CONSOLIDATION OF ITALY In the very earliest times the name of Italy was correctly applied only to the southern part of the peninsula, and was only gradually extended to the central regions, such as Latium and Campania, which were designated by writers as late as Thucydides and Aristotle as in Opicia. Under Roman rule the term was confined to the regions of the central and southern districts, exclusive of Cisalpine Gaul, and this continued to be its official signification down to the end of the republic. But the name came to be gener ally employed as a geographical term at a much earlier period. Thus we already find Polybius repeatedly applying it to the whole country as far as the foot of the Alps ; and this was a familiar use of the term in the days of Cicero and Caesar. The official distinc tion was, however, still retained. Cisalpine Gaul still constituted a "province," and it was not till Caesar crossed the Rubicon that he entered Italy.
Augustus gave a definite administrative organization to Italy as a whole, and his division into II regions continued in official use till the reign of Constantine.
The first region comprised Latium, including the Volsci, Hernici and Aurunci (q.v.), together with Campania and the district of the Picentini. It thus extended from the mouth of the Tiber to that of the Silarus (see LATIum).
The second region included Apulia and Calabria, together with the land of the Hirpini (q.v.).
The third region contained Lucania and Bruttium; it was bounded on the west coast by the Silarus, on the east by the Bradanus.
The fourth region comprised all the Samnites (except the Hirpini), together with the Sabini (q.v.) and the cognate tribes. It was separated from Apulia on the south by the river Tifernus, and from Picenum on the north by the Matrinus.
The fifth region was composed solely of Picenum, extending along the coast of the Adriatic from the mouth of the Matrinus to that of the Aesis, beyond Ancona.
The sixth region was formed by Umbria, in the more extended sense of the term, as including the Ager Gallicus, along the coast of the Adriatic from the Aesis to the Ariminus, and separated from Etruria on the west by the Tiber.
The seventh region consisted of Etruria, extending from the Tiber to the Tyrrhenian sea, and separated from Liguria on the north by the river Macra.
The eighth region, termed Gallia Cispadana, comprised the southern portion of Cisalpine Gaul, and was bounded on the north by the river Padus or Po, from above Placentia to its mouth. It was separated from Etruria and Umbria by the Apen nines; and the river Ariminus was substituted for the Rubicon as its limit on the Adriatic.
The ninth region comprised Liguria, extending along the sea coast from the Varus to the Macra, and inland as far as the river Padus, which constituted its northern boundary from its source in Mt. Vesulus to its confluence with the Trebia just above Placentia.
The tenth region included Venetia from the Padus and Adri atic to the Alps, with the neighbouring peninsula of Istria, and to the west the territory of the Cenomani (q.v.).
The nth region, known as Gallia Transpadana, included all the rest of Cisalpine Gaul from the Padus on the south and the Addua on the east to the foot of the Alps.
Roads.—The mainstay of the Roman military control of Italy was the splendid system of roads. As the supremacy of Rome extended itself over Italy, the Roman road system grew, each fresh conquest being marked by the pushing forward of roads through the newly-won territory, and the establishment of fort resses. It was in Italy that the military value of a network of roads was first appreciated by the Romans. And it was for military reasons that from mere cart-tracks they were developed into permanent highways. From Rome roads radiated in all directions. Communications with the south-east were mainly provided by the Via Appia and the Via Latina, which met close to Casilinum, 3m. N.W. of Capua, the centre of the road system of Campania. Here the Via Appia turned eastward towards Beneventum, while the Via Popilia continued in a south-easterly direction through the Campanian plain and the mountains of Lucania and Bruttium as far as Rhegium. Other roads ran south from Capua to Cumae, Puteoli (the most important harbour of Campania), and Neapolis. From Beneventum, another important road centre, the Via Appia itself ran south-east through the mountains past Venusia to Tarentum on the south-west coast of the "heel," and thence across Calabria to Brundusium; Tra jan's alternative road ran north-east through the mountains and the lower ground of Apulia, reaching the coast at Barium. Both met at Brundusium, the principal port for the East.
The only high road of importance from Rome eastwards, the Via Valeria, was not completed as far as the Adriatic before the time of Claudius ; but on the north and north-west started the main highways which communicated with central and northern Italy, and with all that part of the Roman empire which was accessible by land. The Via Salaria, a very ancient road, with its branch, the Via Caecilia, ran north-eastwards to the Adriatic coast as did the Via Flaminia, which reached the coast at Fanum Fortunae, and thence followed it to Ariminum. The Via Flaminia was the earliest and most important road to the north ; and it was soon extended (in 187 B.c.) by the Via Aemilia running through Bononia as far as Placentia, in a straight line between the plain of the Po and the foot of the Apennines. In the same year a road was constructed over the Apennines from Bononia to Arretium. Along the west coast the Via Aurelia ran up to Pisa and was continued by another Via Aemilia to Genoa. Thence the Via Postumia led to Placentia and Cremona, while the Via Aemilia and the Via Iulia Augusta continued along the coast into Gallia Narbonensis. The road system of Cisalpine Gaul was Anainly
conditioned by the rivers which had to be crossed, and the Alpine passes which had to be approached. Cremona, on the north bank of the Po, was an important meeting point of roads, and Hostilia another; so also was Patavium, and Aquileia, farther east.
