Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/742

 722 ROMA. sen<. Dionysius (xii. 8) records a winter in which the sniJW lay more than 7 feet deep at Rome, when houses were destroyed and men and cattle perished. Another severe winter, if it be not the same, is mentioned by Livy (v. 13) as occurring B.C. 398, when the Tiber was frozen over and the roads ren- dered impassable. (Cf. xl. 4.5, &c.) A very severe winter is also alluded to by St. Augustin (de Civ. Dei, iii. 17). That such instances were rare, how- ever, appears from the minuteness with which they are recorded. Yet there are many passages in the classics which prove that a moderate degree of win- ter cold was not at all unusual, cr rather that it was of ordinary occurrence. Thus Pliny (xvii. 2) speaks of long snows as being beneficial to the corn ; and allusions to winter will be found in Cicero (ad Qii. Fr. ii. 12), Horace {Od. i.9, iii. 10), Martial (iv.lS), and in numerous other passages of ancient writers. At the present time the occurrence of even such a degree of cold as may be inferred from these passages is extremely rare. One or two modern instances of severe winters are indeed recorded ; but, generally speaking, snow seldom falls, and never lies long upon the ground. This change of climate is accounted for by Dr. Arnold as follows: " Allowing that the peninsular form of Italy must at all times have had its effect in softening the climate, still the woods and marshes of Cisalpine Gaul, and the perpetual snows of the Alps, far more extensive than at present, owing to the uncultivated and uncleared state of Switzerland and Germany, could not but have been felt even in the neighbourhood of Rome. Besides, even in the Apennines, and in Etruria and in Latium, the forests occupied a far greater space than in modern times ; this would increase the quantity of rain, and consequently the volume of water in the rivers ; the floods would be greater and more nume- rous, and before man's dominion had completely sub- dued the whole country, there would be a large ac- cumulation of water in the low grounds, which would still further increase the coldness of the atmo- sphere." (Hist, of Rome, vol. i. p. 449.) But if the Roman climate is ameliorated with re- gard to the rigour of its winters, there is no reason to believe that tlie same is the case with respect to that unhealthy state of the atmosphere called ma- laria. In ancient times, Rome itself appears to have been tolerably free from this pestilence, which was confined to certain tracts of the surrounding country. This may have been partly owing to its denser population; for it is observed that in the more thickly inhabited districts of Rome there is even at present but little malaria. Strabo, speaking of Latium, observes that only a few spots near the coast were marshy and unwholesome (v. p. 231), and a little further on gives positive testi- mony to the healthiness of the immediate neigh- bourhood of Rome (t<J)€|T)s 5' iarl irtSia, to fxkv Trpbs T7]V 'Pu!fj.r]i' cvvaTZTOVTa koL to irpodaTna ourf)?, TO. 5e Ttphs Trjv^dKaTTav Ta /xtu oiiv irphs Tr]u dd.aTravfiTr6v iffrivvyiiivd, ra. Se aWa fud- yuiyd re Kal iropaTrA.rjtri'cos i^rfUKriixiva, ib. p. 239). To the same purpose is the testimony of Livy, who represents Camillus describing the hills of Rome as " saluberrimos colles;" and of Cicero (de Rep. ii. G): " locumque delegit et fontibus abundantem et in re- gione pestilenti salubrem: colles enim sunt, qui cum perflantur ipsi, tum atTerunt umbram vallibus." It is surprising how Becker (IJandbuch, p. 82) can in- terpret Cicero's meaning in this passage to be that the lower parts of Rome were unhealthy, when it is ROMA. obvious that he meant just the reverse, — that the shade of the hills secured their healthiness. Little can be inferred with regard to any permanent ma- laria from the altars which we are told were erected to the goddesses Orbona and Febris on the Esquiline and in other places. (Cic. N. D. ii. 25; Plin. ii. 5; Valer. Max. ii. 5. § 6.) Even the most healthy spots are not always exempt from fevers, much less a populous city during the heats of autumn. The climate of Rome is at present reckoned unhealthy from June till October; but Horace dreaded only the autumnal heats. (Od. ii. 14. 15; Sat. ii. 6. 19.) The season is more accurately defined in his Epistle to Maecenas, where he places it at the ripening of the fig: — " dum ficus prima calorque Designatorem decorat lictoribus atris." (Ep. i. 7. 5.) In the same epistle (v. 10) he seems to expect as a usual occurrence that the Alban fields would be covered with snow in the winter. FART L HISTORY OF THE CITY. I. Traditions kespecting the Foundations OF Rome. The history of the foundation of Rome is lost in the darkness of remote antiquity. When the great- ness of the city, and its progress in arts and letters, awakened curiosity resjiecting its origin, authentic records on the subject, if indeed they had ever ex- isted, were no longer to be found. Hence a license of conjecture which has produced at the least no fewer than twenty-five distinct legends respecting the foun- dation of Rome. To record all these, many of which are merely variations of the same story, would be beside the purpose of the present article. The student who desires a complete account of them will find them very clearly stated in Sir G. Cornewall Lewis's Inquiry into the Credibility of the early Roman History (vol. i. p. 394, seq.), and also, though not so fully, in Niebuhr's History of Rome (Eng. Transl. vol. i. p. 214, seq.), chiefly derived from the following ancient sources: Dionys. Halic. i. c. 72 — 74; Plut. Rom. 1, 2; Servius, ad Virg. Aen. i. 273 ; and Festus, s. v. Roma. The importance of the subject, however, and the frequent allusions to it in the classical writers, will not permit us to pass it over in perfect silence ; and we shall therefore mention, as compendiously as possible, some of the principal traditions. All the theories on the subject may be reduced to three general heads, as follows : — I. That Rome was founded in the age preceding the Trojan War. II. That it was founded by Aeneas, or other persons, a little after the fall of Troy. III. That Romulus, grandson of Numitor, king of Alba Longa, was its founder, several centuries after the Trojan War. JIany who held the first of these opinions ascribed the building of Rome to the Pelasgi, and thought that its name was derived from the force (^wixyf) of their arms. (Plut. Rom. 1.) Others regarded it as having been founded by an indigenous Italian tribe, and called Valentia, a name of the same im- port, which, after the arrival of Evander and other Greeks, was translated into Rome. (Niebuhr, Hist. vol. i. p. 214.) A more prevalent tradition than either of the preceding was, that the city was first founded by the Arcadian Erander, about sixty years before the Trojan War. The fact that Evander