speaks of Gabii, Labici and Bovillae as places that had fallen into
abject poverty, while Horace refers to Gabii and Fidenae as mere
“deserted villages,” and Strabo as “once fortified towns, but
now villages, belonging to private individuals.” Many of the
smaller places mentioned in the list of Dionysius, or the early
wars of the Romans, had altogether ceased to exist, but the
statement of Pliny that fifty-three communities (populi) had thus
perished within the boundaries of Old Latium is perhaps exaggerated.
By the end of the Republic a good many parts of
Latium were infected, and Rome itself was highly malarious in the
warm months (see W. H. S. Jones in Annals of Archaeology and
Anthropology, ii. 97, Liverpool, 1909). The emperors Claudius,
Nerva and Trajan turned their attention to the district, and under
their example and exhortation the Roman aristocracy erected
numerous villas within its boundaries, and used them at least
for summer residences. During the 2nd century the Campagna
seems to have entered on a new era of prosperity. The system of
roads radiating in all directions from Rome (see Italy: History,
§ B) belonged to a much earlier period; but they were connected
by a network of crossroads (now mostly abandoned,
while the main lines are still almost all in use) leading to the very
numerous villas with which the Campagna was strewn (even
in districts which till recently were devastated by malaria),
and which seem in large measure to belong to this period. Some
of these are of enormous extent, e.g. the villa of the Quintilii
on the Via Appia, that known as Setta Bassi on the Via Latina,
and that of Hadrian near Tibur, the largest of all.
When the land tax was introduced into Italy in 292, the first region of Augustus obtained the name of provincia Campania. Later on the name Latium entirely disappeared, and the name Campania extended as far as Veii and the Via Aurelia, whence the medieval and modern name Campagna di Roma. The donation made by Constantine to various churches of Rome of numerous estates belonging to the patrimonium Caesaris in the neighbourhood of Rome was of great historical importance, as being the origin of the territorial dominion of the papacy. His example was followed by others, so that the church property in the Campagna soon became considerable; and, owing to the immunities and privileges which it enjoyed, a certain revival of prosperity ensued. The invasions of the barbarian hordes did great harm, but the formation of centres (domuscultae) in the 8th and 9th centuries was a fact of great importance: the inhabitants, indeed, formed the medieval militia of the papacy. Smaller centres (the colonia—often formed in the remains of an ancient villa—the curtis or curia, the castrum, the casale) grew up later. We may note that, owing to the growth of the temporal power of the popes, there was never a dux Romae dependent on the exarchate of Ravenna, similar to those established by Narses in the other districts of Italy.
The papal influence was also retained by means of the suburban bishoprics, which took their rise as early as the 4th and 5th centuries. The rise of the democratic commune of Rome[1] about 1143 and of the various trade corporations Under the commune. which we already find in the early 11th century led to struggles with the papacy; the commune of Rome made various attempts to exercise supremacy in the Campagna and levied various taxes from the 12th century until the 15th. The commune also tried to restrict the power of the barons, who, in the 13th century especially, though we find them feudatories of the holy see from the 10th century onwards, threatened to become masters of the whole territory, which is still dotted over with the baronial castles and lofty solitary towers of the rival families of Rome—Orsini, Colonna, Savelli, Conti, Caetani—who ruthlessly destroyed the remains of earlier edifices to obtain materials for their own, and whose castles, often placed upon the high roads, thus following a strategic line to a stronghold in the country, did not contribute to the undisturbed security of traffic upon them, but rather led to their abandonment. On a list of the inhabited centres of the Campagna of the 14th century with the amount of salt (which was a monopoly of the commune of Rome) consumed by each, Tomassetti bases an estimate of the population: this was about equal to that of our own times, but differently distributed, some of the smaller centres having disappeared at the expense of the towns. Several of the popes, as Sixtus IV. and Julius III., made unsuccessful attempts to improve the condition of the Campagna, the former making a serious attempt to revive agriculture as against pasture, while in the latter part of the 16th century a line of watch-towers was erected along the coast. In the Renaissance, it is true, falls the erection of many fine villas in the neighbourhood of Rome—not only in the hills round the Campagna, but even in certain places in the lower ground, e.g. those of Julius II. at La Magliana and of Cardinal Trivulzio at Salone,—and these continued to be frequented until the end of the 18th century, when the French Revolution dealt a fatal blow to the prosperity of the Roman nobility. The 17th and 18th centuries, however, mark the worst period of depopulation in the more malarious parts of the Campagna, which seems to have begun in the 15th century, though we hear of malaria throughout the middle ages. The most healthy portions of the territory are in the north and east, embracing the slopes of the Apennines which are watered by the Teverone and Sacco; and the most pestilential is the stretch between the Monti Lepini and the sea. The Pontine Marshes (q.v.) included in the latter division, were drained, according to the plan of Bolognini, by Pius VI., who restored the ancient Via Appia to Modern conditions. traffic; but though they have returned to pasture and cultivation, their insalubrity is still notorious. The soil in many parts is very fertile and springs are plentiful and abundant: the water is in some cases sulphureous or ferruginous. In summer, indeed, the vast expanse is little better than an arid steppe; but in the winter it furnishes abundant pasture to flocks of sheep from the Apennines and herds of silver-grey oxen and shaggy black horses, and sheep passing in the summer to the mountain pastures. A certain amount of horse-breeding is done, and the government has, as elsewhere in Italy, a certain number of stallions. Efforts have been made since 1882 to cure the waterlogged condition of the marshy grounds. The methods employed have been three—(i.) the cutting of drainage channels and clearing the marshes by pumping, the method principally employed; (ii.) the system of warping, i.e. directing a river so that it may deposit its sedimentary matter in the lower-lying parts, thus levelling them up and consolidating them, and then leading the water away again by drainage; (iii.) the planting of firs and eucalyptus trees, e.g. at Tre Fontane and elsewhere. These efforts have not been without success, though it cannot be affirmed that the malarial Campagna is anything like healthy yet. The regulation of the rivers, more especially of the Tiber, is probably the most efficient method for coping with the problem. Since 1884 the Italian Government have been systematically enclosing, pumping dry and generally draining the marshes of the Agro Romano, that is, the tracts around Ostia; the Isola Sacra, at the mouth of the Tiber; and Maccarese. Of the whole of the Campagna less than one-tenth comes annually under the plough. In its picturesque desolation, contrasting so strongly with its prosperity in Roman times, immediately surrounding a city of over half a million inhabitants, and with lofty mountains in view from all parts of it, it is one of the most interesting districts in the world, and has a peculiar and indefinable charm. The modern province of Rome (forming the compartimento of Lazio) includes also considerable mountain districts, extending as far N.W. as the Lake of Bolsena, and being divided on the N.E. from Umbria by the Tiber, while on the E. it includes a considerable part of the Sabine mountains and Apennines. The ancient district of the Hernicans, of which Alatri is regarded as the centre, is known as the Ciociaria, from a kind of sandals (cioce) worn by the peasants. On the S.E. too a considerable proportion of the group of the Lepini belongs to the province. The land is for the most part let by the proprietors to mercanti di Campagna, who employ a subordinate class of factors (fattori) to manage their affairs on the spot.
- ↑ The commune of Rome as such seems to have been in existence in 999 at least.
