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CHAPTER II.

ITALIA ANTIQUA.

ITALY was called Hesperia* by the Greeks, as being West of Greece. It was called Italia from a prince of the name of Italus; Ausonia from the Ausones, a people found in Latium; Enotria from an Arcadian prince called Enotrus, the son of Lycaon, who settled in Lucania; Saturniat from having been the fabled residence

* Est locus, Hesperiam Graii cognomine dicunt,
Terra antiqua, potens armis atque ubere glebæ ;
Enotrii coluere viri; nunc fama minores
Italiam dixisse, ducis de nomine, gentem.

Virg, En. I. 534.

+Augustus Cæsar, Divum genus; aurea condet
Sæcula qui rursus Latio, regnata per arva

Saturno quondam

Virg. Æn. VI. 792.

Salve, magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus,

Magna virum

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of Saturn, after his expulsion from heaven by Jupiter. It was bounded on the North by the Alps, on the West by the Mare Tyrrhenum sive inferum, or Lower Sea, on the East by the Mare Hadriaticum sive superum, or Upper Sea, now the Gulph of Venice, and on the South by the Mare Ionium, or Grecian Sea, so called because this sea washes on one side Greece itself, and on the other side the South of Italy, which, under the name of Magna Græcia, antiently contained many flourishing Greek colonies. Italy may be divided into three parts, Northern, Central, and Southern. The first of these is called Gallia Cisalpina, or Gaul on this (i. e. the Roman) side the Alps; the second Italia propria, or Italy properly so called; and the third Magna Græcia. Its principal states were Gallia Cisalpina, Etruria, Umbria, Picenum, Latium, Campania, Samnium and Hirpini, Apulia, Calabria, Lucania, and Bruttiorum ager.

Gallia Cisalpina extended from the Maritime Alps, and the river Varus, or Var, to the shores of the Adriatic, and was also called Gallia togata, from their use of the Roman toga. It contained Liguria, on the coast, at the bend or knee of the boot, where is Genua, now the territory and gulph of Genoa. Above them were the Taurini, or Piedmontese, whose capital Augusta still re

tains the name of Turin.

East of Gallia Cisal

pina are the Veneti and Carni, at the top of the Sinus Hadriaticus. West of the Veneti are the Euganei.

The principal Cities in Gallia Cisalpina are Mediolanum, now Milan, among the Insubres, near the Raudii Campi where Marius defeated the Cimbri, A. U. C. 653. A. C. 100; and Ticinum, near the mouth of the Ticinus, now Pavia. Eastward is Cremona, and still Eastward is Mantua*, on the river Mincius, now Mincio, the birth-place of Virgil, both which still retain their antient names. Between them is Bedriacum, now Cividala, where Otho was defeated by the generals of Vitellius, A. D. 69. North West of Mantua is Brixia, now Breschia, and still North West is Bergomium, now Bergamo, near which is Comum, at the South end of the Lacus Lorius, now the Lake of Como, the birth-place of the younger Pliny, nephew to the naturalist. A little North East of Mantua, among the Veneti, are Verona, on the river Athesis, or Adige, the birth-place of Catullus and Pliny the naturalist; to the East Patavium, or Padua, the birth-place of Livy, said to have been founded by Antenor; and Hadria, which gives name to the Adriatic. Among the Carni are Forum Julii, now Friuli, and Aquileia, which still retains its name, though not its consequence. On the Sinus Tergestinus, near Aquileia, is the river Timavus †, and then Tergeste,

* Mantua, væ miseræ nimium vicina Cremona.

† Antenor potuit, mediis elapsus Achivis, Illyricos penetrare sinus, atque intima tutus

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Virg. Ecl. IX. 28.

now Trieste, in Carniola. All these countries are in that division of Gallia Cisalpina called Gallia Transpadana, or Gaul North of the Po. In Gallia Cispadana, or Gaul South of the Po, is Placentia, now Placenza, near the mouth of the Trebia, where Hannibal gained his first victory over the Romans, B. C. 218. A. U. C. 536. South East of it is Parma, which still retains its name; then Mutina, now Modena, (where Brutus was besieged, after the death of Cæsar, by the forces of M. Antony, but was rescued by the last of the free Roman Consuls elect, Pansa and Hirtius, who were both killed the same day, the year in which Ovid was born April 15, B. C. 43. A. U. C. 711) and Bononia, now Bologna. On the coast is Ravenna, celebrated for a port and arsenal, made there by Augustus as a rendezvous for his fleets in the Adriatic, afterwards, for its having been the residence of the Emperors of the West, when Rome was possessed by the Barbarians, and, after that, for its being the seat of the Exarch, or Governor appointed by the Emperors of the East, when Italy was in possession of the Lombards. It was remarkably ill supplied with water till it became the seat of government. †

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Sit cisterna mihi, quam vinea, malo Ravennæ
Cum possim multo vendere pluris aquam

Virg. Æn. I. 242.

Ov. Trist. IV. 10.

The principal Mountains of Gallia Cisalpina are the Alps, which in various parts of their course received various denominations. Near the mouth of the Varus, or Var, at the Western extremity of Liguria, they were called the Alpes Maritimæ, or Maritime Alps. Advancing in a Northern direction, they were called the Alpes Cottiæ, now Mount Genevre. Still North, where they begin to turn to the East, Alpes Graiæ, now Little St. Bernard. Then Alpes Penninæ, (from Pen, a summit,) and Alpes Summæ, now Great St. Bernard and St. Gothard. Still Eastward were the Alpes Lepontiæ, which separate Italy from the Helvetii, or Swiss, Alpes Rhæticæ, which separates it from Rhætia and Vindelicia, now the country of the Grisons, and the Alpes Juliæ, or Carnicæ, which separate it from Noricum and Pannonia, now the Tyrol, Carinthia, and Stiria. The Apennines branch off from the Alps, and run nearly through the middle of the whole of Italy, from North to South.

The rivers in Gallia Cisalpina, are the Padus or Po, called also Eridanus t, which rises among the Cottian Alps, and runs from West to East, through the middle of the country, till it falls into the Adriatic near Hadria; the Ticinus, or Tesino, which rises not far from the

Callidus imposuit nuper mihi caupo Ravennæ :
Cum peterem mixtum, vendidit ille merum.

Martial. III. 56 & 57.

* This is the most probable passage of Hannibal into Italy.

Proluit insano contorquens vortice sylvas

Fluviorum rex Eridanus.

Virg. Georg. I. 482.

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