XIV.] THE CAUCASIC PEOPLES. 539 



are differently interpreted by Sergi 1 , who holds that the whole 

 land was occupied by the Mediterraneans, because we find even 

 in Switzerland pile-dwellers of the same type". 



Then came the peoples of Aryan speech, Kelts from the north- 

 west and Slavs from the north-east, both round-heads, who raised 

 the cephalic index in the north, where the brachy element, as 

 already seen, still greatly predominates but diminishes steadily 

 southwards 3 . They occupied the whole of Umbria, which at first 

 stretched across the peninsula from the Adriatic to the Mediter- 

 ranean, but was later encroached upon by the intruding Etruscans 

 on the west side. Then also some of these Umbrians, migrating 

 southwards to Latium beyond the Tiber, intermingled, says Sergi, 

 with the Italic (Ligurian) aborigines, and became the founders of 

 the Roman state. With the spread of the Roman arms the Latin 

 language, which Sergi claims to be a kind of Aryanised Ligurian, 

 but must be regarded as a true member of the Aryan family in the 

 sense already explained (p. 513), was diffused throughout the whole 

 of the peninsula and islands, sweeping away all traces not only of 

 the original Ligurian and other Mediterranean tongues, but also of 

 Etruscan and its own sister languages, such as Umbrian, Oscan, 

 and Sabellian. 



At the fall of the empire the land was overrun by Ostrogoths, 

 Heruli, and other Teutons, none of whom formed permanent 

 settlements except the Longobards, who gave their name to the 

 present Lombardy, but were themselves rapidly assimilated in 

 speech and general culture to the surrounding populations, whom 

 we may now call Italians in the modern sense of the term. 



When it is remembered that the yEgean culture had spread to 

 Italy at an early date, that it was continued under 

 Hellenic influences by Etruscans and Umbrians, Ethics. 3 

 that Greek arts and letters were planted on Italian 

 soil (Magna Gratia) before the foundation of Rome, that all these 



1 Arii e It a lid, p. I58sq. 



- "Liguri e Pelasgi furono i primi abitatori d'ltalia; e Liguri sembra siano 

 stati quelli che occupavano la Yalle del Po e costrussero le palaritte, e Liguri 

 forse anche i costruttori delle palafitte svizzere: Mediterranei tutti" (Ib. p. 138). 



3 Ripley's chart shows a range of from 87 in Piedmont to 76 and 77 in 

 Calabria, Puglia, and Sardinia, and 75 and under in Corsica (77/6' Races of 

 Eiiropc, 1899). 



