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 month 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 forming the southern extremity of the plain of the thence their principal supplies of the hard basaltic Pontine Marshes; but this alluvial deposit which lava (called by them silex) with which they paved alone connects the two, must have been formed at a their high roads. Smaller beds of the same mate-period long anterior to the historical age. rial 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

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

limestone mountains, frequently rising to a great Marshes, was marshy and unwholesome (v. p. 231). height, and very abruptly, while in other cases their The Pontine plains themselves are described as pessides are clothed with magnificent forests of oaktiferous" (Sil. Ital. viii. 379), and all the attempts and chestnut trees, and their lower slopes are well made to drain them seem to have produced but adapted for the growth of vines, olives, and corn. little effect. The unhealthiness of Ardea is noticed The broad valley of the Trerus, which extends from both by Martial and Seneca as something proverbial the foot of the hill of Praeneste to the valley of the (Mart. iv. 60; Seneca, Ep. 105): but, besides this, Liris, is bordered on both sides by hills, covered with expressions occur which point to a much more the richest vegetation, at the back of which rise the general diffusion of malaria. Livy in one passage lofty ranges of the Volscian and Hernican mountains. represents the Roman soldiers as complaining that This valley, which is followed throughout by the course they had to maintain a constant struggle "in arido of the Via Latina, forms a natural line of communica- atque pestilenti, circa urbem, solo" (Liv. vii. 38); tion from the interior of Latium to the valley of the and Cicero, in a passage where there was much less Liris, and so to Campania; the importance of which room for rhetorical exaggeration, praises the choice in a military point of view is apparent on many occa- of Romulus in fixing his city "in a healthy spot in sions in Roman history. The broad valley of the the midst of a pestilential region." ("Locum delegit Liris itself opens an easy and unbroken communica- in regione pestilenti salubrem," Cic. de Rep. ii. 6.) tion from the heart of the Apennines near the Lake But we learn also, from abundant allusions in Fucinus with the plains of Campania. On the other ancient writers, that it was only by comparison that side, the Anio, which has its sources in the rugged Rome itself could be considered healthy; even in mountains near Trevi, not far from those of the Liris, the city malaria fevers were of frequent occurrence flows in a SW. direction, and after changing its in summer and autumn, and Horace speaks of the course abruptly two or three times, emerges through heats of summer as bringing in "fresh figs and the gorge at Tivoli into the plain of the Roman funerals." (Hor. Ep.i. 7.1-9.) Frontinus also extols Campagna. the increased supply of water as tending to remove The greater part of Latium is not (as compared the causes which had previously rendered Rome with some other parts of Italy) a country of great | notorious for its unhealthy climate (“causae gravioris natural fertility. On the other hand, the barren and coeli, quibus apud veteres urbis infamis aer fuit," desolate aspect which the Campagna now presents Frontin. de Aquaed. § 88). But the great accuis apt to convey a very erroneous impression as to its mulation of the population at Rome itself must have character and resources. The greater part of the operated as a powerful check; for even at the present volcanic plain not only affords good pasturage for day malaria is unknown in the most densely popusheep and cattle, but is capable of producing con-lated parts of the city, though these are the lowest siderable 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 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 In the early ages of the Roman history the culti- had been in the earlier ages, when the numerous vation of corn must, from the number of small towns free cities formed so many centres of population and scattered over the plain of Latium, have been carried agricultural industry. It is in accordance with this to a far greater extent than we find it at the present view that we find the malaria extending its ravages day; but under the Roman Empire, and even before with frightful rapidity after the fall of the Roman the close of the Republic, there appears to have been Empire and the devastation of the Campagna; and a continually increasing tendency to diminish the a writer of the 11th century speaks of the deadly amount of arable cultivation, and increase that of climate of Rome in terms which at the present day pasture. Nevertheless the attempts that have been would appear greatly exaggerated. (Petrus Damade even in modern times to promote agriculture mianus, cited by Bunsen.) The unhealthiness in the neighbourhood of Rome have sufficiently proved arising from this cause is, however, entirely confined that its decline is more to be attributed to other to the plains. It is found at the present day that causes than to the sterility of the soil itself. The an elevation of 350 or 400 feet above their level tract near the sea-coast alone is sandy and barren, gives complete immunity; and hence Tibur, Tusand fully justifies the language of Fabius, who called culum, Aricia, Lanuvium, and all the other cities it "agrum macerrimum, littorosissimumque" (Serv. that were built at a considerable height above the ad Aen. i. 3). On the other hand, the slopes of plain were perfectly healthy, and were resorted to the Alban Hills are of great fertility, and are still during the summer (in ancient as well as modern studded, as they were in ancient times, with the villas times) by all who could afford to retreat from the of Roman nobles, and with gardens of the greatest city and its immediate neighbourhood. (See on this richness. subject Tournon, E'tudes Statistiques sur Rome, liv. i. chap. 9; Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom. vol. i. pp. 98-108.)

