Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/111

 ITALIA. (lison. Remarlcs on Italy'). (See tliis question fully discussed and investigated by Zumpt, ubei' den Stand der Bevolkermig im Alt^rthum. 4to. Berlin, 1841.) Gallia Cis.alpina, including; Yenetia and the part of Liguria N. ot" the A[ic'iinines, seems to have been by far the most tlotirishin!]; and pDpulous part of Italy under the Kuman empire. Its extraordinary natural resources had been brouc;ht into oiltivation at a comparatively late period, and were still unex- hausted : nor had it suftl-rod so much from the civil wars which had given a fatal blow to the prosperity of the rest of Italy. It would appear also to have been comparatively free from the system of culti- vation by slave labour which had proved so ruinous to the more southern regions. The younger Pliny, indeed, mentions that his estate near Uomum,andall those in its neighbourhood, were cultivated wholly by free labourers. (I'lin. J:'p. iii. 19.) In the latter ages of the Empire, also, the establishment of the imperial court at Mediolanum (which continued from the time of Maximian to that of Honorius) must have given a fresh stimulus to the prosperity of this favoured region. But when the Empire was DO longer able to guard the barrier of tiie Alps against the irruptions of barbarians, it was on Northern Italy that the first brunt of their devas- tations naturally fell; and the numerous and opu- lent cities in the plains of the Padus were plundered in succession by the Goths, the Iluns, and the Lombards. VII. Authorities. Considering the celebrity of Italy, and the im- portance which it enjoyed, not only under the lio- mans but daring the middle ages, and the facility of access which has rendered it so favourite a resort of travellers in modern times, it seems strange that our knowledge of its ancient geography should be still very imperfect. Yet it cannot be denied that this is the case. The first disadvantage under which we labour is, that our ancient authorities themselves are far from being as copious or satis- factory as might be expected. The account given by Strabo, though marked by much of his usual good sense and judgment, is by no means sufficiently ample or detailed to meet all our requirements. He had also comparatively little interest in, and was probably liimself but imperfectly acquainted with, the early history of Rome, and therefore did not care to notice, or inquire after, places which had figured in that history, but were in his time sunk into decay or oblivion. Mela dismisses the geo- graphy of Italy very hastily, as being too well known to reiiuire a detailed description (ii. 4. § 1): while Pliny, on the contrary, apologises for passing but lightly over so important and interesting a subject, on account of the impossibility of doing it justice (iii. 5. s. 6). His enumeration of the different regions and the towns they contained is nevertheless of the greatest value, and in all probability based upon authentic materials. But he almost wholly neglects the physical geography, and enumerates the inland towns of each district in alphabetical order, so that his mention of them gives us no assistance in determining their position. Ptolemy's lists of names are far less authentic and trustworthy than those of Pliny; and the positions which he professes to give ai-e often but little to be depended on. The Itineraries afford valuable assistance, and perhaps there is no country for which they are more uselul ITALIA. 95 and trustworthy guides; but they fail us exactly where we are the most in want of assistance, in the more remote and unfrequented parts of Italv, or those districts which in the latter ages of the" Em- pire had fallen into a state of decay and desolation. One of the most important aids to the determination of ancient localities is unquestionably the preserva- tion of the ancient names, which have often been transmitted almost without change to the pre.'^ent day; and even where the name is now altered, we are often enabled by ecclesiastical records to trace the ancient appellation down to the middle ages, and prove both the fact and the oi'igin of its altera- tion. In numerous instances (such as Aletium, Sipontum, &c.) an ancient church alone records the existence and preserves the name of the decayed city. But two circumstances must guard us against too hasty an inference from the mere evidence of name: the one, that it not unfrequently happened, during the disturbed periods of the middle ages, that the inhabitants of an ancient town would mi- grate to another site, whether for security or other reasons, and transfer their old name to their new abode. Instances of this will be found in the cases of Ai'.KLLiNUM, Ai'FiDENA, &c., and the most re- markable of all in that of Capl'A. Another source of occasional error is that the pi-esent appellations of localities are sometimes derived from erroneous tra- ditions of the middle ages, or even from the misap- jilication of ancient names by local writers on the first revival of learning. One of the irujst important and trustwortliy auxi- liaries in the determination of ancient names and localities, that of inscriptions, unfortunately requires, in the case of Italy, to be received with much care and caution. The perverted ingenuity or misguided patriotism of many of the earlier Italian antiquarians frequently led them either to fabricate or interpolate such documents, and this with so much skill and show of learning, that many such fictitious or apo- cryphal inscriptions have found their w.iy into the collections of Gruter, Muratori, and Orelli, and have been cited in succession by numerous modern writers. Mommsen has conferred a great service upon the student of Italian antiquities by subjecting all the recorded inscriptions belonging to the kingdom of Naples to a searching critical inquiry, and dis- carding from his valuable collection {Inscriptiones Regrd NeapoVitani Latinae, fol. Lips. 18.52) all those of dubious authenticity. It is much to be desired that the same task may be imdertaken for those of the rest of Italy. The comparative geography of ancient and mo- dern Italy had more or less engaged the attention of scholars from the first revival of learning. But of the general works on the subject, those before the time of Cluverius may be regarded more as objects of cu- riosity than as of much real use to the student. Biondo Flavio (Blondus Flavius) is the earliest writer who has left us a complete and connected view of Italian topography, in his Italia Illustrata (fii-st published in 1474, afterwards with his other works at Basle, in 1531 and 1.559): after him came Leandro Albert!, whose Descrizione di tutta Italia (Venice, 15.51) contains some valuable no- tices. But the great work of Cluverius {Italia Antiqua, 2 vols. fol. Lugd. Bat. 1624) altogether superseded those which had preceded him, and became the fouiidation of all subsequent inquiries. Cluverius has not only brought together, with the most praiseworthy diligence, all the passages of