CLASSICAL TIMES
1. ITALY BEFORE THE ROMAN CONQUEST
The physical features of Italy have always divided the country into distinct and diverse regions and modified the characteristic life of each. The contribution of successive bodies of invaders tends to vary from region to region. In the earliest times the Central Apennines were almost impenetrable, and southern Italy had its own cultures and was in touch with lands far beyond the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean long before it was affected by the cultures and migrations of the north. The ancient peoples and languages of Italy before the Roman conquests have left few traces; and although there is much archaeological evidence from sites and tombs, the identification of cultures with peoples and languages is often uncertain.
The peoples of ancient Italy are mainly distinguished by languages and by burial customs. Ethnographically the population always consisted of local breeds of 'Mediterranean stock, progressively modified northward by immigrants of Alpine' descent. In the north there were also descendants of the 'Nordic' types representing invaders of Celtic and Teutonic speech.
LANGUAGES
All the ancient languages of the Peninsula, except Etruscan, were Indo-European. The oldest, the Venetic in the Alpine foothills and the Messapian in Apulia, were akin to some Balkan languages. Less primitive, and very widespread, were the Italic languages, in two groups, of earlier and later arrival : Latin and kindred dialects were spoken in the western lowlands, Oscan and its cousin Sabellian, including Umbrian, spread from beyond the Northern Appenines throughout the Central Appenines and eventually reached the extreme south of Italy.
North of the Appenines, in the Northern Plain and along the Adriatic coast, Italic speech was wholly replaced about 600 B.C. by Celtic from Central Europe; and Celtic (Gallic) raiders reached Rome in 390 B.C. Along the coasts of Sicily and southern Italy south of Cumae, Greek settlements introduced their various dialects from the eighth century of our era onwards. Etruscan in historical times was limited to the area of modern Tuscany. All these languages were gradually replaced by Latin, which was universally spoken in the Christian era, though Greek maintained itself as a second language in Sicily.
EARLY CULTURES
Civilizations akin to those of other west Mediterranean lands, occupied all the principal regions of Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, in the Bronze Age, and persisted in parts of south Italy, and in Sicily almost into historic times. But in the more fertile and accessible regions these primary modes of life were twice modified by immigrant cultures in prehistoric times. In the late Bronze Age the 'Terramare' culture, notable for its hut-dwellings, spread from the north over the Po plain. In the Early Iron Age a civilization of Danubian origin, called 'Villanovan' in Italy after the 'Villanova' cemetery at Bologna, spread as far south as Latium and Campania. The characteristic of the 'Villanovan' way of life was the practice of cremation instead of inhumation of the dead which was the rule with other Italian peoples. The earliest culture of Rome was partly 'Villanovan', and in later Roman times both funeral rites were known. Meanwhile, in the highlands, along the Adriatic coast, and in southern Italy, survivals of the older cultures were transformed by intercourse across the Adriatic and by trade with Greek maritime colonies in Campania, Magna Grecia, and Sicily.
THE ETRUSCANS
In the west of the Peninsula between the Arno and the Tiber the Etruscans, Tuscans, or Tyrrhenians established, among a population of Italic speech and 'Villanovan' culture, a league of twelve principal cities, dominated by close-knit groups of related families. Their language has no certain affinities and does not seem to be Indo-European. Ancient tradition that they came as refugees or colonists from western Asia Minor, during the disturbed centuries about 1200-1000 B.C. , is supported by some elements in their life. Nevertheless much that is oriental about them is subsequent, superficial, and due to Phoenician and to Greek influence, of a date later than 800 B.C. But before these later foreign influences appeared the Etruscans had adopted the 'Villanovan' culture of the natives. Later conquests spread their power through Latium, where Rome was an Etruscan stronghold, southward into Campania; northward they reached through Umbria into the Northern Plain. The coming of the Gauls (about 600 B.C.) robbed the Etruscans of their holdings in the Northern Plain, and the revolt of the Romans about 510 B.C. barred the Tiber crossing and the land route to the south. In 474 B.C. their sea-power was broken by the Sicilian Greeks at the battle of Cumae.
Veii, their chief southern fortress, was destroyed by the Romans in 397 B.C. After inveterate resistance they were crushed politically by 250 B.C., and gradually lost their language, religion, and distinctive culture. But the Romans believed that they owed much to Etruscan manners and beliefs; and both medieval and modern Tuscany retained features which may be Etruscan in origin.
