Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/156

 140 LATIUM. more severely punished; but the peojjle of tliis city also were soon after admitted to the Eoman fran- chise, and the creation shortly after of the IIaecian and Scaptian tribes was designed to include the new citizens added to the republic as the result of these arrangements. (Liv. viii. 14, 17; Niebuhr, vol. iii. pp. 140—145.) From this time the Latins as a nation may be said to disappear from history: they became gradu- ally more and more blended into one mass with the Eoman people; and though the formula of "the allies and Latin nation" (socii et nonien Latimmi) is one of perpetual occurrence from this time f jrth in the Eoman history, it must be remembered that this phrase includes also the citizens of the so-called Latin colonies, who formed a body far superior in importance and numbers to the remains of the old Latin people. [Italia, p. 90.] In the above historical review, the history of the old Latins, or the Latins properly so called, has been studiously kept separate from that of the other nations which were subsequently included under the general appellation of Latium, — the Aequians, Her- nicans, Volscians, and Ausonians. The history of these several tribes, as long as they sustained a separate national existence, will be found under their respective names. It may suffice here to mention that the Hernicans were reduced to complete sub- jection to Eome in b. c. 306, and the Aequians in B.C. 304; the period of the final subjugation of the Volscians is more uncertain, but we meet with no mention of them in arms after the capture of Pri- vernum in b. c. 329 ; and it seems certain that they, as well as the Ausonian cities which adjoined them, had fallen into the power of Eome before the com- mencement of the Second Samnite War, B. c. 326. [VoLsci.] Hence, the whole of the countiy sub- sequently known as Latium had become finally subject to Eome before the year 300 b. c. 3. Latium under the Romans. — The histoiy of Latium, properly speaking, ends with the breaking up of the Latin League. Although some of the cities continued, as already mentioned, to retain a no- minal independence down to a late period, and it was not till after the outbreak of the Social War, in B.C. 90, that the Lex Julia at length conferred upon all the Latins, without exception, the rights of Eoman citizens, they had long before lost all traces of na- tional distinction. The only events in the interven- ing period which belong to the histoiy of Latium are inseparably bound up with that of Eome. Such was the invasion by Pyrrhus in B.C. 280, who advanced however only as tar as Praeneste, from whence he looked down upon the plain around Eome, but with- out venturing to descend into it. (Eutrop. ii. 12 ; Flor. i. 18. § 24.) In the Second Punic War, how- ever, Hannibal, advancing like Pyrrhus by the line of the Via Latina, established his camp within four miles of the city, and earned his ravages up to the veiy .gates of Eome. (Liv. xxvi. 9 — 11; Pol. ix. 6.) This was the last time fur many centuries that La- tium witnessed the presence of a foreign hostile army; but it suflered severely in the civil wars of BLarius and Sulla, and the whole tract near the sea-coast especially was ravaged by the Samnite auxiharies of the former in a manner that it seems never to have recovered. (Strab. v. p. 232.) Before the close of the Republic Latium appears to have lapsed almost completely into the condition of the mere suburban district of Eome. Tibur, Tus- culum, and Praeneste became the favourite resorts of LATIUJL the Ecman nobles, and the fertile slopes of tlie Alban Hills and the Apennines were studded with villas and gardens, to which the wealthier citizens of the metro- polis used to retire in order to avoid the heat or bustle of Eome. But the plain hnmediately around the city, or the Campagna, as it is now called, seems to have lost rather than gained by its prox- imity to the capital. Livy, in more than one pas- sage, speaks with astonishment of the inexhaustible resources which the infant republic appears to have possessed, as compared with the condition of the same territory in his own time. (Liv. vi. 12, vii. 25.) We learn from Cicero that Gabii, Labicum, Collatia, Fi- denae, and Bovillae were in his time sunk into almost complete decay, while even those towns, such as Aricia and Lanuvium, which were in a com.paratively flourishing condition, were still very inferior to the opulent municipal towns of Campania. (Cic. pi-o Plane. 9, de Ltg. Arjrar. Ii. 35.) Nor did this state of things become materially improved even under the Eoman Empire. The whole Laurentine tract, or the woody district adjoining the sea-coast, as well as the adjacent territory of Ardea, had already come to be regarded as unhealthy, and was therefore thinly in- habited. In other parts of the Campagna single farms or villages already occupied the sites of an- cient cities, such as Antemnae, Collatia, Fidenae, &c. (Strab. v. p. 230) ; and Pliny gives a long list of cities of ancient Latium which in his time had al- together ceased to exist. (Plin. iii. 6. s. 9.) The great hues of highway, the Appian, Latin, Salarian, and Valerian Ways, became the means of collecting a considerable population along their immediate lines, but appear to have had rather a contraiy effect in regard to all intermediate tracts. The notices that we find of the attempts made by successive emperors to recruit the decaying population of many of the towns of Latium with fresh colonies, suiSciently show how far they were from sharing in the prospe- rity of the capital; while, on the other hand, these colonies seem to have for the most part succeeded only in giving a delusive air of splendour to the towns in question, without laying the foundation of any real and permanent improvement. For many ages its immediate proximity to the capital at least secured Latium from the ravages o£ foreign invaders ; but when, towards the decline of the Empu-e, this ceased to be the case, and each suc- cessive swarm of barbarians earned their arms up to the veiy gates and walls of Rome, the district immediately round the city probably suffered more severely than any other. Before the fall of the Western Empire the Campagna seems to have been )"educed almost to a desert, and the evil must have been continually augmented after that period by the long continued wars with the Gothic kings, as well as subsequently with the Lombards, who, though they never made themselves masters of Eome itself, repeatedly laid waste the surrounding territory. All the records of the middle ages represent to us the Eoman Campagna as reduced to a state of com- plete desolation, from which it has never more than partially recovered. In the division of Italy under Augustus, Latium, in the wider sense of the term, together with Cam- pania, constituted the First Eegion. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) But gradually, for what reason we know not, the name of Campania came to be generally employed to designate the whole legion ; while that of Latium fell completely into disuse. Hence the origin of the name of La Campagna di Eo7na, by