Romans, probably those of the middle classes, who had no large estates
and could not afford to remain away from Rome for any great length of
time. A very pleasing description of it occurs in the apologetic work of
Minutius Felix, the scene of which is laid at Ostia. The Roman jurists
spent their vacations there. The beauty and wealth of the place at that
time form a remarkable contrast with its present condition, for scarcely
any persons but criminals live there; for a long time past Ostia has
been a sort of asylum, where murderers are safe against the danger of
being seized by the police. This is one of the most fearful changes: the
country round it is an immense swamp inhabited by buffalos.
In the reign of Claudius an artificial port was formed on the right arm
of the Tiber, which was deeper, the course of the river having been
regulated. Trajan extended the port, and this _Portus Romanus_ now became
the real sea-port of Rome, a depôt for the immense supplies required for
the city. At present, too, the little maritime commerce of the Romans is
carried on along the right bank of the Tiber.
I will not mention all the places of ancient Latium which happen to be
once noticed by ancient writers, many of them are mere names of destroyed
places; much more might indeed be made out than has yet been done, but
the advantages would not be very considerable. We must conceive Latium
in the earlier times to have been divided into three parts: 1. _Alba
and its perioeci_, or thirty neighbouring and dependent places, said to
have been colonies, and called _Albenses_; 2. the _Latin demi_, about
Alba and its territory, the number of which we may assume, without fear
of being mistaken, to have likewise amounted to thirty. They formed the
Latin state, and stood in the same relation to Alba in which Latium
afterwards stood to Rome; 3. the _Tyrrhenian towns on the coast_, which
were properly foreign to the body of the Latin state, but may possibly
have been in alliance with it. I have succeeded in throwing more light
upon this relation between Alba and the Latin towns than I myself
could formerly have expected; I have found all the names of the thirty
Albensian towns, but the list of the others is not complete.
ALBA generally appears to us almost as a mythical place, because it
vanishes from Roman history at so early a period; but there can be no
doubt that its existence is a perfectly historical fact, and that, too,
in the relation I have just indicated. But it never was the mother-city
of Rome; the first elements out of which Rome grew up may, perhaps, at
one time have constituted a portion of the towns which, in a state of
dependence as perioeci, were united with Alba into one state, but may
have separated themselves from it at an early period: Rome itself was
never founded by Alba. The place where Alba was once situated is still
so distinctly marked that it cannot be mistaken. From the testimonies of
the ancients, we know that it was situated at the foot of the Alban hill,
forming one long street, high above the Alban lake, whence its name
_Alba Longa_. Every one in that district shows the spot near the place
called Palazzuolo, where may be seen the ancient tomb of a praetor with
six fasces distinctly cut into the rock. This site has been recognised by
several Italians, chiefly men without learning, but who had eyes to see
that on this spot the rock has been cut away to a considerable height.
This part must be conceived to have been below the town, so that the
lake, even when its waters were very low, rendered the town perfectly
inaccessible. The present level of the lake is the result of a tunnel
(_emissarius_); but I am of opinion that formerly it must have been
much lower.[31] In this manner the town was safe on that side, for the
rock was cut away to such a height as to render it impossible to scale
it by means of ladders; on the precipitous side of the rock opposite no
artificial protection was necessary. Thus the town could be attacked
only on the two accessible sides, which for this reason were fortified.
The summit of the hill was probably fortified by an arx. The hill, now
called Monte Cavo, though only 2,900 French feet in height, is one of the
highest in that district; from it a person acquainted with Roman history
enjoys the most magnificent prospect, for he may there survey the whole
territory of the Roman state such as it was until the fourth century
of the city. On this summit stood the very ancient temple of Jupiter
Latiaris, which was certainly as old as the temple on the Capitoline,
and a road led up to it which is still quite intact, and is made in
the same style as the Roman high roads. There the Alban dictators once
used to ride up to offer their thanks to Jupiter Latiaris for victories
they had gained; Roman generals also triumphed there, when they could
not obtain permission from the senate to celebrate their triumph in the
Capitol; there lastly the Feriae Latinae were celebrated. The temple is
now completely destroyed, and the foundation stones, which still existed
there, were broken down in the 18th century. The large blocks of stone
were too huge for the puny race, and were, accordingly, broken to pieces
to build a monastery. The last remains, consisting of beautiful square
blocks, were carefully raised from the ground in the year 1780 or 1790.
