The dreadful earthquake, which in 1791 laid waste the country, and destroyed the cities in Sicily and Calabria, would in a less enlightened age have been considered as the omen and precursor of the tremendous convulsion which was about to agitate the political world.
The eyes of Europe were now turned on France, and it was not to be supposed, that the Italian potentates con nected by blood with the unfortunate Louis XVI. and Maria Antoinette, could be indifferent spectators of their death, or regard without alarm the military spirit and con quests of the r5public. In consequence, the king of Sar dinia and the other Italian states joined in the league with the Austrians, Prussians, and British, and declared war.
The campaign of 1794, in Piedmont, was uniformly suc cessful on the part of the French, and the defeat of the Sardinians near Milan, made them masters of that city. Corsica, however, surrendered to the British, and ac knowledged George III. as its sovereign. The following year the Austrian and Sardinian troops were successful in some battles, and checked for a short period the progress of the republicans. But the events of 1796 decided the fate of Italy. The history of the celebrated campaign of Bonaparte, and the rest of the war in Italy, has already been related in the article FRANCE, and we must only slightly enumerate its results. The defeat of the king of Sardinia was followed by a peace, by which he surrendered Savoy and Nice. The battle of Lodi forced the pope and the dukes of Parma and Modena, and the king of Naples, to accede to the ignominious terms dictated by the victor ; Florence and Milan fell before his arms, and Mantua alone remained in the hands of the Austrians.
' • ITaLv is bounded on the north and north-west, by the Alps ; on the east, by the Adriatic Sea, or Gulph of Venice ; on the west, by the Tuscan Sea ; and on the south, by the Io nian Sea. Its boundaries are thus strongly marked, and its situation entirely peninsular, being washed on all sides by the waves of the Mediterranean Sea, except on the northern frontier, where it is separated by the lofty barrier of the Alpine ridge from France, Switzerland, and Ger many.
Its form is usually compared to that of a boot ; it extends in an oblique dhectiou from north-west to south-east, from 47° to 37° 45' of north latitude. Its length from Mount Rosa, the highest summit of the Italian Alps, to Cape de Leuca, is about 670 British miles; and its breadth varies from 100 to 200 miles.
It was anciently known by a variety of names, originally appropriated to particular provinces, but in pi ocess of time applied to the whole country, especially by the poets. It was named Saturnia, from Saturn ; Latium, from the Latini ; Ansonia, from the Ausones; Venotria, from a tribe settled between Paestum and Tarentum ; Hesperia, from its wes tern situation in respect of Greece; and Italia, from Italus, a prince unknown in history.
In all periods of its history it has been divided into three great portions, namely, the northern. called Gallia Cisal pina, comprehending the provinces between the Alps and the Rubicon, originally peopled by Illyrians, succeeded by German Gauls ; the central, called Italia Propria, compre hending all the states of Etruria, as far south as Capua, the inhabitants of which are supposed to have been of Ly dian extraction ; and the southern, called Magna Grecia, comprising the provinces adjacent to Greece and Sicily, and peopled at first by the Pelasgi from the Peloponnesus.
Gallia Cisalpina, afterwards called Togata, from its in habitants being permitted to wear the toga as Roman citi zens, contained the following tribes, 1. Ligures, who occupied the greater part of the districts of Nice, Pied mont, Montserrat, Genoa, Modena and Parma, and whose principal towns were Genoa, Nicxa, Portus Herculis, and Monxci. 2. Taurini, who occupied a part of Piedmont lying between the Alps and the river Po, from its source to the river Orco, and whose chief town was Augusta Tau rinorum, now Turin. 3. Insubres, who occupied the nor thern portion of the duchy of Milan, and whose principal towns were Madiolanum and Ticinurn. 4. Cenomanni, who occupied both sides of the river Sevinus, and whose towns were Bruxia, Cremona, Bcdriacum, and Mantua.