have any national existence, the name of Latium is still not unfrequently used, as equivalent to "nomen Latinum," to designate the whole body of those who possessed the rights of Latins, and were therefore still called Latini, though no longer in a national sense. The suggestion of a modern writer (Abeken, Mittel Italien, p. 42) that Latium is derived from "latus," broad, and means the broad plain or expanse of the Campagna (like Campania from "Campus"), appears to be untenable, on account of the difference in the quantity of the first syllable, notwithstanding the analogy of Tλaròs, which has the first syllable short. II. EXTENT AND BOUNDARIES. The name of Latium was applied at different periods in a very different extent and signification. Originally, as already pointed out, it meant the land of the Latini; and as long as that people retained their independent national existence, the name of Latium could only be applied to the territory possessed by them, exclusive of that of the Hernici, Aequians, Volscians, &c., who were at that period independent and often hostile nations. It was not till these separate nationalities had been merged into the common condition of subjects and citizens of Rome that the name of Latium came to be extended to all the territory which they had previously occupied; and was thus applied, first in common parlance, and afterwards in official usage, to the whole region from the borders of Etruria to those of Campania, or from the Tiber to the Liris. Hence we must carefully distinguish between Latium in the original sense of the name, in which alone it occurs throughout the early Roman history, and Latium in this later or geographical sense; and it will be necessary here to treat of the two quite separately. The period at which the latter usage of the name came into vogue we have no means of determining: we know only that it was fully established before the time of Augustus, and is recognised by all the geographers. (Strab. v. pp. 228, 231; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. §§ 5, 6.) Pliny designates the original Latium, or Latium properly so called, as Latium Antiquum, to which he opposes the newly added portions, as Latium Adjectum. It may, however, be doubted whether these appellations were ever adopted in common use, though convenient as geographical distinctions. 1. LATIUM ANTIQUUM, or Latium in the original and historical sense, was a country of small extent, bounded by the Tiber on the N., by the Apennines on the E., and by the Tyrrhenian sea on the W.; while on the S. its limits were not defined by any natural boundaries, and appear to have fluctuated considerably at different periods. Pliny defines it as extending from the mouth of the Tiber to the Circeian promontory, a statement confirmed by Strabo (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Strab. v. p. 231); and we have other authority also for the fact that at an early period all the tract of marshy plain, known as the Pontine Marshes or Pomptinus Ager," extending from Velitrae and Antium to Circeii, was inhabited by Latins, and regarded as a part of Latium. (Cato, ap. Priscian. v. p. 668.) Even of the adjoining mountain tract, subsequently occupied by the Volscians, a part at least must have been originally Latin, for Cora, Norba, and Setia were all of them Latin cities (Dionys. v.61),-though, at a somewhat later period, not only had these towns, as well as the plain beneath, fallen into the hands of the Volscians, but that people had made themselves masters of Antium and Velitrae, which are in consequence repeatedly called Volscian cities. The manner in which the early Roman history has been distorted by poetical legends and the exaggerations of national vanity renders it very difficult to trace the course of these changes, and the alterations in the frontiers consequent upon the alternate progress of the Volscian and the Roman arms. But there seems no reason to doubt the fact that such changes repeatedly took place, and that we may thus explain the apparent inconsistency of ancient historians in calling the same places at one time Volscian, at another Latin, cities. We may also clearly discern two different periods, during the first of which the Volscian arms were gradually gaining upon those of the Latins, and extending their dominion over cities of Latin origin; while, in the second, the Volscians were in their turn giving way before the preponderating power of Rome. The Gaulish invasion (B.c. 390) may be taken, approximately at least, as the turning point between the two periods. The case appears to have been somewhat similar, though to a less degree, on the northern frontier, where the Latins adjoined the Sabines. Here, also, we find the same places at different times, and by different authors, termed sometimes Latin and sometimes Sabine, cities; and though in some of these cases the discrepancy may have arisen from mere inadvertence or error, it is probable that in some instances both statements are equally correct, but refer to different periods. The circumstance that the Anio was fixed by Augustus as the boundary of the First Region seems to have soon led to the notion that it was the northern limit of Latium also; and hence all the towns beyond it were regarded as Sabine, though several of them were, according te the general tradition of earlier times, originally Latin cities. Such was the confusion resulting from this cause that Piny in one passage enumerates Nomentum, Fidenae, and even Tibur among the Sabine towns, while he elsewhere mentions the two former as Latin cities,-and the Latin origin of Tibur is too well established to admit of a doubt. