nearest to the older civilizations of the East (§§ 70, 71 d). Just as fittingly, the state which was to unite and rule all the coasts of the Mediterranean had its home in the central peninsula which divides that inland sea. When her struggle for empire began, her central position enabled Italy to cut off the Carthaginian power in Africa and Spain from its Hellenic allies. in the East and to conquer her enemies one by one.

EXERCISE. Map study: note that Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, and Venetia are outside the true Italy (§ 255); fix the position of Etruria, Latium, Campania, Samnium, and the Sabines; observe that the Arnus (Arno), in Etruria, the Tiber, between Etruria and Latium, and the Liris, between Latium and Campania, are the most important river systems, and that their basins were the early homes of culture in Italy.

III. THE PEOPLES OF ITALY.1

259. A Mingling of Races. - For some centuries in the period we are to study, Italy was the mistress of the world. Before that time, as since, she had been the victim of conquering peoples. Even in prehistoric times, the fame of her fertility and beauty had tempted swarm after swarm of invaders across the Alps and the Adriatic, and already at the opening of history the land held a curious mixture of races.

260. Chief Divisions. The center of the peninsula was the home of the Italians who were finally to give their language and law to the whole land. They fell into two branches. The western Italians were lowlanders, and were called Latins. Their home was in Latium. The eastern and larger section of the Italians were highlanders, and were again subdivided into Sabines, Samnites, Volscians, Aequians, Lucanians, and so on.

The more important of the other races were the Greeks in the south and the Gauls and Etruscans in the north. The Greeks of Magna Graecia have been referred to in earlier

1 Read How and Leigh, History of Rome, 11-19. Advanced students may consult Mommsen, History of Rome, I, 9-17. Sergi's Mediterranean Race gives recent theories.

pages. The Gauls held the Po valley. They were merely a portion of the Gauls from beyond the Alps, and were still rude barbarians.

The Etruscans were a mysterious people" the standing riddle of history." At an early time they had held the Po

valley and all the western coast from the Alps to the Greek cities of the south. But before exact history begins, the Latins and the Samnites of Campania had thrown off their yoke and driven them from all lands south of the Tiber, while the Gauls had expelled them from the Po valley. Thus they had become

"Italians"
(Umbrians)

Etruscans

Greeks

Gauls

Ligurians

Siculi and
others

THE PEOPLES
OF ITALY

restricted to the central district, Etruria, just across the Tiber from the Latins.

The Etruscans were still, however, the most civilized people in Italy. They were mighty and skillful builders, and have left many interesting ruins, with multitudes of inscriptions in a language to which scholars can find no key. They became celebrated early for their work in bronze and iron, and they

were the first people in Italy to engage in commerce. Probably they introduced many arts from the Phoenicians and Greeks.

In later times their power declined rapidly before the rising Roman state, the heir of their civilization. Etruscan builders reared the walls of early Rome, drained her marshes, and fringed the Tiber-side with great quays. The Roman's dress (the toga), his house, his favorite amusements (the cruel sports of the amphitheater), and much of his religion (especially the divination and soothsaying), were Etruscan in origin; while from the same source he learned his unrivaled power to build for all time.1 The Etruscans were Rome's first teachers. Later, the Greeks of south Italy were to take up that office.

261. Fragments of Forgotten Peoples." — Besides these four great races, — Italians, Greeks, Etruscans, and Gauls, — whom Rome was finally to fuse into one strong and noble nation, there were also fragments of earlier peoples in ancient Italy. In the southern mountains were the Iapygians; in the marshes of the northeast, the Veneti; and, in the extreme northwest, between the Alps and the sea, the wild Ligurians. These last were rude hill-men, who had fought savagely for their crags and caves with Etruscans and Gauls, and were long to harass the Roman legions with guerilla warfare. Later, they furnished Rome an admirable light infantry.

IV. GEOGRAPHICAL ADVANTAGES OF ROME.

-

262. Roman Geography Important. At first Rome was simply one of many Italian towns; and, so far as we can tell, her development was like that of the others. It is impossible to say why just this city, rather than some other of the same land, should finally have become the ruling power in Italy. Still we can see that the greatness of Rome rested, in part, at least, upon geographical conditions. Four factors may be

noted (§§ 263-266).

1 A brief discussion of the question of an Etruscan conquest of early Rome is given in Pelham's Outlines, 32-36. See also Mommsen's theory (History, I, 414). Charles Godfrey Leland's Etrusco-Roman Remains (especially in the Introduction) gives a most interesting account of the survival to-day among the Tuscan peasantry of the ancient Etruscan paganism and divination.

263. Central Position in Italy. - Rome is the central city of the peninsula, and so had advantages for consolidating Italy like those enjoyed by Italy for unifying the Mediterranean coasts. It was not by accident that Mediterranean dominion fell to the central city of the central peninsula.

264. A Commercial Site. The Tiber was the one navigable river of Italy. In old times ships sailed up the river to Rome, while barges brought down to her wharves the wheat and wine. of the uplands. The site had the advantages of a port, but was far enough from the coast to be safe from sudden raids by pirates. There is no doubt that Rome's greatness in Latium was largely due to her importance as a mart of commerce.1

265. Rome a "Mark State." — Early Rome was a "mark state" of the Latins; that is, it bordered upon hostile peoples. Just across the Tiber lay the Etruscans, and in the eastern mountains dwelt the Sabines. The Romans were the champions of the Latins against these foes. Thus they came to excel the other Latins in war. Their position was favorable, also, to some mingling of tribes, and Roman traditions assert that such a mingling did take place (§ 271).

266."The Seven Hills" : Federation.

Most important of all

these geographical factors, Rome was "the city of the seven hills." Italian towns, like the Greek (§ 80), had their origin each in some acropolis, or hill fortress; and even in Latium there were many settlements, like Alba Longa or Praeneste, that frowned from more formidable heights than those held by Rome. But nowhere else was there so placed in the midst of a fertile plain a group of hills.

Three or more of these close-lying hills became each the home of a distinct tribe. These settlements could not well avoid close intercourse of some kind. They could not very well always fight one another; and so, by conquest or by treaty, a strong union was almost sure to result. Tradition and

1 Read Mommsen, I, 59-62, on the Tiber traffic, or Tighe, 51-53; and, if ac cessible, Goldwin Smith's "Greatness of the Romans," in Lectures and Essays.