good houses are built, if tillage is promoted in their neighbourhood, and trees encouraged around them, and if the inhabitants avoid the air during sunset and at night, life may be enjoyed in the Campagna even at the present day without constant liability to fever in the hot season. But social mismanagement seems to have combined with nature to desolate this region. Under the Romans themselves of a later day, as we shall see hereafter, it was found more profitable to throw large districts into pasture, and people it with flocks tended by slave-shepherds; for it must be noticed as a singular fact, that the air so prejudicial to the health of the human frame is not hurtful to the cattle. This system, introduced of old, still prevails. And though it is likely that no natural evils would have dispeopled the Campagna, any more than they have dispeopled Vera Cruz or the coasts of the Sea of Azof, yet when the misrule of man seconds the visitation of God, and when once such a country has lost its inhabitants, it is little to be expected that it will again be reclaimed from its state of desolation.k § 7. We will now notice the different tribes who dwelt on the verges of this celebrated district, and for this purpose we will return to the Capitol. A little to the south of east the plain is interrupted by a beautiful range of hills, which rise abruptly and by themselves from its surface. This is the volcanic range so well known as the Alban Hills. The highest peak, measuring about 3000 feet, was anciently crowned by the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, the common sanctuary of the Latin nation; and on the ridge, of which it forms the culminating point, once lay the town of Alba Longa. In two hollows, to the south-west, are found the Alban lake and the lake of Nemus (Nemi), being both of them formed by accumulations of water in the craters of extinct volcanos. On a separate ridge to the north lay Tusculum (Frascati), one of the Latin cities which threw off the Roman yoke on the expulsion of the Tarquins: Corioli and Lavinium were situated on similar eminences to the south. The reviewer above quoted refers to cases of this kind; and Dr. Arnold, on the authority of Chevalier Bunsen, mentions the great improvements that have been made on the lands of the Duke of Zagarolo (near Palestrina) by promoting tillage and permanent occupation.-Hist. of Rome, i. p. 507. k Edinburgh Review, as above, pp. 56, 57; Arnold's History of Rome, i. p. 504. § 8. A line, drawn along the map of Italy from below Narnia down the Tiber, then across the Sabine country to Tibur, and so past Prænesté and Signia to Terracina, marks the edge of a continuous chain of hills which bound the plain of Latium. This is formed by a narrow belt of Ancient Limestone, which rises from under a broad and many-ridged mass of the more Recent system, as shown in the annexed map. These united formations constitute the lower range of Apennines, while on the other side of the more Recent mass again emerge the Ancient Limestone rocks of the main chain. It is the descent down the face of this lower ridge which creates the beautiful cascade of the Anio at Tibur (Tivoli). At Prænesté, the ridge sinks and lets the eye into the valley of the Trerus (Sacco), which runs eastward to join the Liris. Prænesté (Palestrina) itself stands on a bold projecting eminence, in the gap formed by the sinking of the hills. Now this natural division of the range, which we call the Lower Apennines, corresponds to its political division at the time of which we speak. The range between the right bank of the Trerus and Terracina was the hill country of the Volsci, who stretched across the Liris to Sora and Arpinum. The upper part from the Anio northwards, was the country of the Equians, reaching beyond Carseoli and Alba, and including the Fucine lake (Lake of Celano), the largest piece of water in the Apennine range. Between these two tribes, that is between the Trerus and the Anio, lay, wedged in their upland valley, the Hernicans. The Volscians and the Æquians were probably Opican tribes, of the same race with the Auruncans, who lay behind the Volscian hills in the mountainous tract which leads into Campania; whereas the Hernicans, a brave and independent tribe, were of Sabine blood. The mountains to the north-east about Reaté up to Amiternum, are the ancient homes of the Sabines; and from these mountains descended, according to tradition, the first occupants of Rome and Latium. Close above Amiternum rises the wild mass of Monte Corno, and the highest peaks of the Apennine range. For six months of the year the central ridge may easily be distinguished by their snowcapt summits. § 9. Beyond the ridge which has been described as barring all view towards ancient Etruria on the west and north-west, lay what we may call Lower Etruria. This district, lying between the lower valley of the Tiber and the sea, is separated from Upper Etruria by a range of volcanic hills, which strike across the country at right angles to the Apennine valleys. They formed an unfrequented tract, then called the Ciminian Forest, beyond which no Romans for many years after dared to