Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/95

 ITALIA. distant from the Tyrrhenian sea, the olive ■would no longer flourish ((Jvid, Fast. iv. 083); though it grows with the utmost luxuriance at Tibur, at a distance of little more than 15 miles, but on the southern slope of the Apennines. The richness and fertihty of tlie Campanian plains, and the beautiful shores of the Bay of Naples, were proverbial ; while the Samnite valleys, hardly removed more than a day's journey towards the interior, had all the characters of highland scenery. Nor was this con- trast confined to the physical characters of the regions in question : the rude and simple mountaineers of the Sabine oi- JIarsic valleys were not less ditferent from the luxurious inhabitants of Etruria and Campania ; and their frugal and homelyhabitsof life are constantly alluded to by the Homan poets of the empire, when nothing but the memory remained of those warlike virtues for which they had been so distinguished at an earlier period. Central Italy, as the term is here used, comprised the countries known to the Romans as Etruki., Umbria (including the district adjoining the Adriatic previously occupied by the Galli Senones), Tick- NUM, the land of the Sabixi, Vestini, JIaiisi, Peligni, WAKiiuciM, and FuEXTAXi, all Sam- NiUM, together with Latium (in the widest sense of the name) and Campania. A more detailed ac- count of the physical geography of these several regions, as well as of the people that inhabited thein, will be found in the respective articles. 3. Southern Italy, according to the distinc- tion above established, comprises the southern part of the peninsula, from the river Silarus on the W., and the Frento on the E., to the lapygian pro- montory on the Ionian, and that of Leucopetra towards the Sicilian, sea. It thus includes the four provinces or districts of Arui.iA, Calabria (in the Roman sense of the name), Lucaxia, and BuuTTiUM. The physical geography of this region is in great part detemiined by the chain of the Apennines, which, from the frontiers of Samiiium, is continued through the heart of Lucania in a broad mass of mountains, which is somewhat narrowed as it enters the Brutliau peninsula, but soon spreads out again sufficiently to fill up almost the whole of that district from shore to shore. The extreme southern mass of the Apennines forms, indeed, a detached mountain range, which in its physical characters and direction is more closely connected with the mountains in the NE. of Sicily than with the proper chain of the Apennines [APEXxrxus] ; so that the notion entertained by many ancient writers that Sicily had formerly been joined to the mainland at Rhegium, though wholly false with reference to historical times, is undoubtedly true in a geological sense. The name of the Apennines is, however, universally given by geographers to the whole range which terminates in the bold pro- montory of Leucopetra {Capo deW Arini). East of the Apennines, and S. of the Frento, there extends a broad plain from the foot of the moun- tains to the sea, fomiing the greater part of Apulia, or the tract now known as Puglia jnana ; while, S. of this, an extensive tract of hilly country (not, however, rising to any considerable elevation) branches off from the Apennines near Yenusia, and extends along the frontiers of Apulia and Lucania, till it approaches the sea between Egnatia and Brundu- sium. The remainder of the jjeninsula of Calabria or Jlessapia, though it may be considered in some degree as a continuation of the same tract, presents ITALIA. 79 nothing that can be called a range of hills, much less of mountains, as it is erroneously represented on many maps. [Calabria.] Between the central mass of the Apennines (which occupies the heart of Lucania) and the gulf of Tarentum, is another broad hilly tract, gradually descending as it approaches the shores of the gulf, which are bordered by a strip of alluvial plain, varying iii breadth, but nowhere of great extent. The Apennines do not attain to so great an eleva- tion in the southern part of the Italian peninsula as in its more central regions ; and, though particular summits rise to a considerable height, we do not here meet with the same broad mountain tracts or upland valleys as further northward. The centre of Lucania is, indeed, a rugged and mountainous country, and the lofty groups of the Monti della Maddalena, S. of Potenza, the Mte. Polllno, on the frontiers of Bruttium, and the SUu, in the heart of the latter district, were evidently, in ancient as well as modern times, wild and secluded districts, almost inaccessible to civilisation. But the coasts both of Lucania and Bnittium were regions of the greatest beauty and fertility; and the tract extending along the shores of the Tarentine gulf, though now wild and desolate, is cited in ancient times as an almost proverbial instance of a beautiful and desirable country. (Archil, ap. Athtn. xii. p. 523.) The peninsula of Calabria or Messapia, as already re- marked by Strabo, notwithstanding the absence of streams and the apparent aridity of the soil, is in reality a district of great fertility, as is also the tract which extends along the coast of the Adriatic from Egnatia to the mouth of the Aufidus ; and, though the plains in the interior of Apulia are dry and dusty in summer, they produce excellent corn, and are described by Strabo as " bringing forth all things in great abundance." (Strab. vi. p. 284.) The general form and configuration of Italy was well known to the ancient geographers. Polybius, indeed, seems to have had a very imperfect notion of it, or was singularly unhappy in his illustration; for he describes it as of a triangular form, having the Alps for its base, and its two sides bounded by the sea, the Ionian and Adriatic on the one side, the Tyrrhenian and Sicihan on the other. (Pol. ii. 14.) Strabo justly objects to this description, that Italy cannot be called a triangle, without allowing a degree of curvatm-e and irregularity in the sides, which would destroy all resemblance to that figure; and that it is, in fact, wholly impossible to compare it to any geometrical figure. (Strab. v. p. 210.) There is somewhat more truth in the resemblance suggested by Pliny, — and which seems to have been commonly adopted, as it is referred to also by Ru- tilius (Piin. iii. 5. s. 6; Rutil. Itin. ii. 17) — to the leaf of an oak-tree, though this would imply that the projecting portions or promontories on each side were regarded as more considerable than they really are. With the exception of the two great penin- sulas or promontories of Calabria (Messapia) and Bruttium, which are attached to its lower extremity, the remainder of Italy, from the Padus and the Macra southwards, has a general oblong form ; and Strabo tnily enough describes it, when thus con- sidered, as much about the same shape and size with the Adriatic Sea. (Strab. v. p. 211.) Its dimensions are very variously stated by an- cient writers. Strabo, in the comparison just cited, calls it little less than 6000 stadia (GOO geog. miles) long, and about 1300 stadia in its greatest breadth;