ITALY
224
ITALY
together with species of animals that have been lost
or have emigrated, and witnessed those great commo-
tions of the earth through which the sea receded from
the lands of the Po, the Apennines arose, and the vol-
canoes of Lazio and of Campania became active.
There has been much discussion as to the origin of the
early inhabitants of Italy, as to the way by wluch they
came, and as to the periods of their immigration, but,
until now, only the most contradictory hypotheses
have been reached. The most recent results that have
been furnished by pala>tiology, by linguistics, and by
archaeology would show that Italy and a considerable
part of Western Europe were primitively occupied by
a race having a dolichocephalic cranium, and there-
fore of a branch of the family of Cham. Relatively
nearer to our times, there are two orders of the Aryan
immigration into Italy: the primitive and the pos-
terior immigrations. In the former (1200-800 B. c.)
we find two very ancient races, the Messapico-Iapy-
gian, which came of the lUyrian trunk, and the Italic,
properly so called. It would seem that the Messa-
Cians came by sea from Greece ; and at a later period, y land, the lapygians, who occupied the Adriatic coast, from Gargano to Cape Leuca, and were, possi- bly, the historical Autochthonians of the peninsula. The Italics, who are divided into two great families, the Latins and the Umbrians, descended into Italj' from the East, or, as seems more probable, from the North, by the valleys of the Inn, of the Adige, and of the Adda, and occupied the plain of the Po; but, other peoples appearing, they moved to the south of the peninsula and became identified with the Latins, occupying the western watershed and dividing into the branches called Oscans, Ausonians, and CEnotrians or Italics. Then came the Umbrians, whose rule lasted a short time; and, having been defeated by the Gauls on the Po and by the Etruscans on the Arno, they withdrew to that region to which they gave the name of Umbria. But, a great family of this race, the Sabines, passed farther on and established itself en the highland of Rieti, nearer Campania and Apulia; and having increased greatlj' in their new territory, they gave origin to the Samnian, Marsian, Pelignian, Vesti- nian, Marrucinian, and other peoples.
That broad territory that lies between the right of the Tiber, the Apennines, and the sea, came to be in- habited by the Etruscans, called also Rasenans or Tyrrhenians. As to the origin of this people there are two opinions, that of Herodotus, according to which the Etruscans came by sea, driven from Lydia by famine; and the other, that of Niebuhr, Mommsen, and Helbig, according to which the Tyrrhenians came into Italy by land, over the Rhajtian Alps. Of the primitive inhabitants of Italy, these were the ones who reached the highest degree of civilization, as is shown by the splendid remnants of their cities and by the objects found in their tombs; it is a pity that their language is not yet known. Later immigrations were those of the Gauls and of the Greeks. The Gauls, who were formerly held to be of Celtic origin, which now, however, is doubted, came down from the Alps at the beginning of the sixth century B. c, divided into several families: Cenomanian, Insubrian, Boian, Senonian, etc. They were harsh and rapacious peo- ples, who made Cisalpine Gaul return to the barbarous state out of which the Etruscans had taken it, and often, in later historical ages, their nefarious influence was carried over the whole of Italy. On the southern portion of the peninsula there were established mmier- ous Greek colonies, whose cities, as we have seen, arose to great power and splendour, whence the name Magna Grcvcia, given to the southern part of Italy. This portion of the peninsula was also inhabited by the Ligurians and by the Venetians, the origin of which races is not yet established. Some persons consider the Ligurians to hv a very ancient race, preceding the Aryans and allied to the Iberians, while other autliori-
ties hold that the Ligurians were of Celtic origin.
However that may be, this people occupied a great
portion of the western watershed of Italy, and then,
expelled by the Italics and by the Etruscans, they
sought new homes on the Rhone and on the Pyrenees.
It would seem that 'the Venetian race originated in
Illyria and that its expansion in Continental Italy was
stopped by the Gauls; at any rate, this people, who,
unlike the Etruscans, had not abandoned a pastoral
life and its habits, knew a great deal about agriculture,
which was the basis of private life and social relations
among the primitive Italic peoples.
(2) Population. — In 1770 the population of the territory that now constitutes the Kingdom of Italy was in round numbers 16,477,000 inhalSitants; at the beginning of the nineteenth century it had grown to 18,125,000; and the census of 1901 .showed a popula- tion of 32,475,253 inhabitants, implying an average annual increase of 7-38 per cent from 31 December, 1881. On 1 January, 1908, Italy had 33,909,776 in- habitants, being, therefore, the sixth state of Europe from the standpoint of population. The mean den- sity of the population is 307 inhabitants per sq. mile, which is the highest in Europe, after Belgium, Holland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; but, when it is considered that those coimtries are agricultural, industrial, and commercial while Italy is devoted essentially to agricidtiire, and is backward in the development of that industry, its population is shown to be dense, which accounts for emigration. The population, moreover, is very unevenly divided over the territory, according as life is more or less easily supported by the fertility of the soil, by indus- try, or by commerce. The most crowded population is that of the province of Naples: 3448 inhabitants per sq. mile; after that come the province of Milan, the district of Genoa, the coast of Apulia, between Bar- letta and Monopoli, and the slope of Mt. Etna. The province of Sassari is the one least inhabited (80 in- habitants per sq. mile) ; but there are extensive regions, such as the Roman Campagna and the plateau of the Murgie, that are almost uninhabited. As to the distribution of population, 71-8 per cent of the in- habitants live in towns and 28-2 per cent live a coun- try life. It is only in Venice and in Tuscany that the numbers of the town and country dwellers almost balance each other, while in Emilia, the Marches, and Umbria the country population is almost double that of the towns, while the opposite is the case in Sicily and in Sardinia. It is to be regretted that an ever-in- creasing tendency towards agglomeration is mani- fested, which, together with the absence of the land- owners from the small centres where their properties are located, is the source of great economical, educa- tional, and moral evil.
Foreign residents in the kingdom, on 10 January, 1901, which is the date of the last census, numbered 01,606, of whom 37,762 were permanent residents, and of these there were 9079 Swiss, 7995 Austrians, 5748 Germans, and 5033 French, after whom came in order of numbers the English and the North Americans.
The highest averages of marriages are furnished by AbruzziandMolise (9-1), C:in\pania and Calaliria (S-l j, Apulia (S-2),andtheBasilirata (!)). The hitjlio.st birth- rates are those of Lombardy, \'('nici', .\puli:i, and Cala- bria. And here it may be oliscrved (hat depopulation through the vice of neo-M:iltliusianisin begins to show itself also in Italy, especially in the large cities, con- sidering that the average of :;(i, in 1S72-75, is reduced now to 31-4, notwithslaiiiliiig the fact that the average of marriages lias reiiiaineil approximately constant; and while there is an average excess of 10-6 per 1000 of birt hs over death.s, it is due, not entirely to the in- crease in births, but to the notalile decrease in mor- tality, the average of which has fallen from 30-5, in 1872-75, to 20-8 in 1907. Sociology cannot overlook the alarming increase in the number of the still-bom
