cultivation, from the tillage of which they derived their own subsistence, and contributed by the payment of a fixed tribute to that of the lawful owners. Slaves were sometimes employed in these services, but their number cannot have been great. The position and the climate of Italy fitted it for the cultivation of a variety of fruits and of grains. Many trees of Asia have become nearly indigenous in this congenial soil. Many animals, also, of Asiatic origin have thrived in Italy, and multiplied with amazing rapidity. Etruria, the Volscian territory, Picenum, Campania, and Apulia were renowned for their abundant harvests of grain. The vine was carefully cultivated, and the most luxurious of the ancients asked for no choicer wines than those of his own country. Bees, also, were tended with great care, and their rich stores of honey and of wax were highly prized. Grazing early came to be a leading object of attention. The wools of several districts were in great repute for their softness and their brilliant white. Then, as now, the shepherd tended his flock, during the heats of summer, high upon the sides of the mountains, where an abundant pasturage and clear springs of the purest water supplied all their wants. But, upon the approach of winter, and before the first snowfall, he led them down to the sheltered valleys and fertile maremmas, and, erecting his hut in the midst of his grazingground, awaited the return of the milder season. Autumn and spring still present the same spectacle of migrating flocks to the traveller in modern Italy. Day after day, in these seasons, the highways, from the mountains to the low lands, are filled with long trains of sheep, proceeding by slow stages to their summer or their winter quarters. The veterans of the flock move on with a measured gate and demure aspect, while their younger and more active companions climb every hedge and leap every ditch, to pluck the grass and green shoots that border the way. Behind comes the shepherd, in his coat of skins; his legs bound as high as the knee with strong, coarse leggings; with breeches of thick woollen, and sometimes of skin with the fleece outward; a hat with a broad brim and cone-like crown; and in hand his crook or wand of office. But the most interesting object in this annual caravan is the shepherd's dog. The form and size alone of this animal are sufficient to excite attention. The nose is long, and, unlike the rest of the head, free from hair. The ears are pricked; the legs large and strongly set; and the whole body covered with a thick coat of shaggy hair, which is no less a protection against the inclemencies of the season, to all the vicissitudes of which he is constantly exposed, than a guard in his frequent contests with his natural enemy, the wolf. This animal relieves the shepherd from more than half his responsibility. He never loses sight of the flock. On a march he is incessantly in motion; now at the head, now on the sides, now behind; and woe to the luckless straggler that dares to wander from his path. When noon brings the hour of repose, he takes his stand at some point where he can be ready for his charge, and at the same time snatch a moment's rest. At night he watches on the outskirts of the fold. The incautious traveller finds him at his throat before he can call for assistance. The wolf dreads him, and never, unless when goaded by the extremity of hunger, ventures to approach his watch. Nor even then can he succeed, if he come singly to the attack. The faithful animal will sometimes hold even two at bay, and give his master time to come to his assistance; and, if this be delayed, it is only after a long and fierce struggle, and over the mangled body of their guardian, that the ravenous prowler of the forest can seize his trembling and defenceless victims. Many of the peculiar customs of pastoral life were deeply rooted in the feelings of the people. The Palian and Lupercalian games, by which the shepherd sought to propitiate the deity towards himself and his flock, preserve the memory of an age anterior to the foundation of Rome. By a strange engrafting of Pagan rites upon the simple usages of Christianity, traces of these ancient institutions have been preserved down to our own times; and the fires, which were once lighted for a heathen goddess, now blaze in honor of the Virgin. The part of the herdsman was nearly as important as that of the shepherd. The oxen of Italy were highly esteemed by the ancients for their strength and their size; and it is well known that many have supposed this circumstance to afford a sufficient explanation of the origin of the actual name of the country. The race of horses, also, was in high repute; and the woods of Lucania, of Etruria, and of upper Italy, were filled with innumerable herds of wild hogs. Even the forests were placed under the immediate protection of the divinity; and, no one being allowed to touch them except for some public purpose of acknowledged utility, they formed a rich source of national commerce. But no feature in the agricultural history of ancient Italy gives so high an idea of its progress in civilization, as the reduction of vast tracts of marsh to a state of high cultivation. Many portions of the country, which now exhale noxious and pestilential vapors, were then thickly peopled. Others, now partially redeemed from inundation, and verdant with an unavailable fertility, were among the most populous and productive of the ancient states. The Middle Ages witnessed a partial and transient return of this prosperity. The Tuscan marshes were drained; towns and cities arose amid the banks and canals which led off the noxious waters; and the whole coast, from the borders of the Genoese to the confines of the Roman states, was covered with a hardy and thriving population, who drew from the soil they had won, enough to meet all their own wants, and contribute to the support of an extensive and gainful commerce.