either side Mount Imaus, part of a chain, the highest point in which is perhaps Himmel in Thibet. Still Eastward, they had a confused notion of Serica, or the North-western part of China, as an undefined continuation of Scythia. India they knew as far as the Ganges, and even mention a nation called Sinæ, now part of Cochin China. In Africa they knew little beyond Lat. 10° N., and little of that perfectly, beyond the immediate coast of the Mediterranean and banks of the Nile. CHAPTER II. ITALIA ANTIQUA. A.G. Pl. I. VII. III. ITALY (Pl. I.) 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 of Saturn, after his expulsion from *Est locus, Hisperiam Graii cognomine dicunt, + Augustus Cæsar, Divum genus; aurea condet Virg. Æn. I. 534 Virg. En. VI. 792 Virg. Georg. II 13 Salve, magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus, Magna virum 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 Gulf 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 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 (Pl. VII.) 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 teritory and Gulf of Genoa. North-west of them were the Taurini, or Piedmontese, whose capital Augusta, still retains the name of Turin. Northeast of Gallia Cisalpina are the Veneti and Car ni, at the top of the Sinus Hadriaticus. Northwest 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 of Ticinum 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 Brescia, and still North-west is Bergomium, now Bergamo; West of which is Comum, at the South end of the Lacus Larius, now the lake of Como, the birth-place of the younger Pliny, nephew to the naturalist. Northeast of Mantua, among the Veneti, is Verona, on the river Athesis, or Adige, the birth-place of Catullus and Pliny the naturalist; to the East of this, Patavium, or Padua, the birth-place of Livy, said to have been founded by Antenor; and South of it, Hadria, which gives name to the Adriatic. Among the Carni are, Forum Julii, now Fruili, and to the South, Aquileia, which still retains its name, though not its consequence. On the Sinus Tergestinus, East of Aquileia, is the river Timavust, and then Tergeste, 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 Piacenza, near the mouth of the Trebia, where Hannibal gained his second 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 Decimus 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, 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, in the fifth century, 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, which it was considered till the middle of the eighth century. * Editus ego sum, Cum cecidit fato consul uterque pari. Ov. Trist. IV. 10. Sit citerna mihi, quam vinea, malo Ravennæ, Cum possim multo vendere pluris aquam. * * Callidus imposuit nuper mihi caupo Ravennæ: Martial III. 56 & 57. |