Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/83

 THE RISE OF ROME 71 The Italian Aryans entered the peninsula as the Hellenes entered Greece in successive waves. Among them we find two groups of primary importance which are generally called the Latin and Oscan or Sabellian. Looking at the map we shall see that Italy is divided into two by the great chain of the Apennines, the city of Rome standing on the river Tiber midway down the western half. It is in this western half that the development took place. The Latins, pushing down over the Apennines, found the regions on the west of the river Tiber already occupied by the Etruscans, a pre-Aryan people probably akin to the non-Semitic races of Asia Minor, whom the Hellenes also had probably found before them in Greece and the islands of the Aegean. The Etruscans were too strong to be conquered by the invaders who moved down the eastern bank of the Tiber and occupied Latium ; while the Oscans, pressing on behind them, occupied the higher lands away from the coast, and partly encircled the Latins on the south. Latium was geographically favourable to the develop- ment of cities ; and the Latins, like the Greeks, formed themselves at an early stage into a collection of city states. The political system was much like that of the Greeks, with a king, a group of aristocratic families, and inferior but free clans, and a slave population at the bottom of the scale. The power of the Etruscans in the north, and the pressure of the Oscan tribes from the mountains, caused the Latin cities to The Latin form a league ; which, however, implied little more L e a S ue - than a recognition of the necessity of presenting a united front to a common foe, after the fashion of the Greeks when they went against Troy or faced the Persian invader. After the same fashion also the Latin cities were inclined to recognise the leadership, but not the lordship, of some one among their number. Tradition declares that the city of Rome was founded in the year 753 B.C. by Romulus. During the next 240 years seven kings reigned, including the founder. The last, 2. Early Tarquinius the Proud, was expelled, and the History. Romans swore that they would never again submit to the sway of a king. Henceforth, what had been the royal orifice was shared by two chief magistrates, called Consuls or Praetors, who