ted on the basis
of assuming the libral as and sestertius, and the denarius and
Attic drachma, respectively as equal, and taking for all sums above
100 denarii the present value in gold, and for all sums under 100
denarii the present value in silver, of the corresponding weight.
The Roman pound (=327.45 grammes) of gold, equal to 4000 sesterces,
has thus, according to the ratio of gold to silver 1:15.5, been
reckoned at 304 1/2 Prussian thalers [about 43 pounds sterling],
and the denarius, according to the value of silver, at 7 Prussian
groschen [about 8d.].(1)

Kiepert's map will give a clearer idea of the military consolidation
of Italy than can be conveyed by any description.

1. I have deemed it, in general, sufficient to give the value of
the Roman money approximately in round numbers, assuming for that
purpose 100 sesterces as equivalent to 1 pound sterling.--TR.

CONTENTS

BOOK I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy

CHAPTER

I. Introduction

II. The Earliest Migrations into Italy

III. The Settlements of the Latins

IV. The Beginnings of Rome

V. The Original Constitution of Rome

VI. The Non-Burgesses and the Reformed Constitution

VII. The Hegemony of Rome in Latium

VIII. The Umbro-Sabellian Stocks--Beginnings of the Samnites

IX. The Etruscans

X. The Hellenes in Italy--Maritime Supremacy of the Tuscans
and Carthaginians

XI. Law and Justice

XII. Religion

XIII. Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce

XIV. Measuring and Writing

XV. Art

BOOK FIRST

The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy

--Ta palaiotera saphos men eurein dia chronou pleithos adunata
ein ek de tekmeirion on epi makrotaton skopounti moi pisteusai
xumbainei ou megala nomizo genesthai oute kata tous polemous oute
es ta alla.--

Thucydides.

CHAPTER I

Introduction

Ancient History

The Mediterranean Sea with its various branches, penetrating far
into the great Continent, forms the largest gulf of the ocean,
and, alternately narrowed by islands or projections of the land and
expanding to considerable breadth, at once separates and connects
the three divisions of the Old World. The shores of this inland
sea were in ancient times peopled by various nations belonging in
an ethnographical and philological point of view to different races,
but constituting in their histor