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which these ideas received in each nation. So, too, in religion, both nations founded their faith on the same common store of symbolic and allegorical views of nature. But the Greek lost sight of the spiritual abstractions, and gave all the phenomena of nature a concrete and corporeal shape, clothing all with the riches of his poetic fancy. The Roman, casting aside all mythical legends of the gods, sanctified every action of life by assigning a spirit to everything existing-a spirit which came into being with it, and perished with it; and thus the very word Religio, "that which binds," shows what a hold this faith in the unseen and this power of spiritual abstraction had upon the Roman mind. Thus the two nations in which the civilization of antiquity culminated stand side by side, as different in development as they were in origin identical. The points in which the Hellenes excel the Italians are more universally intelligible, and reflect a more brilliant luster; but the deep feeling in each individual, that he was only a part of the community, a rare devotedness and power of self-sacrifice for the common weal, an earnest faith in its own gods, form the rich treasure of the Italian nation. Wherever in Hellas a tendency towards national union appeared, it was based not on elements directly political, but on games and art; the contests at Olympia, the poems of Homer, the tragedies of Euripides, were the only bonds that held Hellas together. Resolutely, on the other hand, the Italian surrendered his own personal will for the sake of freedom, and learned to obey his father that he might know how to obey the state. Amid this subjection individual development might be marred, and the germs of fairest promise might be arrested in the bud; the Italian gained in their stead a feeling of fatherland and of patriotism such as the Greek never knew, and, alone among all civilized nations of antiquity, succeeded in working out national unity in connection with a constitution based on self-government— a national unity which at last placed in his hands the mastery, not only over the divided Hellenic stock, but over the whole known world.

Chapter II

LATIN SETTLEMENTS AND ORIGIN OF ROME

W

753 B.C.

E have no data enabling us to accurately determine the migration of the Italians into Italy. The Italian names Novla or Nola (new town), Campani, Capua, Volturnus, Opsci (laborers), show that an Italian and probably Latin stock, the Ausones, were in possession of Campania before the Samnite and Greek immigrations; but all traces of the Itali, who were the primitive inhabitants of the country subsequently occupied by the Lucani and Bruttii, were entirely obliterated by these two races. It is also not improbable that the Latins in primitive times spread over Latium, Campania, Lucania, and the eastern half of Sicily. But those settled in Sicily, Magna Graecia, and Campania came into contact with the Greeks at a time when they were unable to resist so superior a civilization, and were consequently, as in Sicily, completely Hellenized, or so weakened that they fell an easy prey to Sabine hordes. The Latins, however, who settled just north of Campania, in Latium, where no Greek colony was founded, succeeded in maintaining their ground against the Sabines and more northern foes. Latium itself is a plain traversed by the Tiber and Anio, bounded on the east by the mountains of the Sabines and Aequi, which form part of the Apennines; on the south, by the Volscian range, which is separated from the main chain of the Apennines by the ancient territory of the Hernici; on the west, by the sea, whose harbors on this part of the coast are few and poor; on the north, by the broad highlands of Etruria, into which it imperceptibly merges. This plain is dotted with isolated. hills, and the Alban range, free on every side, stands between the Volscian chain and the Tiber. Here were settled the old Latins (Prisci Latini), as they were later on called, to distinguish them from the Latins settled outside Latium. But in early times the Tiber formed the northern boundary, and only the center of the region between the Tiber, the spurs of the Apennines, the Alban mount, and the sea, consisting of some seven hundred square miles,

Circa 753

formed Latium proper-the real plainland as it seems from the height of the Alban mount. This plain is broken by hills of tufa of moderate height, and by deep fissures in the ground. Owing to this uneven character lakes are formed in winter, and as there is no natural outlet for the water, malaria arises from the noxious exhalations in summer heat. This malaria the ancient inhabitants avoided by wearing heavy woolen clothing, and by keeping a con

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stant blazing fire, and thus a dense population existed where now no one can support a healthy life.

The conditions of early society among the settlers in Latium must be a matter of conjecture. There were a number of independent political communities called cantons, composed of little villages. The latter were in turn probably made up of family groups whose association was based upon relationship and the need of coöperation in getting a living, so that each village was a sort of clan. No doubt each canton had its local center, which served. alike as a place of meeting and of refuge; these were called, from their position, mountain tops (capitolia) or strongholds (arces). In time houses began to cluster round the stronghold, and were surrounded with the "ring" (urbs), thus the nucleus of a town was formed, which tended gradually to absorb the different villages.

