reveal themselves to mankind, and to whose will even the great gods were subject. These latter, six male and six female, formed the council of their chief, TINA, or TINIA, whom the Romans identified with Jupiter, as they saw in the chief female deity, Cupra, their Juno. The goddess next in rank, Menrva or Menerva, was of course the Roman Minerva. In the numerous minor gods or Genii,* the Penates or household deities, and the Lares, or spirits of deified men, we trace some of the most characteristic features of the Roman mythology. It was chiefly, too, from the Etruscans that the Romans learnt the arts of augury and divination. The ceremonials of worship were detailed, with minute precision, in the twelve sacred books ascribed to a mysterious being, named TAGES, the son of a Genius Jovialis, who appeared in the form of a boy, but endowed with the wisdom of an old man, and died as soon as he had dictated the contents of the sacred books. It is scarcely necessary to point out the resemblance to the fable of Zoroaster, by which the Persians likewise gave dignity to their sacred books. Such was the "Etrusca Disciplina," which the noblest Roman youths studied under the Lucumones.

It remains to mention the great progress which the Etruscans had made in art at a very early period. The ruins of their great cities, with the traditions respecting their temples and fortifications, attest their proficiency in architecture. One of the orders used by the Romans bore the name of "Tuscan," but it is generally regarded as a later modification of the Greek Doric.† The remains of their city walls are in the massive style called by the mythical name of Cyclopean. They consist of irregular blocks, rudely squared, and laid in horizontal courses without cement, a form which seems to differ from the polygonal construction of the Latin and other cities, not as a stage in the progress of the art, but simply in consequence of the natural cleavage of the different materials. The most marked characteristic of Etruscan architecture is the use of the arch, especially in its application to the construction of works of drainage, not only for cities, but as the means of carrying off the waters of lakes and redeeming marshes for

* The exact idea attached to this name, which literally signifies a birth-spirit, is that of an inferior deity, who had the power of producing life, and who attended the being he had ushered into the world, through its whole mortal course, as a sort of spiritual essence, governing his destiny for good or ill, like the Demons of the Greeks. The good genii were Genii Joviales, the offspring of Jove.

+ Though grand in its simplicity, this order is said by Vitruvius to have had a low and heavy effect. It may be seen in Inigo Jones's portico of St. Paul's, Covent

Garden.

cultivation. Of this we have a celebrated example in the great sewer of Rome, the Cloaca Maxima, an undoubted work of the Etruscan period of the monarchy. Their fame for laying out the streets of their cities affords another proof that their art was based upon utility. From the tradition that the Romans borrowed from the Etruscans their dramatic entertainments, their races and athletic sports, and even their exhibitions of gladiators, it has been inferred that the latter people possessed theatres and amphitheatres, but none of these buildings have been discovered, except such as probably belong to the Roman period. The influence of their domestic architecture on that of Rome is proved by the statement that the atrium of the Roman house was borrowed from the Etruscans. The general arrangement of their dwellings seems to have been imitated in their tombs.

These tombs furnish nearly all our monumental knowledge of the Etruscan people, and our hope of acquiring more. Unlike the raised sepulchres of the Romans, they are invariably sunk beneath the ground, or excavated in the solid rock, though often with an architectural superstructure or vestibule. The form is either round or square; the ceiling is flat, and frequently sculptured in imitation of the beams of a house; and the walls are decorated with paintings, representing scenes of common life. In one case, a labyrinth has been found, such as Livy describes at the base of the tomb of Porsenna. The sarcophagi and urns, found in these tombs, furnish the chief examples of Etruscan sculptures, in the narrower sense of the word. They belong chiefly to a late period, and their style and subjects bear evident marks of Greek influence. But in the plastic forms of statuary the Etruscans early attained great excellence. Their bronze statues (Tuscanica signa) and smaller figures (Tyrrhena Sigilla) were celebrated throughout the ancient world, and many examples of them are still preserved. The most conspicuous are the famous She-wolf of the Capitol, and the Chimæra and Orator in the gallery of Florence. These works were, for the most part, in the same stiff archaïc style which we see in the earliest examples of Grecian art. The Etruscans were also great manufacturers of candelabra, mirrors, and other works in bronze, and of gold cups, necklaces, and metal ornaments in general. The processes and useful applications of metallurgy were known to them from a very early age. They worked the iron mines of Elba, and the interior of Etruria furnished them with that abundance of copper, which accounts for the early use of a massive bronze coinage in the states of

Central Italy. They were equally famous for their terra-cotta vases and statues, and their black and red pottery; but the painted vessels, which have become famous under the name of "Etruscan Vases," are now proved to be works of Greek art, whatever may have been the places of their manufacture. They have been found, not only in Etruria, but throughout Magna Græcia, and in Greece itself; their subjects are from the Greek mythology, the figures being often distinguished by their Greek names; and in many cases they are inscribed with the names of their Greek artists. But, indeed, the whole character of Etruscan art, from a very early period, attests the influence of the Greeks, and bears out the criticism that it was rather receptive than creative.*

