previously compared to the great Scipio, knew any thing about the wars of Hannibal; and we know that Valens directed Eutropius to write for him a meagre abridgment of History, of which he was utterly ignorant. But though much was destroyed by the supremacy of Rome, we must thankfully acknowledge what she established and preserved. She either founded or restored nearly all those cities which still exist within the circumference of her ancient territory; the languages of Western Europe, derived from the Latin, preserved access to her literature and facilitated its revival; nay that supremacy preserved Greece and Grecian literature; for had not the east been defended by the power of a great empire, the barbarians, probably at a much earlier period, but certainly during the great emigration, must have overwhelmed those depopulated and enfeebled regions, and destroyed at once the degenerate Greeks, and the literary treasures which they preserved for future ages. The laws of Rome were unquestionably of great advantage to those nations who had become her subjects; we still find them indispensable to ourselves, having never cultivated those of our ancestors, and having lost their spirit. Nor can it easily pass unnoticed, or be denied by any impartial mind, that the union of the Roman dominion was necessary to the spread of religion, and that Rome, as a central point, illuminated and instructed the western world. We have the consolation in looking back upon those great periods of history, that the generations which have sprung up since the destruction and over

throw of their ancestors, have derived the full advantage of what then became permanently established. It is idle to enquire what might have resulted from efforts crushed in the very germ; we will not lament the loss of all that variety of unreplaced and irreparable good, nor ask whether the richest substitute that their posterity may have enjoyed, could compensate for the sufferings of ruined generations. We turn our eyes at least to those times with less of sadness and despair, than to the destinies of the depopulated and ravaged East; whose loveliest regions are withdrawn from the life of nature, and sinking every year deeper into decay, forbid even the possibility of more flourishing timeswhere the consummation of history is the grave!

CHAPTER I.

ANCIENT ITALY.

ROME, in the commencement of her history, comprised but a very small circle of Italy. The characteristics which distinguish the Roman people were the inheritance of much more extensive races to whom the Romans belonged, or were adopted from them, until a new frame of society, foreign to each individual state of Italy, formed itself from the combination of their varieties. These races faded in the lustre of the City, and the nation of citizens spread itself all over Italy. At the close of the Commonwealth, there were none but Romans in the peninsula. All the historians whose works are extant, have only written as if the ancient Italians were either wholly unconnected with Rome, or insignificant in comparison with the Roman people. A different opinion, however, has long prevailed; and though a sketch of those nations, which had arrived at eminence in Italy previous to the Romans, is, in some respects, impossible, and at best can be but

very faintly executed, it is acknowledged to be indispensable to attempt, at least, a survey and discrimination of their races and states, and a collection of the historical and descriptive accounts respecting them, still on record.

Amongst the historical works of antiquity which, if fate had permitted us to possess them, would, instead of this essay, have furnished us with accurate and copious information: we chiefly deplore the loss of Aristotle's Politics and Cato's "Origines." The former collection, which contained a description of the constitution and history of one hundred and fifty-eight states, did not omit the Italians, as is manifest from various quotations; although it is doubtful whether Aristotle has treated largely of Rome. The clear and penetrating views of this accomplished scholar, his diligent exertions to acquire that thorough information, without which the inventor of categories and topics would still have felt unsatisfied, and his sagacity in detecting errors in the reports which he received, are demonstrated to all ages by his works on Natural History, whose rich and profound truths may be submitted to the test of modern scrutiny, as fearlessly as in his own days. Every thing stated by the ancient grammarians, such as Julius Pollux, Harpocration, and the scholiast of Aristophanes, respecting the constitution and government of Athens, is taken from his "Polity of Athens." Their accuracy has been confirmed without exception; and we perceive that the original collection from which they are derived was a perfectly unique and masterly delinea