Volume 2 — ITALY. (continued 3)

These are the most essential points in the structure of an amphitheatre. Many things connected with the arrangements, however, still remain obscure, and the lower part of the Colosseum has not yet been sufficiently excavated. It is, for example, still uncertain in what manner it was contrived to introduce the wild beasts into the arena. All the explanations which have been proposed are unsatisfactory. Excavations have indeed been made, but have been discontinued partly from a fear of weakening the building, which point certainly is not to be overlooked, on account of the many earthquakes, and partly on account of erroneous suppositions, because people could not understand that the arena was moveable. Another reason why the excavations are not continued, is the belief that at one time there was an altar in the arena, and that accordingly the ground is sacred through the blood of the martyrs. Such perverse notions are obstacles to the discovery of truth.

Another amphitheatre, the amphitheatrum castrense, was close to the wall; Procopius calls it Vivarium.

I shall now proceed to speak of the thermae. Public baths existed at Rome from the earliest times. Southern countries really require them, and they were universally used until late in the middle ages. Under Gregory I., one of the greatest and most excellent men of his period, whose government was distinguished for its beneficial measures, though he did not reign as a sovereign, Rome was already quite deserted; still, from one of his letters, I have learned that the use of baths was then quite common. Pope Hadrian I.,⁠[28] likewise a very great man, restored the Aqua Claudia, which had been neglected, for the purpose of supplying the baths with water. Gregory I. states, that in his time many people considered it sinful to bathe on a Sunday; but he himself, who was more clear-sighted than his flock, issued a proclamation⁠[29] advising the people not to be so foolish as to allow themselves to be prevented by such a prejudice. This is a proof that baths were then still in general use. In Germany, too, they were more common in the middle ages than they are now. Such balnea or balneae were very popular in ancient Rome even before the manners of the Greeks had commenced exercising their influence. Thermae (θερμαί) were first built under Augustus; but we must not infer from this, that previously people bathed in cold water in the city, for whenever they wished to do this, they plunged into the Tiber. I explain the name thermae in the following manner:—It had become customary at Baiae and other watering places to combine warm baths with the use of the mineral waters and with sea-bathing: the life in those places was like that in our watering-places: people frequented them for the purpose of diverting their minds and taking care of their bodies. Greeks (commonly called Graeculi) were not wanting to provide amusements of every description with the same industry which Italians and Frenchmen display in German watering-places. People there threw off all cares and put aside every kind of work, whence the Roman nobles repaired to such places every spring. This, however, required a large fortune, for those who had to maintain themselves by their own industry could not afford to go to Baiae and stay there for a month. For this reason, Augustus and Agrippa, whose object was to keep the great body of the population in comfort and good humour, built artificial baths as a place in the capital itself, where the people, without travelling to Baiae, might have similar enjoyments; just as at present mineral waters may be enjoyed at a great distance from the springs. To these places, then, every one who wished it, could go and take a bath; they contained sulphureous baths, vapour-baths, etc., and people might lounge there without the fatigue of a journey. The most magnificent buildings, most luxuriously furnished, were erected for this purpose: besides the bath-rooms, there were others, in which all kinds of amusements were provided, such as places for the games of the time, for games at ball, drafts, and the like, nay, even a library existed there, as at present newspapers are kept in the Cafés. They were accordingly, in reality, institutions to while away leisure hours in ease and comfort, and were peculiarly fitted to extinguish the mutinous spirit of the people, and to tame them by the enjoyments of life. These thermae became extremely popular, whence one emperor after another contributed one to the number already existing to prevent people being obliged to go to a distant part of the city, and to provide each quarter with its own. The thermae of Agrippa were outside the city, near the Campus Martius and the Pantheon, for he would not disturb any part of the city with his new institution: he took care, by irrigation, that everything was green in the Campus Martius during the summer, and near to the Pantheon he ordered avenues of trees to be planted. The thermae of Titus bear this name unjustly; the earlier antiquarians, even as late as the fifteenth century, called them thermae of Trajan; they existed in the Carinae and were of quite a monstrous extent. In the middle ages the building was called Curia Vecchia. The thermae of Caius and Lucius Caesar in the eastern part of the city are now quite foolishly called templum Minervae Medicae. The building which now bears this name, was nothing else than a large portico belonging to the Thermae. There also existed thermae of Nero, Titus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Alexander Severus (near those of Agrippa), Decius, Diocletian, and Constantine, so that we can scarcely understand how all these colossal buildings had room within the circumference of Rome. In these thermae some of the choicest specimens of ancient art have been discovered; they contained excellent galleries of paintings, and the most beautiful statues were set up there in the most suitable places. If the group of the Laocoon were still standing in the thermae of Titus, where it originally stood, it would have a far more appropriate place than that which it occupies at present.

The Palatine was originally nothing but an inhabited district like the other hills. Cicero’s house stood upon it, and coming from the Via Sacra, one may still approximately determine the spot where it stood. Augustus, too, lived on the Palatine, but only as a private person. Tiberius built another house for himself by the side of that of Augustus, and probably inhabited it before his accession. Caligula built a palace there in another part; but notwithstanding this, the whole of the Palatine was full of private dwelling-houses, and there was no other public building on it except temples. The conflagration under Nero destroyed all the buildings on this hill. Nero then erected a palace on the Palatine; but not satisfied with this, he continued it down to the Esquiliae and even up the Esquiliae. The so-called golden house was situated between the two hills, on a splendid spot, and extremely well chosen. But, at a later time, we see that the imperial palace occupied the whole of the Palatine. We must not imagine this to have been one homogeneous and regular building, constructed on one plan, with a large front, like our royal palaces. Nothing is more senseless than the restorations which the old Italian antiquarians, such as Bianchini and Panvini, have made of this golden house: the latter has drawn an outline of a building which never existed at all. It is only now that the eyes of antiquarians have been opened in regard to this subject. The whole of the Palatine hill is covered with ruins, which have raised its height. The lower part of the building is completely filled with earth; and if a person wishes to investigate it, he must break through the ground until he reaches these vaults. They are a real labyrinth; I have been successful in many points of the topography of Rome, but I have not been able to form an idea of the imperial palace. The excavations which were made in 1724 extended only over a small part, but the aula Domitiani was then brought to light; the outlines of an enormous hall and splendid columns, partially preserved, belonged to this aula, and can easily be made out; but there is also a great number of I know not what kind of chambers: I can give you no information about them. It would be desirable to see systematic excavations made there. The whole district is the private property of the king of Naples, whence the pope cannot order excavations to be made; the ambassador of the king had permission to do so, but he was recalled from Rome. The palace must have existed as late as the middle ages, perhaps until the 11th or 12th century; it was then reduced to ashes, as is attested by the excavations, which have shown traces of a great conflagration. In a ritual of the coronation of the emperors belonging to the end of the 11th century, which has been printed from the original of Cencius Camerarius,⁠[30] we read—“When the emperor is crowned in St. Peter, he and the empress proceed to the palatium Romanum, the emperor entering the apartment of Augustus, and the empress that of Livia.” These apartments are correct and have been found, and the statement shows that they were inhabited. Some fifty years ago a French dealer in works of art made excavations there, on which occasion many things are said to have been found, but the place was pillaged in a most disgraceful manner. Traces of a magnificence appeared which surpass all our conceptions: the walls of the rooms were covered with silver plate, and large pieces of silver texture served as tapestry; in other palaces the walls were covered with ordinary tapestry (aulaea), but here silver was employed instead. The treasures among the ruins were so numerous, that even after the pillage some things still remained.

There are, properly speaking, only two streets in ancient Rome, which are known as such, namely, the Via Sacra and the Subura. The former began at the ridge, which extended from the Palatine to the Esquiliae, and was called Velia, known as the place where the house of P. Valerius Poplicola stood; from this Velia it ran across the Forum, and on the other side of the Palatine, the form of which is almost square, it turned towards the boundary line between the Roman and the Sabine town. We know from Varro, that in the language of ordinary life only the first part of the street, namely, that on the Velia, bore the name of Via Sacra. The buildings by which it was lined were by no means splendid; the houses which have been dug out are very small, and no person of rank lived there; but, at the same time, it was the street through which the processions passed, and there were a great many statues in it. The street, as I said before, began at the height; it passed between the temples of Venus and Peace, and had several triumphal arches. At the point where it touched the Forum there stood the fornix Fabianus. It is possible that it may have been the custom, even in early times, to make temporary arches of foliage on the occasion of a triumphal procession; but the first arch made of stone was that for the triumph of Q. Fabius Allobrogicus. The arches still existing are those of Titus, Septimius Severus, and that of Constantine, which is entirely composed of stolen basreliefs; but there were many more, as, for example, two of Trajan, one of Valentinian and another of Gratian. They stood in the street of the Ponte St. Angelo, and existed as late as the middle ages; their inscriptions are preserved in copies.

