ITALY (HISTORY.) 



161 



first merely a partial name for the southern extre- 

 mity, until it was gradually extended to the whole 

 country. It was probably derived from Italus, an 

 (Enotrian chief, though others give a different etymo- 

 logy. (See, in Niebuhr's Roman History, Ancient 

 Italy.) Ancient Italy is generally described under the 

 thirteen following heads: I. Liguria (see Gaul); 2. 

 Gallia Cisalpina; 3. Venetia; 4. Etruria ; 5. Umbria 

 and Picenum; 6. the Sabini, vEqui, Marsi, Peligni, 

 Vestini, Marrucini; 7. Rome; 8. Latium; 9. Cam- 

 pania; 10. Samnium; 11. Apulia; 12. Lucania; 

 13. the Bruttii. The ancient geography of Italy 

 has been learnedly illustrated by Mannert (Leipsic, 

 1823, 2 vols.) and Cramer (Description of Ancient 

 Italy, 2 vols., Oxford, 1826). The modern history 

 of Italy begins with the fall of the Western Empire. 



first Period, from 0/loacer (476) to Albo'm (568), 

 comprises the time of the dominion of the Herulians 

 and Rugians, and of the Ostrogothic kingdom. 

 Romulus was the founder of the city, that became 

 tl:e mistress of the world; Augustus founded its 

 universal monarchy, and Romulus Augustus was the 

 name of its last feeble emperor, who was dethroned 

 by his German guards. Odoacer, their leader, as- 

 sumed the title of king of Italy, and thus this country 

 was separated from the Roman empire. But this 

 valiant barbarian could not communicate a spirit of 

 independence and energy to the degenerate Italians; 

 nothing but an amalgamation with a people in a 

 state of nature could effect their regeneration. Such 

 a people already stood on the frontiers of Italy. 

 Theodoric (q. v.), king of the Ostrogoths, instigated 

 byZeno, emperor of 'the East, overthrew (493) the 

 kingdom of Odoacer, and reduced all Italy. His 

 Goths spread from the Alps to Sicily. In the lagoons of 

 the Adriatic alone, some fugitives, who had fled from 

 the devastations of Attila, and obtained a subsistence 

 as sailors, and by the manufacture of salt, maintained 

 their freedom. Theodoric, who combined the vigour 

 of the north with the cultivation of the south, is justly 

 termed the Great, and, under the name of Dietrich of 

 Bern (Verona), has become one of the principal 

 heroes of old German story. But the energy of his 

 people soon yielded to Roman corruption. Totila, 

 for ten years, contested in vain the almost completed 

 conquest with the military skill of Belisarius. He 

 fell in battle in 552,andTeias in 553, after which Italy 

 was annexed to the Eastern Empire, under an exarch, 

 who resided at Ravenna. But the first exarch, 

 Narses, a eunuch, sunk under the intrigues of the 

 Byzantine court, and his successor neglected the de- 

 fence of the passes of the Alps. The country was 

 then invaded by the Lombards, a German people 

 which had emigrated from the Elbe to Pannonia. 

 Under king Alboin, they conquered Lombardy, 

 which received its name from them, almost without a 

 blow. Their government was less favourable to the 

 arts and sciences tlian that of the Goths. 



Second Period. Front Alboin to Charlemagne 

 (774), or Period of the Lombard Empire. The 

 Kingdom of the LomlKirds included Upper Italy, 

 Tmcany and Umbria. A Iboin also created the duchy 

 of Benevento, in Lower Italy, with which he in- 

 vested Zotto. The whole of Lombardian Italy, was 

 divided into thirty great fiefs, under dukes, counts, 

 &c., which soon became hereditary. Together with 

 the new kingdom, the confederation of the fugitives 

 in the lagoons still subsisted in undisturbed freedom. 

