Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/110

 94 ITAI.IA. for a long time extended their dominion over a con- siderable part of the S., and wrested from the dukes of Benevento the districts to vvliich they gave the names of the Capttanata and the BastUcata (a part of the ancient Apulia and Lucania), and of which they retained possession till the 11th century. It was then that a new enemy first appeared on the scene, and the Normans, under Robert Guiscard, completed the final expulsion of the Greek emperors from Italy. The capture of Bari in 1071, and of Salerno in 1077, destroyed the last vestiges of the dominion that had been founded by the generals of Justinian. (D'Anville, E'tats formes en Europe apres la Chute de TEmpire Remain, 4to. Paris, 1771.) VI. PoPUi^VTiox OF Italy under the R031.X3. The statements transmitted to us from antiquity concerning the amount of the population in different cities and countries are for the most part of so vague a character and such uncertain authority as to be little worthy of consideration ; but we have two facts recorded in connection with that of Italy, which may lead us to form at least an approximate estimate of its numbers. The first of these data is the statement given by Polybius, as well as by several Roman writers on the authority of Fabius, and whicii there is every reason to believe based on authentic documents, of the total amount of the forces which the Romans and their allies were able to oppose to the threatened invasion of the Gauls in B. c. 225. According to the detailed enumeration given by Polybius, the total number of men capable of bearing arms which appeared on the reyliters of the Romans and their allies, amounted to above 700,000 foot and 70,000 horsemen. Pliny gives them at 700,000 foot and 80,000 horse ; while Eutropius and Orosius state the whole amount in round numbers at 800,000. (Pol. ii. 24; Plin. iii. 20. s. 24 ; Eutrop. iii. 5 ; Oros. iv. 13.) It is evident, from the precise statements of Polybius, that this was the total amount of the free population of military age (rh avfiizav ■KKrfios riiiv Oxiva^ivoiv HirXa ^ao-Tafeii/), and not that which could be actually brought into the field. If we estimate the proportion of these to the total free population as 1 to 4, which appears to have been the ratio cur- rently adopted in ancient times, we should obtain a total' of 3,200,000 fur the free population of the Italian peninsula, exclusive of the greater paj-t of Cisalpine Gaul, and the whole of Liguria* : and even if we adopt the proportion of 1 to 5, more commonly received in modern times, this would still give a total of only 4,000,000, an amount by no means very large, as the p(jpulation of the same parts of Italy at the present day considerably ex- ceeds 9,000,000. (Serristori, Statistica (TltaUu.) Of the amount of the servile population we have no means of forming an estimate ; but it was pro- bably not large at this period of the Roman history; and its subsequent rapid increase was contempo- raneous with the diminution of the free population. The complaints of the extent to which this had allies who sent assistance to the Romans on this occasion, but their actual contingent of 20,000 men is all that is included in the estimate of Polybius. They did not, like the Italian allies, and doubtless could not, send registers of their total available resources. ITALIA. taken place as early as the time of the Gracchi, and their lamentations over the depopulation of Italy (Plut. T. Gracch. 8), would lead us to suppose that the number of free citizens had greatly fallen off. If this was the case in u. c. 133, the events of the next half century — the sanguinary struggle of the Social War, which swept oft', according to Velleius Paterculus (ii. 15), more than 300,000 men in the vigour of their age, and the cruel devastation of Samnium and Etruria by Sulla — were certainly not calculated to repair the deficiency. But, notwith- standing this, we find that the census of B. c. 70, which included all the new citizens recently ad- mitted to the Roman franchise, and did not yet comprise any population out of Italy, nor even the Transpadane Gauls, gave a residt of 910,000 Ro- man citizens (capita civiuin); from which we may fairly infer a free population of at least 4,50(1.000. (Liv. Epit. xcviii. ed. Jahn, compared with Phlegon, up. Phot. Bihl. p. 84. ed. Bekker.) The rapid ex- tension of a Roman population in Gallia Cispadana, as well as Venetia and Liguria, had evidently n)ore than compensated for the diminution in the centra! provinces of the peninsula. Of the populousness of Italy under the Empire, we have no data on which to found an estimate. But there are certainly no reasons to suppose that it ever exceeded the amount which it had attained under the Republic. Complaints of its depopu- lation, of the decay of flourishing towns, and the desolation of whole districts, are frequent in the writers of the Augustan age and the first century of the Christian era. We are told that Caesar in B. C. 46, already found a dreadful diminution of the population {pnvijv oiyavdpci>iTia.v^ Dion Cass, sliii. 25); and the period of the Triumvirate must have tended greatly to agigravate the evil. Augustus seems to have used every means to recruit the exhausted population: but that his efibrts were but partially successful is evident from the picture which Strabo (writing in the reign of Tiberius) gives us of the state of decay and desolation to which the once populous provinces of Sanmium, Apuha, and Lucania, were in his day reduced ; while Livy confirms his statement, in regard even to dis- tricts nearer Rome, such as the land of the Aequians and Volscians. (Strab. v. p. 249, vi. pp. 253, 281; Liv. vi. 12.) Pliny, writing under Vespasian, speaks of the " latifundia" as having been '"the ruin of Italy;" and there seems no reason to suppose that this evil was afterwards checked in any material degree. The splendour of many of the municipal towns, and especially the magnificent public build- ings with which they were adorned, is apt to convey a notion of wealth and opulence which it seems hard to combine with that of a declining population. But it must be remembered that these great works were in many, probably in most instances, erected by the munificence either of the emperors or of private in- dividuals ; and the vast wealth of a few nobles was so far from being the sign of general prosperity, that it was looked upon as one of the main causes of decay. Many of the towns and cities of Italy were, however, no doubt very flourishing and populous: but numerous testimonies of ancient writers seem to prove that this was fur from being the case ^vith the country at large ; and it is certain that no ancient author lends any countenance to the notion enter- tained by some modern writers, of " the incredible multitudes of people with which Italy abounded during the reigns of the Roman emperors " (Ad-
 * The Cenomani and Veneti were among the