The Subura is still called by the same name. Nardini is quite mistaken in his assertion, that the ancient Subura was situated in a different locality, near the Lateran; no man in his senses can admit this, for it is opposed to all our evidence. We even have the express testimony of Varro, that its site is identical with that of the present Subura, that is, in the plain north of the Esquiliae, whence it had the advantage of being completely built on both sides. In it stood the house of Caesar, and in the times of the republic the aristocracy generally lived there and in the Carinae on the Esquiline. Afterwards, in the time of emperors, a change took place in this respect, and every one removed to the new quarters, whence, in the days of Juvenal and Martial, the Subura was inhabited only by the lowest classes; at present, too, it is the abode of poverty. The Carinae were a quarter rather than a single street, in the district of S. Pietro in Vincola. After the great fire, Nero built a palace (not the golden house) there; and not far from it was the palace of Titus and the thermae of Trajan.

The Quirinal had no remarkable buildings; at a later period Aurelian erected there the temple of the Sun, the most gigantic building in all Rome, of which vast ruins still exist in the garden of the Colonna family. At that time there was a taste for everything gigantic, because architects were no longer able to produce the beautiful. The Viminal, too, contained nothing worth noticing. The Carinae, as I have already remarked, were on the Esquiline. Within the walls of Servius Tullius, I know of no particularly remarkable edifice belonging to the early period, though it contained a large number of small temples. The same must be said of the Caelius in its narrower sense; only one arch still exists there; in the middle ages it contained many buildings.

On the rugged side of the Aventine, towards the river, stood the temple of Diana, which, according to tradition, Servius Tullius had built as a point of union for the Romans and Latins, and in which the table containing the ancient treaty was preserved. On the same hill there existed the thermae of Decius and a number of other buildings. I have already observed, that the Porta Trigemina was on the Aventine towards the river. On the side of the Palatine towards the Aventine there was a flight of marble steps, called the Scala Caci; one tradition assigned it to the Palatine, and another to the Aventine, a discrepancy which probably arose from the opposition between the inhabitants of the two hills.

Having thus rapidly passed over the hills, I shall now proceed further. A suburb was first formed between the Palatine, Aventine, and Esquiline on the one side, and the Tiber on the other. I have already mentioned as a part of it the Forum olitorium, which was at the same time a fish-market, and still exists unchanged. The suburb became a thickly inhabited district, and in it Augustus built the theatre of Marcellus and the great portico of his sister Octavia.

Another suburb extended along the Tiber as far as Ponte Sisto at the great reach of the river, where the amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus was situated; it occupied the whole side of the river, which in our maps is erroneously called Campus Martius. We generally imagine that this Campus was the only one the Romans had; but this is a mistake, for Campi also existed in front of other hills and gates; and like the great Campus, they were gradually covered with houses, though they were neither as extensive nor as important as the Campus Martius. One of them was the Campus Esquilinus, in the plain before the Esquiline beyond the agger, and the Campus Caelimontanus at the foot of the Caelius (now the palace of the Lateran) was another. These two Campi are as clear as possible, and are frequently mentioned; their destination was the same as that of the Campus Martius, and when in consequence of inundations the games could not be held in the latter, they were transferred to the Caelimontanus or the Esquilinus. Both these Campi were national property. Ever since the time of Augustus, houses were built in the Campus Martius. It contained the well known septa, a place fenced round, in which the centuries voted; even Pompey had built his theatre on the very border of the Campus; Agrippa erected his thermae there, and his incomparably more beautiful Pantheon; and Augustus had there his Mausoleum, from which an avenue of trees led to the buildings of Agrippa. Alexander Severus built there new thermae, a circus, and several triumphal arches, so that the Campus Martius entirely disappeared. In the second and third century Rome extended more and more in that direction, whence at present that part is thickly covered with houses. Of the buildings which are found there, I have already mentioned the thermae of Alexander Severus, the Circus Agonalis, and the structures of Agrippa, and I shall now say a few words about the Mausoleum, of Augustus. This building formed a gigantic mass, and was as imperishable as the pyramids. The descriptions we have of it are very obscure, nor do its remains enable us to form an idea of it; the drawings of its remains, which were made in the sixteenth century, are very doubtful. A large bas-relief may still have existed, also a water basin made of stone, which has disappeared in an unaccountable manner; but otherwise I believe that the drawings contain restorations. It is said that there was also a kind of suspended gardens with the soil artificially carried into them, but this may be founded on some misunderstanding.

The mausoleum of Hadrian, at present the Castel S. Angelo, was even a much larger structure. Its restoration, which we see in drawings, is anything but trustworthy; but there are drawings of the fifteenth century, in which a small portion, which was then still uninjured, is represented. At present we still see an immense pile impregnable and inaccessible, into which there was only one entrance like that of a cave, with a passage leading to the burial place. There Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Antoninus the philosopher were buried. Inscriptions about it are still found in the Itinerary of Einsiedeln, which belongs to the seventh or eighth century. This building was used as a fort at a very early period; Belisarius there defended himself against the Goths: the Roman garrison consisted of Huns who hurled the statues with which the building was adorned against the enemies. It is possible that the Barberini Faun was on that occasion thrown down, as it was found there at the time when Urban VIII. built the fortifications. During subsequent wars the Castel S. Angelo was often defended, as for example, when under Crescentius the city refused to surrender to Otho III. The greatest devastations took place in the fourteenth century, when the Romans, who were then little better than barbarians, wanted to level the whole structure with the ground, because it had occasioned them great annoyance: at that time many more inscriptions were preserved than at present. For weeks and months they laboured in tearing away the marble coating and the outward ornaments, but not being able to get through they gave it up at last. Pope Alexander VI. built some towers as means of defence, and on that occasion the destruction was carried still further. But after that time, three inscriptions still remained in the sixteenth century. The present condition, which is still imposing, is the work of Urban VIII. who made a regular fortress of it. In order to provide it with artillery, he caused the bronze of the vestibule of the Pantheon to be melted and eighty cannons to be made of it, which, during the French revolution, were carried by Murat to Naples. The costly sarcophagi of porphyry, which belonged to the mausoleum of Hadrian are dispersed; one of them still exists in the palace Borghese, and another, generally called the sarcophagus of Agrippa, probably also belonged to it. Trajan’s ashes were contained in an urn which stood on his column. Hence the opinion that the gilt ball on the obelisk in front of the Circus contained the ashes of Augustus; but this is only an erroneous opinion of the middle ages; it was opened under Sixtus V. when the obelisk was removed, and nothing but dust was found in it; but how this dust had got into it, no one can tell, perhaps it was introduced by rain. It certainly was not the ashes of Augustus, for we know distinctly where Augustus and his family were buried. There still exists in the Capitol a very simple coffin containing the remains of Agrippina; its side has the inscription Ossa Agrippinae Germanici. During an accidental excavation near San Carlo and the Corso, a bustum of the Caesars was discovered, on which their bodies were burnt; each imperial family had a distinct place for this purpose. At present several monumental stones of such busta exist in the Museo Pio-Clementino; they always have an inscription, such as C. Caesar hic crematus est. I believe there still exist half-a-dozen of such inscriptions.

Not far from the moles Hadriani there was a third Circus, built by Nero, and by the side of it stands the church of St. Peter. According to a tradition, the iron gate, where the apostles Peter and Paul suffered the death of martyrs, still exists there; but according to others, Peter died on the Janiculus, the mons aureus of the middle ages. There, too, a suburb arose as early as the time of Justinian; the church of St. Peter attracted many inhabitants, and the place was especially occupied by Germans, Saxons, and Lombards, who went to Rome for devotional purposes, or were engaged in the service of the Praefectus to defend the pope. They had their quarters (scholae) there, whence the name schola Saxonum, and in the same district we have the Ospidale in Sassi. This suburb was surrounded with walls by Leo IV. and called Burgus (Borgo).

Trastevere, on the same side of the river, though separated by a great space, was a suburb as early as the time of Augustus; it now contains the oldest houses in Rome, which belong to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Augustus had gardens there, and during the republican period a navale existed there on the south of the Aventine. On the same bank of the river there was a naumachia, a district surrounded by a wall, which could be filled with water for mock-fights with small boats.

Ancient Rome had originally only one bridge, the Pons Sublicius; it consisted at first entirely of wood, and could be taken down for the purpose of defending the city against the attacks of an enemy. This bridge remained for a long time the only one. The Pons Milvius, in the neighbourhood of Rome, was likewise very ancient, but was three Roman miles distant from the Porta Carmentalis. After the third Punic war, Scipio, as censor, built a second bridge (Pons Palatinus) across the Tiber. It was situated before the Velabrum, near to the Pons Sublicius, and between it and the island. Not a trace of the Pons Sublicius now exists. The Milvian bridge was at first likewise made of wood, and no doubt that of Scipio also. The latter remained throughout the middle ages until the sixteenth century. There have been hydrostatic disputes about this bridge, as to whether it was built flat against the current of the river or not; it does not, however, seem probable, that, if it had been constructed on a wrong principle, it should have existed for a period of 1700 years; we must rather suppose that during this long interval the Tiber changed its course. In the sixteenth century, when the river had retreated, the bridge broke down. I am of opinion that Cavaliere Linotte, who asserts this, is right, although he is not a man of learning: such investigations do not require much learning, and good common sense is often of greater assistance. In the same century, the bridge was restored, but twenty years later it broke down again; at present only a few arches of it exist, and the first, on the opposite bank, may be assumed with certainty to be the one that was built by Scipio. A poor woman had established a garden upon its ruins, and for the payment of a trifle I was allowed to go there as often as I liked.