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

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

accordance with the inferences to be drawn from several of the historical traditions or statements transmitted to us. Thus Cato represented the Aborigines (whom he appears to have identified with the Siculi) as of Hellenic or Greek extraction (Cato, ap. Dionys. i. 11, 13), by which Roman writers often mean nothing more than Pelasgic: and the Siculi, where they reappear in the S. of Italy, are found indissolubly connected with the Oenotrians, a race whose Pelasgic origin is well established. [SICULI.]

The Latin people may thus be regarded as composed of two distinct races, both of them members of the great Indo-Teutonic family, but belonging to different branches of that family, the one more closely related to the Greek or Pelasgic stock, the other to that race which, under the various forms of Umbrian, Oscan and Sabellian, constituted the basis of the greater part of the population of Central Italy. [ITALIA.]

But whatever value may be attached to the historical traditions above cited, it is certain that the two elements of the Latin people had become indissolubly blended before the period when it first appears in history: the Latin nation, as well as the Latin language, is always regarded by Roman writers as one organic whole.

from those which surrounded them, from the Volscians and Aequians on the one hand, as well as from the Sabines and Etruscans on the other. But the views and traditions recorded by the same writers concur also in representing them as a mixed people, produced by the blending of different races, and not as the pure descendants of one common stock. The legend most commonly adopted, and which gradually became firmly established in the popular celief, was that which represented Latium as inhabited by a people termed Aborigines, who received, shortly after the Trojan War, a colony or band of emigrant Trojans under their king Aeneas. At the time of the arrival of these strangers the Aborigines were governed by a king named Latinus, and it was not till after the death of Latinus and the union of the two races under the rule of Aeneas, that the combined people assumed the name of Latini. (Liv. i. 1, 2; Dionys. i. 45, 60; Strab. v. p. 229; Appian, Rom. i. 1.) But a tradition, which has much more the character of a national one, preserved to us on the authority both of Varro and Cato, represents the population of Latium, as it existed previous to the Trojan colony, as already of a mixed character, and resulting from the union of a conquering race, who descended from the Central Apennines about Reate, with a people whom they found already established in the plains of Latium, and who bore the name of Siculi. It is strange that Varro (according to Dionysius) gave the name of Aborigines, which must originally have been applied or adopted in the sense of Autochthones, as the indigenous inhabitants of the country [ABO-fiction adopted from the Greeks (Schwegler, Röm. RIGINES], to these foreign invaders from the north. Cato apparently used it in the more natural signification as applied to the previously existing population, the same which were called by Dionysius and Varro, Siculi. (Varr. ap. Dionys. i. 9, 10; Cato, ap. Priscian. v. 12. § 65.) But though it is impossible to receive the statement of Varro with regard to the name of the invading population, the fact of such a migration having taken place may be fairly admitted as worthy of credit, and is in accordance with all else that we know of the progress of the population of Central Italy, and the course of the several successive waves of emigration that descended along the central line of the Apennines. [ITALIA, pp. 84, 85.1

The authority of Varro is here also confirmed by the result of modern philological researches. Niebuhr was the first to point out that the Latin language bore in itself the traces of a composite character, and was made up of two distinct elements; the one nearly resembling the Greek, and therefore probably derived from a Pelasgic source; the other closely connected with the Oscan and Umbrian dialects of Central Italy. To this he adds the important observation, that the terms connected with war and arms belong almost exclusively to the latter class, while those of agriculture and domestic life bave for the most part a strong resemblance to the corresponding Greek terms. (Niebuhr, vol. i. pp. 82, 83; Donaldson, Varronianus, p. 3.) We may hence fairly infer that the conquering people from the north was a race akin to the Oscans, Sabines and Umbrians, whom we find in historical times settled in the same or adjoining regions of the Apennines: and that the inhabitants of the plains whom they reduced to subjection, and with whom they became gradually mingled (like the Normans with the Saxons in England) were a race of