The Monte Cavo, like the lake, is of a volcanic nature.
LAVINIUM, which is nothing else than Lacinium in Oenotria (both forms
being only dialectic varieties of Latinium), was the real sanctuary
of Latium, and every year a common sacrifice was offered there by
all the Latins. There is a tradition, that six hundred families were
sent thither from Alba, that is, ten from every demos, the thirty
Albensian and the thirty Latin towns. In this manner the statement
of Dionysius of Halicarnassus resolves itself into a general formula
of a common settlement, proceeding from Alba and _commune Latium_
(this is the correct name for all the Latins, like κοινὸν Θεσσαλῶν).
Originally Lavinium was regarded as common property, like Washington;
but when subsequently it became a place of importance, it obtained its
independence, and was a town like all the others.
Besides Lavinium, which was fabulously said to be a Trojan colony,
there existed on that coast, between the Tiber and Antium, two other
places, LAURENTUM and the Rutulian ARDEA, which are familiar to us
from the Aeneid. The ending _entum_ in Laurentum is Pelasgian, as in
the case of Maluentum and others; but it is Latinised, the native form
probably was οῦς, Λαυροῦς. After the Volscian calamity, when the whole
Latin confederacy broke up, Ardea was a separate town: it received
a Romano-Latin colony, and accordingly entered into an entirely new
relation. Cyclopean walls are still found there, but the place is so
desolate, that at present it has only thirty houses with about eighty
inhabitants.
The most important of the Latin towns in the vicinity of Rome was
TUSCULUM; it was distant only a few miles and could be seen from Rome,
being situated above Frascati. During the middle ages, it was destroyed
by the degenerate Romans, and never restored on the height, but the
survivors were obliged to settle at the foot of the hill, which was the
origin of the modern Frascati. The ruins of Tusculum which have been
dug out are very important; the theatre was found with very beautiful
statues in it, but it has been covered over again. A number of pedestals
with inscriptions also were found, which are no doubt as ancient as
the persons they described; some are as old as the period after the
Hannibalian war, as for example, the one of Fulvius Nobilior, the
conqueror of Aetolia: nowhere have so many ancient stones been brought
to light; but the number of inscriptions belonging to the earlier times
and even to the Augustan age is extremely small. The whole district
belongs to Lucien Bonaparte, who has made excavations, in the process
of which very many things of importance have been discovered. If he had
continued them, extraordinary things would certainly have been brought to
light; but he has no interest for anything except works of art, statues
and the like, and it is impossible to make him see the importance of
the remains of antiquity. He has the most unhistorical mind, and is
unable to understand of what interest antiquities can be to history: the
most beautiful things have been sold by him. He is one of those men who
enjoy a high degree of celebrity without deserving it: he is lively,
but absurd, and an extremely bad epic poet. He has laid out a garden on
a hill, and on a box-tree in it he has inscribed in order the names of
the greatest epic poets, beginning near the root: out of modesty he has
put his own name lowest, and ascends up to Homer. It was impossible to
induce him to make excavations according to a regular plan. I have often
been in despair about it: this is a grief which a man may often have
to bear in Italy, because excavations can be so easily made. The Fasti
Capitolini are of extreme importance in Roman history; three large pieces
of them had been found behind the church of S. Maria Liberatrice, and I
implored the authorities to grant me permission to dig there, offering
to bear the expenses myself; but I could not obtain permission, and
was told that it would be done in due time, and that our descendants
also must have something to do. Such things are a severe trial of one’s
patience. If excavations were made at Tusculum, a Roman Herculaneum would
be found. I do not mean to say that buildings equally well preserved
would be discovered, but the ruins are very large, and the streets would
certainly be found. When I was there, excavations were accidentally made
below a wall, but they were afterwards stopped, for Lucien Bonaparte was
inexorable. Once, during excavations which were continued only for a
few weeks, a whole street with the walls of the houses up to a certain
height was discovered; it was of the most perfect construction, although
it was only the street of a country town, for Tusculum was certainly
not larger than Coblenz. The street was completely filled with pieces
of architecture, which had fallen down during the barbarous process
of destruction: columns of the most beautiful marble were found, but
broken to pieces, and statues of the most exquisite workmanship, such as
one might expect to find at Rome during its most brilliant period. The
architecture is that of the imperial period; the street also contained
a well, the water of which was carried down from a hill. Very ancient
inscriptions also were found, one of which contained the name of A.
