nd
powerful. But the Greeks did not venture on the Roman coast for fear
of the Etruscans. Except the city of Cumae the Greek colonies down to
the third century had almost no relations with the Romans.

=The Latins.=--The Latins dwelt in the country of hills and ravines to
the south of the Tiber, called today the Roman Campagna. They were a
small people, their territory comprising no more than one hundred
square miles. They were of the same race as the other Italians,
similar to them in language, religion, and manners, but slightly more
advanced in civilization. They cultivated the soil and built strong
cities. They separated themselves into little independent peoples.
Each people had its little territory, its city, and its government.
This miniature state was called a city. Thirty Latin cities had formed
among themselves a religious association analogous to the Greek
amphictyonies. Every year they celebrated a common festival, when
their delegates, assembled at Alba, sacrificed a bull in honor of
their common god, the Latin Jupiter.

=Rome.=--On the frontier of Latium, on the borders of Etruria, in the
marshy plain studded with hills that followed the Tiber, rose the city
of Rome, the centre of the Roman people scattered in the plain. The
land was malarial and dreary; but the situation was good. The Tiber
served as a barrier against the enemy from Etruria, the hills were
fortresses. The sea was but six leagues away, far enough to escape
fear of pirates, and near enough to permit the transportation of
merchandise. The port of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber was a suburb
of Rome, as Piraeus was of Athens. The locality was therefore agreeable
to a people of soldiers and merchants.

=Roma Quadrata and the Capitol.=--Of the first centuries of Rome we
know only some legends, and the Romans knew no more than we. Rome,
they said, was a little square town, limited to the Palatine Hill. The
founder whom they called Romulus had according to the Etruscan forms
traced the circuit with the plough. Every year, on the 21st of April,
the Romans celebrated the anniversary of these ceremonies: a
procession marched about the primitive enclosure and a priest fixed a
nail in a temple in commemoration of it. It was calculated that the
founding had occurred in the year 754[108] B.C.

On the other hills facing the Palatine other small cities rose. A band
of Sabine mountaineers established themselves on the Capitoline, a
group of Etruscan a