* 26. But the success of agriculture alone would be insufficient to account for the wealth and power, to which the nations of Italy had already attained in the first centuries of Rome. Commerce went hand in hand with the tillage of the soil, conveying its superabundant products to distant lands, and bringing in a rich return of foreign commodities. The situation of their country must have called the attention of the Italians to navigation at a very early period. But the first navigators were pirates; and this is the not very enviable appellation, that we find frequently coupled by the ancients with the name of the Tyrrheni. Such, however, must necessarily have been the case, when men, ignorant of the legitimate object of nautical science, ventured to launch their barks upon an untried element, and to trust their persons and their property to the mercy of the winds and the waves. The very qualities, which fitted them for such an effort, prepared them to consider themselves as fairly entitled to what A very interesting exposition of this fact, though from a point of more extensive view than we can take, may be found in an early work of Sismondi, Tableau de l'Agriculture Toscane, pp. 284 et seq. ever they could make their own ;* and the hazards, to which they unhesitatingly exposed their own lives, must have taught them a lesson of stern indifference to the security of others. The chances, too, were equal. Strength and skill were the arbiters of the contest. The prize of victory and the consequences of defeat were known and weighed before the sword was drawn. But, although the commencement of nautical commerce was thus rough and unpromising, yet it was not long ere it began to feel the benign influence of advancing civilization. And no sooner was it perceived, that far more was to be gained by an equitable exchange of the products of one country for those of another, than by these predatory excursions, which, although sometimes successful, were always attended with double exposure, than it became an object of general attention, and was prosecuted with such ardor and address as rapidly carried it to a very high pitch of prosperity. Here again the Etruscans took the lead. The beak or pointed prow, so terrible in the shock of naval combat, was invented by them. The double-fluked anchor, also, was an Etruscan invention. Even had the voice of history been silent, the names borne by the two seas which bathe the Italian peninsula would form an imperishable monument of the nautical enterprise of the Etruscans. Their colonies in Corsica and Sardinia have already been mentioned. Their first treaties with the Carthaginians were of a very early date; and, up to the third century of Rome, they not only competed with them for the command of the Mediterranean, but even attempted to follow their track in the more difficult and adventurous navigation of the Atlantic. The materials by which this commerce was supplied were, in a great measure, derived from their own soil. Grain was exported from the fertile districts that border on the sea. Their forests furnished the best of timber. The iron of the vast mines of Elba was wrought at Populonia, and formed an important staple of traffic. The * Such may have been the meaning of Horace; "Illi robur et æs triplex Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci Primus," &c. mines of Volterra and of the territory of Siena gave copious supplies of copper, which was used in the construction of arms and of various utensils and instruments of labor, and was also coined as money. The native stores of wax, of honey, and of pitch, were enlarged by the annual tribute from Corsica, and exchanged in the course of commerce for various foreign productions. But the most active branch of commerce was the exportation, into different countries, of bronze images and domestic utensils of Etruscan make, which were eagerly bought up at high prices, to the great advantage of their manufacturers. Among the principal objects of importation, were the ivory of Nigritia, and the amber of the north, which were furnished, either directly or indirectly, by foreign merchants. The seaports were provided with extensive arsenals, public warehouses, and convenient docks. Other states, also, shared in this lucrative commerce. The Rutuli, Volsci, Ligures, and Campani traded along the western coasts and among the islands of the Mediterranean. The Volsci and the Ligures ventured in their light barks as far as Africa, Gaul, and Spain. Timber, gums, wax, honey, and skins, were the exports of the Ligures; in return for which they received grain, oil, wine, and other necessaries of life, which their own soil did not produce. Their only manufactures were of coarse woollen. Other districts carried on a fruitful traffic in finer wools, and the Brutii drew ample returns from their exportations of pitch and tar. Thus, in ancient times, as among the republics of the Middle Ages, woollens, iron, pitch, and timber, were the great sources of Italian wealth. A lucrative and active commerce was also everywhere carried on, from the coast to the interior, and thence back again to the sea. Commodious roads, of parts of which the solid paving still exists, facilitated and gave security to this intercourse. Small fees, on entering and clearing a port, and on the passage of a river or bridge, were the only taxes to which the merchant was subjected; and moderation in these was held to be the surest test of a good government. Such a commerce as that, of which we have traced the outline, necessarily supposes the existence of an established currency. The first medium of general exchange was cumbersome and awkward, but still well enough adapted to the limited wants of its inventors. As the enlarging circle of VOL. XLVIII. No. 102. 8 |