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9, 12. s. 17.) In the absence of natural boundaries it is only by means of the names of the towns that we can trace the extent of Latium; and here fortunately the lists that have been transmitted to us by Dionysius and Pliny, as well as those of the colonies of Alba, afford us material assistance. The latter, indeed, cannot be regarded as of historical value, but they were unquestionably meant to represent the fact, with which their authors were probably well acquainted, that the places there enumerated were properly Latin cities, and not of Sabine or Volscian origin. Taking these authorities for our guides, we may trace the limits of ancient Latium as follows:-1. From the mouth of the Tiber to the confluence of the Anio, the former river constituted the boundary between Latium and Etruria. The Romans, indeed, from an early period, extended their territory beyond the Tiber, and held the Janiculum and Campus Vaticanus on its right bank, as well as the so-called Septem Pagi, which they wrested from the Veientes; and it is probable that the Etruscans, on the other hand, had at one period extended their power over a part of the district on the left bank of the Tiber, but that river nevertheless constituted the generally recognised geographical limit between Etruria and Latiuin. 2. North of the Anio the Latin territory The extent of Latium Antiquum, as thus limited, was far from considerable; the coast-line, from the mouth of the Tiber to the Circeian promontory, does not exceed 52 geographical or 65 Roman miles (Pliny erroneously calls it only 50 Roman miles); while the greatest length, from the Circeian promontory to the Sabine frontier, near Eretum, is little more than 70 Roman miles; and its breadth, from the mouth of the Tiber to the Sabine frontier, is just about 30 Roman miles, or 240 stadia, as correctly stated by Dionysius on the authority of Cato. (Dionys. ii. 49.) comprised Fidenae, Crustumerium, and Nomentum, | power they had wrested a great part of the tract all of which are clearly established as Latin towns, just described from the dominion of the Latins. while Eretum, only 3 miles from Nomentum, is Antium, which for some reason or other did not equally well made out to be of Sabine origin. This form a member of the Latin League, was from an line of demarcation is confirmed by Strabo, who early period a Volscian city, and became one of the speaks of the Sabines as extending from the Tiber chief strongholds of that people during the fifth and Nomentum to the Vestini. (Strab. v. p. 228.) century B. C. From Nomentum to Tibur the frontier cannot be traced with accuracy, from our uncertainty as to the position of several of the towns in this part of Latium-Corniculum, Medullia, Cameria, and Ameriola; but we may feel assured that it comprised the outlying group of the Montes Corniculani (Mte. S. Angelo and Monticelli), and from thence stretched across to the foot of Monte Gennaro (Mons Lucretilis), around the lower slopes of which are the ruins or sites of more than one ancient city. Probably the whole of this face of the mountains, fronting the plain of the Campagna, was always regarded as belonging to Latium, though the inner valleys and reverse of the same range were inhabited by the Sabines. Tibur itself was unquestionably Latin, though how far its territory extended into the interior of the mountains is difficult to determine. But if Empulum and Sassula (two of its dependent towns) be correctly placed at Ampiglione and near Siciliano, it must have comprised a considerable tract of the mountain country on the left bank of the Anio. Varia, on the other hand, and the valley of the Digentia, were unquestionably Sabine. 