The island which, according to tradition, was formed out of the corn thrown into the river after the expulsion of the Tarquins, is remarkable for the temple of Aesculapius. Even in very early times, and long before the age of Augustus, the incredibly tasteless attempt was made to give to that temple the form of a ship, in imitation of the vessel in which the god had been conveyed to Rome; it was built of travertine. During the middle ages a considerable part of the temple still existed, as may be seen from a drawing of Boissard, which was made in the fourteenth century. Old people under Pius VI. still saw a great deal of it, but afterwards a large part of the wall was used for other purposes; in like manner a splendid part of the thermae of Titus was destroyed as late as 1796.

The island was connected with the mainland on both sides by the Pons Cestius and the Pons Fabricius, which were very ancient. Next came the Pons Senatorius, on the spot now occupied by the Ponte Sisto; Pons Aelius near S. Angelo, and the Pons Milvius outside the city, now Ponte Molle.

I shall now proceed to speak of

Latium

as the country of the Latins. We shall first take Latium Proper, then the coast from Antium to Terracina, which was originally a Tyrrhenian and afterwards a Volscian country, and lastly the country of the Hernicans. But I have previously to make some remarks about the port towns of Rome.

All rivers of any importance carrying sand or mud form a delta, their mouths being pushed forward by the tides or the nature of the seas. Down to a certain point, they flow in a straight line, and then divide into two arms, leaving a low sand-bank between them. Such are the deltas of the Po, the Mississipi, the Nile, and the Ganges. The Tiber forms a similar πρόχωσις, and the ridges of sand on both sides become more and more widely separated from each other. On the left arm, which accordingly must have existed as early as that time, king Ancus Marcius, who is no doubt an historical personage, built the town of Ostia. I believe I can prove that Ancus Marcius concluded a treaty with the Latins, by which a number of the Latin towns, I mean those between Rome and the sea, were ceded to Rome, while other places remained united with Latium. In after times, Rome twice concluded similar treaties with Latium. Ostia was founded as a pure Roman colony, and became the port town of Rome. Afterwards it grew into a very large place, as is clear from the extensive and very splendid ruins. It was first destroyed in the war between Marius and Sulla, and afterwards frightfully devastated by the Vandals; in the ninth century it existed again, but was then destroyed by the Saracens. The great pope Leo IV. restored it, but the new town was not of long duration. At present the atmosphere is very unhealthy, which was not the case in the time of ancient Rome; whence we must infer, that then there were no marshes in the neighbourhood, for the poisonous air comes from the marshes. The district is at present so neglected that the place is completely deserted.

In the time of the Antonines, Ostia was the summer residence of the Romans, probably those of the middle classes, who had no large estates and could not afford to remain away from Rome for any great length of time. A very pleasing description of it occurs in the apologetic work of Minutius Felix, the scene of which is laid at Ostia. The Roman jurists spent their vacations there. The beauty and wealth of the place at that time form a remarkable contrast with its present condition, for scarcely any persons but criminals live there; for a long time past Ostia has been a sort of asylum, where murderers are safe against the danger of being seized by the police. This is one of the most fearful changes: the country round it is an immense swamp inhabited by buffalos.

In the reign of Claudius an artificial port was formed on the right arm of the Tiber, which was deeper, the course of the river having been regulated. Trajan extended the port, and this Portus Romanus now became the real sea-port of Rome, a depôt for the immense supplies required for the city. At present, too, the little maritime commerce of the Romans is carried on along the right bank of the Tiber.

I will not mention all the places of ancient Latium which happen to be once noticed by ancient writers, many of them are mere names of destroyed places; much more might indeed be made out than has yet been done, but the advantages would not be very considerable. We must conceive Latium in the earlier times to have been divided into three parts: 1. Alba and its perioeci, or thirty neighbouring and dependent places, said to have been colonies, and called Albenses; 2. the Latin demi, about Alba and its territory, the number of which we may assume, without fear of being mistaken, to have likewise amounted to thirty. They formed the Latin state, and stood in the same relation to Alba in which Latium afterwards stood to Rome; 3. the Tyrrhenian towns on the coast, which were properly foreign to the body of the Latin state, but may possibly have been in alliance with it. I have succeeded in throwing more light upon this relation between Alba and the Latin towns than I myself could formerly have expected; I have found all the names of the thirty Albensian towns, but the list of the others is not complete.

Alba generally appears to us almost as a mythical place, because it vanishes from Roman history at so early a period; but there can be no doubt that its existence is a perfectly historical fact, and that, too, in the relation I have just indicated. But it never was the mother-city of Rome; the first elements out of which Rome grew up may, perhaps, at one time have constituted a portion of the towns which, in a state of dependence as perioeci, were united with Alba into one state, but may have separated themselves from it at an early period: Rome itself was never founded by Alba. The place where Alba was once situated is still so distinctly marked that it cannot be mistaken. From the testimonies of the ancients, we know that it was situated at the foot of the Alban hill, forming one long street, high above the Alban lake, whence its name Alba Longa. Every one in that district shows the spot near the place called Palazzuolo, where may be seen the ancient tomb of a praetor with six fasces distinctly cut into the rock. This site has been recognised by several Italians, chiefly men without learning, but who had eyes to see that on this spot the rock has been cut away to a considerable height. This part must be conceived to have been below the town, so that the lake, even when its waters were very low, rendered the town perfectly inaccessible. The present level of the lake is the result of a tunnel (emissarius); but I am of opinion that formerly it must have been much lower.⁠[31] In this manner the town was safe on that side, for the rock was cut away to such a height as to render it impossible to scale it by means of ladders; on the precipitous side of the rock opposite no artificial protection was necessary. Thus the town could be attacked only on the two accessible sides, which for this reason were fortified. The summit of the hill was probably fortified by an arx. The hill, now called Monte Cavo, though only 2,900 French feet in height, is one of the highest in that district; from it a person acquainted with Roman history enjoys the most magnificent prospect, for he may there survey the whole territory of the Roman state such as it was until the fourth century of the city. On this summit stood the very ancient temple of Jupiter Latiaris, which was certainly as old as the temple on the Capitoline, and a road led up to it which is still quite intact, and is made in the same style as the Roman high roads. There the Alban dictators once used to ride up to offer their thanks to Jupiter Latiaris for victories they had gained; Roman generals also triumphed there, when they could not obtain permission from the senate to celebrate their triumph in the Capitol; there lastly the Feriae Latinae were celebrated. The temple is now completely destroyed, and the foundation stones, which still existed there, were broken down in the 18th century. The large blocks of stone were too huge for the puny race, and were, accordingly, broken to pieces to build a monastery. The last remains, consisting of beautiful square blocks, were carefully raised from the ground in the year 1780 or 1790. The Monte Cavo, like the lake, is of a volcanic nature.

Lavinium, which is nothing else than Lacinium in Oenotria (both forms being only dialectic varieties of Latinium), was the real sanctuary of Latium, and every year a common sacrifice was offered there by all the Latins. There is a tradition, that six hundred families were sent thither from Alba, that is, ten from every demos, the thirty Albensian and the thirty Latin towns. In this manner the statement of Dionysius of Halicarnassus resolves itself into a general formula of a common settlement, proceeding from Alba and commune Latium (this is the correct name for all the Latins, like κοινὸν Θεσσαλῶν). Originally Lavinium was regarded as common property, like Washington; but when subsequently it became a place of importance, it obtained its independence, and was a town like all the others.

Besides Lavinium, which was fabulously said to be a Trojan colony, there existed on that coast, between the Tiber and Antium, two other places, Laurentum and the Rutulian Ardea, which are familiar to us from the Aeneid. The ending entum in Laurentum is Pelasgian, as in the case of Maluentum and others; but it is Latinised, the native form probably was οῦς, Λαυροῦς. After the Volscian calamity, when the whole Latin confederacy broke up, Ardea was a separate town: it received a Romano-Latin colony, and accordingly entered into an entirely new relation. Cyclopean walls are still found there, but the place is so desolate, that at present it has only thirty houses with about eighty inhabitants.