As to the roads leading out of Italy, from Aquileia roads di verged northward into Raetia, eastward to Noricum and Pan nonia, and southwards to the Istrian and Dalmatian coasts. Farther west came the roads over the higher Alpine passes— the Brenner from Verona, the Septimer and the Spliigen from Clavenna (Chiavenna), the Great and the Little St. Bernard from Augusta Praetoria (Aosta), and the Mont Genevre from Augusta Taurinorum (Turin). Westward two short but impor tant roads led from Rome on each side of the Tiber to the great harbour at its mouth.
The year 476 opened a new age for the Italian people. Odoacer, a chief of the Herulians, deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the West, and placed the peninsula beneath the titular sway of the Byzantine emperors. At Pavia the barbarian con querors of Italy proclaimed him king, and he received from Zeno the dignity of Roman patrician. Thus began that system of mixed government, Teutonic and Roman, which impressed the institu tions of new Italy from the earliest date with dualism, and vested supreme authority in a non-resident autocrat.
In 488 Theodoric, king of the East Goths, received commission from the Greek emperor, Zeno, to undertake the affairs of Italy, and in 493 defeated and killed Odoacer. Theodoric respected the Roman institutions which he found in Italy, and governed by min isters chosen from the Roman population. But the Goths, except in the valley of the Po, resembled an army of occupation rather than a people numerous enough to blend with the Italic stock, and in religion they were Arians—circumstances calculated to excite the Italians to rebellion. When, therefore, Justinian under took the reconquest of Italy, his generals, Belisarius and Narses, were supported by the south. The struggle between Greeks and Goths lasted from 539 to 553, when Teias, the last Gothic king, was finally defeated. At its close the provinces of Italy were placed beneath Greek dukes controlled by an exarch, who ruled in the Byzantine emperor's name at Ravenna.
This new settlement lasted but a few years. Narses had employed Lombard auxiliaries in his campaigns against the Goths; and when he was recalled in 565, the Lombards and their allies passed southward under King Alboin in 568. Pavia offered stub born resistance; but after a three years' siege it was taken, and Alboin made it the capital of his new kingdom.
Numerous as they were, the Lombards had not strength nor multitude enough to occupy the whole peninsula. Venice, which since the days of Attila had offered an asylum to Roman refugees from the northern cities, Genoa, Ravenna, Rome and the sea coast cities of the south, and the islands, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, remained untouched. Thus the Lombards neither occu pied the extremities nor subjugated the brain centre of the country. The strength of Alboin's kingdom was in the north ; but after his murder in 573, the semi-independent chiefs of the Lom bard tribe, who borrowed the title of dukes from their Roman predecessors, seem to have been contented with consolidating their power in the districts each had occupied. The duchies of Spoleto in the centre, and of Benevento in the south, were but loosely united to the kingdom at Pavia. Italy was broken up into three separate areas—the new Lombard kingdom; Ravenna, the garrison city of the Byzantine emperor; and Rome, the rallying point of the old nation, under the successor of St. Peter.
The rule of the Lombards proved at first far more oppressive to the native population, and had less understanding of their old customs, than that of the Goths had been. Though the Roman laws were still administered within the cities, yet the Lombard code was that of the kingdom ; and the Lombards, being Arians, added the severe oppression of religious intolerance to that of martial despotism and cupidity. The Italians were reduced to the last extremity when Gregory the Great (59o-.6o4), having strengthened his position by diplomatic relations with the duchy of Spoleto, and brought about the conversion of the Lombards to orthodoxy, raised the cause of the remaining Roman popula tion throughout Italy. When Leo the Isaurian published his decrees against the worship of images in 726, Gregory II. allied himself with Liudprand, the Lombard king, threw off allegiance to Byzantium, and established the autonomy of Rome. But the Lombards were unnatural allies, and increasingly the pope began to look for help in the Franks. Pippin twice crossed the Alps, and forced the Lombard king Aistolf to relinquish his acqui sitions, including Ravenna, the Pentapolis, the coast towns of Ro magna and some cities in the duchy of Spoleto. These he handed over to the pope of Rome, in 756, a donation which confirmed the papal see in the protectorate of the Italic party, conferred upon it sovereign rights, and placed the popes in the position held by the Greek exarch. The south of Italy, however, was compara tively unaffected. The dukes of the Greek empire and the Lom bard dukes of Benevento, together with a few autonomous com mercial cities, still divided southern Italy between them (see