GREEK COLONIES
The Ionian coast from Otranto to western Sicily was colonized intensively and permanently by the Greeks from about 730 B.C. onward. Greek colonies were quite different from Roman. As their Greek name apoikia implies, they were a 'home away from home', and were used as a remedy for over-population and economic distress. Each usually duplicated and was organized by a 'mother-city' (metropolis) or group of such cities, and had a well-established political constitution for the mutual defence and maintenance of an agreed mode of life and conduct. But once founded, the new city-state retained only sentimental ties with the old; politically, and even economically, it was independent and sovereign in its own territory. Where the indigenous tribes were friendly, intercourse and Greek culture spread rapidly and far; where they were hostile, and especially when Etruscan or Phoenician rivals instigated resistance to Greek exploitation, there were long struggles, frequent territorial conquests, and a few failures. The principal regions of Greek settlement in Italy were as follows:
A very early settlement was made at Cumae in northern Campania. This founded a 'New Town' or Neapolis (Naples) and other cities farther south, like Paestum (Posidonia) in the lower
Sele basin. Along the 'toe' of Italy and the Ionian coast a group of cities, of which Metapontum, Locri, Sybaris (Sibari), Croton (Crotone), and Rhegium (Reggio) were the chief, formed a 'Greater Greece' (Magna Grecia). The majority were established by 700 B.C. and some had much older traditions. They formed a loose league with a federal sanctuary at Croton, and prospered on friendly terms with the natives till the Sabellian highlanders moved south about 400 B.C. and occupied their hinterland. Sybaris, one of the oldest and most prosperous, was destroyed by Croton in 510, but was refounded in 443 B.C. under the name Thurii.
Taremtum (Taranto) created a wide-reaching dependency in the 'heel' of Italy and bore the severest shocks of the Sabellian movement. Its great harbour, fisheries, and easy landward avenues gave it exceptional importance, and tempted it in later centuries to challenge the Roman protectorate over southern Italy. It became the supply base of Hannibal's expeditionary force, and suffered accordingly. Along the Adriatic coast Greek adventure and influence were slight. There were small early trading-posts at the mouth of the Po, and Ancona was founded in the fourth century before Christ as an outpost of Syracuse.
These numerous Greek settlements profoundly influenced the culture and economic history of southern Italy. Etruscan rivalry prevented Greek colonization north of Campania and broke its hold on Corsica. But Greek intercourse with Rome began early. After the revolt of Rome itself against the Etruscans in 510 B.C. the Romans supported the Greek cities against Etruscans, Phoenicians and Sabellian highlanders alike, and consequently became involved, after the defeat of Carthage, in the politics of mainland Greece and Macedonia.
SICILY
Though geographically a continuation of the Italian peninsula, and populated for the most part by Italian stock, Sicily developed distinct social and political features in its later history, due mainly to foreign influences and to the circumstances of the Roman conquest. The aboriginal Mediterranean people survived, especially in the west, side by side with immigrants or 'Sicels' from Italy : Greek observers detected resemblances between the aboriginals and the 'Iberian' natives of Spain. Dense Greek colonization reduced most of the Sicel and aboriginal tribes to serfdom, from which they made determined but unsuccessful efforts to free themselves about 460-450 B.C.
There were minor Greek settlements in the north coast east of Phoenician Panormus (Palermo) to Messana (Messina), which latter controlled the Straits. The colonies of the east coast were more important : Naxos (near Taormina), Catana (Catania), Leontini (Lentini), and Syracuse (Siracusa), which later exploited the whole south-eastern upland. On the south coast were the great settlements of Gela and Acragas (Agrigento). Thence westward began the Phoenician sphere, in which was eventually planted the Greek colony of Selinus (Selinunte). The Phoenicians from Carthage who established their power in the west had much the same effect as the Etruscans in Italy, accentuating native differences, diverting produce and trade, forestalling Greek expansion, and eventually challenging the whole Greek occupation of Sicily from the end of the sixth to the middle of the third century B.C. It was in Sicily, rather than in south Italy, that Pyrrhus 'left so fair a battlefield to the Romans and the Carthaginians'. Principal Phoenician centres were Solus (Solunto) in the south-west, Motya and Lilybaeum (Trapani) at the western end, and Panornus (Palermo) with its great harbour on the north coast.
EARLY ROME AND LATIUM
The historical position of Rome results from its geographical situation in the centre of the Campagna and its command of the Tiber crossing between Etruria and Latium, at a point where the ancient 'salt-way' (Via Salaria) from the Tiber mouth (Ostia) struck north-east towards the Abruzzi. Within the Campagna Rome was one of thirty Latin 'peoples' which from the sixth to the fourth century B.C. combined in a league for mutual defence against the surrounding highlanders (Sabines, Volsci, and Aequi).
The original lowland Latin population of Rome, including many outlaws from neighbouring communities, had already been long dominated by Sabine clans from the hills when (c. 600-510 B.C.) three kings of Etruscan origin established a powerful and splendid tyranny over Sabines and Latins alike, reorganizing the army, founding great buildings, and dominating the Latin League. After expelling this Etruscan dynasty in 510 B.C. the new Roman republic resumed the leadership of Latium, but ensuing quarrels with her allies, in 348 B.C. , led to the dissolution of the League. Many communities were incorporated with citizen rights. The remainder were brought into separate dependence on Rome as allies (socii) with right of economic and social intercourse, and the duty of mutual defence under Roman control. By similar methods Rome proceeded in the following century to make herself mistress of the whole peninsula, which became a confederation of partly allied and partly incorporated peoples.