The most important of the Latin towns in the vicinity of Rome was Tusculum; it was distant only a few miles and could be seen from Rome, being situated above Frascati. During the middle ages, it was destroyed by the degenerate Romans, and never restored on the height, but the survivors were obliged to settle at the foot of the hill, which was the origin of the modern Frascati. The ruins of Tusculum which have been dug out are very important; the theatre was found with very beautiful statues in it, but it has been covered over again. A number of pedestals with inscriptions also were found, which are no doubt as ancient as the persons they described; some are as old as the period after the Hannibalian war, as for example, the one of Fulvius Nobilior, the conqueror of Aetolia: nowhere have so many ancient stones been brought to light; but the number of inscriptions belonging to the earlier times and even to the Augustan age is extremely small. The whole district belongs to Lucien Bonaparte, who has made excavations, in the process of which very many things of importance have been discovered. If he had continued them, extraordinary things would certainly have been brought to light; but he has no interest for anything except works of art, statues and the like, and it is impossible to make him see the importance of the remains of antiquity. He has the most unhistorical mind, and is unable to understand of what interest antiquities can be to history: the most beautiful things have been sold by him. He is one of those men who enjoy a high degree of celebrity without deserving it: he is lively, but absurd, and an extremely bad epic poet. He has laid out a garden on a hill, and on a box-tree in it he has inscribed in order the names of the greatest epic poets, beginning near the root: out of modesty he has put his own name lowest, and ascends up to Homer. It was impossible to induce him to make excavations according to a regular plan. I have often been in despair about it: this is a grief which a man may often have to bear in Italy, because excavations can be so easily made. The Fasti Capitolini are of extreme importance in Roman history; three large pieces of them had been found behind the church of S. Maria Liberatrice, and I implored the authorities to grant me permission to dig there, offering to bear the expenses myself; but I could not obtain permission, and was told that it would be done in due time, and that our descendants also must have something to do. Such things are a severe trial of one’s patience. If excavations were made at Tusculum, a Roman Herculaneum would be found. I do not mean to say that buildings equally well preserved would be discovered, but the ruins are very large, and the streets would certainly be found. When I was there, excavations were accidentally made below a wall, but they were afterwards stopped, for Lucien Bonaparte was inexorable. Once, during excavations which were continued only for a few weeks, a whole street with the walls of the houses up to a certain height was discovered; it was of the most perfect construction, although it was only the street of a country town, for Tusculum was certainly not larger than Coblenz. The street was completely filled with pieces of architecture, which had fallen down during the barbarous process of destruction: columns of the most beautiful marble were found, but broken to pieces, and statues of the most exquisite workmanship, such as one might expect to find at Rome during its most brilliant period. The architecture is that of the imperial period; the street also contained a well, the water of which was carried down from a hill. Very ancient inscriptions also were found, one of which contained the name of A. Sicinius, who is mentioned by Livy in the war against Perseus. If the Forum were laid open, Fasti and law-tables would no doubt be brought to light; it is still possible to say whereabouts it must have been situated. In like manner the site of the Forum of Praeneste was known, and fragments of the Fasti of Verrius Flaccus were found there, although the excavations were made very carelessly. In later times Tusculum was the most brilliant among the Latin towns.

The second Latin town in point of rank was Tibur, now celebrated, under the name of Tivoli, for its waterfalls, the charming nature of the country, and the beauty of its ruins. Some persons erroneously consider the sepulchral monument of Cellius, built in the age of Augustus, to be a temple of the Sibyl. Tibur ruled over a considerable number of dependent towns. Its present circumference dates from the middle ages, for in antiquity it was considerably smaller. All these towns were very little, though they have a great name in history. Two learned Jesuits, Cabral and Del Ré, have written a very good topographical history of Tivoli.

The third Latin place is Praeneste, now Palestrina. This metathesis is common in Italian; even when they write correctly, they speak badly from affectation, especially the higher classes: instead of una capra, the Roman people usually say una carpa. The l and r also are interchanged: at the time of the French revolution, when a republic was forced upon the Romans, they were unable to pronounce the name, and said la Repubrica. I have found traces of a form Penestra belonging to the time when the western empire still existed; in the middle ages civitas was always added, and the simple names were thereby completely suppressed; people, therefore, did not say Lanuvium, but civitas Lanuvina, and so also civitas Penestrina. Praeneste was an immense place both in regard to its extent and to its fortifications, and was situated on a hill. Fortuna was its tutelary divinity, whose temple with its temenos occupied the acra, and the whole of the present little town of Palestrina is situated within the ruins of that temple. We still possess descriptions of it belonging to the end of the thirteenth century; many parts of it must then have been preserved; in the fourteenth the town was taken by pope Bonifacius VIII., and everything was then destroyed with barbarous fury; at present we can only admire the immense substructions on the side of the hill, for the town, like many others, was built up the hill in the form of terraces; and when it was intended to enlarge the town, a new terrace was built.

In Roman history Praeneste does not appear as an important town till after the Gallic time. As to the impatience with which it, more than any other Latin town, bore the Roman yoke during the fifth century, from the Samnite wars until the war of Pyrrhus, we have distinct indications, although history is silent about it. The Praenestines made repeated attempts to shake it off; but although they were unsuccessful in this, still they gained the respect of the Romans, and obtained from them an honourable relation, with which they were satisfied. After this, they were the most faithful allies of the Romans, and during the Hannibalian war they were as attached to them as they had previously been intrepid in their struggles for their own independence. During the Social War they obtained the franchise, and were passionate champions of the Marian party. Marius the younger there sustained the terrible siege, after which Sulla took the town, and shewed the first symptoms of his raving cruelty: he butchered the whole population, and established a colony of veterans in the place. The town became quite desolate. Most of the Latin towns had perished at an early period.

Lanuvium, afterwards civitas Lanuvina, on the Via Appia, still shows remains of a large wall, and indications that it once was a splendid town; it must not, however, be supposed to have been very extensive. Among its buildings, I may notice the temple of Juno Lanuvina, a common sanctuary for the Romans and Latins.

Aricia was situated on the same road; its arx was on a height, but the town itself in the valley; at present the road most inconveniently and dangerously runs right across the height. Aricia was somewhat nearer Rome than Lanuvium; for a time it seems to have been the first among the Latin towns, I allude to the period after the banishment of the kings, when Rome and Latium were separated. The temple and grove of Diana Aricina were near the beautiful lake of Nemi, not far from Aricia.

Gabii, one of the most ancient towns, has a traditional greatness in the earliest history of Rome. Dionysius still saw its extensive walls, of which at present every vestige has disappeared, but the ruins of the cella of a vast temple of Juno may still be seen. History does not inform us when the town was destroyed, but it was probably during the period of the Aequian wars, for after them it is no longer mentioned in the history of the republic; and in the age of Cicero it was a deserted place. Excellent remains were found there during the excavations made by Prince Borghese; he came upon ruins of the Forum, various works of art, many inscriptions and statues, which, though not of the first order, are yet of good workmanship. Under the Roman emperors a population appears to have again assembled in several of those towns, which were situated on high roads; whence they rose again, though they remained small places with a wretched population of vagabonds from all parts, who did not form a civil community, although they had a civic constitution. Hence Gabii at a later period had a bishop. This also accounts for the fact, that works of art belonging to a late period of Rome are found in those early destroyed places. At present Gabii is quite deserted.

The place for the general assemblies of the Latins was near the Alban lake, which, like a crater, is environed by a high ridge of surrounding hills. The place of meeting is supposed, and I think justly, to have been on the other side of this crater; but there is no evidence to support this view. The spot is now occupied by the town of Marino, below which there is a beautiful well, generally believed to be the well of Ferentina.

The tunnel of the Alban lake, a wonderful work, is one of the curiosities of Latium; it runs nearly three Roman miles under ground towards the place of its destination, and was intended to carry off the water of the lake, which, when, in consequence of earthquakes, the subterraneous passages had become blocked up, rose above the ridge of the crater and inundated the country. I have already spoken about this extraordinary structure in my History of Rome,⁠[32] and shall, therefore, confine myself to a brief recapitulation. It is difficult to form a clear idea of the matter. Imagine the crater filled to the edge, and bear in mind that it was intended to give to it a level about 200 feet lower. In order to attain this, a line was first drawn in the contemplated direction of the tunnel, and by this line it could be seen how deep it must be to answer its purpose. In order to obtain the level, and at the same time to employ a great many hands, shafts were sunk along the whole line at a distance of less than a hundred feet from one another. It was easy to calculate how deep each shaft ought to be, so as to bring the bottom of the tunnel to the level which it was intended to give to it. These numerous shafts also facilitated the running off of the water on account of the pressure of the air, and at the same time rendered access to the tunnel easy. On any other plan only few persons could have been employed at a time, whereas now from every shaft two parties worked in opposite directions and broke through the rock. This working of different parties towards one another also insured their keeping the exact level. This tunnel, which was the admiration even of ancient Rome, has now existed for a period of 2500 years; it is still entire, and will exist in all time to come, unless some great revolution of the earth shall break it to pieces. The Roman cloacae are of the same character, and will endure until the last day of the earth. There are many such tunnels in the Roman territory, of which at present the advantages alone are perceptible, but whence they carry the waters can no longer be ascertained. Such is the case near lake Nemi: the whole valley of Aricia was formerly a lake, which is now perfectly drained. There, too, a great thing was effected by a little tunnel: the valley of Aricia is one of the most fertile in the world, and is still the same as it is described by Pliny. The fertility in Italy is so great that wheat, unless it is weeded, cannot grow; agriculture there requires a degree of industry of which we have no idea; if any one were to introduce there the system of Flemish or English agriculture, it would lead to ruin.

The Vallis Albana is the modern valley of Grotta Ferrata.

In the east of Latium, in its narrower sense, we have the towns of

The Hernicans.

