ITALY. 417 
Alps in Savoy, to the ntmoft verge of Calabria, is about 
600 miles; but its breadth is very unequal, being in fonie 
places near 40c miles, in others not above 25 or 30. 
Italy was anciently known by the names of Saturn!a, 
Ocnotria, Hefperia, and Aufonia. It was called Saturnia 
from Saturn ; who, being driven out of Crete by his ion 
Jupiter, is fuppofed to have taken refuge here. The 
names of Ocnotria and Aufonia are borrowed from its anci¬ 
ent inhabitants the Oenotrians and Aufones; and that of 
Hefperia , or Wefrern, was given it by the Greeks, from its 
lituation with relpefl to Greece. The names of Italia, or 
Italy, which in procefs of time prevailed over all the reft, 
is by fome derived from Italus, a king of the Siculi; by 
others, from the Greek word traXos, fignifying an ox ; 
this country abounding, by real'on of its rich pafttjres, 
with oxen of an extraordinary fize and beauty. All thefe 
names were originally peculiar to particular provinces of 
Italy, but afterwards applied to the whole country. 
All the ancient records atteft that, next to Greece, the 
peninfula of Italy was the earlieft civilized country in 
Europe; but, when we attempt to trace back the firlt in¬ 
habitants of this beautiful region to their origin, we are 
Hopped in our refearches, by the fcarcity and contrariety 
of the accounts, blended with fables, which have been 
tranfmitted to us through a fucceffion of ages. Italy, 
though fo near to Greece, was not known till a late pe¬ 
riod by the Greeks. In Homer’s time they related no¬ 
thing but fables concerning this country; it was the land 
of the Cyclops and the Leltrigons ; they placed in it the 
gates of night, the gloomy empire of Pluto, and the abode 
of fpirits after death. The works of the ancient Sicilians, 
w’ho would undoubtedly have conveyed fome information 
refpefting Italy in the hiftory of their own ifland, have 
perifhed, and Cato’s Origines are likewife loft. It is there¬ 
fore only by felefting and combining certain paffages of 
Herodotus, Thucydides, Strabo, Dionyfius of Halicar- 
naflus, Pliny the elder, Polybius, and Fabius Piftor, (the 
mod ancient annalift of Rome, whofe memoirs are founded 
on Livy’s performance,) that modern hiftorians have come 
at fomething pofitive refpedling times fo very remote 
from us. 
Denina, in his Hiftory of the Revolutions of Italy, ob- 
ferves, that the authentic documents relative to this penin¬ 
fula go back no farther than the Romans ; and that the 
part of the Roman annals which concerns Italy is barren 
and obfcure, becaufe the early Romans, who were very 
negligent in their regifters of the principal events of their 
own republic, fhowed ftill greater indifference about the 
feries of faffs in which they were not immediately in- 
terefted. The want of ancient Italian records is partly 
owing to other caufes; and it has been aiferted, with 
great probability, that they were induftrioufly destroyed 
by the Romans, in order that no accounts but their own 
of the tranlaflions in which they were engaged might 
defcend to pofterity 
Almoft all the ancients were of opinion that Sicily and 
Italy were once connected by an ifthmus, and formed 
but one continent; and that this ifthmus was broken 
down, either by a violent earthquake or by the fudden 
finking of fome volcanic mountain. According to Aafchy- 
lus, quoted by Strabo, the name of julium Rhegium, the 
modern Reggio, fignifies Neptune, becaufe it was fituated 
on the ftreight, when a tempeft opened a paffage for the 
billows between the coaft of Medina and the country of 
Bruftientum. But this feparation Is of fuch ancient date, 
that it is not mentioned by Thucydides, though he has 
recorded the foundation of the principal cities of Sicily. 
