(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
SIR,--Is your correspondent (see the MIRROR of the 15th of September)
quite right in asserting that Italy has invariably retained the same
name from its first settlement? or would the fact be singular if true?
Virgil, in his first book of the _Æneid_, implies that it had at
least _two_ names before that of Italy. "_Ænotrii_ coluere viri;"
"_Hesperiam_ graii cognomine dicunt;" "Itali ducis de nomine." His
works are not at hand, so that I cannot specify the line; but the
passage is repeated three or four times in the course of the poem, and
the reference, therefore, to it is peculiarly easy.
In other places, as you may remember, he gives it the appellation of
"Ausonia."
Now as to the singularity of the circumstance, supposing it were
otherwise, to what does it amount but this: that when Italian power
extended over the countries of Europe, Italian names were given them;
that as this power declined, these names as naturally fell into disuse;
and the different nations, actuated severally by a spirit of
independence or of caprice, recurred to their own or foreign tongues for
the designation of their territory. While at Rome itself, which, though
often suffering from the calamities of war, still retained a
considerable share of influence, the inhabitants adhered to their native
dialect, and the same city which had been the birth-place and cradle of
the infant language was permitted to become its sanctuary at last.