244 Dependence of the Geographical Belations of Countries 



of this subject to those who take an interest in the study of 

 comparative geography. 



In Italy the forests occupied all the hilly districts, whilst 

 the water accumulated and spread over a great portion of the 

 lowlands. The history of the earliest periods informs us that 

 huge masses of timber were exported in exchange for wine, 

 oil, and other products,* which the natives were in want of; 

 and, according to Vitruvius, the timber grown along the Tyr- 

 rhenian Sea was preferred to that coming from the shores of 

 the Adriatic. Inundations of the Tiber surrounded the 

 Mons Palatinus with a marsh ; and the woody declivities of 

 the Apennines exerted such a powerful influence on the tem- 

 perature of Italy, that, according to Livy, the Roman sol- 

 diers, though hardened by the fatigues of many campaigns, had 

 much to suffer at the siege of Veji, in the year 404 ante Ch., 

 from violent frosts and heavy snow storms, because the hills 

 around that city were covered with large forests.t According 

 to the report of Columella,! there were, in his own lifetime, 

 winters so severe that the frost destroyed every tree in the 

 vicinity of Rome ; and Livy states, § that the ice interrupted 

 the navigation of the Tiber in the year 354 after the founda- 

 tion of Rome. Juvenal mentions,|| that, in the year 128 

 ante Ch„ the Tiber was every winter regularly covered with 

 ice ; and Horace, in his Odes,l states, that the streets of 

 Rome were frozen over, that Mount Soracte was covered 

 with snow, that the weight of the latter weighed down the 

 woods, and that the ice obstructed the course of rivers. Upon 

 the advice of Virgil,** the lambs born on the adjacent fields 

 of Rome were protected against destruction by cold, and va- 

 rious precautions were adopted to neutralize the injurious ef- 

 fects of winter. 



All these phenomena have long ceased, and, together with 

 the changes in the physical condition of Italy, corresponding 

 alterations have taken place in all the relations of the popu- 

 lation, of which history and geography bear ample witness. 



* Vitruvius, lib. ii. cap. 10. f Livius, lib. v. cap. 13. 



+ Colum. R. R. g ut Supra. 



II Juvenal, Sat. 6. 521. Hibernum fracta glacie, descendit in amnem. 

 f Ode 8, lib. i. *# Georg., lib. iii. v. 298. 