We know only five of them; Anagnia was the capital, to which the others were opposed as a political body. We here again find a parallel phenomenon: the same relation which existed between Alba and the Albensian towns, and between Rome and the Latin towns, appears to have existed between Anagnia and the towns of the Hernicans. This is briefly, but officially, alluded to in the Triumphal Fasti, where Q. Marcius Tremulus triumphs de Anagninis Hernicisque. The other towns were Frusino, Ferentinum, Verulae, and Alatrium. There can, however, be no doubt that they had more towns; some must have been taken from them by the Volscians and Aequians, while others may have continued to exist, but decayed and perished, so that we have no information about them. Livy, in speaking of the last war against the Hernicans, says, omnes Hernici nominis populi, except three. I have a conjecture which is a combination of several traces, and according to which their number was forty. All the five above-mentioned places still exist; they are generally small and poor, with the exception of Anagnia, which is a place of some consequence; but all of them are still imposing on account of their ruins and their mighty Cyclopean walls, in which towers and gates are still preserved.

Servius, on the Aeneid, and the ancient Scholia on Virgil, fragments of which were published about ten years ago by A. Mai from a Veronese MS., state that the name Hernici is derived from the Sabine word hernae, which Arndt very happily compares with the Swiss firn (mountain); as there exists a radical affinity between the two languages, such a comparison is certainly admissible. According to this, the Hernicans were a Sabine or Marsian colony. Another statement, however, though of very weak authority, in Julius Hyginus, makes the Hernicans Pelasgians. If we consider that the Sabines pressed forward at a comparatively late period, perhaps about the time of the foundation of Rome, and that the Hernicans dwelt on the other side of the Oscan nation of the Aequians, it is probable that the Hernicans, like the Latins, were of Tyrrhenian origin. An etymology like that mentioned before is very captivating, and it is not easy to get rid of it; but if we ask ourselves, What is the ground of the derivation? How could the name come from their habitations? Did the other Sabines call them Hernicans in the same manner in which the Scotch Lowlanders call the Gael in the mountains Highlanders? It is possible that the name Hernicans is only a surname to another national name; they may, in this case, have belonged to a different race, and have received that surname from the Sabines. That a people should call itself mountaineers from its habitations is very surprising. The derivation may be very accidental: in like manner the Thuringians might be said to owe their name to the old word Taure, which signifies “mountain.” If we assume that the Hernicans were Tyrrhenians, they occupied exactly the district in which they could have maintained themselves against the shock of the Ausonians, who were pressed on by the Sabines. But nothing decisive can be said on this point, we can only form conjectures; and we must carefully distinguish between what is conjectural and what is certain.⁠[33]⁠

There is no occasion for saying anything more about the towns of the Hernicans which I have mentioned. On the side of a rock, near the town of Ferentinum, there still exists a fragment of a will engraved in the stone. A wealthy citizen leaves a legacy, and fixes the interest of his landed property. The late Madame Dionigi, who made a drawing of it and published it, states that two of the pieces of land still exist in that district and bear the same name. A great many things of this kind continue to exist in some parts of Italy from ancient times; he who lives there in intimate familiarity with every-day affairs, and who does not mind spending months in those places, may recover the past to an extent which we believe altogether impossible.

The Hernicans formed part of the Roman and Latin confederacy, and had their share in the Feriae Latinae. In ancient times they were allied with Rome on equal terms, and shared with her and Latium all that they conquered in war. Afterwards this alliance was broken up, as I shall show in the second volume of my History,⁠[34] because being weak and powerless, they could no longer claim their former rights. After the Gallic calamity, when Rome had fallen, they made themselves independent, and thirty years later the ancient treaty was renewed, and remained in force for fifty years, to the great advantage of the Hernicans. They were a small people, which did not extend, while Rome enlarged her dominion immensely. Hence the Romans demanded that the relation which had hitherto subsisted between them should be discontinued. In consequence of this, a war arose between them and the Hernicans, in which the latter had reason bitterly to repent their presumption.

The Volscians and Aequians.

Both these Ausonian nations lived within the boundaries of Latium in its wider sense. The Volscians were subdivided into smaller parts, the Antiatan, Ecetranian, and other Volscians without any definite name. All the coast towns, as far as the upper Liris, were Volscian, as e.g. Anxur or Terracina, Privernum, Sora, Arpinum, Fabrataria, Fregellae, etc. The Aequians, on the other hand, dwelt on the one side as far as Praeneste, and on the other as far as lake Fucinus in the north. The Aequians and Volscians are almost always mentioned together, just as Romans and Latins, whence it is probable that isopolity existed between the two nations. Every man belonging to one nation might take up his abode among the other with which it was in isopolity: he there enjoyed higher rights than an alien; he was not, indeed, a full citizen, but a free member of the community; he was what was termed in the middle ages a pale-burgher. This is a relation which, on the whole, is seldom rightly understood by German jurists, and even by K. F. Eichhorn, who, in other respects, is a man of the greatest merit in matters of German law. Such an isopolity must have existed between the Aequians and Volscians; but besides this, they must have had another political connection, for a large party of the Aequians very frequently made common cause with a numerous body of the Volscians.

It is an important point to decide, as to whether the Volscians always inhabited the towns on the coast from Antium as far as Terracina, which are called Volscian, or whether they took possession of them as conquerors. At first I shared in the general error, thinking that they had always been Volscian; afterwards, I began to doubt—the first step towards truth—and to consider the possibility of its being otherwise; and now I am convinced that the country was originally inhabited by Tyrrhenians, that it was afterwards conquered by the Volscians, and that this event did not occur till after the banishment of the kings. All the places on the coast from Terracina to Antium, as well as Velitrae in the interior, were once Pelasgian, and may be justly called Latin, this being the ancient and common name. Receive this result of my inquiries with confidence; there is no danger of your being mistaken. In like manner, the Aequians extended their dominion in the direction of the Latins and Hernicans at the expense of both.

All the Volscians did not form one common state: the people of Arpinum, Sora, Anxur, Formiae, and Fundi may, at the time of their first conquest, have mutually assisted one another; but when their possessions were secured, when Antium and Ecetrae had become Volscian, the towns situated farther behind probably did not exert themselves for the other Volscian places.

In regard to the Aequians, it would almost seem, as if they had formed one compact state, although each of the several towns could, by itself, do little or nothing; scarcely one of them is deserving of notice. If we possessed the ancient commentaries on the Aeneid, we should know a great deal more about the ethnography and chorography of those parts. Virgil speaks of Nersae as one of the principal towns of the Aequians: et te montosae misere in proelia Nersae;⁠[35] editors have unwarrantably changed this into Nursae, and referred it to Nursia, which is an Umbrian town in the Apennines beyond the Sabines, to which the Aequians never penetrated. People will not own, that there are things of which they know nothing. The books of Servius unfortunately have come down to us only in a wretched abridgment: if we examine the first two books, of which we have the original, we cannot but feel respect for Servius as a great grammarian. In like manner, the name of mount Vesulus—in the illustration of the boar inhabiting the marshes of the valley of Laurentum and the heights of Vesulus—has been senselessly referred to a hill near the sources of the Padus.⁠[36] The hill must have been in the neighbourhood of Laurentum, in a district which Virgil knew very well, and which must afterwards have lost its name. I can well imagine what kind of a place Vesulus may have been, but it was most assuredly not a glacier of the Alps. This is one specimen of the perverse manner in which Virgil has been commented upon; an able commentary on the Aeneid, not too diffuse, has yet to be written; in regard to the Eclogues and the Georgics, Voss has done everything that can be desired.

The Aequians extended as far as lake Fucinus. When in the middle of the fifth century the Romans subdued them, they destroyed nearly fifty of their places, and forced the franchise upon them. Afterwards they obtained favourable terms and fair treatment, but the first shock of the war was terrible.

In the second and third books of Livy, the Volscians and Aequians generally come in contact with each other on mount Algidus. There are different opinions as to what mountain is meant by this name; scholars commonly rely on a passage in the Itineraries, where a place Algidus or Algidum is mentioned. The district is now never visited, because it is the haunt of fearful robbers; however, after I had left Italy, a friend of mine visited and described the localities. Between the countries of the Latins and Hernicans, there was a high and cold table land, locus algidus, not hills in the proper sense, but a rugged district covered with wood (ilex). At present there remain but slight traces of that forest, which is a little to the north of Velitrae. As the Aequians and Volscians were contiguous there, they separated the Hernicans from the Romans and Latins, and thus were pernicious to the latter. According to these statements, you will have no difficulty in finding the situation of mount Algidus in your maps.

Antium was a Volscian place; I do not mean to say that the whole population consisted of Volscians, but it had received a Volscian colony, which gave the prevailing name; as Virgil says, Tusco de sanguine vires, so we may say of Antium, Volsco de sanguine vires. In ancient times, Antium was an important maritime and commercial place, but also the haunt of pirates; afterwards it became a colonia maritima, that is, its inhabitants were bound to serve in maritime war, and on extraordinary emergencies; they had the Roman franchise, but not the right of voting. The place was greatly favoured, and in the course of time became the emporium of the whole Latin country; its harbour was much better than that of any of the other towns on the same coast, such as Laurentum and Lavinium, which had only road-steads. At a later time, it was artificially improved, a circumstance which had become necessary, for the mud of the Tiber, which was carried along the coast, filled up the harbour. Afterwards Antium was one of those places, in which the wealthy Roman nobles were fond of taking up their summer residence, especially during the first century after Christ. Nero changed it into a military colony, but of an irregular kind.