3. Returning to the Anio at Tibur, the whole of the W. front of the range of the Apennines from thence to Praeneste (Palestrina) was certainly Latin; but the limits which separated the Latins from the Aequians are very difficult to determine. We know that Bola, Pedum, Tolerium, and Vitellia, all of which were situated in this neighbourhood, were Latin cities; though, from their proximity to the frontier, several of them fell at one time or other into the hands of the Aequians; in like manner we cannot doubt that the whole group of the Alban Hills, including the range of Mount Algidus, was included in the original Latium, though the Aequians at one time were able to occupy the heights of Algidus at the opening of almost every campaign. Valmontone, whether it represent To- | lerium or Vitellia, must have been about the most advanced point of the Latin frontier on this side. 4. The Volscian frontier, as already observed, appears to have undergone much fluctuation. On the one hand, we find, in the list of the cities forming the Latin League, as given by Dionysius (v. 61), not only Velitrae, which at a later period is called a Volscian city, but Cora, Norba, and Setia, all of which were situated on the western front of the range of mountains which formed in later times the stronghold of the Volscian nation; but looking on the Pontine Marshes. Even as late as the outbreak of the great Latin War, B. c. 340, we find L. Annius of Setia, and L. Numicius of Circei, holding the chief magistracy among the Latins, from whom at the same time Livy expressly distinguishes the Volscians (Liv. viii. 3). These statements, combined with those of Pliny and Strabo already cited, seem to leave no doubt that Latium was properly regarded as extending as far as Circeii and the promontory of the same name, and comprising the whole plain of the Pontine Marshes, as well as the towns of Cora, Norba, and Setia, on the E. side of that plain. On the other hand, Tarracina (or Anxur) and Privernum were certainly Volscian cities; and there can be no doubt that during the period of the Volscian 2. LATIUM NOVUM. The boundaries of Latium in the enlarged or geographical sense of the name are much more easily determined. The term, as thus employed, comprehended, besides the original territory of the Latins, that of the Aequians, the Hernicans, the Volscians, and the Auruncans or Ausonians. Its northern frontiers thus remained unchanged, while on the E. and S. it was extended so as to border on the Marsi, the Samnites, and Campania. Some confusion is nevertheless created by the new line of demarcation established by Augustus, who, while he constituted the first division of Italy out of Latium in this wider sense together with Campania, excluded from it the part of the old Latin territory N. of the Anio, adjoining the Sabines, as well as a part of that of the Aequians or Aequiculani, including Carseoli and the valley of the Turano. The upper valley of the Anio about Subiaco, on the other hand, together with the mountainous district extending from thence to the valley of the Sacco, constituting the chief abode of the Aequi during their wars with Rome, was wholly comprised in the newly extended Latium. To this was added the mountain district of the Hernici, extending nearly to the valley of the Liris, as well as that of the Volsci, who occupied the country for a considerable extent on both sides of the Liris, including the mountain district around Arpinum and Atina, where they bordered on the territory of the Samnites. The limits of Latium towards the S., where its frontiers adjoined those of Campania, are clearly marked by Strabo, who tells us that Casinum was the last Latin city on the line of the Via Latina,--Teanum being already in Campania; while on the line of the Via Appia, near the sea-coast, Sinuessa was the frontier town of Latium. (Strab. v. pp. 231, 233, 237; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) Pliny, in one passage, appears to speak of the Liris as constituting the boundary of this enlarged Latium (Ib. § 56), while shortly after (§ 59) he terms Sinuessa "oppidum extremum in adjecto Latio," whence it has been supposed that the boundary of Latium was at first extended only to the Liris, and subsequently carried a step further so as to include Sinuessa and its territory. (Cramer's Italy, vol. ii. p. 11.) But we have no evidence of any such successive stages. Pliny in all probability uses the term "adjectumn Latium" only as contradistinguished from "Latium antiquum;" and the expression in the previous passage, "unde nomen Latii processit ad Lirim amnem," need not be construed too strictly. It is certain, at least, that, in the days of Strabo, as well as those of Pliny, Si nuessa was already regarded as included in Latium; | tains, commonly known as the Monti Lepini, or and the former author nowhere alludes to the Liris as the boundary. III. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. The land of the Latins, or Latium in its original sense, formed the southern part of the great basin through which the Tiber flows to the sea, and which is bounded by the Ciminian Hills, and other ranges of volcanic hills connected with them, towards the N., by the Apennines on the E., and by the Alban Hills on the S. The latter, however, do not form a continuous barrier, being in fact an isolated group of volcanic origin, separated by a considerable gap from the Apennines on the one side, while on the other they leave a broad strip of low plain between their lowest slopes and the sea, which is continued on in the broad expanse of level and marshy ground, commonly known as the Pontine Marshes, extending in a broad band between the Volscian mountains and the sea, until it is