BOOK V.
History of Rome, from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire, A. D. 476.
GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ITALY.
1. Italy, bounded by the Alps, and the Adriatic, Ionian, and Tyrrhe´nian seas, is the smallest of the three peninsulas of southern Europe. It is inferior to Greece in the number of its harbors and littoral islands, but excels it in the richness and extent of its plains and fertile mountain-sides, being thus better fitted for agriculture and the rearing of cattle than for maritime interests. Still, from its long and narrow shape, Italy has an extended coast-line; the slopes of the Apennines abounded, in ancient times, with forests of oak suitable for ship-timber; and the people, especially of Etru´ria, were early attracted to the sea.
2. The Alps, which separate Italy from the rest of Europe, have had an important effect upon her history. At present they are traversed securely by less than a dozen roads, which are among the wonders of modern engineering. In early times they formed a usually effectual barrier against the barbarous nations on the north and west. The Apennines leave the Alpine range near the present boundary between Italy and France, and extend in a south-easterly and southerly direction to the end of the peninsula, throwing off lateral ridges on both sides to the sea, and forming that great variety of surface and climate which is the peculiar charm of the country. A multitude of rivers contribute vastly to the fertility of the soil, though, from their short and rapid course, they are of little value for navigation. Varro preferred the climate of Italy to that of Greece, as producing in perfection every thing good for the use of man. No barley could be compared with the Campa´nian, no wheat with the Apu´lian, no rye with the Faler´nian, no oil with the Vena´fran.
3. Northern Italy lies between the Swiss Alps and the Upper Apennines, and is almost covered by the great plain of the Po, which is one of the most fertile regions of Europe. It comprised, in the most ancient times, the three countries of Ligu´ria, Upper Etruria, and Vene´tia. The second of these divisions, together with some portions of the Ligurian and Venetian territories, was conquered, in the sixth century before Christ, by a Celtic population from the north and west, and was thenceforth known as Cisalpine Gaul. The region north of the Apennines does not belong to Roman or even Italian history until about the time of the Christian Era, when it became incorporated in the territories of Rome.
4. The peninsula proper is divided into the two regions of central and southern Italy, by a line drawn from the mouth of the Tifer´nus, on the Adriatic, to that of the Sil´arus, on the western coast. Central Italy comprised six countries, of which three, Etruria, La´tium, and Campania, were on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and three others, Um´bria, Pice´num, and the Sabine country, on the Adriatic. Etruria was, in the earliest times, the most important division of Italy proper. It was separated from Liguria by the river Macra; from Cisalpine Gaul, by the Apennines; and from Umbria, the Sabine territory, and Latium, by the Tiber.
Latium, lying south of Etruria, was chiefly a low plain; but its surface was varied by spurs of the Apennines on the north, and by the Vol´scian and Alban ranges of volcanic origin in the center and south. It included the Roman Campagna, now a solitary and almost treeless expanse, considered uninhabitable from the noxious exhalations of the soil, but during and before the flourishing period of Rome, the site of many populous cities. Several foreign tribes occupied portions of the Latin territory, among whom the Volsci, on the mountains which bear their name, and the Æqui, north of Prænes´te, were best worthy of mention. In the view of history, a cluster of low hills—seven east and three west of the Tiber—which constitute in later ages the site of Rome, is not only the most important part of Latium, but that which gives its significance to all the rest.