Sicinius, who is mentioned by Livy in the war against Perseus. If the
Forum were laid open, Fasti and law-tables would no doubt be brought
to light; it is still possible to say whereabouts it must have been
situated. In like manner the site of the Forum of Praeneste was known,
and fragments of the Fasti of Verrius Flaccus were found there, although
the excavations were made very carelessly. In later times Tusculum was
the most brilliant among the Latin towns.
The second Latin town in point of rank was TIBUR, now celebrated, under
the name of Tivoli, for its waterfalls, the charming nature of the
country, and the beauty of its ruins. Some persons erroneously consider
the sepulchral monument of Cellius, built in the age of Augustus, to be a
temple of the Sibyl. Tibur ruled over a considerable number of dependent
towns. Its present circumference dates from the middle ages, for in
antiquity it was considerably smaller. All these towns were very little,
though they have a great name in history. Two learned Jesuits, Cabral and
Del Ré, have written a very good topographical history of Tivoli.
The third Latin place is PRAENESTE, now Palestrina. This metathesis is
common in Italian; even when they write correctly, they speak badly from
affectation, especially the higher classes: instead of _una capra_,
the Roman people usually say _una carpa_. The _l_ and _r_ also are
interchanged: at the time of the French revolution, when a republic was
forced upon the Romans, they were unable to pronounce the name, and
said _la Repubrica_. I have found traces of a form _Penestra_ belonging
to the time when the western empire still existed; in the middle ages
_civitas_ was always added, and the simple names were thereby completely
suppressed; people, therefore, did not say _Lanuvium_, but _civitas
Lanuvina_, and so also _civitas Penestrina_. Praeneste was an immense
place both in regard to its extent and to its fortifications, and was
situated on a hill. Fortuna was its tutelary divinity, whose temple with
its _temenos_ occupied the acra, and the whole of the present little
town of Palestrina is situated within the ruins of that temple. We
still possess descriptions of it belonging to the end of the thirteenth
century; many parts of it must then have been preserved; in the
fourteenth the town was taken by pope Bonifacius VIII., and everything
was then destroyed with barbarous fury; at present we can only admire the
immense substructions on the side of the hill, for the town, like many
others, was built up the hill in the form of terraces; and when it was
intended to enlarge the town, a new terrace was built.
In Roman history Praeneste does not appear as an important town till
after the Gallic time. As to the impatience with which it, more than any
other Latin town, bore the Roman yoke during the fifth century, from the
Samnite wars until the war of Pyrrhus, we have distinct indications,
although history is silent about it. The Praenestines made repeated
attempts to shake it off; but although they were unsuccessful in this,
still they gained the respect of the Romans, and obtained from them an
honourable relation, with which they were satisfied. After this, they
were the most faithful allies of the Romans, and during the Hannibalian
war they were as attached to them as they had previously been intrepid
in their struggles for their own independence. During the Social War
they obtained the franchise, and were passionate champions of the Marian
party. Marius the younger there sustained the terrible siege, after which
Sulla took the town, and shewed the first symptoms of his raving cruelty:
he butchered the whole population, and established a colony of veterans
in the place. The town became quite desolate. Most of the Latin towns had
perished at an early period.
