Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/353

 B. v. c. in. $ 2. ITALY. THE SABINI. LATIUM. 339 be looked upon rather as villages than cities. The whole land [of Sabina] is singularly fertile in olive-trees and vines, it produces also many acorns, and besides has excellent cattle : the mules bred at Reate 1 are much celebrated. In one word, the whole of Italy is rich both in cattle and vegetable productions ; although certain articles may be finer in some districts than in others. The race of the Sabini is extremely ancient, they are Autochthones. The Picentini and Samnitae descend from them, as do the Leucani from these latter, and the Bruttii again from these. A proof of their antiquity may be found in the bravery and valour which they have main- tained till the present time. Fabius, 2 the historian, says that the Romans first knew what wealth was when they became masters of this nation. The Via Salaria, which however does not extend far, runs through their country : the Via Nomen- tana, which commences likewise at the Porta Collina, falls in with the Via Salaria near to Eretum, a village of Sabina lying above the Tiber. 2. Beyond Sabina is Latium, wherein the city of Rome is situated. It comprises many places which formed no part of ancient Latium. For the JEqui, the Volsci, the Hernici, the aborigines around Rome, the Rutuli who possessed ancient Ardea, and many other nations, some larger, some smaller, formed so many separate states around Rome, when that city was first built. Some of these nations, who dwelt in villages, were governed by their own laws, and subjected to no com- mon tribe. They say 3 that JEneas, with his father Anchises and his child Ascanius, arrived at Laurentum, 4 near to Ostia and the bank of the Tiber, where he built a city about 24 stadia above the sea. That Latinus, the king of the abor- igines who then dwelt on the site where Rome now stands, employed his forces to aid JEneas against the neighbouring Rutuli who inhabited Ardea, (now from Ardea to Rome is a distance of 160 stadia,) and having gained a victory, he built near to the spot a city, to which he gave the name of his daughter Lavinia. However, in a second battle, commenced by the Rutuli, Latinus fell, and .^Eneas, being conqueror, suc- J Rieti. 2 He flourished about 216 years before the Christian era. 5 Gosselin calls our attention to the difference between Strabo's rela- tion of these, occurrences, and the events as commonly recounted by the Greek and Latin authors. * Near the spot now called Paterno. z 2