The wall-paintings in the Etruscan tombs are of very unequal merit, and generally in the stiff archaïc style. They are chiefly valuable for the light they throw on the domestic life of the people, and their festive scenes confirm the statements of the Roman writers respecting the fondness of the Etruscans for the pleasures of the table. The natural resources of their country, their wide dominion and extensive commerce, aided by the early use of coined money, would naturally tend to their growth in wealth and luxury; but the records of their high civilization and gross sensuality seem both to have been exaggerated. Their own traditions described the art of writing as introduced by the Greeks, of whose alphabet the Etruscan seems to be a modification. There is no proof of their having possessed a literature other than their sacred books; and their science was chiefly connected with religious uses. Its most important applications were to the marking out the boundaries of land, which were placed under the safeguard of the proper deities;-observing and mapping out the heavens for the purposes of augury;-determining the divisions of months and years, and those longer secular periods to which they attached a mysterious importance, as governing the destinies of their nation; -and arranging a scale of numerals, and a system of weights and measures ;-in all which points they were followed by the Romans.

It should be added that the Etruscans were distinguished from the other Italian races, as well as from the Greeks, by their personal appearance. They were short and stout, with large heads, and had a tendency to corpulence, aggravated by their luxurious habits; at least, such was the opinion of the Romans, embodied in the proverbial epithet, "obesus Etruscus." One feature in the

* Müller, Archäologie der Kunst, § 178.

history of this people deserves especial notice, namely, that, after all that is told of their extensive maritime power, they have left no traces of their influence beyond the limits of their own country. "Their historical development," as Mommsen observes, "began and ended in Italy." They were already a powerful state, when the foundation of Rome formed a new starting-point for the history of the peninsula and of the world.

CHAPTER XX.

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

"The Niobe of nations! there she stands,
Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe;
An empty urn within her wither'd hands,
Whose holy dust was scatter'd long ago;
The Scipio's tomb contains no ashes now;
The very sepulchres lie tenantless

Of their heroic dwellers: dost thou flow,
Old Tiber, through a marble wilderness?

Rise with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress!

"The Goth, the Christian, Time, War, Flood, and Fire
Have dealt upon the seven-hill'd city's pride;

She saw her glories, star by star, expire,

And up the steep barbarian monarchs ride

Where the car climbed the Capitol; far and wide
Temple and tower went down, nor left a site :-

Chaos of ruins! who shall trace the void,

O'er the dim fragments cast a lunar light,

And say, 'Here was,' or 'is,'-where all is doubly night?"-BYRON.

THE CAMPAGNA AND SURROUNDING HILLS THE TIBER: ITS COURSE AND CHARACTER-THE SITE OF ROME-ITS PRIMEVAL ASPECT DESCRIPTION OF ITS SEVEN HILLSMYTHICAL CHARACTER OF THE EARLY ROMAN HISTORY-EVANDER-ENEAS-ASCANIUS AND THE ALBAN KINGS LEGEND OF ROMULUS AND REMUS-ROMANS AND SABINES-INSTITUTIONS AND CONQUESTS ASCRIBED TO ROMULUS HIS DEATH AND APOTHEOSIS-ROMAN CHRONOLOGY-ERA OF THE FOUNDATION OF ROME-INTERREGNUM -LEGEND OF NUMA POMPILIUS-HIS RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS-THE ROMAN CALENDAR-THE SUBSEQUENT KINGS OF ROME-DISCUSSION OF THE LEGENDSLATIN ORIGIN OF ROME-EARLY SETTLEMENTS ON THE SEVEN HILLS-THE CITY OF THE RAMNES ON THE PALATINE-TWO PRINCIPAL THEORIES OF ITS ORIGIN-FIRST, AS A ROBBER COLONY OF ALBA, EXTENDED BY WAR, CONQUERED AND REMODELLED BY THE SABINES-CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS OF THIS PEOPLE-THE SETTLEMENT ON THE QUIRINAL, AND UNION WITH THE RAMNIANS-THE SECOND THEORY OF A NATURAL GROWTH FROM LATIN SETTLEMENTS ON THE SEVEN HILLS-ROME VIEWED AS THE EMPORIUM OF LATIUM-EXTENT OF THE PRIMITIVE CITY-THE ORIGINAL SEPTIMONTIUM-AMALGAMATION WITH THE CITY ON THE QUIRINAL-TULLUS HOSTILIUS-LEGEND OF THE HORATII AND CURIATII, AND OF THE CONQUEST OF ALBAETRUSCAN AND SABINE WARS-ANCUS MARCIUS-HIS CONQUESTS IN LATIUM AND ALONG THE TIBER-HIS WORKS AT ROME-ORIGIN OF THE PLEBS-THE ETRUSCAN DYNASTY -TARQUINIUS PRISCUS HIS INSTITUTIONS, WARS, AND PUBLIC WORKS—SERVIUS TULLIUS HIS NEW CONSTITUTION-THE WALLS OF ROME-ALLIANCE WITH THE LATINSLEGEND OF HIS DEATH-TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS-HIS FOREIGN ALLIANCES AND WARS -THE SIBYL-TAKING OF GABII-L. JUNIUS BRUTUS-THE LEGEND OF LUCRETIAEXPULSION OF THE TARQUINS-REVIEW OF REGAL ROME.

TO TRACE the greatness of Rome from her first beginnings, we must go back to a time when the Tiber flowed, not through a "marble wilderness," strewn with the wrecks of imperial magnificence, but through the open waste of the wide Campagna. This