452 , I T 1 
Diodorus Siculus, iri his account of the voluptuoufnefs of 
the Sybarites, has unintentionally pronounced a panegyric 
on industry and affiduity. The Sybarites were fo fully 
perfuaded that population conftitutes the ftrength and 
real wealth of a Hate, that, notwithftanding the felfiflinefs 
of which they are accufed, perceiving their lands to be 
but imperfectly cultivated, they invited (trangers among 
them, to whom they afligned a part. This divifion of 
Italy into fmall independent Hates, was Angularly favour¬ 
able to the aggrandizement of the Romans. 
The Pelafgi, the Tyrrhenians, the Veneti, and the 
Ligurians, fpoke different languages; but the facial rela¬ 
tions which fubfifted between thefe different nations foon 
produced one general language, the Latin, which the Ro¬ 
mans brought to perfeftion. The Latin language is evi¬ 
dently nothing but a corruption of the ancient Pelafgic 
Greek, mixed with the languages of the Etrufci and the 
Liburni. 
The upper part of Italy, inhabited by Celtic colonies, 
had lei's intercourfe with the fouth of the peninfula. This 
difpofition was ftrengthened by the great invafion of the 
Gauls, about 350 years after the foundation of Rome. 
The Gauls, having made themfelves mailers of great part 
of the provinces watered by the Eridanus, penetrated into 
Etruria. They extended their conquelts to the fertile 
territory of Sienna, where was built the ancient Elufium, 
formerly a celebrated city, now a fmall village named 
Chiufi. The conquerors changed the laws and cuftoms 
of the provinces which they had fubdued, and which were 
known in Italy by no other name than that of Gallia 
Cifalpina. Italy was then confidered as bounded by the 
Arno on one fide, the Rubicon on the other; all to the 
north of thofe rivers being regarded as part of Gaul. 
All hiftorians agree in affuring us that Italy was long 
governed by kings, almoft all of whom were eleClive; but 
of the extent of their authority we are wholly ignorant. 
As each diftriCl formed a particular Hate, thefe kings could 
not be very powerful. Sometimes one city chofe for its 
chief the ruler of another city, who thus acquired a greater 
degree of power. Thus Porfenna, who is reprefented in 
the Roman hiftory as i'ueh a formidable monarch, was 
originally only the king of Clufium. It would appear that 
feveral Etrufcan cities fucceffively eleCted him for their 
chief, Alice DionyAus of Halicarnaffus gives him the title 
of king of Tufcany. Several kings of Rome ufurped by 
various ftratagems the fupreme authority over various La¬ 
tin cities, which two centuries afterwards confidered them¬ 
felves as independent of the Romans. Tolumnus, king 
of the Veii, at the fame time governed the Fideni, who, 
however, were only tributary to the Veii. 
The great proprietors, or the patricians, whofe fortunes 
were more expofed to the caprices of the monarchs, 
negledled no means of exciting in the people a love of 
liberty and a hatred of kings. By abolilhing the monar¬ 
chical government, thefe patricians flattered themfelves 
with the profpebl of not only enjoying their wealth in 
greater i'ecurity, but alfo of inheriting the power entrufted 
to the fovereigns. A general revolution took place in 
Italy in the third century of the Roman era. All the 
cities, from various motives, fucceffively expelled their 
kings, or ceafed to ele£t any. So general was the enthu- 
flafm for liberty, that, if any city attempted to continue 
or to revive the monarchical government, it was held by 
the others as degraded. DionyAus of Halicarnaffus relates, 
that the Veii, having re-eftabliflied royalty, either to put 
an end to the intrigues annually occaAoned by the eleflion 
of the chief magiftrates, or to concentrate tile fupreme 
authority, at a time when the Romans were ravaging their 
territories and prefling them very clofely, fell into fitch 
contempt, that the neighbouring ftates abandoned them to 
their enemies. 
