HISTORY 337 



and the Scandinavians) and the Slavs (the ancestors of 

 the earliest Prussians, the Poles, Russians, and Bohemians) 

 were the two great swarms of Aryans who established 

 themselves in Europe. 



Italy at and near the coast, from the Po to what is 

 now Genoa, and thence for a space westward, was the 

 province of the Ligurians, while a more or less closely 

 allied race peopled the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, 

 with part of Sicily. The migrations, or invasions, which 

 introduced what, in a restricted sense, are to be called 

 Italians, have not yet been ascertained. Another people 

 (settled in Italy before the dawn of history) were 

 the Etruscans renowned for their cities, constructed of 

 large stones, and their superstitions. History discovers 

 them with a thriving domain still extending over the 

 Eastern half of Italy from the Arno to the Tiber. 

 Around quite the south of Italy were a number of Greek 

 colonies, some of which so much extended and prospered 

 as to cause that part of Italy to be distinguished from 

 what was the mother country of its inhabitants, as 

 Gh'eat Greece. The rest of Italy between Etruria, 

 Cisalpine Gaul and Magna Graecia was inhabited by 

 the Italians, who seem to have been a race more nearly 

 allied to the Grecian than to any other branch of the 

 great Aryan stock. Nevertheless they were not, 111 

 early times (like the Greeks), a seafaring and colonising 

 people, a fact probably due to the very much less 

 indented coast-line of the country they inhabited. The 

 Italians consisted of various tribes, whereof, from the 

 west coast inwards, the north was inhabited by the 

 Umbrians; while further south were the Apulians, east 

 of which were the Samnites, who reached down towards 

 the Lucanians the neighbours of the Italian Greeks. 

 Between the Umbrians and what ultimately became 



