74 HISTORY OF GREECE, ROME, AND ASIA 



been felt by certain learned men who, after having spoken with all 

 certainty of the immigration of people coming from Asia, basing their 

 affirmations on the presence of jade-axes, were suddenly informed 

 by a mineralogist that the same rock was to be found in the Alps. 

 Bitter delusions will come to those whom the Etruscan sphinx devours 

 daily; and my opinion is that people insisted with too great facility 

 on the non- Aryan character of the Ligurians, since I have already 

 brought to observation that the etymology of the indigenous name 

 Genoa (knee) , as Ancona (the arm) , Eryx-Verrucca (the hill) , shows 

 the premature character of these conclusions. 



These delusions must not, however, prove discouraging, since there 

 is no science which has not improved through infinite uncertainties 

 and errors. We must, however, admit that regarding the problem 

 of Italic origin which has attracted and still attracts such a great 

 number of studious people, we have not yet reached any series of 

 sure and complex results, partly from lack of data, and partly from 

 faulty methods. 



Many people who busy themselves with the primitive strata 

 which precede the true and real political life ignore classical culture, 

 which is a fundamental guide, and those who represent it are not 

 always in a condition to appreciate the anthropological and social 

 problems. 



Regarding the archaeological part, researches have not been 

 directed to just aims. The great majority of learned Europeans and 

 Americans, always running after new and more ancient material, turn 

 to the excavating of Samos, Miletus, Crete, and Lycia, whilst Italy 

 is still quite far from being all explored. And yet on the very 

 boundaries of Latium and Campania, where the ancients placed the 

 mythical seat of Circe, and the tombstone of Elpenor, notable ruins 

 exist neglected even from the times of Polybius. There, just as on 

 the little hill standing above the ruins of the Roman Minturnse, are 

 preserved the traces of what is, perhaps, the most ancient stratum 

 of Greek colonization in Italy. 



The problems relating to the most ancient Greek and Italic civiliza- 

 tion are waiting for light from the spade of the excavator; on the 

 other hand, those regarding the most ancient social and political 

 structure wait their light from the comparative study of public law 

 and economy. But even in this respect what a difference there is 

 between the history of ancient Greece and that of ancient Rome! 

 The marbles of the ancient Acropolis permitted Boechk and his fol- 

 lowers to reconstruct the financial history and the maritime hegem- 

 ony of Athens, the texts of the comedians and of the orators have 

 permitted Belock, Poehlman, Francotte, and others to treat the most 

 difficult questions relating to financial and social organizations. Paul 

 Girard has succeeded in writing a good book on the ancient land 



