Photograph by Von Gloeden 



CALABRIAN TYPES 



The olive skin, the ebon eyes, and hair of the native-born son of Italy are as characteristic as 



his temperament 



tieth century thoughts and activities are 

 developments of the purpose, ideals, and 

 philosophy of the central Italians, from 

 the days when Roman school - boys 

 scratched caricatures of Christians on the 

 walls of public buildings upon the Pala- 

 tine to the beginning of the decadence 

 that followed hard upon the Renaissance 

 in Florence and her compeer cities. 



First of all the Italian cities to shake 

 the world was Rome, imperial center of 

 civilization, culture, politics, and religion. 

 Two of civilization's five periods devel- 

 oped in her and bear forever her stamp 

 and sign. Her first period gave to the 

 world lessons in discipline, centralized 

 government, colonial policy and control, 

 civil law, military science, hygiene, and 

 water supply. The very persecutions of 

 that age stimulated the primitive Chris- 

 tians throughout the Empire into banding 

 together until the early Church took defi- 

 nite shape. The succeeding Roman Cath- 



olic Church was the tireless conservator 

 of all learning and culture during the 

 perilous Dark Ages — the inspirer, the 

 civilizer, the sustainer. And after that 

 black night had passed, and men began 

 out of the wreck of the old to build the 

 new, it was still the Church which was 

 able to remodel civilization. 



GEOGRAPHY'S PART IN ROMAN HISTORY 



Though the situation of Naples, with 

 its enervating charm, worked nothing but 

 evil to that city, the location and physical 

 character of Rome — hills for defense, a 

 river for navigation, broad surrounding 

 fields for grazing — proved the greatest 

 asset of her people. It had so many nat- 

 ural advantages that every warring tribe 

 which captured it was itself captured and 

 quickly became Roman, thus making the 

 city always the strongest in the peninsula, 

 because it was the home and fortress of 

 the strongest people. 



299 