suddenly and abruptly terminated by the isolated mass of the Circeian promontory. The great basin-like tract thus bounded is divided into two portions by the Tiber, of which the one on the N. of that river belongs to Southern Etruria, and is not comprised in our present subject. [ETRURIA.] The southern part, now known as the Campagna di Roma, may be regarded as a broad expanse of undulatory plain, extending from the seacoast to the foot of the Apennines, which rise from it abruptly like a gigantic wall to a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet, their highest summits even exceeding the latter elevation. The Monte Gennaro, (4285 English feet in height) is one of the loftiest summits of this range, and, from the boldness with which it rises from the subjacent plain, and its advanced position, appears, when viewed from the Campagna, the most elevated of all; but, according to Sir W. Gell, it is exceeded in actual height both by the Monte Pennecchio, a little to the NE. of it, and by the Monte di Guadagnolo, the central peak of the group of mountains which rise immediately above Praeneste or Palestrina. The citadel of Praeneste itself occupies a very elevated position, forming a kind of outwork or advanced post of the chain of Apennines, which here trends away suddenly to the eastward, sweeping round by Genazzano, Olevano, and Rojate, till it resumes its general SE. direction, and is continued on by the lofty ranges of the Hernican mountains, which bound the valley of the Sacco on the E. and continue unbroken to the valley of the Liris. Volscian mountains. This group, which forms an outlying mass of the Apennines, separated from the main chain of those mountains by the broad valley of the Trerus or Sacco, rises in a bold and imposing mass from the level of the Pontine Marshes, which it borders throughout their whole extent, until it reaches the sea at Tarracina, and from that place to the mouth of the Liris sends down a succession of mountain headlands to the sea, constituting a great natural barrier between the plains of Latium and those of Campania. The highest summits of this group, which consists, like the more central Apennines, wholly of limestone, attain an elevation of nearly 5000 feet above the sea: the whole mass fills up almost the entire space between the valley of the Trerus and the Pontine Marshes, a breadth of from 12 to 16 miles; with a length of near 40 miles from Monte Fortino at its N. extremity to the sea at Terracina: but the whole distance, from Monte Fortino to the end of the mountain chain near the mouth of the Liris, exceeds 60 miles. The greater part of this rugged mountain tract belonged from a very early period to the Volscians, but the Latins, as already mentioned, possessed several towns, as Signia, Cora, Norba, &c., which were built on projecting points or underfalls of the main chain. But though the plains of Latium are thus strongly characterised, when compared with the groups of mountains just described, it must not be supposed that they constitute an unbroken plain, still less a level alluvial tract like those of Northern Italy. The Campagna of Rome, as it is called at the present day, is a country of wholly different character from the ancient Campania. It is a broad undulating tract, never rising into considerable elevations, but presenting much more variety of ground than would be suspected from the general uniformity of its appearance, and irregularly intersected in all directions by numerous streams, which have cut for themselves deep channels or ravines through the soft volcanic tufo of which the soil is composed, leaving on each side steep and often precipitous banks. The height of these, and the depth of the valleys or ravines which are bounded by them, vary greatly in different parts of the Campagna; but besides these local and irregular fluctuations, there is a general rise (though so gradual as to be imperceptible to the eye) in the level of the plain towards the E. and SE.; so that, as it approaches Praeneste, it really attains to a considerable elevation, and the river courses which intersect the plain in nearly parallel lines between that city and the Anio become deep and narrow ravines of the most formidable description. Even in the lower and more level parts of the Campagna the sites of ancient cities will be generally found to occupy spaces bounded to a considerable extent — frequently on three sides out of four-by steep banks of tufo rock, affording natural means of defence, which could be easily strengthened by the simple expedient of cutting away the face of the rocky bank, so as to render it altogether inaccessible. The peculiar configuration of the Campagna resulting from these causes is well represented on Sir W. Gell's map, the only one which gives at all a faithful idea of the physical geography of Latium. Opposite to Praeneste, and separated from it by a breadth of nearly 5 miles of intervening plain, rises the isolated group of the Alban mountains, the form of which at once proves its volcanic