This change every where turned to the advantage of 
the ariltocracy. The fenate, compofed of the great pro¬ 
prietors, had previoudy formed the link between the king 
and the people: it now became the centre of the public 
L Y. 
adminiftration, and gave law to the Hate. The aflembled 
people, by their fuffrages, appointed the firft magiftrates ; 
but ali the honours and power fell to the fliare of the 
great. No plebeian was bold enough to afpire to the 
principal dignities, civil, religious, or military. The pa¬ 
tricians alone pofleffed an active as well as a paflive vote. 
There was not any fmall city but what was governed 
in this manner. Livy makes mention not only of the 
fenates of Capua, Naples, Cura®, and other large towns; 
but alfo of thofe of Nola, Tivoli, Piperno, and Veia;. 
Thefe bodies pofleffed the power of making peace and 
war; they managed the finances; they adminiftered juf- 
tice ; and by them all bufinels of importance was tranf- 
afted. They acknowledged the fupremacy of the people ; 
but the exercife of its power was reduced within Inch 
narrow limits, that the public authority was in reality 
veiled in the fenate. 
The people, who, at the inftigation of the great, had 
rifen againft tyranny, foon perceived that they had ob¬ 
tained merely the lhadow of liberty, and that they had ex¬ 
changed one mailer for many. A general ftruggle 
now enfued between the plebeians and the patricians. 
The hiftorians of Rome have recorded the circumftances 
and the refults of this conleft in that commonwealth ; and, 
if the commotions which happened in other ftates of Italy 
are unknown to us, it is becaufe thole nations had not a 
Livy, a Plutarch, or a Tacitus. 
Livy relates, that about the time of the Punic wars a 
kind of popular ferment extended throughout all Italy; 
and that the people univerfally wrelted the fupreme au¬ 
thority from the hands of the patricians. The latter were 
obliged to give way ; but Hill they continued to difpute 
the ground. The government of the Italian Hates was 
liable to continual commotions, amidft which the people 
rarely enjoyed that political equality and general happi- 
nefs which are the objefl of free ftates. The chief power, 
thus tolled about between two contending faflions, finally 
relied on the head of a citizen whom the people nominated 
by favour, whom the fenate allowed by way of compro- 
rnife, and who, either without title or without that of 
chief magiftrate, was confidered as the head of the com¬ 
monwealth. 
Such was the Hate of Italy when the Romans, defeended 
from a colony of Latins, laid the foundation of that power 
which gradually fwallowed up all the petty ftates among 
whom the peninfula was divided. The events which fol¬ 
lowed, during a fpace of many centuries, will form a long 
and interefting hiftory in another part of this work. See 
the.article Rome. 
As all things mull gradually tend to change and to de¬ 
cay, fo it happened, but not till after a very long period, 
that the vaft wealth which had been poured into Italy from 
all parts of the world, during the time of the profperity of 
the Romans, began to corrupt their manners, and to make 
them degenerate from their former valour. At length the 
empire was divided ; and of their degeneracy the barba¬ 
rous nations of the north took the advantage to invade 
the country in innumerable multitudes. For the hiftory 
of the irruption of the Goths into Italy, and their ella- 
blifhment in that country, fee vol. viii. p. 717-73S. 
In the expulfion of the Goths from Italy the imperial 
arms were affifted by many barbarous nations, among, 
whom were the Lombards, at that time fettled in Pannonia. 
On the conclufion of the war, they were difmiffed with 
rich prefents, and the nation for fome time continued 
faithful allies to the Romans. In the mean time, the em¬ 
peror Jullinian dying, his general Narfes, who had con- 
cpiered the Goths, and now governed Italy with an abfo- 
lute fway, was accufed to the emperor Juitin II. and to 
the emprefs Sophia, of alpiring to the fovereignty of the 
country. Hereupon he was recalled, and Longinus lent 
to fucceed him. As Narfes was an eunuch, the emprefs 
is reported to have laid, that his employment at Conltan- 
tinople Ihould be to diftribute in the apartment of her 
women the portiou of wool which each was to fpin. 
Narfesj, 
