Lectures on ancient ethnography and geography, volume 2 (of 2)

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN EDITION OF DR. ISLER, BY DR. LEONHARD SCHMITZ, F.R.S.E. RECTOR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH; WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS FROM HIS OWN MS. NOTES.

Now, as the whole of the south of Italy, as far as the country of the Marsians, again formed an almost compact Sabellian country (except that in the greater part of Apulia the S...

The Apennines join the Alps in the country of Piedmont south of the Po; at first their character is indefinite, but soon their own peculiarities and a marked difference from the...

the heart of Italy. I do not mean to say that Samnium might not equally well have become the heart of the country, but history has willed it otherwise. Latium is by its situatio...

In ancient ethnography and history there occur numbers, which, in a surprising manner, recur at the most different periods; they are by no means fanciful; to regard them as some...

It is natural that in a city like Rome, which had already become the capital of a great empire, the empty spaces within the walls were gradually filled up, and that the ancient...

I cannot enter so fully into the topography of Rome as to show you how the streets of Rome were continued throughout Italy and the whole Roman empire. But, as architectural stru...

The _Curia Hostilia_ was situated on the πρόπους of the Palatine, just opposite the narrow side of the rostra. Its name is no doubt derived from Tullus Hostilius, who is certain...

The word _platea_ is likewise one of those which may mislead, and of which only vague notions are current. The general opinion, I believe, is, that platea signifies a broad stre...

There are, properly speaking, only two streets in ancient Rome, which are known as such, namely, the _Via Sacra_ and the _Subura_. The former began at the ridge, which extended...

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,...

In the second and third books of Livy, the Volscians and Aequians generally come in contact with each other on mount _Algidus_. There are different opinions as to what mountain...

NOLA was situated at a greater distance from Capua, and was not one of the Campanian towns properly so called; it was independent, and in no way subordinate to Capua. It might b...

The constitution of the Sabellian nations seems to have been essentially democratic, so that in the course of time the subjects acquired the full right of free country people. T...

The real name of this nation in Oscan was _Sauini_ or _Savini_. On the denarii which were coined during the Social War, we read on the one side _Safinim_, a genitive plural, and...

He, therefore, is the true friend of antiquity who disentangles it from its confusion and places it in its true light. The ancients knew but little about the nations of Italy, a...

In their state of dependence on the ancient Greek towns, these Oenotrians became completely hellenised. During the first century after the Greek settlements, they were not yet s...

METAPONTUM.[55] Its name shows the same formation which we have already observed on several other occasions, and leads us to a form Μεταποῦς, analogous to Μαλοῦς. This town, whi...

ELEA or VELIA, a town which preserved its Greek character in a wonderful manner, was situated not far from Buxentum. It was a colony of the Phocaeans, established in the reign o...

In a physical point of view, Etruria may be divided into three parts. The central portion is formed by the main stock of the Apennines, both those in the neighbourhood of Siena...

VULSINII, situated on lake Bolsena, was one of the largest Etruscan towns. When after the Gallic war we find Etruria in arms, we must suppose that the Vulsinians were the soul o...

In the later political geography of the Romans, Gallia Cisalpina is divided into two parts which are very different from each other, viz., _Gallia Cispadana_ and _Gallia Transpa...

Nor can the foundation of the new city in the lagoons (Venice) have been occasioned by that sudden invasion of the Huns; the place must have been inhabited to some extent even b...

The misfortunes of Syracuse are very painful: it was visited by such a succession of devastations that we can hardly understand how it could maintain itself: it must have posses...

The towns in the interior of Sicily were originally partly Siculian and partly Sicanian, though it is now impossible to draw a line of demarcation between them. In the north, ab...

Andalusia, the southernmost part, is almost identical with ancient _Baetica_, and, as is observed even by Strabo, is a country quite different from the rest of Spain. It has ind...

_Barcelona_, which, however, is not mentioned during the period of the Roman republic, but only under the empire. Its ancient name is BARCINO; the termination _no_ or _ino_ is o...

Another erroneous opinion, though less general, is, that, the Gauls and Belgae were in reality one nation, or at least that the Belgae were a mixture of Gauls and Germans. It is...

According to Caesar, the _Matrona_ and _Sequana_ formed the frontier between Celtic Gaul and the Belgae. This is generally understood, as if those rivers had always been the per...

On the frontier there were boundary marks, called _Arae Philaenorum_. The tradition about them was as follows:—Once the Cyreneans and Carthaginians being involved in a dispute a...

Ethiopia proper is highly remarkable in ancient history: in Scripture it is called Koosh, and its kings are distinguished from those of the Mauri. The country of these Mauri was...

[39] Our authorities state 20,000; but Niebuhr seems to mean families, as only fathers of three children were admitted. Cicero, however, thinks that the _ager Campanus_ was not...

Strabo, 11, 20, 58, 86, 90, 101, 162, 173, 218, 249, 275, 277, 283, 297, 304, 305, 307; ii. 17, 140, 144, 161, 163, 173, 174, 177, 242, 282, 294, 304, 336