origin. [ALBANUS MONS.] It is a nearly circular mass, of about 40 miles in circumference; and may be conceived as forming a great crater, the outer ridge of which has been broken up into numerous more or less detached summits, several of which were crowned in ancient times by towns or fortresses, such as Tusculum, Corbio, &c.; while at a lower level it throws out detached offshoots, or outlying ridges, affording advantageous sites for towns, and which were accordingly occupied by those of Velitrae, Lanuvium, Alba Longa, &c. The group of the Alban mountains is wholly detached on all sides: on the S. a strip of The volcanic origin of the greater part of Latium plain, of much the same breadth as that which sepa- has a material influence upon its physical character rated it from the Apennines of Praeneste, divides it and condition. The Alban mountains, as already from the subordinate, but very lofty mass of moun-mentioned, are unquestionably a great volcanic mass which must at a distant period have been the centre | and constituting a barren tract, still covered, as it of volcanic outbursts on a great scale. Besides the was in ancient times, almost wholly with wood. This central or principal crater of this group, there are broad belt of forest region extends without interseveral minor craters, or crater-shaped hollows, at a ruption from the mouth of the Tiber near Ostia to much lower level around its ridges, which were in the promontory of Antium. The parts of it nearest all probability at different periods centres of erup- the sea are rendered marshy by the stagnation of tion. Some of these have been filled with water, the streams that flow through it, the outlets of and thus constitute the beautiful basin-shaped lakes which to the sea are blocked up by the accumulaof Albano and Nemi, while others have been drained tions of sand. The headland of Antium is formed at periods more or less remote. Such is the case by a mass of limestone rock, forming a remarkable with the Vallis Aricina, which appears to have at break in the otherwise uniform line of the coast, one time constituted a lake [ARICIA], as well as though itself of small elevation. A bay of about with the now dry basin of Cornufelle, below Tus- 8 miles across separates this headland from the low culum, supposed, with good reason, to be the ancient point or promontory of Astura: beyond which comLake Regillus, and with the somewhat more con- mences the far more extensive bay that stretches siderable Lago di Castiglione, adjoining the an- from the latter point to the mountain headland of cient Gabii, which has been of late years either Circeii. The whole of this line of coast from Astura wholly or partially drained. Besides these distinct to Circeii is bordered by a narrow strip of sand-hills, foci of volcanic action, there remain in several parts within which the waters accumulate into stagnant of the Campagna spots where sulphureous and other pools or lagoors. Beyond this again is a broad sandy vapours are still evolved in considerable quantities, tract, covered with dense forest and brushwood, but so as to constitute deposits of sulphur available for almost perfectly level, and in many places marshy; economic purposes. Such are the Lago di Sol- while from thence to the foot of the Volscian mounfatara near Tivoli (the Aquae Albulae of the Ro- tains extends a tract of a still more marshy chamans), and the Solfatara on the road to Ardea, racter, forming the celebrated district known as the supposed to be the site of the ancient Oracle of Pontine Marshes, and noted in ancient as well as Faunus. Numerous allusions to these sulphureous modern times for its insalubrity. The whole of this and mephitic exhalations are found in the ancient region, which, from its N. extremity at Cisterna to writers, and there is reason to suppose that they the sea near Terracina, is about 30 Roman miles were in ancient times more numerous than at pre- in length, with an average breadth of 12 miles, is sent. But the evidences of volcanic action are not perfectly flat, and, from the stagnation of the waters confined to these local phenomena; the whole plain which descend to it from the mountains on the E., of the Campagna itself, as well as the portion of has been in all ages so marshy as to be almost uninSouthern Etruria which adjoins it, is a deposit of habitable. Pliny, indeed, records a tradition that volcanic origin, consisting of the peculiar substance there once existed no less than 24 cities on the site called by Italian geologists tufo,- an aggregate of of what was in his days an unpeopled marsh, but a volcanic materials, sand, small stones, and scoriae or careful inspection of the locality is sufficient to prove cinders, together with pumice, varying in consis- that this must be a mere fable. