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, Saturi ia, and Enotria. (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 de gree 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 Campaniar 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, Charle magne 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 Ve netians, 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 forme 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 presen Italian States are the kingdom of Lombardy and Venice, forming a part of the Austrian empir -kingdom of Sardinia-kingdom of Naples and Sicily-Grand-duchy of Tuscany-States of he 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 con trasts 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 Tyran y usurps her happy plains? And scattered blessings with a wasteful hand! But what avail her unexhausted stores, Fler blooming mountains and her sunny shores, 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, The poor inhabitant beholds in vain 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 enly 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 commcrce with Sardinia, Sicily, and Carthage. REPUBLICAN ROME, Occupying a period of about four hundred and eight years, from th overthrow of royalty 510 B. C. to the accession of Augustus, 28 B. C., extended the Roman do minion, not only over all Italy, but also over all the islands of the Mediterranean-over Egypt, and ail 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 south eastern Bavaria-Rhætia, extending over the country of the Tyrol and eastern Switzerlandand 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 Tris 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 thougand 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 aban doned 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 capita, in the vear 1453, and made 1 the capital of the Ottoman empire. ANCIENT ROME. Map No. X. In describing ANCIENT ROME our attention is first directed to the relative localities of the Seven Hills on which Rome was originally bult-the Aventine, Coelian, Palatine, Esquilme, Capitoline, Viminal, and Quirinal-all included within the walls of Servius Tullius, built about the year 550 B. C. About two hundred and eighty years later the emperor Aurelian commenced the erection of a new wall, which was completed by Probus five years afterward. The cir cumference of the Servian town was about six miles; that given it by the wal of Aurelian, which extended to the right bank of the Tibe? and inclosed a part of the Janiculan mount, was about twelve; although the city extende far beyond the limits of the latter. The modern rampart surrounds, substantially, the same area as that of Aurelian. The greater part of Modern Rome covers the flat surface of the Campus Martius, the Capitoline and Quirinal mounts, and the right bank of the Tiber from Hadrian's Mausoleum, (now the Castle of St. Angelo,) south to and including the Janiculan mount. The ancient city of the Seven Hills is nearly all contained within the old walls of Servius. Almost the whole of this area, with the cxception of the Capitoline and Quirinal hills, is now a wide waste of piles of shattered architecture rising amid vineyards and rural lanes, exhibiting no tokens of habitation except a few mouldering convents, villas, and cottages. Beginning our survey at the Capitoline hill, on which once stood the famous temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, we find there no vestiges of ancient grandeur, save about eighty feet of what are believed to have been the foundations of the temple. At the northern extremity of the hill we still discern the fatal Tarpeian Rock, surrounded by a cluster of old and wretched hovels, while rains encumber its base to the depth of twenty feet. The open space between the Capitoline, Esquiline, and Palatine hills, is covered by relics of ancient buildings interspersed among modern churches and a few paltry streets. Here was the Great Roman Forum-a large space surrounded by and filled with public buildings, temples, statues, arches, &c., nearly all of which have disappeared; and the surface pavement on which they stood is now covered with their ruins to a depth of from fifteen to thirty feet. The space which the Forum occupied has been called, until recently, Campo Vaccino, or the Field of Cows; and it is in reality a market place for sheep, pigs, and cattle. In early times there was a little lake between the Capitoline and Palatine hills. In time this was converted into a marsh; and the most ancient ruin which remains to us, the Cloaca Maxima, or great drain, built by the Tarquins, was designed for carrying off its waters. This drain, still performing its destined service, opens into the Tiber with a vault fourteen feet in height and as many in width. The beautiful circle of nineteen Corinthian columns near the Tiber, around the church of Santa Maria, has been usually styled the Temple of Vesta-supposed to belong to the age of the Antonines. On the Palatine hill Augustus erected the earliest of the Palaces of the Cæsars; Claudius ex tended them, and joined the Palatine to the Capitoline by a bridge; and towards the northern point of the Palatine, Nero built his "Golden House," fronted by a vestibule in which stood the emperor's colossal statue. The Aventine rises from the river steep and bare, surmounted by a solitary convent. On the Cœlian are remains of the very curious circular Temple of Faunus, built by Claudius. Southward are the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, occupying a surface equal to one-sixteenth of a square mile. The building, or range of buildings, was im mense,--containing four magnificent temples dedicated to Apollo, Esculapius, Hercules, and Bacchus, a grand circular vestibule, with baths on each side for cold, tepid, warm, and seabathing in the centre an immense square for exercise-and beyond it a noble hall with sixteen hundred marble seats for the bathers, and, at each end of the hall, libraries. On each side of the building was a court surrounded by porticoes, with an odeum for music, and, in the middle, a spacious basin for swimming. There was also a gymnasium for running, wrestling, &c., and around the whole a vast colonnade opening into spacious halls where the poets declaimed, and philosophers gave lectures to their auditors. But the immense halls are now roofless, and the wind sighs through the aged trees that have taken root in the pavements. South of the Palatine was the Circus Maximus, which is said to have covered the spot where the games were celebrated when the Romans seized the Sabine women. It was more than we 'housand feet in length, and, in its greatest extent, contained seats for two hundred |