The papal influence was also retained by means of the suburban
bishoprics, which took their rise as early as the 4th and 5th centuries.
The rise of the democratic commune of Rome[17] about 1143 and of the
various trade corporations which we already find in the early 11th
century led to struggles with the papacy; the commune of Rome made
various attempts to exercise supremacy in the Campagna and levied
various taxes from the 12th century until the 15th. The commune also
tried to restrict the power of the barons, who, in the 13th century
especially, though we find them feudatories of the holy see from the
10th century onwards, threatened to become masters of the whole
territory, which is still dotted over with the baronial castles and
lofty solitary towers of the rival families of Rome--Orsini, Colonna,
Savelli, Conti, Caetani--who ruthlessly destroyed the remains of earlier
edifices to obtain materials for their own, and whose castles, often
placed upon the high roads, thus following a strategic line to a
stronghold in the country, did not contribute to the undisturbed
security of traffic upon them, but rather led to their abandonment. On a
list of the inhabited centres of the Campagna of the 14th century with
the amount of salt (which was a monopoly of the commune of Rome)
consumed by each, Tomassetti bases an estimate of the population: this
was about equal to that of our own times, but differently distributed,
some of the smaller centres having disappeared at the expense of the
towns. Several of the popes, as Sixtus IV. and Julius III., made
unsuccessful attempts to improve the condition of the Campagna, the
former making a serious attempt to revive agriculture as against
pasture, while in the latter part of the 16th century a line of
watch-towers was erected along the coast. In the Renaissance, it is
true, falls the erection of many fine villas in the neighbourhood of
Rome--not only in the hills round the Campagna, but even in certain
places in the lower ground, e.g. those of Julius II. at La Magliana and
of Cardinal Trivulzio at Salone,--and these continued to be frequented
until the end of the 18th century, when the French Revolution dealt a
fatal blow to the prosperity of the Roman nobility. The 17th and 18th
centuries, however, mark the worst period of depopulation in the more
malarious parts of the Campagna, which seems to have begun in the 15th
century, though we hear of malaria throughout the middle ages. The most
healthy portions of the territory are in the north and east, embracing
the slopes of the Apennines which are watered by the Teverone and Sacco;
and the most pestilential is the stretch between the Monti Lepini and
the sea. The Pontine Marshes (_q.v_.) included in the latter division,
were drained, according to the plan of Bolognini, by Pius VI., who
restored the ancient Via Appia to traffic; but though they have returned
to pasture and cultivation, their insalubrity is still notorious. The
soil in many parts is very fertile and springs are plentiful and
abundant: the water is in some cases sulphureous or ferruginous. In
summer, indeed, the vast expanse is little better than an arid steppe;
but in the winter it furnishes abundant pasture to flocks of sheep from
the Apennines and herds of silver-grey oxen and shaggy black horses, and
sheep passing in the summer to the mountain pastures. A certain amount
of horse-breeding is done, and the government has, as elsewhere in
Italy, a certain number of stallions. Efforts have been made since 1882
to cure the waterlogged condition of the marshy grounds. The methods
employed have been three--(i.) the cutting of drainage channels and
clearing the marshes by pumping, the method principally employed; (ii.)
the system of warping, i.e. directing a river so that it may deposit its
sedimentary matter in the lower-lying parts, thus levelling them up and
consolidating them, and then leading the water away again by drainage;
(iii.) the planting of firs and eucalyptus trees, e.g. at Tre Fontane
and elsewhere. These efforts have not been without success, though it
cannot be affirmed that the malarial Campagna is anything like healthy
yet. The regulation of the rivers, more especially of the Tiber, is
probably the most efficient method for coping with the problem. Since
1884 the Italian Government have been systematically enclosing, pumping
dry and generally draining the marshes of the Agro Romano, that is, the
tracts around Ostia; the Isola Sacra, at the mouth of the Tiber; and
Maccarese. Of the whole of the Campagna less than one-tenth comes
annually under the plough. In its picturesque desolation, contrasting so
strongly with its prosperity in Roman times, immediately surrounding a
city of over half a million inhabitants, and with lofty mountains in
view from all parts of it, it is one of the most interesting districts
in the world, and has a peculiar and indefinable charm. The modern
province of Rome (forming the _compartimento_ of Lazio) includes also
considerable mountain districts, extending as far N.W. as the Lake of
Bolsena, and being divided on the N.E. from Umbria by the Tiber, while
on the E. it includes a considerable part of the Sabine mountains and
Apennines. The ancient district of the Hernicans, of which Alatri is
regarded as the centre, is known as the Ciociaria, from a kind of
sandals (_cioce_) worn by the peasants. On the S.E. too a considerable
proportion of the group of the Lepini belongs to the province. The land
is for the most part let by the proprietors to _mercanti di Campagna_,
who employ a subordinate class of factors (_fattori_) to manage their
affairs on the spot.
