Norwich bulletin., 1920-09-24
IN THE DAYS NEWS
Emilia

The Emilia district of Italy, one of the areas to suffer most recently from seismic disturbances, has figured many times in the news of the world" says a bulletin issued by the National Geographic So- ciety, from the time when word of it's triumphs and tragedies was spread slowly abroad by word of mouth, to our own
 remdte corners of the earth informed of
 gress. This district in the time of Julius Ceasar, was the Province of Gaul on this side of the Pc and had as it's south-
 eastern boundary the famous Rubicon by crossing which Caesar committee his act of war on Rome. There, following the Gauls the Goths and the Lombards held sway and later the section was the
 scene of some of the many interiecine
 wars that tore geographical Italy before 1 it was consolidated into national taly. ''The Emilia of today is sectional
 group of eight of the sixty-nine pro- vinces of Italy and is little more official
 as territorial division than our own | New England.
 | It takes it's name from one of the
 most important of the Roman military 1 highways, the Via Aemilia, built in 1S7 | B. C., by the consul M. Aemilius Lepidus | to tie the province more closely to Rome. This great road extended for 15e i miles almost in an air line from the coast | of the Adriatic near the mouth of the Rubicon to the upper reaches of the Riv- CT Po and it's route is now followed by | the railroad which connects most of the | chief cities of Emilia, many of which 1 have been severely shaken by the recnt earthquakes.
 'The Emilia may be described as a | broad slice of Italy lying just below the | flare of the Italian boot between the l the Pc on the north and the crest of the | Etruscan Apennine mountains on the 1 south; and extending from the sandy and l lagoon-indented shore of the Adriatic all most completely across the peninsula to | the watershed of the Ligurian Apennines Only tn narrow strip of mountain slope ] and beaches that constitute the Riviera perhaps the best known of the worlds playgrounds separates the Emilia from l the waters that bound Italy on the west. | The provinces of Emilia comprise | about half the southern portion of the l great Pc basin. perhaps the best defined 1 river plain in Europe; and the northern slope of the Etruscan Apennines. It is a | land of varied topography containing
 swamps and plains. hills and mountains, | the latters generally well wooded but in l l6ESp6ESeQ WILT DdrIcH p6ahS. The sec | ton is mainly devoted to agriculture, i some of the important products being rice and other grains hay hemp and olives. ! Some manufacturing is carried on in the | principal cities but for the most part in dustrial Italy lies farther to the north. The country is heavily populated. the 1 density in 1915 exceeding that of New Jersey
 ''The most destructive of Italy's earth 1 quakes have occurred in the southern part of the peninsula. Severe tremors 1 may be said to be relatives unusual
 therefore in Emilia. though the records
 show that slight shocks have occurred
 there rather frequently. The majority oi
 Italian earthquakes have manifested
 themselves most strongly in the noun
 tainous regions and in the case of tht
 recent northern tremors greatest destruc
 ton has perhaps been visited on Fivis
 zano, just south of the Emflian border
 near the crest of the Apennines. I'm
 great seismic forces have not confined
 themselves to the mountains in this cas-
 but have reached out as at tirns in tn
 past and struck RegEio. in the middle 0 1 the great plain of the Pc. and Ferrara situated in the low swampy country nea 7 the mouth of that river.
 '"The former town is known as 'Reggi