STATE OF THE ISLAND DURING THE ROMAN PERIOD.
The nature of its interior prevents us from believing that the
condition of the island was by any means so flourishing during the long
periods of its subjection to the Romans, as some writers are disposed
to assume. They contented themselves, as it appears, with the two
colonies mentioned, and the establishment of some ports. The beautiful
coast opposite Italy was the region mainly cultivated. They had only
made a single road in Corsica. According to the Itinerary of Antonine,
this Roman road led from Mariana along the coast southwards to Aleria,
to Præsidium, Portus Favoni, and Palæ, on the straits, near the modern
Bonifazio. This was the usual place for crossing to Sardinia, in which
the road was continued from Portus Tibulæ (_cartio Aragonese_)--a place
of some importance, to Caralis, the present Cagliari.
Pliny speaks of thirty-three towns in Corsica, but mentions only the
two colonies by name. Strabo, again, who wrote not long before him,
says of Corsica: "It contains some cities of no great size, as Blesino,
Charax, Eniconæ, and Vapanes." These names are to be found in no other
writer. Pliny has probably made every fort a town. Ptolemy, however,
gives the localities of Corsica in detail, with the appellations of
the tribes inhabiting them; many of his names still survive in Corsica
unaltered, or easily recognised.
The ancient authors have left us some notices of the character of the
country and people during this Roman period. I shall give them here, as
it is interesting to compare what they say with the accounts we have of
Corsica in the Middle Ages and at the present time.
Strabo says of Corsica: "It is thinly inhabited, for it is a rugged
country, and in most places has no practicable roads. Hence those
who inhabit the mountains live by plunder, and are more untameable
than wild beasts. When the Roman generals have made an expedition
against the island, and taken their strongholds, they bring away with
them a great number of slaves, and then people in Rome may see with
astonishment, what fierce and utterly savage creatures these are.
For they either take away their own lives, or they tire their master
by their obstinate disobedience and stupidity, so that he rues his
bargain, though he have bought them for the veriest trifle."
Diodorus: "When the Tyrrhenians had the Corsican cities in their
possession, they demanded from the natives tribute of resin, wax, and
honey, which are here produced in abundance. The Corsican slaves are
of great excellence, and seem to be preferable to other slaves for
the common purposes of life. The whole broad island is for the most
part mountainous, rich in shady woods, watered by little rivers. The
inhabitants live on milk, honey, and flesh, all which they have in
plenty. The Corsicans are just towards each other, and live in a more
civilized manner than all other barbarians. For when honey-combs are
found in the woods, they belong without dispute to the first finder.
The sheep, being distinguished by certain marks, remain safe, even
although their master does not guard them. Also in the regulation of
the rest of their life, each one in his place observes the laws of
rectitude with wonderful faithfulness. They have a custom at the birth
of a child which is most strange and new; for no care is taken of a
woman in child-birth; but instead of her, the husband lays himself for
some days as if sick and worn out in bed. Much boxwood grows there,
and that of no mean sort. From this arises the great bitterness of the
honey. The island is inhabited by barbarians, whose speech is strange
and hard to be understood. The number of the inhabitants is more than
thirty thousand."
Seneca: "For, leaving out of account such places as by the pleasantness
of the region, and their advantageous situation, allure great numbers,
go to remote spots on rude islands--go to Sciathus, and Seriphus, and
Gyarus, and Corsica, and you will find no place of banishment where
some one or other does not reside for his own pleasure. Where shall
we find anything so naked, so steep and rugged on every side, as
this rocky island? Where is there a land in respect of its products
scantier, in respect of its people more inhospitable, in respect of its
situation more desolate, or in respect of its climate more unhealthy?
And yet there live here more foreigners than natives."
According to the accounts of the oldest writers, we must doubtless
believe that Corsica was in those times to a very great extent
uncultivated, and, except in the matter of wood, poor in natural
productions. That Seneca exaggerates is manifest, and is to be
explained from the situation in which he wrote. Strabo and Diodorus
are of opposite opinions as to the character of the Corsican slaves.
The former has in his favour the history and unvarying character of
the Corsicans, who have ever shown themselves in the highest degree
incapable of slavery, and Strabo could have pronounced on them no
fairer eulogy than in speaking of them as he has done. What Diodorus,
who writes as if more largely informed, says of the Corsican sense of
justice, is entirely true, and is confirmed by the experience of every
age.
Among the epigrams on Corsica ascribed to Seneca, there is one which
says of the Corsicans: Their first law is to revenge themselves, their
second to live by plunder, their third to lie, and their fourth to deny
the gods.
This is all the information of importance we have from the Greeks and
Romans on the subject of Corsica.