which, stretching for 700 miles, with abundant passes, forms a rampart more striking than formidable, and one that has never sufficed to shelter the sunny south from the inroads of the covetous north. Rising precipitously enough from the Lombard plain, the Alps slope less steeply to the north.

A short march brings the enemy who has climbed the less difficult ascent down at one swoop upon the plain. But the Alps are not Italian as a matter of geography or history. For centuries they remained beyond the sphere of Italian life. Not till Augustus were their robber-tribes thoroughly tamed and their passes paved with roads ; scarcely then did they cease to the true Roman mind to be a dubious defence, a commercial barrier, and a limit of Italian land and life. The Apennines, on the contrary, are the backbone of the country. Breaking off from the Maritime Alps above Savona, they stretch away E. and S.E. from coast to coast, severing the great triangle of Cisalpine Gaul from the true soil of Roman Italy. Above Genoa the range reaches but a moderate height (3000-4000 feet) ; rising rapidly to cover Etruria, it thrusts up higher peaks (5000 7000 feet) both here and in northern Umbria, where it turns de finitely S.E. After a slight break in Lower Umbria comes the massive quadrilateral of the Abruzzi, a group of lofty summits (9000 feet), cleft by torrents into deep ravines, and breaking down to pleasant upland vales.

Such, too, but of lesser height, is the mountain girdle of Samnium. Henceforth the main mass changes direction to the south, runs down to form the projecting toe, and jumping the narrow rift at Rhegium, spreads itself out into the three corners of Sicily. Apart from their natural beauties, the Apennines have exercised a decisive influence on the history of the land and the character of its people. This single and continuous backbone has given to Italy the regular conformation, which contrasts so markedly with the complexity of outline stamped upon Greece by its chaos of mountains. The difference, too, between its eastern and western slopes determines the different character of the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian coasts. From the steep eastern side run down short spurs and swift torrents, which seam the narrow seaward strip with deep ravines.

Scant room is left for cultivation ; and until the mountains leave the coast and we reach the good harbours of Brindisi and Otranto (Brundisium and Hydruntum), in the Apulian plain, there is no natural harbour of refuge from the Adriatic storms, except the open roadstead of Ancona, and the useless lagoons beneath Mount Garganus. The western side presents a marked contrast ; fertile plains are watered by ample streams, good and spacious ports formed at the river-mouths, or flanked and fronted by jutting headlands and sheltering islands, foster navigation and commerce on the tideless waters of the Tyrrhene sea. Italy, in fact, if we except Apulia in the extreme south-east and the lower valley of the Po in the extreme north, which maintained some connection with Greece and Illyria, turns her face westward, and found in the civilisation of the west her most important work.

This decisive fact in her history is due to the Apennine range. Again, the mountains of Greece divide; the Apennines may be even said to unite. A dividing line between peoples they have never been. Even in the most rugged region of the Abruzzi, the easy intersecting passes, the table-lands, and upland valleys fit them for the labour and habitation of men. When the grass of the lower country is parched, the flocks and herds are driven up from the plain of Apulia to the mountain-pastures of Samnium. This happy combination is a special characteristic of Italy. In early times, indeed, the freebooters of the highlands, the Rob Roys of those days, harried and blackmailed the rich dwellers on the sunny coasts. The struggle of highland and lowland, and the final victory of civilisation under the leadership of Rome, achievin°* their natural union, is another marked feature which Italian history owes to the Apennines.

RIVERS OF ITALY 5 Volcanic forces have been largely at work in the formation of Italy. Apart from the active craters of Ætna, Stromboli, and Vesuvius, the Campanian plain owes to its volcanic origin its peculiar beauty and richness ; while in the Roman land itself, stretching from Clusium to the Alban hills, and from the Apennines to the sea, lovely lakes fill the extinct craters, and from their pre historic lavastreams and dustshowers come the tufa and the famous concrete of which Rome was built. Rivers. — The river-system of a country usually exercises an influence on its history only second to its general position and its relation to the sea. In Roman history it has played a lesser part. For centuries the largest river of Italy flowed unregarded through an alien territory. Gradually the Roman outposts were pushed up to Arretium and Ariminum, and thence to Placentia and Aquileia ; but in Cæsar's time the Cisalpine plain was still a province, and Roman Italy ended at the Rubicon.

The contrast of the two regions is marked and obvious. The rivers of the peninsula proper are naturally small in size, and, however famous in story, geographically far less important. Upper Italy forms the basin of a single large stream, the Padus (Po), or, as Virgil calls it, Erida nus, king of rivers, a great central artery whose network of veins stretches on either hand to the Alps and the Apennines. Spring ing from its sources in Monte Viso (Mons Vesulus), it rushes to its junction with the Ticino, swollen by the torrents of the two Doras (Duria), the Sesia, and the Tanaro. But in its long and winding lower course its sluggish stream needs the impulse of swifter tributaries, the Ticino, the Adda, and the Mincio, which act as outlets for the large northern lakes, and draw through them the waters of the Alps.

Of the smaller feeders from the southern ridges the most famous is the Trebia ; the largest are the Taro and Secchia. About its mouths the Po forms a vast system of marshes and lagoons. In this work it is aided by the Adige (Athesis), which descends from the Tyrol, affording an important issue to the north, and enters the Lombard plain at Verona, and by the Reno, from the Apennines, which reaches the lowlands near Bologna (Bononia). The ever-growing deposit and the constant floods have made this district an Italian Netherlands, a labyrinth of streams and canals, of lagoons and sandbanks, of reedy swamps and grassy meadows, noisy with frogs, and plagued by low severs and mosquitos. Venice, by diverting the Brenta, keeps her waters intact, but Ravenna, the naval harbour of Augustus, is now six miles from the sea, and the same fate, yet earlier, befell both Atria and Spina.

HLSTORY OF ROME 6 Many of the southern tributaries of the Po are in summer nothing more than wide, dry water-courses, but the main stream, though its unhealthy swamps prevented towns from clustering on its banks, as on the Rhine or Rhone, was yet the highway of internal commerce, and with its numerous branches and canals irrigated and fertilised the entire plain, whose extraordinary productiveness is recorded by Polybius. At the same time there is constant danger of flood from the melting snows in May and from the autumnal rains. To meet this danger, the lower courses of the larger rivers are lined with double rows of massive dykes. But the disease grows by the remedy. The mud, unable to escape, chokes the channel and raises the river-bed above the level of the land. There comes a time when the ever-rising bank fails to bear the pressure of the confined waters, which burst the barriers in a raging torrent.1 Of the rivers of the peninsula proper, the Arno and the Tiber are the largest, and furnish the key to the formation of central Italy.