Terracina or Anxur, was a large and ancient Tyrrhenian city; Anxur is acknowledged to be its Volscian name. Its double name alone leads to the supposition that the place had a mixed population.

Ecetrae, one of the central points of the Volscian population, must be looked for in the interior of the country, above the Pontine marshes, and not far from Ferentinum. It afterwards entirely disappears like so many other places in that district. I cannot explain this otherwise, than by supposing that the Romans have drawn a veil over the Samnite wars. The time when so many places were destroyed there, must have been that when the Samnites penetrated into the heart of Latium.

The Volscians, like the Aequians, belonged the Ausonian race, of which I have spoken in the general survey of the Italian nations. If you compare the names, you will find that the Opicans and Apulians were one and the same people, and that the names of the ancient Italian nations have undergone various changes without a difference in meaning. Thus the Aequi are also called Aequani, Aequuli, and Aequiculi, all of which are one and the same name, just as Graeci and Graeculi, and Hispani and Hispalli, which were originally used without any difference of meaning. The Aequians and Volscians, as I said before, belonged to this Oscan or Ausonian race, to which Latin writers also give the name Aurunci, while the Greeks call them Ausones. The same name often has a general signification, and sometimes again it is applied only to a special part, just as Thessalians sometimes signifies the inhabitants of the country of Thessaly, and sometimes the population of Cyzicus, Ravenna, and Agylla, without there being any necessity of thinking of colonisation. In the same manner, Auruncans or Opicans are both the name of the whole race, and at the same time the name of separate portions. This changeableness in the use of names renders the survey of the history of ancient nations difficult, as the ancients themselves never express an opinion on this twofold meaning, and as those whose works are extant, are often themselves in error about it.

The Volscians, thus regarded as a portion of the Ausonians or Auruncans, extended from the Apennines in the neighbourhood of Arpinum along the Liris, south of the Hernicans as far as the coast of Antium. But there can be no doubt that they dwelt farther east, and the migration of the Cascans and Priscans was certainly owing to a commotion among that race. The Aeneid contains many traces of the original population of Latium, as for example, when the poet says, Memini Auruncos ita ferre senes.⁠[37]⁠

I have already spoken of the Volscians on the coast, of Antium, Terracina, and of the Ecetrani, whose name is often mentioned in history, but whose town is not spoken of anywhere; from one passage of Livy⁠[38] alone, it may be inferred that it was situated near Ferentinum: it is possible that it may have been taken from the Hernicans by the Volscians. The population of such towns must never be conceived to have been totally changed. The Gauls, and similar uncivilised nations, sometimes did extirpate the ancient population; but people like the Romans and Volscians only settled as colonists among a conquered population, taking a part of its territory for themselves, either for the purpose of cultivating it themselves or of changing the former owners into coloni. Such also was the case with the population of Antium, as I have already mentioned. In the second volume of my Roman History, I shall explain, what in Livy’s history is quite inconceivable, namely, how it happens that Antium appears as a thoroughly Volscian town, which can be accounted for only by the idea we form of the power of the Volscian colonists. Livy is not the only cause of the confusion, but the annalists of the seventh century also have their share in it. If we had but Fabius, we might safely say, that we required no further deductions to discover the ancient relation, which in his work was undoubtedly quite clear and obvious.

Fundi and Formiae likewise belong to those Volscian towns established on ancient Tyrrhenian foundations; but Arpinum, the birth-place of Marius and Cicero, is the most immortal among the Volscian towns. The present circumference of the walls shows that it was a large and strong place. This town, impelled by necessity, remained faithful to the Romans when they were hard pressed by the Samnites.

Fregellae is found in our maps in the vicinity of Arpinum, and not far from the Liris. It is remarkable in history, and its first occurrence in Livy throws considerable light upon the course of events. It was a Volscian town, and was destroyed by the Samnites; the Romans then, contrary to the ordinary Italian law of nations, sent a colony into it. The Samnites, who were allied with the Romans, denied their right to establish a colony there. This was one of the chief causes of the second Samnite war. The Samnites, however, were wrong in claiming it, for Fregellae was the key to the Via Latina, and hence the security of the Roman frontier demanded that the place should be in the hands of the Romans: to the Samnites it was a point of attack, to the Romans it was a means of defence; unless, therefore, the Samnites intended to make war upon the Romans, they were wrong in opposing its occupation by the Romans. Such circumstances must be taken into consideration, in deciding upon the justice or injustice of a question. It is difficult to comprehend how that town rose to such extraordinary power. Pyrrhus conquered it, and it suffered greatly; but from the last book of Livy we see that thousands of Sabellian families, Samnites, Pelignians, and others had settled there. This circumstance, however, was followed by consequences unfortunate for Fregellae. The numerical increase made the town proud, and during the disputes between the Latin colonies and Rome, it claimed to be at their head. Encouraged by the measures of the Gracchi, it obstinately demanded the franchise long before the Italicans came forward. On the whole, ancient history presents many parallels to modern history, sometimes they occur on a larger scale in antiquity and sometimes in modern times. The relation here alluded to is that of the Irish in their connection with England. When Ireland, in 1782, demanded its independence, the Anglicans in their claims against England, went far beyond the Roman Catholics and the other dissenters, and they alone gained advantages. A small parallel in comparison with the great one in antiquity occurs at Geneva, in the relation between the bourgeoisie of the suburb St. Gervais to the citoyens of the old town, where the natifs had all the real power, while the habitans possessed only very little. Fregellae, then, stood at the head of the Latin colonies, and looked with pride upon its power; its inhabitants believed that Rome would not allow matters to come to extremes, and if they should come to that, they counting the population of the Latin colonies found that they were stronger than Rome by many hundred thousands: they thought that they might oppose the Romans, degraded by freedmen and poverty, with an able force of free country people. But the result was quite different. Rome acted with cunning: the Italian allies had not yet made up their minds, and did not yet take part in the interests of the Latins, thinking that the Latin colonies would take care of themselves alone, and that, if it should come to a war, they would become reconciled with Rome, and leave the Italian allies to settle their affairs as best they could. Even the other colonies showed no common interest, perhaps because they were jealous of Fregellae, or they hesitated because they were so much scattered among the Umbrians, Etruscans, etc., and for that reason were wanting in courage. Fregellae thus stood alone: it was conquered and destroyed by L. Opimius, and never restored. Fabrataria, another colony, was established in its vicinity.

The Latin colonies, Interamnium, Sora, and Casinum, formed a complete chain of fortresses in the same district. It was partly before the outbreak of the second Samnite war, and partly during its progress, that the Romans were anxiously bent upon establishing fortified places; and these measures made them as secure as France was by its frontier fortresses. Their frontier was thus very effectually protected against the Samnites, for all those fortresses were planned with great sagacity. The Samnites, who, besides their unsatisfactory constitution, had no fortresses, were thus weak, and the Roman army could enter Samnium without meeting with any obstacle. They were not inferior to the Romans in bravery, but were nevertheless conquered by them, because they were not agreed as to the manner in which the war should be carried on. It is pitiable to see how the excellent people year after year became more unhappy, because they could not raise themselves above their traditionary prejudices, though their salvation depended upon it.

Campania.

This name has likewise different meanings. In the Roman sense, it is the country of the Campanians, as Samnium is the country of the Samnites; but the Campanians (on coins they are called Capani) are the inhabitants of Capa or Capua. In this sense Campania is a country of small extent, comprising Capua and the neighbouring places, Atella, Acerrae, Saticula, Calatia, Abella, Casilinum, Vulturnum, and Linternum. All these places were situated on the south of the Vulturnus, with the exception of Saticula; the ager Falernus, between the Vulturnus and Liris, however, likewise belonged to Campania. The Greeks, on the other hand, applied the name Campanians to all the nations of southern Italy belonging to the Oscan race, and this accounts for the fact that the name Campania was also used in a wider sense. This, however, occurs only in later times; and the extent of country which is marked Campania in all our maps, even in those of D’Anville, was not generally so designated until the time of Augustus. The name then embraced the whole country between the Vulturnus, the Liris, and the heights of the Apennines about Arpinum and Aquinum, so as to include Cales and Teanum,—in one word, all the Oscan tribes north of the Vulturnus as far as the frontier of the Volscians. I think I have already observed, in the account of the division of Italy into regions, that the expression Campania Romae was used as early as the fourth or fifth century of our era; it is found in the abridgment of Servius, which, however, was made in the seventh century. The name Champagne has quite a different origin, probably from campus, a plain, whence Campi Catalaunici, which also comprise the foreign immigrants such as the Goths and others.

You must bear in mind this difference of meaning, in order that in reading the ancients, e.g., Livy, you may not fall into the mistake of believing that Campania is the name for the country which is so marked in our maps.

Advancing from the Liris, we come upon Ausonian tribes and Cales, which, according to Livy, was an Auruncian town. It was conquered by the Romans in the interval between the great Latin and the second Samnite war, and received a Roman colony.