We may safely refuse to admit the existence of a third element, as representing the Trojan settlers, who, according to the tradition commonly adopted by the Romans themselves, formed an integral portion of the Latin nation. The legend of the arrival of Aeneas and the Trojan colony is, in all probability, a mere

Gesch. vol. i. pp. 310-326): though it may have found some adventitious support from the existence of usages and religious rites which, being of Pelasgic origin, recalled those found among the Pelasgic races on the shores of the Aegean Sea. And it is in accordance with this view that we find traces of similar legends connected with the worship of Aeneas and the Penates at different points along the coasts of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, all the way from the Troad to Latium. (Dionys. i. 46–55; Klausen, Aeneas u. die Penaten, book 3.) The worship of the Penates at Lavinium in particular would seem to have been closely connected with the Cabeiric worship so prevalent among the Pelasgians, and hence probably that city was selected as the supposed capital of the Trojans on their first settlement in Italy.

But though these traditions, as well as the sacred rites which continued to be practised down to a late period of the Roman power, point to Lavinium as the ancient metropolis of Latium, which retained its sacred character as such long after its political power had disappeared, all the earliest traditions represent Alba, and not Lavinium, as the chief city of the Latins when that people first appears in connection with Rome. It is possible that Alba was the capital of the conquering Oscan race, as Lavinium had been that of the conquered Pelasgians, and that there was thus some historical foundation for the legend of the transference of the supreme power from the one to the other: but no such supposition can claim to rank as more than a conjecture. On the other hand, we may fairly admit as historical the fact, that, at the period of the foundation or first origin of Rome, the Latin people constituted a national league, composed of numerous independent cities, at the head of which stood Alba, which exercised a certain supremacy over the rest. This vague superiority, arising probably from

to the notion that Alba was in another sense the metropolis of Latium, and that all, or at any rate the greater part, of the cities of Latium were merely colonies of Alba. So far was this idea carried, that we find expressly enumerated in the list of such colonies places like Ardea, Tusculum, and Praeneste, which, according to other traditions generally received, were more ancient than Alba itself. (Liv. i. 52; Dionys. iii 34; Diod. vii. ap. Euseb. Arm. p. 185; Vict. Orig. Gent. Rom. 17.) [ALBA LONGA.]

Pliny has, however, preserved to us a statement of a very different stamp, according to which there were thirty towns or communities, which he terms the "populi Albenses," that were accustomed to share in the sacrifices on the Alban Mount. Many of these names are now obscure or unknown, several others appear to have been always inconsiderable places, while a few only subsequently figure among the well-known cities of Latium. It is therefore highly probable that we have here an authentic record, preserved from ancient times, of a league which actually subsisted at a very early period, before Alba became the head of the more important and better known confederacy of the Latins in general. Of the towns thus enumerated, those whose situation can be determined with any certainty were all (with the remarkable exception of Fidenae) situated in the immediate neighbourhood of the Alban Hills; and thus appear to have been grouped around Alba as their natural centre. Among them we find Bola, Pedum, Toleria, and Vitellia on the N. of the Alban Hills, and Corioli, Longula, and Pollusca on the S. of the same group. On the other hand, the more powerful cities of Aricia, Lanuvium, and Tusculum, though so much nearer to Alba, are not included in this list. But there is a remarkable statement of Cato (ap. Priscian. iv. p. 629), in which he speaks of the celebrated temple of Diana at Aricia, as founded in common by the people of Tusculum, Aricia, Lanuvium, Laurentum, Cora, Tibur, Pometia, Ardea, and the Rutuli, that seems to point to the existence of a separate, and, as it were, counter league, subsisting at the same time with that of which Alba was the head. All these minor unions would seem, however, to have ultimately been merged in the general confederacy of the Latins, of which, according to the tradition universally adopted by Roman writers, Alba was the acknow. ledged head.

