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Ancient History of Italy
Ancient History of Italy -
The Italians
The Italians proper inhabited the centre of the peninsula.
They were divided into two branches, the Latins and the
Umbro-Sabellians, including the Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites,
and their numerous colonies. The dialects of the Latins and
Umbro-Sabellians, though marked by striking differences,
still show clearest evidence of a
common origin, and both are closely
related to the Greek.
It is evident that at some
remote period a race migrated from the East, embracing the
ancestors of both the Greeks and Italians—that from it the
Italians branched off—and that they again were divided into
the Latins on the west and the Umbrians and Sabellians on
the east.
Ancient History of Italy -
The Iapygians
The Iapygians dwelt in Calabria, in the extreme southeast
corner of Italy. Inscriptions in a peculiar language have
here been discovered, clearly showing that the inhabitants
belonged to a different race from those whom we have
designated as the Italians. They were doubtless the oldest
inhabitants of Italy, who were driven toward the extremity
of the peninsula as the Latins and Sabellians pressed
farther to the south.
Ancient History of Italy -
The Etruscans (Rasena)
The Etruscans, or, as they called themselves, Rasena, form a
striking contrast to the Latins and Sabellians as well as to
the Greeks. Their language is radically different from the
other languages of Italy; and their manners and customs
clearly prove them to be a people originally quite distinct
from the Greek and Italian races. Their religion was of a
gloomy character, delighting in mysteries and in wild and
horrible rites. Their origin is unknown. Most ancient
writers relate that the Etruscans were Lydians who had
migrated by sea from Asia to Italy; but this is very
improbable, and it is now more generally believed that the
Etruscans descended into Italy from, the Rhaetian Alps. It
is expressly stated by ancient writers that the Rhaetians
were Etruscans, and that they spoke the same language; while
their name is perhaps the same as that of Rasena, the native
name of the Etruscans. In more ancient times, before the
Roman dominion, the Etruscans inhabited not only the country
called Etruria, but also the great plain of the Po, as far
as the foot of the Alps. Here they maintained their ground
till they were expelled or subdued by the invading Gauls.
The Etruscans, both in the north of Italy and to the south
of the Apennines, consisted of a confederacy of twelve
cities, each of which was independent, possessing the power
of even making war and peace on its own account. In Etruria
proper Volsinii was regarded as the metropolis.
Ancient History of Italy -
The Greeks
The Greeks planted so many colonies upon the coasts of
southern Italy that they gave to that district the name of
Magna Graecia. The most ancient, and, at the same time, the
most northerly Greek city in Italy, was Cumae in Campania.
Most of the other Greek colonies were situated farther to
the south, where many of them attained to great power and
opulence. Of these, some of the most distinguished were
Tarentum, Sybaris, Croton, and Metapontum.
Ancient History of Italy -
The Gauls
The Gauls, as we have already said, occupied the greater
part of northern Italy, and were so numerous and important
as to give to the whole basin of the Po the name of Gallia
Cisalpina. They were of the same race with the Gauls who
inhabited the country beyond the Alps, and their migration
and settlement in Italy were referred by the Roman historian
to the time of the Tarquins.
Ancient History of Italy -
The Ancient Races
The ancient races of
Italy were as follows:The Sabini *** The Marsi, Peligni, Vestini,
and Marrucini *** The Frentani *** The Latium ***
The Bruttii
Ancient History of Italy -
The Early Inhabitants -
The Sabini aka the Sabines
The Sabini inhabited the rugged mountain-country in the
central chain of the Apennines, lying between Etruria,
Umbria, Picenum, Latium, and the country of the Marsi and
Vestini. They were one of the most ancient races of Italy,
and the progenitors of the far more numerous tribes which,
under the names of Picentes, Peligni, and Samnites, spread
themselves to the east and south. Modern writers have given
the general name of Sabellians to all these tribes. The
Sabines, like most other mountaineers, were brave, hardy,
and frugal; and even the Romans looked up to them with
admiration on account of their proverbial honesty and
temperance.
Ancient History of Italy -
The Early Inhabitants - The Marsi, Peligni, Vestini, and
Marrucini
The Marsi, Peligni, Vestini, and Marrucini inhabited
the valleys of the central Apennines, and were closely
connected, being probably all of Sabine origin. The Marsi
dwelt inland around the basin of the Lake Fucinus, which is
about thirty miles in circumference, and the only one of any
extent in the central Apennines. The Peligni also occupied
an inland district east of the Marsi. The Vestini dwelt east
of the Sabines, and possessed on the coast of the Adriatic a
narrow space between the mouth of the Matrinus and that of
the Aternus, a distance of about six miles. The Marrucini
inhabited a narrow strip of country on the Adriatic, east of
the Peligni, and were bounded on the north by the Vestini
and on the south by the Frentani.
Ancient History of Italy -
The Early Inhabitants -
The Frentani
The Frentani dwelt upon the coast of the Adriatic from the
frontiers of the Marrucini to those of Apulia. They were
bounded on the west by the Samnites, from whom they were
originally descended, but they appear in Roman history as an
independent people.
Ancient History of Italy -
The Early Inhabitants -
The Latium
The Latium was used in two senses. It originally signified
only the land of the Latini, and was a country of small
extent, bounded by the Tiber on the north, by the Apennines
on the east, by the sea on the west, and by the Alban Hills
on the south. But after the conquest of the Volscians,
Hernici, AEquians, and other tribes, originally independent,
the name of Latium was extended to all the country which the
latter had previously occupied. It was thus applied to the
whole region from the borders of Etruria to those of
Campania, or from the Tiber to the Liris. The original abode
of the Latins is of volcanic origin. The Alban Mountains are
a great volcanic mass, and several of the craters have been
filled with water, forming lakes, of which the Alban Lake is
one of the most remarkable. The plain in which Rome stands,
now called the Campagna, is not an unbroken level, but a
broad undulating tract, intersected by numerous streams,
which have cut themselves deep channels through the soft
volcanic tufa of which the soil is composed. The climate of
Latium was not healthy even in ancient times. The malaria of
the Campagna renders Rome itself unhealthy in the summer and
autumn; and the Pontine Marshes, which extend along the
coast in the south of Latium for a distance of thirty miles,
are still more pestilential.
Ancient History of Italy -
The Early Inhabitants - The Bruttii
The Brutii inhabited the southern extremity of Italy, lying
south of Lucania; and, like Lucania, their country is
traversed throughout by the chain of the Apennines.
Ancient History of Italy
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