Malaria.
The recent discovery that the malaria which has hitherto rendered parts
of the Campagna almost uninhabitable during the summer is propagated by
the mosquito (_Anopheles claviger_) marks a new epoch; the most diverse
theories as to its origin had hitherto been propounded, but it is now
possible to combat it on a definite plan, by draining the marshes,
protecting the houses by fine mosquito-proof wire netting (for
_Anopheles_ is not active by day), improving the water supply, &c.,
while for those who have fever, quinine (now sold cheaply by the state)
is a great specific. A great improvement is already apparent; and a law
carried in 1903 for the _Bonifica dell' Agro Romano_ compels the
proprietors within a radius of some 6 m. of Rome to cultivate their
lands in a more productive way than has often hitherto been the case,
exemption from taxes for ten years and loans at 2-1/2% from the
government being granted to those who carry on improvements, and those
who refuse being expropriated compulsorily. The government further
resolved to open roads and schools and provide twelve additional
doctors. Much is done in contending against malaria by the Italian Red
Cross Society. In 1900 31% of the inhabitants of the Agro Romano had
been fever-stricken; since then the figure has rapidly decreased (5.1%
in 1905).
Produce.
The wheat crop in 1906 in the Agro Romano was 8,108,500 bushels, the
Indian corn 3,314,000 bushels, the wine 12,100,000 gallons and the olive
oil 1,980,000 gallons,--these last two from the hill districts. The wine
production had declined by one-half from the previous year, exportation
having fallen off in the whole country. 1907, however, was a year of
great overproduction all over Italy. The wine of the Alban hills is
famous in modern as in ancient times, but will not as a rule bear
exportation. The forests of the Alban hills and near the coast produce
much charcoal and light timber, while the Sabine and Volscian hills have
been largely deforested and are now bare limestone rocks. Much of the
labour in the winter and spring is furnished by peasants who come down
from the Volscian and Hernican mountains, and from Abruzzi, and occupy
sometimes caves, but more often the straw or wicker huts which are so
characteristic a feature of the Campagna. The fixed population of the
Campagna in the narrower sense (as distinct from the hills) is less than
1000. Emigration to America, especially from the Volscian and Hernican
towns, is now considerable.
2. LATIUM NOVUM OR ADJECTUM, as it is termed by Pliny, comprised the
territories occupied in earlier times by the Volsci and Hernici. It
was for the most part a rugged and mountainous country, extending at
the back of Latium proper, from the frontier of the Sabines to the
sea-coast between Terracina and Sinuessa. But it was not separated
from the adjacent territories by any natural frontier or physical
boundaries, and it is only by the enumeration of the towns in Pliny
according to the division of Italy by Augustus that we can determine
its limits. It included the Hernican cities of Anagnia, Ferentinum,
Alatrium and Verulae--a group of mountain strongholds on the north
side of the valley of the Trerus (Sacco); together with the Volscian
cities on the south of the same valley, and in that of the Liris, the
whole of which, with the exception of its extreme upper end, was
included in the Volscian territory. Here were situated Signia,
Frusino, Fabrateria, Fregellae, Sora, Arpinum, Atina, Aquinum, Casinum
and Interamna; Anxur (Terracina) was the only seaport that properly
belonged to the Volscians, the coast from thence to the mouth of the
Liris being included in the territory of the Aurunci, or Ausones as
they were termed by Greek writers, who possessed the maritime towns of
Fundi, Formiae, Caieta and Minturnae, together with Suessa in the
interior, which had replaced their more ancient capital of Aurunca.