penetrate. It is from the eastern edge of this range, now called the heights of Viterbo, that the traveller from Florence obtains his first view of the Campagna. Below these hills was the country occupied by the Veientines and the Faliscans. Beyond them again, the places of chief note were Sutrium and Nepeté; and towards the sea lay the low lands of the men of Cæré, a city which plays a considerable part in the history of Rome. Veii was not more than twelve miles distant from the walls of Rome. With this geographical sketch, which should be verified by a comparison with the map annexed, all the progress of Rome in foreign conquest may readily be followed for the next century and a half. Her arms, in that period, never travelled further than twenty miles from Rome; generally their action took place in a much more circumscribed sphere. CHAPTER VII. THE TRIBUNATE. § 1. Character of struggle between Orders. § 2. Sufferings of Plebeians in border wars, not shared by Patricians. § 3. All power gradually resumed by Patricians. § 4. Patricians an exclusive Caste: privilege of Connubium. § 5. Plebeians first roused by severe Laws of Debtor and Creditor. § 6. Patricians chief Creditors, Plebeians Debtors. § 7. Story of incident which gave rise to Tribunate: Appius Claudius, leader of Patricians, deceives Plebeians. § 8. Secession of Plebeians to Mons Sacer. § 9. Menenius Agrippa: Fable of Belly and Members. § 10. Peace restored: two Tribunes to be chosen as Protectors of Plebeians. § 11. Incompleteness of Protection. § 12. Plebeian Ædiles. § 1. In the following chapters of this Book we shall have to record, not only the slow steps by which the Romans recovered dominion over their neighbours, but also the long-continued struggle by which the Plebeians raised themselves to a level with the Patricians, who had again become the dominant caste at Rome. Mixed up with legendary tales as the history still is, enough is nevertheless preserved to excite the admiration of all who love to look upon a brave people pursuing a worthy object with patient but earnest resolution, never flinching, yet seldom injuring their good cause by reckless violence. To an Englishman this history ought to be especially dear; for more than any other in the annals of the world does it resemble the long-enduring constancy and sturdy determination, the temperate will and noble self-control, with which the Commons of his own country secured their rights. It was by a struggle of this nature, pursued through a century and a half, that the character of the Roman people was moulded into that form of strength and energy, which threw back Hannibal to the coasts of Africa, and in half a century more made them masters of the whole Mediterranean shore. § 2. There can be no doubt that the wars that followed the Expulsion of the Tarquins, with the loss of territory that accompanied them, must have reduced all orders of men at Rome to great distress. But those who most suffered were the Plebeians. The Plebeians at that time consisted entirely of landholders, great and small, and husbandmen; for in those times the practice of trades and mechanical arts was considered unworthy of a free-born man. Some of the Plebeian families were as wealthy as any among the Patricians; but the mass of them were petty yeomen, who lived on the produce of their small farms, and were solely dependent for a living on their own limbs, their own thrift and industry. Most of them lived in the villages and small towns, which in those times were thickly sprinkled over the slopes of the Campagna. The Patricians, on the other hand, resided chiefly within the city. If Slaves were few as yet, they had the labour of their Clients available to till their farms; and through their Clients also they were enabled to derive a profit from the practice of trading and crafts, which personally neither they nor the Plebeians would stoop to pursue. Besides these sources of profit, they had at this time the exclusive use of the Public Land, a subject on which we shall have to speak more at length hereafter. At present, it will be sufficient to say, that the Public Land now spoken of had been the Crown Land or Regal Domain, which on the expulsion of the Kings had been forfeited to the State. The Patricians, being in possession of all actual power, engrossed possession of it, and seem to have paid a very small quit-rent to the treasury for this great advantage. Besides this, the necessity of service in the army, or militia (as it might more justly be called), acted very differently on the rich landholder and the small yeoman. The latter, being called out with sword and spear for the summer's campaign, as his turn came round, was obliged to leave his farm uncared for, and his crop could only be reaped by the kind aid of neighbours; whereas the rich proprietor, by his Clients or his hired labourers, could render the required military service without robbing his land of his own labour. Moreover, the territory of Rome was so narrow, and the enemy's borders so close at hand, that any night the stout yeoman might find himself reduced to beggary, by seeing his crops destroyed, his cattle driven away, |