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) tency from an almost incoherent sand to a stone The dry land adjoining the marshes was doubtless sufficiently hard to be well adapted for building pur- occupied in ancient times by the cities or towns of poses. The hardest varieties are those now called Satricum, Ulubrae, and Suessa Pometia; while on the peperino, to which belong the Lapis Gabinus and mountain ridges overlooking them rose those of Cora, Lapis Albanus of the ancients. But even the com- Norba, Setia and Privernum; but not even the name mon tufo was in many cases quarried for building of any town has been preserved to us as situated in purposes, as at the Lapidicinae Rubrae, a few miles the marshy region itself. Equally unfounded is the from the city near the bank of the Tiber, and many statement hastily adopted by Pliny, though obviously other spots in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome. inconsistent with the last, that the whole of this allu(Vitruv. ii. 7.) Beds of true lava are rare, but by vial tract had been formed within the historical period, no means wanting the most considerable are two a notion that appears to have arisen in consequence streams which have flowed from the foot of the of the identification of the Mons Circeius with the Alban Mount; the one in the direction of Ardea, island of Circe, described by Homer as situated in the other on the line of the Appian Way (which the midst of an open sea. This remarkable headruns along the ridge of it for many miles) extending land is indeed a perfectly insulated mountain, being as far as a spot called Capo di Bove, little more than separated from the Apennines near Terracina by a two miles from the gates of Rome. It was exten-strip of level sandy coast above 8 miles in breadth, sively quarried by the Romans, who derived from thence their principal supplies of the hard basaltic lava (called by them silex) with which they paved their high roads. Smaller beds of the same material occur near the Lago di Castiglione, and at other spots in the Campagna. (Concerning the geological phenomena of Latium see Daubeny On Volcanoes, pp. 162-173; and an Essay by Hoffmann in the Beschreibung der Stadt Rom. vol. i. pp. 45-81.) : The strip of country immediately adjoining the sea-coast of Latium differs materially from the rest of the district. Between the borders of the volcanic deposit just described and the sea there intervenes a broad strip of sandy plain, evidently formed merely by successive accumulations of sand from the sca, forming the southern extremity of the plain of the Pontine Marshes; but this alluvial deposit, which alone connects the two, must have been formed at a period long anterior to the historical age. The Circeian promontory formed the southern limit of Latium in the original sense. On the opposite side of the Pontine Marshes rises the lofty group of the Volscian mountains already described: and these are separated by the valley of the Trerus or Sacco from the ridges more immediately connected with the central Apennines, which were inhabited by the Aequians and Hernicans. All these mountain districts, as well as those inhabited by the Volscians on the S. of the Liris, around Arpinum and Atina, partake of the same general character: they are occupied almost entirely by masses and groups of limestone mountains, frequently rising to a great height, and very abruptly, while in other cases their sides are clothed with magnificent forests of oak and chestnut trees, and their lower slopes are well adapted for the growth of vines, olives, and corn. The broad valley of the Trerus, which extends from the foot of the hill of Praeneste to the valley of the Liris, is bordered on both sides by hills, covered with the richest vegetation, at the back of which rise the lofty ranges of the Volscian and Hernican mountains. This valley,which is followed throughout by the course of the Via Latina, forms a natural line of communication from the interior of Latium to the valley of the Liris, and so to Campania; the importance of which in a military point of view is apparent on many occasions in Roman history. The broad valley of the Liris itself opens an easy and unbroken communication from the heart of the Apennines near the Lake Fucinus with the plains of Campania. On the other side, the Anio, which has its sources in the rugged mountains near Trevi, not far from those of the Liris, flows in a SW. direction, and after changing its course abruptly two or three times, emerges through the gorge at Tivoli into the plain of the Roman Campagna. The greater part of Latium is not (as compared with some other parts of Italy) a country of great natural fertility. On the other hand, the barren and desolate aspect which the Campagna now presents is apt to convey a very erroneous impression as to its character and resources. The greater part of the volcanic plain not only affords good pasturage for sheep and cattle, but is capable of producing considerable quantities of corn, while the slopes of the hills on all sides are well adapted to the growth of vines, olives, and other fruit-trees. The wine of the Alban Hills was celebrated in the days of Horace (Hor. Carm. iv. 11. 2, Sat. ii. 8. 