Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/152

 136 LATIUJI. limestone mountains, frequently rising to a great height, and very abruptly, while in other cases their sides are clothed with magnificent forests of oak and chestnut trees, and their lower slopes are well adapted for the growth of vines, olives, and corn. The broad valley of the Trerus, which extends from the foot of the hill of Praeneste to the valley of the Liris, is bordered on both sides by hills, covered with the richest vegetation, at the back of which rise the liifty ranges of the Vol.scian and Hernican mountains. This valley ,which is followed througliout by the course of the Via Latina, forms a natural line of communica- tion from the interior of Latium to the valley of the Liris, and .so to Campania; the importance of which in a military point of view is apparent on many occa- sions in Roman history. The broad valley of the Liris itself opens an easy and unbroken communica- tion from the heart of the Apennines near the Lake Fucinus with the plains of Campania. On the other side, the Anio, which has its sources in the rugged mountains near Trevi, not far from those of the Liris, flovs in a SW. direction, and after changing its course abruptly two or three times, emerges through the gorge at Tivoli into the plain of the Koman Campagna. The greater part of Latium is not (as compared with some other parts of Italy) a country of great natural fertility. On the other hand, the barren and desolate aspect which the Campagna now presents is apt to convey a very erroneous impression as to its character and resources. The greater part of the volcanic plain not only affords good pasturage for sheep and cattle, but is capable of producing con- siderable quantities of corn, while the slopes of the hills on all sides are well adapted to the growth of vines, olives, and other fruit-trees. The wine of the Alban Hills was celebrated in the days of Horace (Hon Carm. iv. 11. 2, Sat. ii. 8. 16), while the figs of Tusculum, the hazel-nuts of Praeneste, and the pears of Crustumium and Tibur were equally noted for their excellence. (Macrob. Sat. ii. 14, 15; Cato, R. R. 8.) In the early ages of the Roman history the culti- vation of corn must, from the number of small towns scattered over the plain of Latium, have been carried to a far greater extent than we find it at the present day; but under the Roman Empire, and even before the close of the Republic, there appears to have been a continually increasing tendency to diminish the amount of arable cultivation, and increase that of pasture. Nevertheless the attempts that have been made even in modern times to promote agriculture in the neighbourhood of Rome have sufficiently proved that its decline is more to be attributed to other causes than to the sterility of the soil itself The tract near the sea-coast alone is sandy and barren, and fully justifies the language of Fabius, who called it " agrum macerrimum, littorosis-simumque " (Serv. ad Aen. i. 3). On the other hand, the slopes of the Alban Hills ar« of great fertility, and are still studded, as they were in ancient times, with the villas of Roman nobles, and with gardens of the greatest richness. The climate of Latium was very far from being a healthy one, even in the most flourishing times of Rome, though the greater amount of population and cultivation tended to diminish the effects of the malaria which at the present day is the scourge of the district. Strabo tells us that the territory of Ardea, as well as the tract between Antium and Lanuvium, and extending from thence to the Pontine LATimL ]Iarshes, was marshy and unwholesome (v. p. 231). The Pontine plains themselves are described as " pes- tiferous " (Sil. Ital. viii. 379), and all the attempts made to drain them seem to have produced but little effect. The unhealthiness of Ardea is noticed both by Martial and Seneca as something proverbial (Mart. iv. 60 ; Seneca, Ep. 105) : but, besides this, expressions occur which point to a much more general diffusion of malaria. Livy in one passage represents the Roman soldiers as complaining that they had to maintain a constant stniggle " in arido atque pestilent!, circa urbem, solo " (Liv. vii. 38) ; and Cicero, in a passage where there was much less room for rhetorical exaggeration, praises the choice of Romulus in fixing his city "in a healthy spot in the midst of a pestilential region." (" Locum delegit in regione pestilenti salubrem," Cic. de Rep. ii. 6.) But we learn also, from abundant allusions in ancient writers, that it was only by comparison that Rome itself could be considered healthy ; even in the city malaria fevers were of frequent occurrence in summer and autumn, and Horace speaks of the heats of summer as bringing in " fresh figs and funerals." (Hor. Ep.i. 7. 1 — 9.) Frontinus also extols the increased supply of water as tending to remove the causes which had previously rendered Rome notorious/or its unhealthg climate ("causae gravioris coeli, quibus apud veteres urbis infamis aer fuit," Frontin. de Aquaed. § 88). But the great accu- mulation of the population at Rome itself must have operated as a powerful check ; for even at the present day malaria is unknown in the most densely popu- lated parts of the city, though these are the lowest in point of position, while the hills, which were then thickly peopled, but are now almost uninhabited, are all subject to its ravages. In like manner in the Campagna, wherever a considerable nucleus of population was once formed, with a certain extent of cultivation around it, this would in itself tend to keep down the mischief; and it is probable that, even in the most flourishing times of the Roman Empire, this evil was considerably greater than it had been in the earlier ages, when the numerous free cities formed so many centres of population and agricultural industry. It is in accordance with this view that we find the malaria extending its ravages with frightful rapidity after the fall of the Roman Empire and the devastation of the Campagna ; and a writer of the 1 1th century speaks of the deadly climate of Rome in teiTns which at the present day would appear greatly exaggerated. (Petrus Da- mianus, cited by Eunsen.) The unhealthiness arising from this cause is, however, entirely confined to the plains. It is found at the present day that an elevation of 350 or 400 feet above their level gives complete immunity ; and hence Tibur, Tus- culum, Arieia, Lanuvium, and all the other cities that were built at a considerable height above the plain were perfectly healthy, and were resorted to during the summer (in ancient as well as modern times) by all who could afford to retreat from the city and its immediate neighbourhood. (See on this subject Tournon, E'tndes Statistiqnes sur Rome, liv. i. chap. 9 ; Bunseu, Beschreibung derStadt Rom,, vol. i. pp. 98—108.) IV. HisTORy. 1 . Origin and Affinities of the Latins. — All ancient writers are agreed in representing the Latins, properly so called, or the inhabitants of Latium in the restricted sense of the term, as a distinct people