Young Folks History of Rome | Page 2

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina 319
Marcus Aurelius 325
Septimus Severus 327
Antioch 328
Alexander Severus 329
Temple of the Sun at Palmyra 332
The Catacombs at Rome 333
Coin of Severus 336
Diocletian 338
Diocletian in Retirement 341
Constantine the Great 343
Constantinople 347

Council of Nicea 349
Catacombs 352
Julian 357
Arch of Constantine 361
Alexandria 365
Goths 367
Convent on the Hills 372
Julian Alps 375
Roman Hall of Justice 377
Colonnades of St. Peter at Rome 385
Alaric's Burial 391
Roman Clock 396
Spanish Coast 398
Vandals plundering 401
Pyramids and Sphynx, Egypt 403
Hunnish Camp 405
St. Mark's, Venice 409
The Pope's House 413
Romulus Augustus resigns the Crown 419
Illustration 423

Naples 427
Constantinople 429
Pope Gregory the Great 435
The Pope's Pulpit 437
Battle of Tours 441
[Illustration]

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF ROME.
CHAPTER I.
ITALY.
I am going to tell you next about the most famous nation in the world.
Going westward from Greece another peninsula stretches down into the
Mediterranean. The Apennine Mountains run like a limb stretching out
of the Alps to the south eastward, and on them seems formed that land,
shaped somewhat like a leg, which is called Italy.
Round the streams that flowed down from these hills, valleys of fertile
soil formed themselves, and a great many different tribes and people
took up their abode there, before there was any history to explain their
coming. Putting together what can be proved about them, it is plain,
however, that most of them came of that old stock from which the
Greeks descended, and to which we belong ourselves, and they spoke a
language which had the same root as ours and as the Greek. From one
of these nations the best known form of this, as it was polished in later
times, was called Latin, from the tribe who spoke it.
[Illustration: THE TIBER.]
About the middle of the peninsula there runs down, westward from the

Apennines, a river called the Tiber, flowing rapidly between seven low
hills, which recede as it approaches the sea. One, in especial, called the
Palatine Hill, rose separately, with a flat top and steep sides, about four
hundred yards from the river, and girdled in by the other six. This was
the place where the great Roman power grew up from beginnings, the
truth of which cannot now be discovered.
[Illustration: CURIOUS POTTERY.]
There were several nations living round these hills--the Etruscans,
Sabines, and Latins being the chief. The homes of these nations seem to
have been in the valleys round the spurs of the Apennines, where they
had farms and fed their flocks; but above them was always the hill
which they had fortified as strongly as possible, and where they took
refuge if their enemies attacked them. The Etruscans built very mighty
walls, and also managed the drainage of their cities wonderfully well.
Many of their works remain to this day, and, in especial, their
monuments have been opened, and the tomb of each chief has been
found, adorned with figures of himself, half lying, half sitting; also
curious pottery in red and black, from which something of their lives
and ways is to be made out. They spoke a different language from what
has become Latin, and they had a different religion, believing in one
great Soul of the World, and also thinking much of rewards and
punishments after death. But we know hardly anything about them,
except that their chiefs were called Lucumos, and that they once had a
wide power which they had lost before the time of history. The Romans
called them Tusci, and Tuscany still keeps its name.
The Latins and the Sabines were more alike, and also more like the
Greeks. There were a great many settlements of Greeks in the southern
parts of Italy, and they learnt something from them. They had a great
many gods. Every house had its own guardian. These were called Lares,
or Penates, and were generally represented as little figures of dogs
lying by the hearth, or as brass bars with dogs' heads. This is the reason
that the bars which close in an open hearth are still called dogs.
Whenever there was a meal in the house the master began by pouring
out wine to the Lares, and also to his own ancestors, of whom he kept

figures; for these natives thought much of their families, and all one
family had the same name, like our surname, such as Tullius or Appius,
the daughters only changing it by making it end in a instead of us, and
the men having separate names standing first, such as Marcus or Lucius,
though their sisters were only numbered to distinguish them.
[Illustration: JUPITER]
Each city had a guardian spirit, each stream its nymph,