has been generally rejected as untenable. But it is difficult to believe that a people could ever have called themselves "the old Latins:" and yet it seems certain that the name was so used, both from its occurrence in the formula just referred to (which was in all probability borrowed from the old law books of the Fetiales), and from the circumstance that we find the name almost solely in connection with the wars of Ancus Marcius and Tarquinius Priscus (Liv. i. 32, 33, 38); and it never occurs at a later period. Hence it seems impossible to suppose that it was used as a term of distinction for the Latins properly so called, or inhabitants of Latium Antiquum, as contradistinguished from the Aequians, Volscians, and other nations subsequently included in Latium: a supposition adopted by several modern writers. On the other hand the name does not occur in the Roman history, prior to the destruction of Alba, and perhaps the most plausible conjecture is that the name was one assumed by a league or confederacy of the Latin cities, established after the fall of Alba, but who thus asserted their claim to represent the original and ancient Latin people. It must be admitted that this explanation seems wholly at variance with the statement that the Prisci Latini were the colonies of Alba, which is found both in Livy and Dionysius (Liv. i. 3; Dionys. i. 45), but this probably meant to convey nothing more than the notion already noticed, that all the cities of Latium were founded by such colonies. Livy, at least, seems certainly to regard the "Prisci Latini" as equivalent to the whole Latin nation, and not as a part contradistinguished from the rest. (Liv. i. 38.)

2. Relations of the Latins with Rome. As the first historical appearance of the Latins is that of a confederation of different cities, of which Alba was the head, so the fall and destruction of Alba may be regarded as the first event in their annals which car. be termed historical. The circumstances transmitted to us in connection with this are undoubtedly poetical fictions; but the main fact of the destruction of the city and downfal of its power is well established. This event must have been followed by a complete derangement in the previously existing relations. Rome appears to have speedily put forth a claim to the supremacy which Alba had previously exercised (Dionys. iii. 34); but it is evident that this was not acknowledged by the other cities of Latium; and the Prisci Latini, whose naine appears in history only during this period, probably formed a separate league of their own. It was not long, however, before the Romans succeeded in establishing their superiority: and the statement of the Roman annals, that the Latin league was renewed under Tarquinius Superbus, and the supremacy of that monarch acknowledged by all the other cities that composed it, derives a strong confirmation from the more authentic testimony of the treaty between Rome and Carthage, Pe-preserved to us by Polybius (iii. 22). In this important document, which dates from the year immediately following the expulsion of the kings (B. c. 509), Rome appears as stipulating on behalf of the people of Ardea, Antium, Laurentum, Circeii, Tarracina, and the other subject (or dependent) cities of Latium, and even making conditions in regard to the whole Latin territory, as if it was subject to its rule. But the state of things which appears to have been at this time fully established, was broken up soon after; whether in consequence of the revolution at

Another people whose name appears in all the earliest historical traditions of Latium, but who had become completely merged in the general body of the Latin nation, before we arrive at the historical period, was that of the Rutuli. Their capital was Ardea, a city to which a Greek or Argive origin was ascribed [ARDEA]; if any value can be attached to such traditions, they may be regarded as pointing to a Pelasgic origin of the Rutuli; and Niebuhr explains the traditionary greatness of Ardea by supposing it to have been the chief city of maritime Latium, while it was still in the hands of the asgians. (Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 44, vol. ii. p. 21.) One of the most difficult questions connected with the early history of Latium is the meaning and origin of the term "Prisci Latini," which we find applied by many Roman writers to the cities of the Latin League, and which occurs in a formula given by Livy that has every appearance of being very ancient. (Liv. i. 32.) It may safely be assumed that the term means "Old Latins," and Niebuhr's idea that Prisci was itself a national appellation

The object of this alliance between Rome and Latium was no doubt to oppose a barrier to the rapidly advancing power of the Aequians and Volscians. With the same view the Hernicans were soon after admitted to participate in it (B. c. 486); and from this time for more than a century the Latins continued to be the faithful allies of Rome, and shared alike in her victories and reverses during her long and arduous struggle with their warlike neighbours. (Liv. vi. 2.) A shock was given to these friendly relations by the Gaulish War and the capture of Rome in B. C. 390: the calamity which then befel the city appears to have incited some of her nearest neighbours and most faithful allies to take up arms against her. (Varr. L. L. vi. 18; Liv. vi. 2.) The Latins and Hernicans are repre-own sented as not only refusing their contingent to the Roman armies, but supporting and assisting the Volscians against them; and though they still avoided as long as possible an open breach with Rome, it seems evident that the former close alliance between them was virtually at an end. (Liv. vi. 6, 7, 10, 11, 17.) But it would appear that the bond