§ 1. The present a fit place for a Review of the Constitution, &c. § 2. The severance between Patricians and Plebeians fast disappearing. § 3. Decay of the Comitia Curiata. § 4. Regulations of age, &c., for admission to offices of State. § 5. Duties attached to each. § 6. These offices pro- fessedly open to all, but now practically limited to the wealthy. § 7. Con- stant change in executive officers, even in those of the army. § 8. Repub- lican nature of the system: its disadvantages, how counteracted in practice. § 9. Stability given to the system by the Senate: the Senate composed of persons qualified (1) by tenure of office, (2) by property, (3) by age. § 10. Power of the Senate, (1) in legislation, (2) in administration of home and foreign affairs, (3) in jurisdiction. § 11. The Comitia Centuriata, as re- modelled. § 12. The Comitia Tributa: its gradual rise to power, coördi- nate with the encroachments of the Tribunate. § 13. Anomaly of two independent Legislative Bodies: how were collisions prevented? § 14. The Tribe Assembly far from a pure democracy. § 15. All laws in both Assemblies required the previous sanction of the Senate. § 16. Causes that prevented collision between the Senate and the Tribes. § 17. Pre- dominance of the Tribe Assembly over the Centuriate, in legislation. § 18. Their elective powers. § 19. Their rights of jurisdiction. § 1. Provincial and Italian Communities. § 2. Our knowledge chiefly drawn from Sicily. § 3. Condition of the Sicilian Cities after the Second Punic War. § 4. General principles of Provincial Government: similarity of Provincial Towns to Italian. § 5. Difference, chiefly consisting in Taxation: Jus Italicum. § 6. Treasury. § 7. Ordinary Revenues. § 8. Extraordinary Tax on Property levied for war expenses. § 9. Not sufficient for expenses of Second Punic War: Loans, Contracts paid in paper-money: nature of these advances: soon repaid. § 10. The War Tax itself repaid: finally abolished. § 11. How far Italians contributed to war expenses: reasons for their patience. § 12. System of Taxation and Tax-gathering in the Provinces. § 13. Corrupt administration of Provincial Government. 440 CHAPTER XXXVII. SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. MANNERS-RELIGION-LITERATURE-ART. § 1. The Third Century before Christ the Golden Age of Rome. § 2. The Page 450 HISTORY OF ROME. INTRODUCTION. SECTION I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY. § 1. Relation of Italy to Roman History. § 2. Length of Italian Peninsula. § 3. Breadth. § 4. Extent of surface. § 5. Reasons for considering Physical Structure. § 6. Division of Italy into two portions. § 7. Physical Structure of upper portion: The Alps, or northern limits of the valley of the Po. § 8. Upper Apennines, or southern limits of this valley. § 9. Plain of the Po itself. § 10. Physical structure of lower portion of Apennine range. § 11. Its southern flank. § 12. Northern flank. § 13. Deduction of geographical features of Italy from foregoing description: Few prominent Headlands and large Gulfs. § 14. Few Islands. § 15. No large Rivers, except in the valley of the Po. § 16. No large Plains, except in same valley. § 17. No large Lakes, except in same valley. Peculiar character of Lakes in many parts of sub-Apennine districts. § 18. Marshy character of some districts. Methods of reclaiming land in modern times. § 19. Climate. § 20. Productions. § 21. Beauty of scenery. a § 1. THE History of Rome is properly the history of a City, or rather a Civic Community, which gradually extended its imperial sway, first over all Italy, then over all the countries bordering upon the Mediterranean Sea. It was, according to the common reckoning, nearly five centuries before the citizens of Rome became lords of Lower Italy; in little more than another century they had become the sovereign power of the civilised world. It is difficult, therefore, in attempting a geographical sketch for the purpose of elucidating Roman History, to determine where we ought to begin and where to end. For during a long period we are hardly carried out of sight of VOL. I. B 753-270 B.C. b 263-233 B.C. B the Capitol; and at the close of that period we are hurried with startling rapidity into the heart of every country, from the Atlantic to the mountains of Asia Minor, from the ridges of the Alps to the plains that lie beneath Mount Atlas. But since the origin and composition of the people whom we call Romans depends upon the early state and population of Italy at large, and since in course of time all Italians became Romans, it will be well to follow the usual custom, and begin with a geographical sketch of the Italian Peninsula. § 2. This Peninsula, the central one of the three which stretch boldly forward from the southern coasts of Europe, lies nearly between the parallels of north latitude 38° and 46°. Its length therefore, measured along a meridian arc, ought to be about 550 miles. But since, unlike the other two Mediterranean Peninsulas, it runs in a direction nearly diagonal to the lines of latitude and longitude, its real LENGTH, measured from Mont Blanc to Cape Spartivento, is somewhat more than 700 miles. § 3. To estimate the BREADTH of this long and singularlyshaped Peninsula, it may conveniently be divided into two parts by a line drawn across from the mouths of the Po to the northern point of Etruria. Below this line the average breadth of the leg of Italy does not much exceed 100 miles. Above this line, both coasts trend rapidly outwards, so that the upper portion forms an irregularly-shaped figure, which lies across the top of the leg, being bounded on the north and west by the Alpine range from Illyria to the mouth of the Var, on the south by the imaginary line before drawn and the coast of the Gulf of Genoa, and on the east by the head of the Adriatic Sea. The length of this figure from east to west is not less than 350 miles; while from north to south it measures, on the average, about 120 miles. § 4. The SURFACE of the whole Peninsula, including both the leg of Italy and the irregular figure at the top, is estimated at about 90,000 square miles, or an area nearly equal to the surface of Great Britain and Ireland. But a very large proportion of this surface is unproductive, and a great part even incapable of tillage. § 5. The reason of this difference between the actual extent of the Peninsula and its productive surface is to be found in its PHYSICAL STRUCTURE, which is so remarkable as to invite an attempt to describe it in the shortest and simplest manner compatible with clearness. The Physical Geography of a country is indeed the key to a great portion of its History, and explains the very fact of its existence. Mountains which lift their heads above the waves and storms form the indestructible core of some countries destined by Providence to play a large part in the history of the world, while others are spread out in broad and swelling plains equally indestructible. The hard limestone of the Apennine range has alone enabled the long and slender Italian Peninsula to be the cradle of those political, social, and ecclesiastical institutions which are inseparably attached to the name of Rome. If the masses thrown into that singular shape had been composed of soft or loose materials, they had been swept away by the joint action of wind and water, and the names of Italy and of Rome had been unknown. с § 6. For the purpose of description we must again divide Italy into two portions, as before for the purpose of measurement. The former portion consists of the enormous valley enclosed between the Alps on the north and the upper range of the Apennines on the south; a valley which may be represented as an irregular triangle, having its base upon the Adriatic, and gradually thinning off towards the Maritime Alps. The latter portion is formed by that lower part of the Apennine range which runs down the whole leg of Italy. § 7. In the former portion a gigantic ridge of Granite rocks has burst through the superincumbent formations, and sweeps in an irregular curve from the Tyrol to the Gulf of Genoa. On the southern flank of this Granite ridge reclines an enormous mass of the most Ancient Limestone, of that kind which has been called the Jura Formation. Appearing first near the Lago Maggiore, it attains its greatest breadth between Verona and Belluno, and then again thins off towards the Tyrol. This Ancient Limestone dips towards the south, and disappears beneath a thin and broken edge of the more Recent Limestone rocks, which are analogous to what is called the • In the Map over the leaf the division is, by the requirement of the printer, made considerably lower down. |