Teanum was a town of the Sidicines, likewise an Ausonian people. That northern district between the Vulturnus and the Liris, which did not extend as far as the mountains, is one of the most delightful and fertile countries; it is not, indeed, as productive as southern Campania, the agri lugubres Campaniae, the πεδία Φλεγραῖα, the coast country from Terracina to Gaeta and Formiae, where a man has the feeling as if he were in a paradise full of the most indescribable beauties—I was there in the month of March, when spring was already displaying all its loveliness; the summer, too, is not so scorching as in the neighbourhood of Rome, for the country is well watered, and that even in the middle of summer;—but the neighbourhood of Teanum is a most delightful hilly country, with a beauty and richness of trees which form a great contrast with those of Latium. This was the country of the Falernian and Classic wines. Teanum, according to Strabo, was a large town; but the present ruins do not show many traces of that greatness, though the silver coins which are found there show that Strabo is correct.

The Liris deserves the name of taciturnus amnis; it has no strong current, except in winter, when the heights are covered with snow. The Vulturnus is quite different; descending from the neighbouring hills it has a strong current; but it is not a beautiful river, being extremely muddy. It is, however, a pleasure to see the active flow of its waters. On its banks was situated

Casilinum, on the site of the modern Capua, which is celebrated for the extraordinary defence of the Praenestine cohort against Hannibal: the perseverance of a besieged town is always interesting, and excites veneration. The garrison murdered the Campanian inhabitants, that the provisions might last so much longer. Hannibal took the place, and after that time it is not often mentioned again. The situation on the Via Appia somewhat raised its importance in the time of the emperors; its means of subsistence, as was the case with all places on high roads, were derived from commerce.

If we compare the present condition of Italy with what it was in ancient times, say under Nero or at the time of Pliny, there can be no doubt that Rome itself is only a shadow of what it then was; I have calculated that its population then amounted to from 600,000 to 700,000 souls. But the territory around Rome was in those days far more desolate than it is now: it is at present more thickly peopled, better cultivated, and happier. Under the later emperors the country may have somewhat recovered; in the fourth century, previously to the plague under Gallienus, it may have had a larger population, and so also in the time of Theodosius. But I entirely agree with Hume, against Wallace, that the population of Italy in antiquity was far less numerous than at present, except in Rome itself. Naples was then only a country town, of about 20,000 or 30,000 inhabitants, while at present it has 400,000. But notwithstanding all this, Italy possessed incomparably more wealth than at present, so that a small town was of much greater importance than one at present with a far larger population; a third-rate town, for example, was illustrious for its works of art to a much greater extent than any modern town of any country.

The name Capua is now transferred to the town built upon the ruins of Casilinum; ancient Capua was destroyed by the Saracens during the Lombardic period: its ruins can still be recognised; and among them the remains of an amphitheatre are particularly remarkable; but no ancient Campanian ruins are found there. I never was there, because at the time the country was not safe, and there are no high roads in those parts: I was a whole month at Naples, but was too much engaged to go to Capua. The inhabitants of the district are reported to form a band of robbers, and many a one is said to have had sad experience there. Notorious districts of this kind, however, are different at different times: you may often go to such a place without exposing yourself to any particular danger, while at other times it would be madness to approach it. During my residence at Rome, e.g., it was impossible to visit mount Algidus, whereas at present I have no doubt whatever that a person may go there without any danger. Capua is regarded by the ancients as an Etruscan colony, but we have every reason for supposing that it never was Etruscan. There is, in all probability, some confusion here between Etruscan and Tyrrhenian, because the Etruscans occupied the country of the Tyrrhenians as far as the Tiber, and the name of the latter must have been confounded with the former; the other places on the coast, unless they were Greek, were likewise Tyrrhenian. The name of this Tyrrhenian Capua is compared by the ancient grammarians with Campi, the name of the Pelasgian Chaonians. The town was taken, about the middle of the third century of the Roman era, by the Oscans, who were pressed onward by the Sabellians. At that time the district was under the supremacy of Cumae. But the Oscans did not remain long in the undisturbed possession of the place; the Sabellians having once established themselves in Samnium, did not stop short there, but pressing onward, compelled the Oscans at Capua to enter into an arrangement with them, and to admit a portion of them as epoeci—a phenomenon not unusual in ancient times. But such an alliance was generally formed with faithless intentions, and either the ancient inhabitants murdered the conquerors, or the latter expelled the former: at Capua the Samnites made themselves masters of the city, but they seem either to have been expelled by the ancient population, or else to have become amalgamated with them. The Oscans had, perhaps, become a commonalty, and afterwards rose again; in the Roman period, at least, the Oscans are the ruling people at Capua. The greatness of the city is well known from Livy: it stood to Rome in the relation of isopolity; it had not submitted in deditionem, as is erroneously stated by Livy: its relation to Rome was the same as that of the ancient Latins, and as a compensation for the Roman conquests, it received an extension of its own territory. In these circumstances, Capua could with satisfaction look upon herself as the second city of Italy; but she was ambitious enough to wish to become the first, and with this view, faithlessly entered into an alliance with Hannibal against Rome, which was then in great distress, but had not broken its obligations towards Capua. We may say without hesitation, that Rome was generous towards Capua, and this was no trifling matter for Rome in its weakness: Rome then formed alliances which benefited other people. As Rome had grown and developed immensely, while the others had remained behind, and as Rome, nevertheless, acted towards them as before, we cannot help calling this generous, and the conduct of Capua unjust and ungrateful. A fearful judgment came upon Capua: it was not, indeed, destroyed, but the Campanians, especially the nobles, experienced a terrible fate. The city was afterwards again filled with all manner of people, and became a domain of the Roman republic. Subsequently, several unsuccessful attempts were made to establish a colony there, until J. Caesar founded one of 5000⁠[39] Roman citizens. From this time forward Capua was a regular colony, and remained a respectable town as long as the Roman empire existed.

Minturnae, near the mouth of the Liris, and Sinuessa, belong to Campania in its wider sense; both are prominent places in the system of fortifications which the Romans carried out during the second Samnite war.

The Falernian District, between the Vulturnus and the Liris, probably derived its name from a destroyed town, Faleria.

The Oscan towns around Capua probably stood to that city in the same relation as Latium did to Rome. Among them I will notice Atella, between Capua and Naples, because the well-known Atellanae originated there. These Atellane farces are truly analogous to the modern farcical comedies, the principal personage of which also appeared in the ancient Atellanae. In a very useful glossary of the Neapolitan dialect, I found it stated, that the buffoon (pulcinella) was a real jester who lived 200 years ago; but the fact is, that he has been the same through the course of many centuries from the first introduction of the Atellanae.

Acerrae deserves to be mentioned on account of the cruelty of which Hannibal was guilty towards its senate—the only cruel act that can be really laid to his charge. The town was destroyed in the second Punic war, and the Romans did nothing to restore it, although it had been faithfully attached to their cause.

Nola was situated at a greater distance from Capua, and was not one of the Campanian towns properly so called; it was independent, and in no way subordinate to Capua. It might be doubted whether it was really an Oscan town; in Justin it is called a Chalcidian settlement, and I have no doubt that the whole chapter in which this occurs is taken from Timaeus. The coins of Nola have a perfectly Greek character and Greek inscriptions; this is indeed the case with those of Capua also, though not in the same degree as with those of Nola. My opinion is, that these places were originally Tuscan, and that during invasions of the Oscans and Sabellians, Capua lost this Tusco-Tyrrhenian character, while Nola retained it longer. If then the Greeks call the latter place Chalcidian, they do so because it received Greek, probably Chalcidian, epoeci from Naples, and not barbarians. All these towns were situated in the midst of barbarians, who, for the purpose of commercial transactions, even advanced to the Greek towns on the coast, and accordingly much more to a place which, like Nola, was situated in the midst of the country. Nola was built in that splendid plain of Campania, which extends between the Vulturnus and Naples: it is a perfect plain, with quite a volcanic soil; notwithstanding this, however, it is not dry, but very well watered, and almost marshy, whence the country abounds in draining canals lined with poplars. Nola, situated on the other side of mount Vesuvius, whose torrents of lava never reach so far, forms with Capua and Naples a triangle. In the second Samnite war it appears to have been an important town, for it sent 2000 men to Naples to defend that place against Rome; but in the course of the same war it was taken by the Romans. In the Hannibalian war, the fidelity of Nola was of infinite importance to Rome. At Nola the most beautiful Campanian vases have been found: they are made of an extremely fine clay; but they ceased to be manufactured as early as the time of Augustus, for the art of making them had been lost. They were made of clay mixed with asphalt, and then burnt, but so slightly that the asphalt was not changed by the process, hence the lightness and extraordinary fineness of the material. The darkness of the colour arises from the admixture of asphalt. Professor Hausmann of Göttingen first re-discovered the nature of the composition, and the experiments he made with it which were perfectly successful. This is really an interesting discovery, of which good use might be made, if not in Germany, at least in Italy. The art had died away to such a degree, that in Caesar’s time amateurs collected vases from Capua as well as from Corinth, and even opened tombs for the purpose of obtaining them. The vases of Arretium continued to be manufactured in the time of Augustus. The Campanian vases are not jars containing the ashes of deceased persons, such as we find elsewhere in tombs: the body was not burnt, but the skeletons are found in coffins, and on each side of the coffin, four, six, or eight vases of this kind are set up. As they were so slightly burnt, they are often found broken and crumbled, and it is a rare thing to find a large one preserved entire. They must be treated with great care, when brought to light and exposed to the atmospheric air.

