Colosseum. 



HISTORY OF ROME. 



'HE history of ancient Rome is for the most 

 part the history of ancient Italy. Whatever 

 ire know of the various races that peopled the 

 peninsula is if we except the Greeks first re- 

 vealed to us in connection with the conquering pro- 

 gress of that marvellous city, that began its career 

 as a border fortress, and ended by becoming the 

 mistress of the world. Before touching on the rise 

 and development of the Roman power, we may 

 briefly glance at the geography and ethnology of 

 the country. The south of Europe, like the south 

 of Asia, is marked by three great peninsulas, which 

 stretch into the Mediterranean Sea. Of these, 

 Italy forms the central one. It is divided physic- 

 ally into two regions the peninsula proper, the 

 outline of which bears a strong resemblance to a 

 man's leg ; and north of that a broad plain, drained 

 by the river Po and its tributaries. Alpine ranges 

 form a natural boundary on the north and north- 

 west, while right through the long peninsular sec- 

 tion, to the very tip of the toe, run the Apennines, 

 tilling up the centre of the country with rugged 

 mountain land, and leaving on either side a stretch 

 of flat coast, sometimes broad, and sometimes nar- 

 row. The Romans called that part of the Medi- 

 terranean which washed the western shores of 

 Italy, Mare Infcrum (the Lower Sea), and that 

 which washed the eastern, Mare Superum (the 

 Upper Sea). The extreme length of Italy, from 

 the Alps to Sicily, is about 700 miles; the breadth 

 59 



of the northern plain about 350; and of the penin- 

 sula about 100 miles. 



Ethnology. In the earliest times we find in 

 Italy five distinct races, three of which (!APY- 

 GIANS, ETRUSCANS, and ITALIANS) may, in 

 a restricted sense, be termed ' native/ inas- 

 much as we do not meet with them elsewhere ; 

 and two, GREEKS and GAULS, 'foreign;' inas- 

 much as their chief settlements were not in 

 Italy, but in Greece and Gallia. But, ethno- 

 logically, this distinction is arbitrary. There is 

 no reason for believing that the first three races 

 were indigenous, and the last two immigrant ; 

 the analysis of their languages, or of such frag- 

 ments of their languages as survive, leads strongly 

 to the conclusion that all were alike immigrant, 

 and that in this respect the only difference between 

 them is one of time. I. The lapygians : This 

 race, monuments of which in a peculiar language 

 (as yet undeciphered), have been found in the 

 south-east corner of Italy the Messapian or 

 Calabrian peninsula is in all probability the 

 oldest. 2. Etruscans : The origin of this mys- 

 terious people is certainly one of the most inter- 

 esting, if also one of the most insoluble problems 

 in history, but Niebuhr's opinion is pretty generally 

 accepted, that they were a mixture of an eastern 

 and a semi- Hellenic race, who for a time settled in 

 the Tyrol, and thence descended, first on the plains 

 of the Po, and afterwards spread southward over 



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