f the western half of the
island of Sicily, while in Italy only a few Greek towns, such as Tarentum,
Thurii, and Rhegium, were able to maintain themselves, and that with ever
increasing difficulty, against the rising tide of the Italians. Even by
the middle of the fourth century an observant Greek predicted the speedy
disappearance of the Greek language in the west before that of the
Carthaginians or Oscans. However, their final struggles must be postponed
for later consideration.

*The role of the Greeks in Italian history.* It was the coming of the
Greeks that brought Italy into the light of history, and into contact with
the more advanced civilization of the eastern Mediterranean. From the
Greek geographers and historians we derive our earliest information
regarding the Italian peoples, and they, too, shaped the legends that long
passed for early Italian history. The presence of the Greek towns in Italy
gave a tremendous stimulus to the cultural development of the Italians,
both by direct intercourse and indirectly through the agency of the
Etruscans. In this spreading of Greek influences, Cyme, the most northerly
of the Greek colonies and one of the earliest, played a very important
part. It was from Cyme that the Romans as well as the Etruscans took their
alphabet. The more highly developed Greek political institutions, Greek
art, Greek literature, and Greek mythology found a ready reception among
the Italian peoples and profoundly affected their political and
intellectual progress. Traces of this Greek influence are nowhere more
noticeable than in the case of Rome itself, and the cultural ascendancy
which Greece thus early established over Rome was destined to last until
the fall of the Roman Empire.

PART II

THE PRIMITIVE MONARCHY AND THE REPUBLIC:
FROM PREHISTORIC TIMES TO 27 B. C.

[Illustration: The Environs of Rome]

CHAPTER IV

EARLY ROME TO THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY

I. THE LATINS

*Latium and the Latins.* The district to the south of the Tiber, extending
along the coast to the promontory of Circeii and from the coast inland to
the slopes of the Apennines, was called in antiquity Latium. Its
inhabitants, at the opening of the historic period, were the Latins
(_Latini_), a branch of the Italian stock, perhaps mingled with the