Circa 753

There can be little doubt that the Alban range, from its natural strength and advantages of air and water, was occupied by the first comers. Here, among other ancient canton-centers, stood preëminent Alba, the mother-city of all the old Latin settlements. Therefore, when the various cantons, though each independent and governed by its own constitution of prince, elders, and general assembly of warriors, expressed their sense of the ties of blood and language by forming what is known as the Latin League, it was but natural that Alba should be the center of that league, and therefore president of the thirty cantons which composed it. We have no certain knowledge as to the powers or legal rights this confederacy exercised over the various members. Probably disputes between cantons were settled by the league, wars against foreign foes decided, and a federal commander-in-chief appointed. What we do know is that on the annual day of assembly the Latin festival was kept, and an ox sacrificed to the Latin god, Jupiter Latiaris. Each community had to contribute to the sacrificial feast its fixed proportion of cattle, milk, and cheese, and to receive in return a part of the roasted victim. During this festival a "truce of God" was observed throughout all Latium, and safe-conducts were probably granted, even by tribes at feud with one another. It is impossible to define the privileges of Alba, as presiding canton. Probably it was a purely honorary position, and had no political signification, certainly none as denoting any sort of leadership or command of the rest of the Latin cantons. But, vague as the outlines of this early canton life must necessarily be, they show us the one great fact of a common center, which, while it did not destroy the individual independence of the cantons, kept alive the feeling of national kinship, and thus paved the way for that national union which is the goal of every free people's progress.

In tracing the beginnings of Rome, her original constitution, and the first changes it underwent, we are on ground which the uncertain light of ancient tradition and modern theory has made most difficult, if not impossible to traverse with any certainty. The very name of Romans, with which the settlement on the low hills on the left bank of the Tiber has so long been associated, was originally not Romans, but Ramnes (possibly "bushmen "). Side by side with this Latin settlement of Ramnians two other cantons settled, the Luceres and the Tities, the latter considered to be of Sabellian, not Latin, stock. From the combination of these three arose Rome.

Circa 753 The unfavorable character of the site renders it hard to understand how the city could so early attain its prominent position in Latium. The soil is unfavorable to the growth of fig or vine, and in addition. to the want of good water-springs, swamps are caused by the frequent inundations of the Tiber. Moreover, it was confined in all land directions by powerful cities. But all these disadvantages were more than compensated by the unfettered command it had of both banks of the Tiber down to the mouth of the river. The fact that the clan of the Romilii was settled on the right bank from time immemorial, and that there lay the grove of the creative goddess, Dea Dia, and the primitive seat of the Arval festival and Arval brotherhood, proves that the original territory of Rome comprehended Janiculum and Ostia, which afterwards fell into the hands of the Etruscans. Not only did this position on both banks of the Tiber place in Rome's hands all the traffic of Latium, but, as the Tiber was the natural barrier against northern invaders, Rome became the maritime frontier fortress of Latium. Again, the situation acted in two ways: Firstly, it brought Rome into commercial relations with the outer world, cemented her alliance with Caere, and taught her the importance of building bridges. Secondly, it caused the Roman canton to become united in the city itself far earlier than was the case with other Latin communities. And thus, though Latium was a strictly agricultural country, Rome was a center of commerce; and this commercial position stamped its peculiar mark on the Roman character, distinguishing them from the rest of the Latins and Italians, as the citizen is distinguished from the rustic. Not, indeed, that the Roman neglected his farm, or ceased to regard it as his home; but the unwholesome air of the Campagna tended to make him withdraw to the more healthful city hills; and from early times by the side of the Roman farmer arose a non-agricultural population, composed partly of foreigners and partly of natives, which tended to develop urban life.1

1 One of the most potent influences in the growth of Rome was undoubtedly this habit of association engendered by her peculiar location. The settlements on neighboring hills, originally of separate cantons, were too near together to permit independence except at the cost of perpetual and mutually destructive warfare, so that the only alternative, that of union on a basis of equality of rights, was adopted. This at an early day broke down the political and religious exclusiveness characteristic of the Italian cantons and of all primitive .communities and gave to the Romans a liberality of mind and an adaptability which was one of the chief elements of their success in dealing with other peoples. Rome thus absorbed other communities instead of destroying them.

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