ANCIENT ITALY. Map No. VIII.

ANCIENT ITALY was called by the Greeks Hesperia, from its western situation in relation to Greece; and from the Latin poets it received the names Ausonia, Saturnia, and notria. (See also p. 123.) About the time of Aristotle, (B. C. 380,) the Greeks divided Italy into six countries or regions,--Ausonia or Opica, Tyrrhenia, Iapygia, Ombria, Liguria, and Henetia; but the divisions by which it is best known in Roman history are those given on the accompanying Map,--Cisalpine Gaul, Etruria, Umbria, Picenum, the country of the Sabines, Latium, Campania, Samnium, Apulia, Calabria, Lucania, and Brutiorum Ager.

Cisalpine Gaul, or Gaul this side of the Alps, embracing all northern Italy beyond the Rubicon, was inhabited by Gallic tribes, which, as early as six hundred years B. C., began to pour over the Alps into this extensive and fertile territory. Etruria, embracing the country west and north of the Tiber, was inhabited by a nation which had attained to an advanced degree of civilization before the founding of Rome. Umbria embraced the country east of Etruria, from the Rubicon on the north to the river Nar, which separated it from the Sabine territory on the south. Picenum, inhabited by the Picentes, was a country on the Adriatic, having the river Æsis on the north, the Matrinus on the south, and on the west the Apennines, which separated it from Umbria. The Country of the Sabines, at the period when it was marked out with the greatest clearness and precision, was separated from Latium by the river Anio, from Etruria by the Tiber, from Umbria by the Nar, and from Picenum by the central ridge of the Apennines. (See also Map No. X.) Latium was south of Etruria and the country of the Sabines, from which it was separated by the Tiber and the Anio. Campania, separated from Latium by the river Liris, was called the garden of Italy. The Campanian nation conquered by the Romans was composed of Oscans, Tuscans, Samnites, and Greeks; the latter having formed numerous colonies in southern Italy. Samnium, the country of the Samnites, bordered on the Adriatic, having Picenum on the north, Apulia on the south, and Latium and Campania on the west. The ambitious and warlike Samnites not unfrequently brought into the field a force of eighty thousand foot and eight thousand horse. Apulia, inhabited by the early Daunii, Peucetii, and Messapii, bordered on the Adriatic on the east; and, on the west, on the territories of the Samnites, the Campanians, and Lucanians. Calabria, called also by the Greeks Iapygia, embraced the south-eastern extremity of the Italian peninsula, answering nearly to what is now called Terra di Otranto. Lucania, inhabited by the warlike Lucani, who carried on a successful war with the Greek colonies of southern Italy, was separated from Apulia and Calabria on the north-east by the Bradanus. Brutiorum Ager, the Country of the Brutii, comprised the southern extremity of the peninsula, now called Calabria Ultra. The Brutii, the most barbarous of the Italian tribes, were reduced by the Romans soon after the withdrawal of Pyrrhus from Italy.

Since the downfall of the Roman empire Italy has never been united in one State. After having been successively possessed by the Heruli, Ostrogoths, Greeks, and Lombards, Charlemagne annexed it to the empire of the Franks in 774: from 888 till the establishment of the republic of Milan in 1150, it generally belonged, with the exception of the territory of the Venetians, to the German emperors. In 1535, Milan, then a duchy, came into the possession of the emperor Charles V. Since the war of the Spanish succession, the duchies of Milan and Mantua have generally belonged to Austria, with the exception of the short time they formed a part of the Cisalpine republic and the French empire. Venice was a republic from the seventh century till 1797. It was confirmed to Austria by the treaty of 1815. The present Italian States are the kingdom of Lombardy and Venice, forming a part of the Austrian empire -kingdom of Sardinia-kingdom of Naples and Sicily-Grand-duchy of Tuscany-States of the Church-Duchies of Parma, Modena, and Lucca-and the little republic of San-Marino. The French rule in Italy was a great blessing to that unhappy country; "but the coalition," says Sismondi, "destroyed all the good conferred by France." The state of the people contrasts very disadvantageously with the fertility of the soil and the beauty of the climate. "How has kind Heav'n adorn'd the happy land, And Tyranny usurps her happy plains? And scattered blessings with a wasteful hand! The poor inhabitant beholds in vain But what avail her unexhausted stores, The redd'ning orange and the swelling grain, Her blooming mountains and her sunny shores, Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines, With all the gifts that Heav'n and earth impart, The smiles of nature and the charms of art, While proud oppression in her valleys reigns,

And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines:-
Starves, in the midst of natures's bounty curst,
And in the laden vineyard dies for thirst."

THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Map No. IX.

REGAL ROME, Or Rome under the Kings, occupying a period of about two hundred and forty years, from the founding of the city, 753 B. C., to the overthrow of royalty, 510 B. C., ruled over only a narrow strip of seacoast, from the Tiber southward to Terracina, an extent of about seventy miles, (see Map No. X ;) but it already carried on an extensive commerce with Sardinia, Sicily, and Carthage.

REPUBLICAN ROME, occupying a period of about four hundred and eighty years, from the overthrow of royalty 510 B. C. to the accession of Augustus, 28 B. C., extended the Roman dominion, not only over all Italy, but also over all the islands of the Mediterranean-over Egypt, and all Northern Africa from Egypt westward to the Atlantic Ocean-over Syria and all Asia Minor-over Thrace, Achaia or Greece, Macedonia, and Illyricum-and over all Gaul, and most of Spain.

IMPERIAL ROME occupies a period of about five hundred years, extending from the accession of Augustus, 28 B. C., to the overthrow of the Western empire of the Romans, A. D. 476. Under Augustus, the Roman dominion was extended by the conquest of Masia, corresponding to the present Turkish provinces of Bulgaria and Servia-of Pannonia, corresponding to the eastern part of southern Austria, and Hungary south of the Danube, Styria, Austrian Croatia, and Slavonia, and the northern part of Bosnia-of Noricum, corresponding to the Austrian Salzburg, western Styria, Carinthia, Austria north to the Danube, and a small part of southeastern Bavaria-Rhætia, extending over the country of the Tyrol and eastern Switzerland-and Vindelicia, corresponding to southern Wirtemberg and Bavaria south of the Danube. (See also Maps Nos. VII. and XVII.) On the death of Augustus, therefore, the Roman empire was bounded by the Rhine and the Danube on the north; by the Euphrates on the east; by the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa on the south; and by the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The southern part of Britain, or Brittania, was reduced by Ostorius, in the reign of Claudius; and Agricola, in the reign of Domitian, extended the Roman dominion to the Frith of Forth, and the Clyde. With this exception, the empire continued within the limits given it by Augustus, until the accession of Trajan, who, in the year 105, added to it Dacia, a region north of the Danube, and corresponding to Wallachia, Transylvania, Moldavia, and all Hungary east of the Theiss and north of the Danube. Trajan also, in his eastern expedition, descended the Tigris from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian Gulf, and for a brief period extended the sway of Rome over Colchis, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria; and even the Parthian monarch accepted his crown from the hands of the emperor. In the time of Trajan, therefore, who died A. D. 117, the Roman empire attained its greatest extent,-being, at that period, the greatest monarchy the world has ever known,-extending in length more than three thousand miles, from the Western Ocean to the Euphrates, and more than two thousand in breadth, from the northern limits of Dacia to the deserts of Africa,--and embracing an area of sixteen hundred thousand square miles of the most fertile land on the face of the globe. Well might it be called the Roman WORLD.

Adrian, or Hadrian, the successor of Trajan, voluntarily began the system of retrenchment which was forced upon his successors. In order to preserve peace on the frontiers he abandoned all the conquests of his predecessor except Dacia, and bounded the eastern provinces by the Euphrates. The unity of this mighty empire was first broken by the division into Eastern and Western in the year 395. In the year 476 the Western Empire fell under the repeated attacks of the barbarians of Germany and Scythia, the rude ancestors of the most polished nations of Europe. The Eastern Empire survived nearly a thousand years longer, but finally fell under the power of the Turks, who took Constantinople, its capital, in the year 1453, and made it the capital of the Ottoman empire.