Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-01-08


n most abundantly to the hu'
NV man race: Limit the aies
tiun to a city OF \ century
and one would have to an
swer Athens: taking u nation in al
| its spread and all its history, me mus,
| answer italy. Never has one land
produced n greater dynasty than that
| which begins with Lucretius and Cae
sar, rises to its apex in Dante ana
Leonardo. and decays Tor is born
| In Marconi and Mussolini. in Verdi
| and deAnnunzio. All in all, that pas
sionate peninsula has borne and breo
tina greatest race Of all.
Behold the famous boot poised as
if to play with Sicily--Sicily the foot
ball Of the Mediterranean, sport oil
Greeks and Romans and Carthagin
ians. or Vandals. Normans and ltai
iars. Here on the west from Naples
to the toe Greek colonies dotted the
shore and crowned the hills OF Paes.
tum. transmitting as best they could
to the harbarous Romans something
Of the glory that was Greece.
Along the eastern shore only the
rudest peasants lived, for there the
mountains rose like a camefs spine
or the back of an angry cat from the
Alps to Italy. not sloping gradually,
"a in the west, but fiinging them
selves precipitatelA into the Adriatic'
daring the hardest to find, susie
nance among these stones Geology
had destined the Latin genius to
flower along the Western sea.
Even before the coming OF the
Greeks immigrants from beyond the
Alps had settled Tea. 1000 B.CD among
the northern hills. Some Of them. the
at ts,tA va n.
trail plains; others. the "Etruscans.
STAYED on the mountain sides. Re.
tween these two peoples. breeding too
fast for a scarcely arabic land, per
petual rivalry ragged. breaking out into
recurrent war. until at last the
Latins, strengthened because the
plains gave them unity OF stock and
freedom OF communication against an
enemy physically and ethnically di'
vided by mountain peaks. won a deci'
sive victory and consolidated their
mastery by building on the Tiber
fort which became the source and cen
ter Of the greatest and most famous
city in history--"eternal' Rome.
So SIS
At first that little state was ruled
by Kings. But of these rough rulers
we know hardly anything. Even the
beneficient law.giver. Numa. the I.y'
curgus Of Rome. seems M legendary
as those mythical founders. Remus
and Romulus. nurslings Of the wolf
that was to serve 30 well an symbol
of imperial Rome. About 500 BE,
the monarchy was overthrown by a
group of warlike mobiles, or 'patri
cians," who set up an aristocratic re-
public under the historic aegis OF the
Senate and the Roman peopie"-Sen
ats Populusque Romanus. The Sen
ate. az it's name revealed, was a
gathering of the old men Of the
tribe, heads OF established families
Ii ruled the state with practically alb
ISOLATE power. limited only by two
consuis tadvisersl. whom the land
owning citizens annually chose from
the ranks of the mobiles themselves
As the "plebs." or common people
grew In number. II rebelled agains,
these limitations and forced the Sen
ate TO recognize the veto power oil
"tribunes." elected by the popular
assembly from among Its own demo
cratic ranks. But numbers never give
much power. except TO wealth. Soon
the Senate, endowed with permanencs
In the face OF fribunes holding Office
for a year. found means TO control the
new dignitaries. and under democratic
forms made it's supremacy secure.
Now 1t became the strongest ruling
body ever known 10 history. Re
eruited yearly by the addition OF con
snIs whose terms had expired and