3 i2 THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA 



shown by the recent excavations beneath the pavements 

 of the Roman Forum. It would be difficult to find 

 anywhere a form of ground which shows better the 

 influence of geological structure upon the early fortunes 

 of a people. 



With some portion of what has been written by 

 Italian and other observers on this district, I have 

 made myself acquainted, and having had the advantage 

 of tracing on the ground the records of the successive 

 stages through which the Campagna has come to be 

 what it is, I propose in the following pages to give 

 an outline of this prehistoric chronicle. I should like 

 to attempt to present to the reader such a picture 

 of the whole sequence of events as has vividly im- 

 pressed itself on my own mind, avoiding, as far as 

 may be practicable, technicalities and details. Three 

 distinct successive phases can be recognised in this 

 sequence. First came a time when the waves of the 

 Mediterranean broke against the base of the steep 

 front of the Apennines, and when all the low grounds 

 around Rome, and for leagues to the north and south, 

 lay sunk many fathoms deep. Next followed the chief 

 period in the building up of the Campagna. A host 

 of volcanoes rose along the sea-floor on the west side 

 of Central Italy, when ashes, dust and stones were 

 thrown out in such quantity and for so prolonged 

 a time as to strew over the sea-bottom a mass of 

 material several hundred feet thick. Partly from this 

 accumulation and partly by an upheaval of the whole 

 region of Italy, the sea-bottom with its volcanic cones 

 was raised up as a strip of low land bordering the high 

 grounds of the interior, and a few huge volcanoes were 



