ITALY. 



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HUC.-TT. 



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simple, ? jret bold and warlike tribes, who inhabited 

 the vallies of the Appennines, and the tVt !.!? and 

 luxurious cultivators of the marshes of Verona, or 

 the plains of Campania, that it does not appear at all 

 surprizing that the natives themselves should have been 

 led to believe, that characters so dissimilar could not 

 be descended from the same common ancestors. But 

 so entirely does this diversity seem to have been owing 

 to the influence of climate, that when the warlike Um- 

 brians themselves became by conquest masters of the 

 plains, we find them infected by the same degeneracy, 

 and obliged to submit to the Etrurians, who, in their 

 turn, suffered no less in their national character by this 

 pernicious acquisition. 



The form of government which most prevailed, 

 teems to have been a sort of federal republic, or defen- 

 sive league, by which all the tribes of the same origi- 

 nal stock were bound together. And as the colonies, 

 which some from convenience, and other*, in conse- 

 quence of * religious observance, frequently sent out, 

 were often removed to a great distance, this family 

 compact had the effect of connecting nations, otherwise 

 remote from each other. Thus, from the undent stock 

 of the Oci or Aorunci, were derived the Sabines, and 

 from them, in consequence of a religious vow, the 

 Sanmites and the Lucanians. 



The limits prescribed in a work of this nature, pre- 

 vent us from entering at large into the ancient history 

 of the Italian nations, a field of research far from unin- 

 teresting : there is, however, one state which has left 

 behind it so many miiniiiiali of its grandeur and ad- 

 vancement in the arts of civilized life, that it requires 

 from us a more particular attention. 



The people called by the Romans, Ftrurians or Tus- 

 cans, arid by the Greek* Tirrheni, a corruption of the 

 word Traseni, which probably was their original ap- 

 pellation, inhabited the district lying betwixt the Arno 

 and the Tiber. By their victories over the l'tn!>ri, 

 Osci, and Veneti, they extended their power to the other 

 aide of Italy, and there founded the flourishing colonies 

 of Adna and Bologna. Having, however, at an early 

 period of their history, had the wisdom to renounce ail 

 wars of conquest, they devoted their chief attention to 

 commerce and the arts of peace. The result of their 

 commerce was a decided naval superiority, in conse- 

 intence of which they became matteri, by means of 

 Mair oionias, of the islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and 

 Elba. The last acquisition, by its inexhaustible mines 

 of iron, for the manufacture of which the Tuscan 

 forests afforded ample materials, was of immense im- 

 portance, not only in constructing a navy, but also as an 

 article of commerce. By the possession of these mines, 

 and the art of fabricating tools of iron, the Tuscans 

 were enabled to construct those prodigious citadels and 

 fiirtifications, which have acquired for them the repu- 

 tation of being the inventors of military architecture, 

 and the rains of many of which remain at this day the 

 splendid and indestructible monuments of the greaU 

 BM of their founders. And though many succeeding 

 age* of war and slavery and oppression, have convert- 

 on into pestilential deserts, much of the once highly 

 Oihivatid territory of Etruria, yet even there the ruin* 

 of harbosus and cities, and the consequently numerous 

 population which must have been maintained, attest 

 their sjmgnaa in the science of agriculture. 



The farm of government was that of a federal re- 

 public, divided into twelve states, over each of which 

 civil magistrate, called Lurumon. In timt-i 



of war, the office of commander in chief was conferred History, 

 on one of the Lucumones, w ith the title of king, and S ~""Y""* 

 very considerable powers. This authority, however, 

 was by no means absolute, as it appears that he was 

 subject to the controul of the general assembly ol' the 

 lieputies of the twelve states held in the temple of Vol- 

 tumna, and liable even to capital punishment, if found 

 guilty of the crimes laid to his charge. That their 

 system of laws was just and equitable, and admirably 

 adapted to the form of their society, appears from the 

 concurring testimony of historians, and die abridge* 

 ment of its principles itself, the foundation of the juris- 

 prudence of the Romans ; for which, as well as their 

 religious establishment, they were indebted to their 

 Etrurian neighbours. 



Their manners were in no small degree humanized; 

 domestic slavery, which at that period prevailed in al- 

 most every other nation in the world, did not exist among 

 them ; and their progress in the arts of polished life, is 

 attested by those exquisite remains, which even in our 

 own times, have been considered as models worthy of 

 imitation.* 



These new arts, however, and the foreign ideas in 

 troduced by abundance and wealth, against which the 

 most virtuous education can make but a feeble opposi- 

 tion, were among the nation of the Etruscans the seeds 

 of that relaxation of morals which marks inevitably the 

 epoch of its decay. The seducing influence of corrup- 

 tion, damped by degrees the ardour of liberty. The 

 colonies lost their affection for the mother country, and 

 degenerated into cold and uninterested allies, and the 

 republic itielf, divided by domestic contentions, fell, 

 one state after another, under the dominion of the Ro- 

 mans. The history of that nation becomes, from this 

 period, that of Italy ; and for an account of its various 

 revolutions, while under its power, we must refer to the 

 article ROME. 



Towards the close of the 5th century, when the em- 

 pire of the west, surrounded by numberless hordes of 

 barbarians impelled by ambition and famine, was every 

 day deprived by their conquests of some valuable pro- 

 vince or territory, Italy alone for some time preserved 

 the appearance and name of the Roman empiro. Un- 

 der the feeble sway, however, of the later emperors, 

 and the tyrannical misrule of their favourite*, such was 

 the miserable situation of the country, that the circum- 

 stances even of the provinces ronquered by the bar- 

 barians, were envied by the wretched Italians. Civil 

 liberty was almost annihilated, the laws were disre- 

 garded, the nobles harassed and impoverished by the 

 exaction* of the imperial tax-gatherers, and the poor, 

 exposed to the oppression of the soldiery, and reduced 

 to a state of famine by the bands of robbers which 

 overrun the country, were indifferent into the hands 

 of what muter they fell, and were rather willing to 

 enjoy personal freedom under the name of slaves to the 

 Goths, than remain in a state of actual slavery with 

 the semblance of Roman liberty. At this period, the 

 army of the emperor consisted of three tribes of bar- 

 barians, the Heruli, the Ruga?, and the Turcilingi. 

 These soldiers having for some time received no pay, 

 demanded that in lieu of it a certain portion of land 

 should be assigned them. This request being refused 

 by Orestes, the guardian of the Emperor Augustulus, 

 they offered to transfer their allegiance toOdoaccr, liis Odoacer, 

 principal general ; and on his promising to accede to 

 their demand*, deposed the emperor, and acknowledged 

 him as their king. The new monarch wisely abstained 



ThoM at ma rcxkra who mar wih for farther information regarding tiro remarkable nation, are referred to Micalc'i L'Jlalla avanli it 

 mLj* ** .. .j worthy of the attention of the philosopher and the antiquarian. 



