Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/148

 132 LATIUM. have any national existence, the name of Latium is fatill not unfrequently used, as equivalent to " nomen Latinum," to designate the vrhole body of those who possessed the rights of Latins, and were therefore still called Latini, though no longer in a national tense. The suegestion of a modern writer (Abeken, Mittel Jtalien, p. 42) that Latium is derived from " latus," broad, and means the broad plain or ex- panse of the Camparjna (like Camixmia from " Campus "), appears to be untenable, on account of the difference in the quantity of the first syllable, notwithstanding the analogy of TrXarvs, which has the first syllable short. IL Extent and Boundakies. The name of Latium was applied at different periods in a very different extent and signification. Originally, as already pointed out, it meant the land of the Latini; and as long as that people retained their independent national existence, the name of Latium could only be applied to the territory possessed by them, exclu- sive of that of the Hernici, Aequians, Volscians, &c., who were at that period independent and often hos- tile nations. It was not till these separate nationali- ties had been merged into the common condition of subjects and citizens of Kome that the name of Latium came to be extended to all the territory which they had previously occupied ; and was thus applied, first in common parlance, and afterwards in official usage, to the whole region from the borders of Etruria to those of Campania, or from the Tiber to the Liris. Hence we must carefully distinguish be- tween Latium in the original sense of the name, in which alone it occurs throughout the early Eoman history, and Latium in this later or geographical sense; and it will be necessary here to treat of the two quite separately. The period at which the latter usage of the name came into vogue we have no means of determining: we know only that it was fully established before the time of Augustus, and is recognised by all the geographers. (Strab. v. pp. 228, 23t; Plin.iii. 5. s. 9; Ftol. iii. 1. §§ 5, 6.) Pliny designates the original Latium, or Latium properly so called, as Latium Antiquum, to which he opposes the newly added portions, as Latium Adjectum. It may, however, be doubted whether these appellations were e'er adopted in common use, though convenient as geographical distinctions. 1. Latiuji Antiquum, or Latium in the original and liistorlcal sense, was a country of small extent, bounded by the Tiber on the N., by the Apennines on the E., and by the Tyrrhenian sea on the W. ; while on the S. its limits were not defined by any natural boundaries, and appear to have fluctuated considerably at different periods. Pliny defines it as extending from the mouth of the Tiber to the Cir- ceian promontory, a statement confirmed by Strabo (Phn. iii. 5. s. 9; Strab. v. p. 231); and we have other authority also for the fact that at an early period all the tract of marshy plain, known as the Pontine Marshes or " Pomptinus Ager," extending from Velitrae and Antium to Circeii, was inhabited by Latins, and regarded as a part of Latium. (Cato, ap. Priscian. v. p. 668.) Even of the adjoining moun- tain tract, subsequently occupied by the Volscians, a part at least must have been originally Latin, for Cora, Norba, and Setia were all of them Latin cities (Dionys.v. 61), — though, at a somewhat later period, not only had these towns, as well as the plain be- neath, fallen into the hands of the Volscians, but LATIUM. that people had made themselves masters of Antium and Velitrae, which are in consequence repeatedly called Volscian cities. The manner in which the early Eom.an history has been distorted by poetical legends and the exaggerations of national vanity renders it very difficult to trace the com'se of these changes, and the alterations in the frontiers conse- quent upon the alternate progress of the Volscian and the Eoman arms. But there seems no reason to doubt the fact that such changes repeatedly took place, and that we may thus explain the apparent inconsistency of ancient historians in calling the same places at one time Volscian, at another Latin, cities. We may also clearly discern two different periods, during the first of which the Volscian arms were gi-adually gaining upon those of the Latins, and extending their dominion over cities of Latin origin ; while, in the second, the Volscians were in their turn giving way before the preponderating power of Eome. The Gaulish invasion (b.c. 390) may be taken, ap- proximately at least, as the turning point between the two periods. The case appears to have been somewhat similar, though to a less degree, on the northern frontier, where the Latins adjoined the Sabines. Here, also, we find the same places at different times, and by different authors, termed sometimes Latin and some- times Sabine, cities ; and though in some of these cases the discrepancy may have arisen from mere in- advertence or error, it is probable that in some in- stances both statements are equally coiTect, but refer to different periods. The circumstance that the Anio was fixed by Augustus as the boundary of the First Eegion seems to have soon led to the notion that it was the northern limit of Latium also ; and hence all the towns beyond it were regarded as Sabine, though several of them were, according tc the general tradition of earlier times, originally Latin cities. Such was the confusion resulting from this cause that Piny in one passage enumerates Nomen- tum, Fidenae, and even Tibur among the Sabine towns, while he elsewhere mentions the two former as Latin cities, — and the Latin origin of Tibm- is too well established to admit of a doubt. (Phn. iii. 5. s. 9, 12. s. 17.) In the absence of natural boundaries it is only by means of the names of the towns that we can trace the extent of Latium ; and here fortunately the lists that have been transmitted to us by Dionysius and Pliny, as well as those of the colonies of Alba, afford us material assistance. The latter, indeed, cannot be regarded as of historical value, but they were un- questionably meant to represent the fact, with which their authors were probably well acquainted, that the places there enumerated were properly Latin cities, and not of Sabine or Volscian origin. Taking these authorities for our guides, we may trace the limits of ancient Latimn as follows: — 1. From the mouth of the Tiber to the confluence of the Anio, the former river constituted the boundary between Latium and Etruria. The Eomans, indeed, from an early period, extended their territory beyond the Tiber, and held the Janiculum and Campus Vati- canus on its right bank, as well as the so-called Septem Pagi, which they wrested from the Veientes; anil it is probable that the Etruscans, on the other hand, had at one period extended their power over a part of the district on the left bank of the Tiber, but that river nevertheless constituted the generally recognised geographical limit between Etrm-ia and Latium. 2. North of the Anio the Latin territory