Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-16
THE ROMAN CAMPAGEA.
PEsTILENTIAL MARSHES SURROUND
ING THE ETERNAL CITY.
Splendid Towns Existed and Millions OF
People Lived There Before the
Christian Era.

What is known as the Roman Campagna
is the country directly surrounding the
Eternal City. The Campagna is especially
noted for having an atmosphere so malari-
Gus that all living there are seriously af-
fected, and only the strongest can stand it
for any length of time. The extent of the
section is from seventy to ninety miles.
with an area of about 1,400 square miles.
At one time it was an exceedingly rich
and populous territory, but now it is nearly
destitute of inhabitants. The decay began
in the third century, B. c., when the vast
plain was monopolized by Roman aristo-
Gratis, and agricultural pursuits abolished.
The condition did not improve under the
early Emperors, and history tells of part
of the plain becoming pestilential marshes,
as they remain to this day. The accounts
tell to considerable length of what Claudi
us. Nerva and Trajan did in attempts to
improve the condition, but nothing per-
manent was effected, the Campagna's des-
olation being made complete by the in
roads of the barbarian hordes after the fall
of the empire. In the Middle Ages the
baronial castles of the Orsini, the Colonna,
the Savelli, the Cont and the Cetani
gave new life to this doomed region, but it
was only for time.
Being of distinctly volcanic formation,
the surface of the Campagna is marked by
gentle undulations, furrowed by little hills
and low ground-"a humpy SOIL" as Mon
taigne calls it, "whose cavities are filled
with fresh water" They were once limpid
lakes, but now they have become unhealthy
pools, producing an aria cdttlea, an injuri
Gus atmosphere, to the influence of which
the learned Brocchi attributes the "gloomy,
violent and terrible temper of those who
carry in their veins the germs of the fever
of the Maremma" In this respect the
same influence is supposed by some per-
sons to be exerted upon all animals alike,
for the bufaloes and oxen, with formidable
horns, which wander about the Roman
Campagna, are as savage as the herdsmen
who tend them, and it is dangerous for
strangers to venture within their reach.
| In ancient times Italy was, and still is,
the country of vast pastures, and the
Roman Campagna to this day has its fierce
shepherds whose sports Virgil has de-
scribed. Their great festival, the Palitia,
was celebrated on the day of the founda-
tion of Rome, April 21st, and theroyal hill
of Romulus bore the name of their di-
vinity (Palatine, from palss, word itself
derived from the root pa, which formed
the verbs signifying ''to pasture" in Greek,
Latin and French). Rumina, the foster
mother, watched over the sucking OF young
cattle; hence the name of the Ruminal
| fg-tree, beneath the shade of which the
wolf had sucked the twins Rnbigo
preserved the wheat from mildew; Yer
tumnus and Pomona caused the fruit to
ripen in the orchard. Feronia appears
less prodigal of useful favors, yet she was
| held in so great honor that Hannibal
found rich treasure to carry off from her
temple at the foot of Mount Soracte. A
coin bearing her image was struck, in the
time of Augustus, by the monetary tribune,
Petronious Turpilians, who did not bestow
much beauty upon his goddess Feronia.
| But it is recorded that Roman artists, even
at the time when they were under the in
| huence of Greek art, did not seek their
goddesses in the celestial regions but pre-
| ferred to take them from the Roman Cam
pagna. The Minerva of the magnificent
chest of Preneste known as the Ficorini,
has the appearance of CoatddiRa.
From the legendary times when Lati-
nus, Eneas and the rest of VirgiPs heroes
are supposed to have occupied the great
plain OF Latium, down to the final settle
ment of the region by its subsection to
Rome, in 33S B. c., the Roman Campagna
was peopled by communities living in
towns. Latium on the one side and
Etruria on the other contained confeder-
acies of independent cities, with one or the
other of which the Romans were eontinu
ally at war, but they one by one gave way
before the relentless power of the con-
queror, until finally the character Of the
population of the Campagna underwent a
complete change. In the second period Of
its history the towns were gradually re-
duced to mere villages, the small farms
disappeared and gave place to the immense
estates of rich proprietors, which were
cultivated by hordes of slaves. This was
the condition of the Campagna in the
time of Cicero. The great villas, the
ruins of which may be seen on all sides in
the vicinity of Rome, were then construct
| ed, and were the scenes of luxury and
| pleasure. So also were the colossal aque-
ducts, the ruined arches of which catch the
eye Of the traveller as the train from Civita
Vecchia approaches the Eternal City to-
| day. These aqueducts served not merely
to supply the capital with water, but to
irrigate the farms and country seats along
the Campagna During the later republic
and early empire there seems to have been
a constant tendency to reduce the amount
OF arabic land and to increase the extent
of pasturage. This change affected the
salubrity Of the surrounding country, and
Rome became more dependent than ever
upon foreign countries for her agricultural
supplies.
The third and last phase of the Roman
! Campagna is the most melancholy. The
magnificent acqueducts were more or less
injured by the Goths at the siege of Rome
under Vitiges, in A. d. 537, and the lux
urious country seats of the Roman mobiles
and princes must have been devastated by
| the successive incursions upon the Roman
| territories during the fifth and sixth CEN
turies, in which the Lombards played a
conspicuous part Agriculture was no
longer encouraged, and the few villages
and country houses that remained soon
became uninhabitable during the greater
part of the year because of the malarious
exhalations arising from the uncultivated
soil, and of the lawless bands of rutian
marauders who infested the country. In
deed, after the year 9SS B. c., the Cam
pagna lost'all historical interest. Its his
tory belongs almost entirely to the early
times of the Roman Republic.
What IS regarded as an astonishing fact
is that from the early times of Rome down
to the glorious Augustan age, the very sec
tions of the Campagna where human be-
ings now dread to spend single night for
fear of the deadly atmosphere, were then
inhabited by numerous population. In
the second century of the City of Rome
the population was estimated at $4,000,
which would give 100 souls to the square
mile of territory, and the population in
creased from that time at a very rapid
rate, until in the sixth century of Rome it
amounted TO 100000 Under the first
Emperors the whole number Of Roman
citizens, including those in the provinces,
was 4,063, 600. This would seem TO indi-
cate that the population of Rome and the
Campagna was from 100000 to 100000
in imperial times.
Where Veil, Fidene and Gabii, the RI
walls and equals of ancient Rome, once
stood there is nothing now but few cattle