Italy was denominated by the Greeks Saturnia, or the 
country of Saturn. It appears that the Saturn of the Ro¬ 
mans was not the fame as the Saturn or Chronos of the 
Greeks, the father of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto- The 
Roman Saturn was the god of agriculture. Ops his wife 
was the goddefs of liarvefts and abundance. The Romans 
were unacquainted with the fitlions, equally fcandalous 
and abfurdj with which the Greek poets had crowded the- 
Jegends of this deity, previoufly to their intercourfe with 
the Hellenic colonies about the time of the laft kings of 
Rome. Neither their ancient f'acred books nor the poems 
of the Salii contained the crimes afcribed to Chronos by 
the Greek mythologifts ; as we are informed by Dionyfius 
of Halicarnallus. This obfervation explains how Saturn, 
the afl'aflin of his father, the murderer of his family, the 
god of mifchief in all the countries which he had laid 
wafte, was regarded as a beneficent deity by the Romans, 
who gave to his reign the appellation of the golden age. 
It refolves the difficulties that have been darted on this 
fubjecl, and proves that antiquity had feveral Saturns as 
well as feveral Hercules’s. 
All the ancient writers relate that Saturn landed in 
Etruria, after having long roved about on the neighbouring 
leas. But at what time did Saturn live, and of what co¬ 
lony was he the founder? Thallus the hiftorian, of whofe 
work fome fragments are prelerved in Eufebius, makes 
him contemporary with Belus. Agamemnon, Achilles, 
Ajax, and Ulyfi'es, affumed the quality of great grandlons 
of this god, who in the time of Janus taught the Italians 
to cultivate the earth. Varro, in his Treatife on the La¬ 
tin Tongue, affirms that in his time fome remains of the 
town of Saturnia, built by Saturn’s companions, were ftill 
to be feen on the Tarpeian rock. 
Etruria was then inhabited by the Tyrrhenians, whofe 
origin is unknown. Dionyfius of Halicarnaflus informs 
us that they were aborigines of Italy, and derived their 
name from the fortified places in which they dwelt. Not 
only are no traces left of the city of Tyrrhenia, men¬ 
tioned by Plato in one of his Dialogues, and where as he 
allures us reigned the anceftors of Saturn, king of the 
Atlantes; but the fpot where it flood is unknown, which 
indicates the moll remote antiquity. The plains of Tuf- 
cany are the moft elevated in Italy next to the heights of 
the Appennines : hence it may be concluded that they 
were the firlt inhabited. It is certain that the name of 
the Tyrrhenians was almoft as celebrated in antiquity as 
that of the Greeks. It is likewife certain that this nation, 
to which the Latins gave the appellation of Etrufcans, or 
Tufcans, was on the decline when Rome was governed 
by kings ; but it had previoufly fubjecled to its empire 
one half of Italy, from the banks of the Adige to the ex¬ 
tremities of Campania,' considered by the ancients as the 
moft favoured country in the nniverie. 
Herodotus makes the Tyrrhenians a Lydian colony. 
This opinion, contefted by the moderns, was generally 
adopted by the ancients. “ During the reign of Atys, 
the fon of Manes,” fays the father of hiftory, “all Lydia 
was afflifted with a famine, which the Lydians long en¬ 
dured with patience ; but, finding that the calamity did 
not abate, the king divided all the Lydians into two 
dalles, and made them draw lots, the one to remain in 
the country, and the other to leave it. The clafs of the 
emigrants was conducted by the king’s fon, named Tyr- 
rhenus. The Lydians whom fate thus banifhed from their 
native land firft repaired to Smyrna. There they con- 
ftruffed (hips ; and, after taking on-board every thing 
neceflary for forming a new fettlement, they embarked. 
They coafted along different countries, but did not land 
till they had reached Umbria. Here they built cities 
which they ftill inhabit, but they relinqnifhed the name 
of Lydians, and affiuned that of Tyrrhenians, from Tyr- 
rhenus, the chief of the colony.” 
It has already been obferved, that the Tyrrhenians were 
known to the Romans by no other names than Etrufci or 
Tufci. Etruria comes we are told from two Greek words 
Heteros and Horos, the former indicating that the principal 
ellabliflnnent of the Tyrrhenians was bounded on all fides 
by natural limits, as the Masra, the Appennines, and the 
Tiber. According to Hefychius, Horos lignified in the 
Cretan dialeCl an elevated country. Dionyfius of Hali- 
carnaffus derives the word Tu/cus from the Greek verb 
Thuo, correfponding with the Latin facrifco', becaufe the 
ancient Tufcans were better, verled than die other Ita¬ 
lians. 