16), while the figs of Tusculum, the hazel-nuts of Praeneste, and the pears of Crustumium and Tibur were equally noted for their excellence. (Macrob. Sat. ii. 14, 15; Cato, R. R. 8.) In the early ages of the Roman history the cultivation of corn must, from the number of small towns scattered over the plain of Latium, have been carried to a far greater extent than we find it at the present day; but under the Roman Empire, and even before the close of the Republic, there appears to have been a continually increasing tendency to diminish the amount of arable cultivation, and increase that of pasture. Nevertheless the attempts that have been made even in modern times to promote agriculture in the neighbourhood of Rome have sufficiently proved that its decline is more to be attributed to other causes than to the sterility of the soil itself. The tract near the sea-coast alone is sandy and barren, and fully justifies the language of Fabius, who called it" agrum macerrimum, littorosissimumque" (Serv. ad Aen. i. 3). On the other hand, the slopes of the Alban Hills are of great fertility, and are still studded, as they were in ancient times, with the villas of Roman nobles, and with gardens of the greatest richness. The climate of Latium was very far from being a healthy one, even in the most flourishing times of Rome, though the greater amount of population and cultivation tended to diminish the effects of the malaria which at the present day is the scourge of the district. Strabo tells us that the territory of Ardea, as well as the tract between Antium and Lanuvium, and extending from thence to the Pontine Marshes, was marshy and unwholesome (v. p. 231). The Pontine plains themselves are described as "pestiferous" (Sil. Ital. viii. 379), and all the attempts made to drain them seem to have produced but little effect. The unhealthiness of Ardea is noticed both by Martial and Seneca as something proverbial (Mart. iv. 60; Seneca, Ep. 105); but, besides this, expressions occur which point to a much more general diffusion of malaria. Livy in one passage represents the Roman soldiers as complaining that they had to maintain a constant struggle “in arido atque pestilenti, circa urbem, solo" (Liv. vii. 38); and Cicero, in a passage where there was much less room for rhetorical exaggeration, praises the choice of Romulus in fixing his city "in a healthy spot in the midst of a pestilential region." ("Locum delegit in regione pestilenti salubrem," Cic. de Rep. ii. 6.) But we learn also, from abundant allusions in ancient writers, that it was only by comparison that Rome itself could be considered healthy; even in the city malaria fevers were of frequent occurrence in summer and autumn, and Horace speaks of the heats of summer as bringing in "fresh figs and funerals." (Hor. Ep.i. 7.1-9.) Frontinus also extols the increased supply of water as tending to remove the causes which had previously rendered Rome notorious for its unhealthy climate (“causae gravioris coeli, quibus apud veteres urbis infamis aer fuit," Frontin. de Aquaed. § 88). But the great accumulation of the population at Rome itself must have operated as a powerful check; for even at the present day malaria is unknown in the most densely populated parts of the city, though these are the lowest in point of position, while the hills, which were then thickly peopled, but are now almost uninhabited, are all subject to its ravages. In like manner in the Campagna, wherever a considerable nucleus of population was once formed, with a certain extent of cultivation around it, this would in itself tend to keep down the mischief; and it is probable that, even in the most flourishing times of the Roman Empire, this evil was considerably greater than it had been in the earlier ages, when the numerous free cities formed so many centres of population and agricultural industry. It is in accordance with this view that we find the malaria extending its ravages with frightful rapidity after the fall of the Roman Empire and the devastation of the Campagna; and a writer of the 11th century speaks of the deadly climate of Rome in terms which at the present day would appear greatly exaggerated. (Petrus Damianus, cited by Bunsen.) The unhealthiness arising from this cause is, however, entirely confined to the plains. It is found at the present day that an elevation of 350 or 400 feet above their level gives complete immunity; and hence Tibur, Tusculum, Aricia, Lanuvium, and all the other cities that were built at a considerable height above the plain were perfectly healthy, and were resorted to during the summer (in ancient as well as modern times) by all who could afford to retreat from the city and its immediate neighbourhood. (See on this subject Tournon, E'tudes Statistiques sur Rome, liv. i. chap. 9; Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom. vol. i. pp. 98-108.) IV. HISTORY. 1. Origin and Affinities of the Latins.- All ancient writers are agreed in representing the Latins, properly so called, or the inhabitants of Latium in the restricted sense of the term, as a distinct people |