LANUVIUM, afterwards _civitas Lanuvina_, on the Via Appia, still shows
remains of a large wall, and indications that it once was a splendid
town; it must not, however, be supposed to have been very extensive.
Among its buildings, I may notice the temple of Juno Lanuvina, a common
sanctuary for the Romans and Latins.
ARICIA was situated on the same road; its arx was on a height, but the
town itself in the valley; at present the road most inconveniently and
dangerously runs right across the height. Aricia was somewhat nearer Rome
than Lanuvium; for a time it seems to have been the first among the Latin
towns, I allude to the period after the banishment of the kings, when
Rome and Latium were separated. The temple and grove of Diana Aricina
were near the beautiful lake of Nemi, not far from Aricia.
GABII, one of the most ancient towns, has a traditional greatness in
the earliest history of Rome. Dionysius still saw its extensive walls,
of which at present every vestige has disappeared, but the ruins of
the cella of a vast temple of Juno may still be seen. History does not
inform us when the town was destroyed, but it was probably during the
period of the Aequian wars, for after them it is no longer mentioned in
the history of the republic; and in the age of Cicero it was a deserted
place. Excellent remains were found there during the excavations made by
Prince Borghese; he came upon ruins of the Forum, various works of art,
many inscriptions and statues, which, though not of the first order, are
yet of good workmanship. Under the Roman emperors a population appears
to have again assembled in several of those towns, which were situated
on high roads; whence they rose again, though they remained small places
with a wretched population of vagabonds from all parts, who did not form
a civil community, although they had a civic constitution. Hence Gabii
at a later period had a bishop. This also accounts for the fact, that
works of art belonging to a late period of Rome are found in those early
destroyed places. At present Gabii is quite deserted.
The place for the general assemblies of the Latins was near the Alban
lake, which, like a crater, is environed by a high ridge of surrounding
hills. The place of meeting is supposed, and I think justly, to have been
on the other side of this crater; but there is no evidence to support
this view. The spot is now occupied by the town of Marino, below which
there is a beautiful well, generally believed to be the well of Ferentina.
The tunnel of the Alban lake, a wonderful work, is one of the curiosities
of Latium; it runs nearly three Roman miles under ground towards the
place of its destination, and was intended to carry off the water of
the lake, which, when, in consequence of earthquakes, the subterraneous
passages had become blocked up, rose above the ridge of the crater and
inundated the country. I have already spoken about this extraordinary
structure in my History of Rome,[32] and shall, therefore, confine myself
to a brief recapitulation. It is difficult to form a clear idea of the
matter. Imagine the crater filled to the edge, and bear in mind that it
was intended to give to it a level about 200 feet lower. In order to
attain this, a line was first drawn in the contemplated direction of the
tunnel, and by this line it could be seen how deep it must be to answer
its purpose. In order to obtain the level, and at the same time to employ
a great many hands, shafts were sunk along the whole line at a distance
of less than a hundred feet from one another. It was easy to calculate
how deep each shaft ought to be, so as to bring the bottom of the tunnel
to the level which it was intended to give to it. These numerous shafts
also facilitated the running off of the water on account of the pressure
of the air, and at the same time rendered access to the tunnel easy.
On any other plan only few persons could have been employed at a time,
whereas now from every shaft two parties worked in opposite directions
and broke through the rock. This working of different parties towards one
another also insured their keeping the exact level. This tunnel, which
was the admiration even of ancient Rome, has now existed for a period
of 2500 years; it is still entire, and will exist in all time to come,
unless some great revolution of the earth shall break it to pieces. The
Roman cloacae are of the same character, and will endure until the last
day of the earth. There are many such tunnels in the Roman territory, of
which at present the advantages alone are perceptible, but whence they
carry the waters can no longer be ascertained. Such is the case near
lake Nemi: the whole valley of Aricia was formerly a lake, which is now
perfectly drained. There, too, a great thing was effected by a little
tunnel: the valley of Aricia is one of the most fertile in the world, and
is still the same as it is described by Pliny. The fertility in Italy is
so great that wheat, unless it is weeded, cannot grow; agriculture there
requires a degree of industry of which we have no idea; if any one were
to introduce there the system of Flemish or English agriculture, it would
lead to ruin.