Cumae is the most ancient Greek colony in those parts, though it certainly cannot be as ancient as it is said to be. In the first edition of my Roman History, I had not sufficiently considered this point; it is one of the few subjects on which the objections raised against my view are well founded. I am now convinced, that the statement of Timaeus, for to him it belongs, is false. Certain it is, that Cumae was an ancient Chalcidian colony; but it might even be doubted whether the Chalcidian towns in Sicily were not more ancient. When Capua was taken by the Samnites, Cumae, too, was conquered, and lost its Greek character: the Greek population, which until then had formed the ruling class, became subjects; their fate was that of the American aborigines: they were not indeed extirpated, but lost their political existence. Gradually the Italicans spread more and more, and many families from Campania removed to Cumae, which thus gradually became Italian. The same also was the fate of Naples, though not to such a degree. Cumae for a long time ruled over the whole Phlegraean plain, that is, the Acte between the Vulturnus and mount Vesuvius. Dicaearchia, on the site of the modern Puzzuoli, was then the port town of Cumae. In the time of king Darius, it was colonised by Samians, probably in the reign of Polycrates and Syloson.

Another Greek colony from Eretria had settled in the island of Ischia, which bore the Greek name Αἰναρία. It is a large extinct volcano, which, however, has repeatedly been active both in ancient and in modern times; for the island is remarkable for its internal fire, which is not yet quite extinct, and is still distinctly perceptible; hence it also contains hot springs; it is a truly paradise-like place on account of the fiery character of its whole nature, its soil, and its vegetation. The Greek colony afterwards disappears, and the island became Oscan simultaneously with Cumae.

Between Ischia and the main land of Naples, there are several other islands, which were no doubt called Pithecusae. One of them is Nesis (the modern Nisita), that is, the little island (νησίς), a proof showing how early the modern Greek pronunciation of the η became prevalent. The ancients do not mention it.⁠[40] Another island was Prochyta. All these islands had Eretrian colonies.

Dicaearchia was a beautiful port, which was, no doubt, likewise taken by Campanians. After the capture of Capua, it came into the hands of the Romans, who established a Roman colony there, and called it Puteoli, though this name may have existed previously. The place then became the real port of Rome, for Ostia was bad, and the Portus Romanus on the right arm of the Tiber was not fit for sea-ships. The port of Puteoli, on the other hand, was naturally very beautiful, and even in the time of Augustus pains were taken to make use of the nature of the locality for the purpose of extending the port. Puzzolano, so excellent as a cement for water and harbour-works, was ready at hand in abundance, and in the greatest perfection. In the neighbourhood of Rome it is likewise found, but is not so beautiful; near Centumcellae, it was also employed in making the harbour, but it had to be conveyed thither from a distance. Its abundance in the neighbourhood led to the building of the molo of Puteoli. This moles of Caligula is in reality not so mad a scheme as it is commonly described: it was suggested by the wishes of rational people, but its gigantic extent was the work of madness: when ever Caligula took up a good idea, he at once turned it into something irrational. The whole commerce and intercourse of Rome with her transmarine provinces at that time was carried on by way of Puteoli; and it was there that St. Paul landed, for the voyage along the coast from cape Misenum to the mouth of the Tiber was very dangerous. The ships of that period were in many respects excellent, but in others they were very deficient. It must be supposed that at Puteoli the ships were generally so far unladen as to enable them to sail into the Tiber at Ostia; they also found at Puteoli more easily than on the Tiber, advantageous cargoes to carry back. So long as commerce supplied only the actual wants, so that there was little or no speculation, it was carried on by means of large fleets, or, according to the modern expression, of register vessels. In this way, Rome received from Egypt her supplies of corn, glass, linen, and papyrus. Such fleets, however, did not come from Egypt alone, but also from other quarters, among which Ionia, for example, is expressly mentioned. The expression for these fleets is κατάπλους, as we see from Lucian’s dialogue of this name; but the term is also quite commonly used by Latin writers of the second and third century.⁠[41] Puteoli, as a Roman colony, was very celebrated on account of its situation and at the same time as a watering-place. Pope Gregory the Great quite seriously thinks that the hot springs of Puteoli are connected with purgatory.⁠[42]⁠

The real watering-place, however, was Baiae, towards cape Misenum. It is very remarkable that at present the district is quite pestilential; if a man were to sleep there one night during the summer, he would be seized with a bilious fever, in consequence of the poisonous air. A French officer, who imagined this to be a mere prejudice, made a bet that he would sleep in the villa Borghese: he was urgently requested not to do it, but the next morning he was quite swollen, and after a few days he died of a putrid fever. The same is the case at Baiae, and yet the ancients, as we see from a fragment of Cicero’s speech in Clodium et Curionem, most commonly stayed there in April, when it is already dangerous. I have discovered the explanation of all this, from a conversation with a common man. He said to me that the nature of the Pontine marshes was a very strange thing, that it was not possible for any one in summer to sleep there without fatal consequences, and that it was the same in many parts of Latium; but, he added, that to his own knowledge sailors and boatmen, even in the dangerous season, slept in their boats very near the coast without injuring their health. This proves that the poisonous atmosphere does not extend across the water. The man’s remarks contain a significant hint. I remembered that the English ambassador, with whom I often took a walk there—he was not a man of learning—directed my attention to the fact, that beyond mount Posilipo, in the midst of the sea, ruins of ancient Roman houses were found, and he observed that the Romans must have had a singular taste in thus building houses in the midst of the water, and connected with the mainland by means of bridges, although there was no beauty to attract them. To abandon such a charming coast, and to build a house in the sea, was, he thought, a strange fancy. When, afterwards, I heard the account of the man I mentioned before, the matter ceased to be a mystery to me. Even at Formiae, and certainly at Baiae, the Romans built houses into the sea, in order to isolate themselves from the bad air: these are the moles jactae in altum, and on them people were safe.

The country there is indescribably beautiful and charming, and besides Baiae, the lake Avernus, surrounded by very ancient forests, is likewise a spot of great interest. Near it, a road has been cut through the rock leading to Cumae. Such roads were often constructed for the purpose of shortening the distance and avoiding the heights, for the Romans generally endeavoured by every means to shorten the roads. A similar road leads from Naples to Puzzuoli, likewise made to avoid a hill, which it would be very difficult to cross: hence the crypta Pausilippana, Puteolana, Neapolitana.⁠[43] The Avernus was, no doubt, originally called ἄορνος, and with the digamma ἄϝορνος. This etymology has been rejected, because it implied the statement that birds could not fly over the lake, which, it is said, is an absurdity. But no bird settles there without dying in consequence, on account of the quantity of carbonic acid which is exhaled by the earth and the lake; dogs, too, are not safe there, but men may pass without any danger.

Naples⁠[44] was originally called Parthenope, and was, no doubt, situated on mount Posilipo, towards Nisita, where the crypta turns towards the cape. Afterwards, Neapolis was built a few miles from it on the other side of the cape; and it is a mistake to believe that the two places were nearer each other. Parthenope was a colony of the Eretrians of Ischia, while Neapolis was a Cumaean settlement with an admixture of Athenians; and after the establishment of the latter place, Parthenope was called Palaepolis. In the second Samnite war, Palaepolis was taken by the Romans, and must have been destroyed, for it entirely disappears; Neapolis, on the other hand, became a federate town of Rome, and was treated with kindness. Strabo, however, relates, that the town was so much distracted by internal disturbances, as to be obliged to concede the franchise even to the Campanians, its natural enemies. But notwithstanding all this, it remained a perfectly Greek city until the imperial times; this is evident in the reign of Augustus, evident from a letter of the emperor M. Aurelius to Fronto, and evident, also, from Petronius; there exists, moreover, a great number of Greek inscriptions of the third century. Afterwards, we lose our thread. But the chapel of the ancient church of S. Rosa at Naples contains Greek inscriptions of the period when Naples was a free city, under the protectorate of Byzantium, that is, of the seventh or eighth century.⁠[45] Traces of Greek words still exist in the Neapolitan dialect. The Italian word golf is evidently formed from κόλπος; the gulf of Naples is specially called the gulf; but the ancients also called it κρατήρ.

On this gulf, at the foot of mount Vesuvius, were situated the celebrated towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, remarkable for their destruction and their re-discovery. Both are called Oscan, though it is said in regard to Herculaneum, that at an earlier period it was Tyrrhenian. But from their ruins, especially those of Herculaneum when compared with those of Roman origin, it is clear that the place had assumed an entirely Greek character. Pompeii was conquered by the Romans in the Social War, and there, too, we can clearly distinguish the ancient Oscan and the more recent Roman town.