Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/467

UEOGRAl HY.] ITALY 447 and the Friniates, who extended along the crest of the Apennines from thence to the neighbourhood of Florence, were the subjects of repeated triumphs, and gave the Romans more real trouble than, their more brilliant con quests in Macedonia and Asia. (3) The Veneti or Venetians, who held the north-eastern portion of the great plain of Northern Italy, from the Adige to the Alps of the Frioul, were, according to the concurrent statements of ancient authors, a distinct people from their neighbours the Gauls. Attempts were made by some Greek writers to connect them with the Eneti or Heneti, mentioned by Homer, as a people of Faphlagonia, and several modern authors have sought to identify them with the Venedre or Wends on the shores of the Baltic. But all such theories, based as they are solely on resemblances of name, are of little value. On the other hand it is dis tinctly stated by Herodotus that they were an Illyrian tribe; and, though this may very likely be a mere inference from their juxtaposition, it is not improbable in itself that they were of the same race with their neighbours the Istrians and Liburnians. But, besides the Veneti properly so called, two other tribes were found in historical times within the limits of the province as constitute! by Augustus. (1) The Euya- neans, though they had at this period dwindled into an insignificant tribe, had at one time been a powerful people, and according to the statement of Livy (himself a native of this country) had originally occupied the whole tract between the Alps and the sea, from which they had been expelled by the Veneti. And this tradition is confirmed by the fact that remnants of them still lingered in the Italian valleys of the Alps as late as the time of Pliny, and that their name remained inseparably attached, both in ancient and modern times, to the little group of volcanic hills between Padua and Verona, which are still known as the Euganean hills. (2) The Carni, who occupied the northern part of the Frioul, at the foot of the Alps, together with the adjoining mountains, appear to have been certainly a tribe of Celtic or Gaulish origin, and distinct from the A r enetians, though included in the province of that name. Consolidation of Italy. We have seen that the name of Italy was originally applied only to the southernmost part of the peninsula, and was only gradually extended so as to comprise the central regions, such as Latium and Campania, which were designated by writers as late as Thucydides and Aristotle as in Opicia. The progress of this change cannot be followed in detail, but there can be little doubt that the extension of the Roman arms, and the gradual union of the nations of the peninsula under one dominant power, would contribute to the introduction, or rather would make the necessity felt, for the use of one general appellation. At first indeed the term was appa rently confined to the regions of the central and southern districts, exclusive of Cisalpine Gaul and the whole tract north of the Apennines, and this continued to be the official or definite signification of the name down to the end of the republic. But the natural limits of Italy are so clearly marked that the name came to be generally employed as a geographical term at a much earlier period. Thus we already find Polybius repeatedly applying it in this wider signification to the whole country, as far as the foot of the Alps ; and it is evident from many passages in the Latin writers that this was the familiar use of the term in the days of Cicero and Csesar. The official distinction was, however, still retained. Cisalpine Gaul, including the whole of Northern Italy, still constituted a " province," an appellation never applied to Italy itself. As such it was assigned to Julius Coesar, together with Transalpine Gaul, and it was not till he crossed the Rubicon that he entered Italy in the strict sense of the term. Augustus was the first who gave a definite administrative organization to Italy as a whole, and at the same time gave official sanction to that wider acceptation of the name, which had already established itself in familiar usage, and which has continued to prevail ever since. The division of Italy into eleven regions (Plate V.), insti- Plate V tuted by Augustus for administrative purposes, which con tinued in official use till the reign of Constantine, was based mainly on the territorial divisions previously existing, and preserved with few exceptions the ancient limits. The first region comprised Latium (in the more extended sense of the term, as including the land of the Volscians, Hernicans, and Auruncans), together with Campania and the district of the Picentini. It thus extended from the mouth of the Tiber to that of the Silarus. The second region included Apulia and Calabria (the name by which the Romans usually designated the district known to the Greeks as Messapia or lapygia), together with the land of the Hirpini, which had usually been considered as a part of Samnium. The third region contained Lucania and Bruttium ; it was bounded on the west coast by the Silarus, on the east by the Bradanus. The fourth region comprised all the Samnites (except the Hirpini), together with the Sabines and the cognate tribes of the Frentani, Marrucini, Marsi, Peligni, Vestini, and ^Equiculi. It was separated from Apulia on the south by the river Tifernus, and from Picenum on the north by the Matrinus. The fifth region was composed solely of Picenum, ex tending along the coast of the Adriatic from the mouth of the Matrinus to that of the ^Esis, beyond Ancona. The sixth region was formed by Umbria, in the more extended sense of the term, as including the Ager Gallicus, along the coast of the Adriatic from the ^Esis to the Ari- minus, and separated from Etruria on the west by the Tiber. The seventh region consisted of Etruria, which preserved its ancient limits, extending from the Tiber to the Tyr rhenian Sea, and separated from Liguria on the north by the river Macra. The eighth region, termed Gallia Cispadana, comprised the southern portion of Cisalpine Gaul, and was bounded on the north (as its name implied) by the river Padus or Po, from above Placentia to its mouth. It was separated from Etruria and Umbria by the main chain of the Apen nines ; and the river Ariminus was substituted for the far- famed Rubicon as its limit on the Adriatic. The ninth region comprised Liguria, extending along the sea-coast from the Varus to the Macra, and inland as far as the river Padus, which constituted its northern boundary from its source in Mount Vesulus to its confluence with the Trebia just above Placentia. The tenth region included Venetia from the Padus and Adriatic to the Alps, to which was annexed the neighbour ing peninsula of Istria, and to the west the territory of the Cenomani, a Gaulish tribe, extending from the Athesis to the Addua, which had previously been regarded as a part of Gallia Cisalpina. The eleventh region, known as Gallia Transpadana, In-* eluded all the rest of Cisalpine Gaul from the Padus on the south and the Addua on the east to the foot of the Alps. The arrangementsthus established by Augustus continued almost unchanged till the time of Constantine, and formed the basis of all subsequent administrative divisions until the fall of the Western empire. It is not worth while to follow in detail the changes introduced during the 4th century. It was the invasion of the Lombards that first broke up the general system of the Roman administration, and prepared the way for the redistribution of Italy in the Middle Ages on a wholly different basis. (E. H. B.)