The following is an excerpt (pages 156-159) from Ancient and Medieval History (1946) by Francis S. Betten, S.J. Although some information may be outdated, the Catholic historical perspective it provides remains pertinent. Use the link at the bottom of post to read the previous/following pages. Use the Search box above to find specific topics or browse using the Resources tab above.

PART FOUR: ROME AS A REPUBLIC

The older empires of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Persians and the liberty-loving Greeks, all contributed their share to the development of human civilization. The contribution of the Greeks was almost entirely in the realm of the intellectual. Rome, more than any other power, improved the art of government and political organization.
Unlike the other great powers Rome did not start as a nation, but as an Italian country town of moderate size, which knew how to aggregate other towns to itself, acquire by conquest and otherwise large districts, and thus become the head of a vast empire, that extended over all the countries of the Mediterranean shores and far into the continents.

CHAPTER XVI
ITALY AND ITS PEOPLES

191. The country we now call Italy is bounded in the north by the Alps. With the ancients “Italy” did not include the broad plain at the foot of the Alps with the Po River. Italy for them was the peninsula proper. A long chain of mountains, called the Apennines, runs through the land. It is narrower and steeper in the north, broadens out into a hill country in the middle, and nearly disappears towards the south. Italy is divided into smaller sections, but these are only in few places separated by mountain ranges. Nor are they so small and so numerous as those of Greece. The rivers are all small, with the sole exception of the Arnus in Etruria, and the Tiber, on which Rome is situated.

Italy faces rather west. Mark the three large islands situated in this direction, which invite to conquest and point to Africa and western Europe. In the Mediterranean Italy holds a dominant position, being the central one of the three great southern peninsulas of Europe. It was fit to become the head of an empire which would embrace the shores of that large inland ocean. (See the map following page 190.)

192. The ancient population of Italy contained many elements.

(a) The part which interests us most is the race of those called Italians. At one time they seem to have extended over the whole peninsula. At the period during which Rome, one of their towns, was rising, they were still rather unmixed along the whole shore of the Adriatic and deep into the peninsula. On the southwest coast they formed a strong settlement from the lower Tiber down to the neighborhood of Naples. This was Latium, a confederation of some thirty towns, one of which was Rome. Here the Latin language was spoken, which, indeed, was practically the language of most “Italians.” Besides the “Latins” in Latium, there were several other tribes of the Italians, as Umbrians, Sabellians, Campanians, and the Samnites, the latter, a brave, hardy race of husbandmen, being the most stubborn opponents of Rome. The Italians belonged to the Aryan family (§ 3) like the Achaeans and Dorians, the Celts, Germans, and Slavs.

(b) At a very early time another nation, the Etruscans, whom the Greeks called Tyrrhenians, had immigrated into Italy and dislodged the Italians from many places. They did not belong to the Aryan family, and their origin is shrouded in darkness. They are one of the “riddles of history.” Like the old Cretans (§ 80 ff.) they left inscriptions which we cannot read. At any rate, their numerous relics, tombs, pictures, etc., show them to have been much more civilized than the Italians, whom they pushed out of several regions. In the end the Etruscans became confined, more or less, to the plain of Etruria, in such a way that the lower Tiber separated them from the Latins. But their influence extended much farther. They were mighty builders, workers in bronze and iron, and great seafarers, both for commerce and piracy. The Greeks dubbed the sea to the southwest of Italy Tyrrhenian on account of the many Etruscan vessels that covered it. Etruscan masters erected the oldest great buildings in Rome. They knew in particular how to make arches and vaults. It is commonly supposed that they were a Semitic people (§ 3) and had somehow come from Asia.

(c) The third great race in Italy was the Greeks, who in the seventh and sixth centuries settled on the southern coasts and built up a number of opulent city states (§ 91). This part of Italy, including Sicily, was styled Magna Graecia, “Great Greece.”

(d) As a fourth race we must mention the Gauls or Celts, kinsmen of those who once invaded Greece and Asia Minor (§ 183) and of those who lived in what is now France, northern Spain, Great Britain, and Ireland.
The abode of the Italian Celts was northern Italy. The Romans spoke of them as “Cisalpine Gauls,” that is, Gauls on this side of the Alps, and distinguished them from the “Transalpine Gauls” in present France. (France was then called “Gaul.”)

193. Geographical Advantages of the City of Rome. — The
importance of cities always depends greatly on their geographical position. So it was with Rome.

(а) Rome was situated in the center of the peninsula, in a plain which though narrower in its southern part, and interrupted by elevations, stretches almost along the whole western coast.

(b) It commanded the traffic on the Tiber, which in ancient times was very brisk. It was so near the sea that ocean vessels could reach it without unloading, and yet far enough inland to be safe from sudden raids of pirates. Hence its fitness to be a great commercial center.

(c) The military qualities of its inhabitants were called into play by the fact that the city was just at the corner of the Latin country, and thus became the natural champion of the Latins against the Etruscans.

(d) This position also made possible some mingling of the races, which had a favorable influence upon the population.

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Like the Greek states Rome was originally ruled by kings, and like the Greek states it expelled them at an early date. Some of the Roman institutions go back to royal times. After it had become a republic Rome formed its constitution and also conquered most of its extensive provinces.