 The islanders, by the election of their first doge, 

 Anafesto, in 697, established a central government; 

 and the republic of Venice was founded. (See 

 I'enice.) Ravenna, the seat of the exarch, with 

 Romagna, the I'entapolis, or the five maritime cities 

 (Rimini, Pisaro, Fano, Sinigaglia, and Ancona), and 

 almost all the coasts of Lower Italy, where Amalfi 



and Gaeta had dirkcs of their own, of the Greek 

 nation, remained iinconquered, together with Sicily 

 and the capital, Rome, which was governed by a 

 patrician in the name of the emperor. The slight 

 dependence on the court of Byzantium disappeared 

 almost entirely in the beginning of the eighth 

 century, when Leo the Isaurian exasperated the 

 orthodox Italians, by his attack on images. (See 

 Iconoclasts.) The cities expelled his officers, and 

 chose consuls and a senate, as in ancient times. \\ ome 

 acknowledged, not indeed the power, but a certain 

 paternal authority of its bishops, even in secular 

 affairs, in consequence of the respect which their 

 holiness procured them. The popes, in their efforts 

 to defend the freedom of Rome against the Lombards, 

 forsaken by the court of Byzantium, generally had 

 recourse to the Prankish kings. In consideration of 

 the aid expected against king Astolphus, pope 

 Stephen III. (753) not only anointed Pepin, who had 

 been made king of the Franks, in 752, with the ap- 

 probation of pope Zacharias, but, with the assent of 

 the municipality of Rome, appointed him patrician, 

 as the imperial governor had hitherto been denomi- 

 nated. Charlemagne made war upon Dcsiderius, 

 the king of the Lombards, in defence of the Roman 

 church, took him prisoner in his capital, Pavia, united 

 his empire with the Prankish monarchy (774), and 

 eventually gave Italy a king in his son Pepin. But 

 his attempts against the duchy of Benevento, the 

 independence of which was maintained by duke 

 Arichis. and against the republics in Lower Italy, 

 where Naples, Amalfi, and Gaeta in particular, had 

 become rich by navigation and commerce, were un- 

 successful. The exarchate, with the five cities, had 

 already been presented to the pope by Pepin, in 756, 

 and Charlemagne confirmed the gift, but the secular 

 supremacy of the popes was first completed by Inno- 

 cent III., about 1200. 



Third Period From Charlemagne to Ot/io the 

 Great (961), or Period of the Carlovingians and in- 

 terregnum. Leo III. bestowed on the king of the 

 Franks, on Christmas day, A. D. 800, the imperial 

 crown of the West, which needed a Charlemagne to 

 raise it from nothing. But dislike to the Franks, 

 whose conquest was looked upon as a new invasion 

 of barbarians, united the free cities, Rome excepted, 

 more closely to the Eastern Empire. Even during 

 the lifetime of Charlemagne, Prankish Italy was 

 gi% r en to his grandson Bernard (810). But, Bernard 

 having attempted to become independent of his uncle, 

 Louis the Debonnaire, he was deprived of the crown, 

 and his eyes were torn out. Italy now remained a 

 constituent part of the Prankish monarchy, till the 

 partition of Verdun (843), when it was allotted, with 

 the imperial dignity, and what was afterwards called 

 Lorraine, to Lothaire I., eldest son of Louis. Lo- 

 thaire left the government (850), to his son Louis II., 

 the most estimable of the Italian princes of the Car- 

 lovingian line. After his death (875), Italy became 

 the apple of discord to the whole family. Charles 

 the Bald of France first took possession of it, and, 

 after his death (877), Carlonmn, king of Bavaria, 

 who was succeeded, in 880, by his brother Charles 

 the Fat, king of Suabia, who united the whole 

 Prankish monarchy for the last time. His dethrone- 

 ment (887) was the epoch of anarchy and civil war 

 in Italy. Berengariu>, duke of Pritili, and Guido, 

 duke of Spoleto (besides the marquis of Ivrea, the 

 only ones remaining of the thirty great vassals), dis- 

 puted the crown between them. Guido was crowned 

 king and emperor, and, after his death (894), his son 

 Lambert. Arnold, the Carlovingian king of the 

 Germans, enforced his claims to the royal and impe- 

 rial crown of Italy (^96), but, like mo.st of his suc- 

 cessors, was able to maintain them only during liis 



