Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/97

 ITALIA. period (Strab. v. p. 231); and Cicero even extols the situation of Home, as compared with the rest of La- tiiini, as "a heaUhy spot in the midst of a pes- tilential region." (Cie. de Rep. ii. G.) But the imperial city itself was far from being altogether exi-mpt. Horace abounds with allusions to the pre- valence of fevers in the summer and autumn (A/;, i. 7, Sat. ii. 6. 19, Carm. ii. 14. 16), though the dense population must have tended materially to repreps them. Even at the present day the most thickly peopled parts of Kome are wholly exempt from malaria. (This question is more fully dis- cussed under the article Latium.) The volcanic phenomena displayed so conspicu- ously in some parts of Italy did not fail to attract the attention of ancient writers. The eruptions of Ae- naria, which had occurred soon after the first settle- ment of the Greek colonists there, were recorded by Timaeus {ap. Strab. v. p. 248); and the fables con- nected with the lake Avernus and its neighbourhood liad evidently a similar origin. Strabo also correctly argued that Vesuvius was itself a volcanic mountain, long before the fearful eruption of A. i). 79 gave such signal proof that its fii-es were not, as he supposed, extinct. (Strab. v. p. 247.) This catastrophe, feaiful as it was, was confined to Ciunpania; but earthquakes (to which Italy is so subject at the present day) appear to liave been not less frequent and destructive in ancient times, and were far from being limited to the volcanic regions. They are mentioned as occurring in Apulia, Picenum, Urabria, Etruria, Liguria, and other parts of Italy ; and though their effects are generally noticed some- what vaguely, yet the leading phenomena which ac- company them at the present day — the subsidence of tracts of land, the fall of rocks and portions of mountains, the change of the course of rivers, the irruption of the sea, as well as the overthrow of buildings, and sometimes of whole towns and cities — are all mentioned by ancient writers. (Liv. xxii. 5; Jul. Obscq. 86, 96, 105, 106, 122, &c.) Slight shocks were not unfrequent at Rome itself, though it never suffered any serious calamity from this cause. But the volcanic action, which had at a far distant period extended over broad tracts of Central Italy, and given rise to the plains of the Campagna and the Phlegraean Fields, as well as to the lofty groups of the Alban and Ciminian hills, had ceased long before the age of historical record ; and no Koman writer seems to have suspected that the Alban lake had once been a crater of eniption, or that the " silex " with which the Via Appia was paved was derived from a stream of basaltic lava. [L.VTIUM.] The volcanic region (in this geological sense) of Central Italy consists of two separate tracts of country, of considerable extent; the one comprising the greater part of Old Latium (or what is now called the Campagna of Rome), together with the southern part of Etruria; and the other occupying a large portion of Campania, including not only Vesuvius and the volcanic hills around the lake Avernus, but the broad and fertile plain which extends from the Bay of Naples to the banks of the Liris. These two tracts of volcanic origin ai'e separated by the Volscian mountains, a series of calcareous ranges branching off from the Apennines, and filling up the space from the banks of the Liris to the borders of the Pontine marshes, which last form a broad strip of alluvial soil, extending from the volcanic district of the Koman Campagna to the Monte Circello. VOL. II. ITALIA. 81 The volcanic district of Rome, as we may term the more northern of the two, is about 100 miles in length, by 30 to 35 in breadth; while that of Cam- pania is about 60 miles long, with an average, though very ii-regular, breadth of 20. North of the former he the detached summits of il/te. Amiata and Radicofani, both of them composed of volcanic rocks; while at a distance of 60 miles E. of the Campanian basin, and separated from it by the intervening mass of the Apennines, is situated the isolated volcanic peak of Mt. Vultur (^Voltore), a mountain whose regular conical form, and the great crater-shaped basin on its northern flank, at once prove its volcanic character; though this also, as well as the volcanoes of Latium and Etruria, has displayed no signs of activity within the historical era. (Daubeny, On Volcanoes, cli. xi.) It is scarcely necessaiy to enumerate in detail the natural productions of Italy, of which a summary view has already been given in the passages cited from ancient authors, and the details will be found under the heads of the several provinces. But it is worth while to observe how large a portion of those productions, which are at the present day among the chief objects of Italian cultivation, and even impart to its scenery some of its most peculiar cliaracters, are of quite modern introduction, and were wholly unknown when the Greek and Roman writers were extolling its varied resources and inexhaustible fer- tility. To this class belong the maize and rice so extensively cultivated in the plains of Lombardy, the oraages of the Ligurian coast and the neigh- bourhood of Naples, the aloes and cactuses which clothe the rocks on the sea-shore in the southern provinces; while the mulberry tree, though well known in ancient times, never became an important object of culture until after the introduction of the silk-worm in the 13th century. Of the diSiirent kinds of fruits known to the ancient Romans, many were undoubtedly of exotic origin, and of some the period of their introduction was recorded ; but almost all of them throve well in Italy, and the gardens and orchards of the wealthy Romans surpassed all others then known in the variety and excellence of their produce. At the same time, cultivation of the more ordinary descriptions of fruit was so extensive, that Varro remarks : " Arboribus consita Italia est, ut tota pomarium videatur." (it!. R. i. 2. § 6.) Almost all ancient writers concur in praising the metallic wealth of Italy; and Pliny even asserts that it was, in this respect also, superior to all other lands; but it was generally believed that the go- vernment intentionally discouraged the full explora- tion of these mineral resources. (Plin. iii. 20. s. 24, xxxvii. 13. s. 77; Strab. vi. p. 286; Dionys. i. 37; Virg. Georg. ii. 166.) It is doubtful whether this policy was really de- signed to husband their wealth or to conceal their poverty; but it is certain that Italy was far from being really so rich in metallic treasures as was supposed, and could bear no comparison in this re- spect with Spain. Gold was unquestionably found in some of the streams which flowed from the Alps, and in some cases (as among the Ictymuli and Salassi) was extracted from them in considerable quantities ; but these workings, or rather washings, appear to have been rapidly exhausted, and the gold- works on the frontiers of Noricum, celebrated for their richness by Polybius, had ceased to exist in the days of Strabo. (Strab. iv. p. 208.) Silver is enumerated, also, among the metallic treasures of