Sinuessa, on the sea-coast between the Liris (Garigliano) and the
Vulturnus, at the foot of the Monte Massico, was the last town in
Latium according to the official use of the term and was sometimes
assigned to Campania, while Suessa was more assigned to Latium. On the
other hand, as Nissen points out (_Italische Landeskunde_, ii. 554),
the Pons Campanus, by which the Via Appia crossed the Savo some 9 m.
S.E. of Sinuessa, indicates by its name the position of the old
Campanian frontier. In the interior the boundary fell between Casinum
and Teanum Sidicinum, at about the 100th milestone of the Via
Latina--a fact which led later to the jurisdiction of the Roman courts
being extended on every side to the 100th mile from the city, and to
this being the limit beyond which banishment from Rome was considered
to begin.
Though the Apennines comprised within the boundaries of Latium do not
rise to a height approaching that of the loftiest summits of the
central range, they attain to a considerable altitude, and form steep
and rugged mountain masses from 4000 to 5000 ft. high. They are
traversed by three principal valleys: (1) that of the Anio, now called
Teverone, which descends from above Subiaco to Tivoli, where it enters
the plain of the Campagna; (2) that of the Trerus (Sacco), which has
its source below Palestrina (Praeneste), and flows through a
comparatively broad valley that separates the main mass of the
Apennines from the Volscian mountains or Monti Lepini, till it joins
the Liris below Ceprano; (3) that of the Liris (Garigliano), which
enters the confines of New Latium about 20 m. from its source, flows
past the town of Sora, and has a very tortuous course from thence to
the sea at Minturnae; its lower valley is for the most part of
considerable width, and forms a fertile tract of considerable extent,
bordered on both sides by hills covered with vines, olives and fruit
trees, and thickly studded with towns and villages.
It may be observed that, long after the Latins had ceased to exist as
a separate people we meet in Roman writers with the phrase of _nomen
Latinum_, used not in an ethnical but a purely political sense, to
designate the inhabitants of all those cities on which the Romans had
conferred "Latin rights" (_jus Latinum_)--an inferior form of the
Roman franchise, which had been granted in the first instance to
certain cities of the Latins, when they became subjects of Rome, and
was afterwards bestowed upon many other cities of Italy, especially
the so-called Latin colonies. At a later period the same privileges
were extended to places in other countries also--as for instance to
most of the cities in Sicily and Spain. All persons enjoying these
rights were termed in legal phraseology _Latini_ or _Latinae
conditionis_.
AUTHORITIES.--For the topography of Latium, and the local history of
its more important cities, the reader may consult Sir W. Gell's
_Topography of Rome and its Vicinity_ (2nd ed., 1 vol., London, 1846);
A. Nibby, _Analisi storico-topografico-antiquaria della carta dei
dintorni di Roma_ (3 vols., 2nd ed., 1848); J. Westphal, _Die römische
Kampagne_ (Berlin, 1829); A. Bormann, _Alt-lateinische Chorographie
und Städte-Geschichte_ (Halle, 1852); M. Zoeller, _Latium und Rom_
(Leipzig, 1878); R. Burn's _Rome and the Campagna_ (London, 1871); H.
Dessau, _Corp. Inscr. Lat._ v. xiv. (Berlin, 1887) (Latium); Th.
Mommsen, _Corp. Inscr. Lat._ vol. x. pp. 498-675 (Berlin, 1883); G.
Tomassetti, "Della Campagna Romana nel medio evo," published in the
_Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria_ (Rome, 1874-1907),
and separately (a work dealing with the medieval history and
topography of the Campagna in great detail, containing also valuable
notices of the classical period); by the same author, _La Campagna
romana_ (Rome, 1910 foll.); R. A. Lanciani, "I Comentari di Frontino
intorno agli acquedotti," _Memorie dei Lincei_ (Rome, 1880), serie
iii. vol. v. p. 215 sqq. (and separately), also many articles, and
_Wanderings in the Roman Campagna_ (London, 1909); E. Abbate, _Guida
della provincia di Roma_ (Rome, 1894, 2 vols.); H. Nissen, _Italische
Landeskunde_, ii. (Berlin, 1902), 557 sqq.; T. Ashby, "The Classical
Topography of the Roman Campagna," in _Papers of the British School at
Rome_, i. iii.-v. (London, 1902 foll.). (T. As.)