The _Vallis Albana_ is the modern valley of Grotta Ferrata.
In the east of Latium, in its narrower sense, we have the towns of
THE HERNICANS.
We know only five of them; ANAGNIA was the capital, to which the
others were opposed as a political body. We here again find a parallel
phenomenon: the same relation which existed between Alba and the
Albensian towns, and between Rome and the Latin towns, appears to have
existed between Anagnia and the towns of the Hernicans. This is briefly,
but officially, alluded to in the Triumphal Fasti, where Q. Marcius
Tremulus triumphs _de Anagninis Hernicisque_. The other towns were
_Frusino_, _Ferentinum_, _Verulae_, and _Alatrium_. There can, however,
be no doubt that they had more towns; some must have been taken from
them by the Volscians and Aequians, while others may have continued to
exist, but decayed and perished, so that we have no information about
them. Livy, in speaking of the last war against the Hernicans, says,
_omnes Hernici nominis populi_, except three. I have a conjecture which
is a combination of several traces, and according to which their number
was forty. All the five above-mentioned places still exist; they are
generally small and poor, with the exception of Anagnia, which is a place
of some consequence; but all of them are still imposing on account of
their ruins and their mighty Cyclopean walls, in which towers and gates
are still preserved.
Servius, on the Aeneid, and the ancient Scholia on Virgil, fragments of
which were published about ten years ago by A. Mai from a Veronese MS.,
state that the name _Hernici_ is derived from the Sabine word _hernae_,
which Arndt very happily compares with the Swiss _firn_ (mountain);
as there exists a radical affinity between the two languages, such a
comparison is certainly admissible. According to this, the Hernicans
were a Sabine or Marsian colony. Another statement, however, though of
very weak authority, in Julius Hyginus, makes the Hernicans Pelasgians.
If we consider that the Sabines pressed forward at a comparatively late
period, perhaps about the time of the foundation of Rome, and that the
Hernicans dwelt on the other side of the Oscan nation of the Aequians,
it is probable that the Hernicans, like the Latins, were of Tyrrhenian
origin. An etymology like that mentioned before is very captivating, and
it is not easy to get rid of it; but if we ask ourselves, What is the
ground of the derivation? How could the name come from their habitations?
Did the other Sabines call them Hernicans in the same manner in which
the Scotch Lowlanders call the Gael in the mountains Highlanders? It is
possible that the name Hernicans is only a surname to another national
name; they may, in this case, have belonged to a different race, and have
received that surname from the Sabines. That a people should call itself
mountaineers from its habitations is very surprising. The derivation
may be very accidental: in like manner the Thuringians might be said to
owe their name to the old word _Taure_, which signifies “mountain.” If
we assume that the Hernicans were Tyrrhenians, they occupied exactly
the district in which they could have maintained themselves against the
shock of the Ausonians, who were pressed on by the Sabines. But nothing
decisive can be said on this point, we can only form conjectures; and
we must carefully distinguish between what is conjectural and what is
certain.[33]
There is no occasion for saying anything more about the towns of the
Hernicans which I have mentioned. On the side of a rock, near the town
of Ferentinum, there still exists a fragment of a will engraved in the
stone. A wealthy citizen leaves a legacy, and fixes the interest of
his landed property. The late Madame Dionigi, who made a drawing of it
and published it, states that two of the pieces of land still exist in
that district and bear the same name. A great many things of this kind
continue to exist in some parts of Italy from ancient times; he who lives
there in intimate familiarity with every-day affairs, and who does not
mind spending months in those places, may recover the past to an extent
which we believe altogether impossible.