34

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

I.

Ligurians dwelt on the rocky coast, which nowforms the republic of Genoa. Venice was yetunborn: but the territories of that state whichlie to the east of the Adige , were inhabited bythe Venetians . 6 The middle part of the pen-insula that nowcomposes the duchy of Tuscany and the ecclesiastical state, was the ancient seatof the Etruscans and Umbrians; to the formerof whom Italy was indebted for the first rudi-ments of civilized life/ The Tyber rolled atthe foot of the seven hills of Rome , and thecountry of the Sabines, the Latins, and the Volsci,from that river to the frontiers of Naples , wasthe theatre of her infant victories. On that ce-lebrated ground the first consuls deserved tri-umphs, their successors adorned villas, and theirposterity have erected convents . 8 Capua andCampania possessed the immediate territory ofNaples ; and the rest of the kingdom was inhabit-ed by many warlike nations, the Marsi, the Sam-nites, the Apulians, and the Lucanians; and thesea-coasts had been covered by the flourishingcolonies of the Greeks. We may remark, thatwhen Augustus divided Italy into eleven regions,the little province of Istria was annexed to thatseat of Roman sovereignty . 11

• The Italian Veneti, though often confounded with the Gauls , weremore probably of Illyrian origin. See M. Freret, Memoires de 1’Aca-dem. des Inscriptions, tom. xviii.

f See Maffei Verona illustrata, I. i.

e The first contrast was observed by the ancients. See Floras, i, 11.The second must strike every modern traveller.

h Pliny (Hist. Natur. 1. iii) follows the division of Italy by Au-gustus .