Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

324

CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. VIII

extends still further, and gives us the most deform-
ed and disgusting features of the Cananean charac-
ter, rendered if possible still more hideous by
time and by refinement*. The operation of
these vices gradually produced effeminacy and
weakness both of mind and body, and at length
deprived the Etrurians of the glory of their
achievements and of the advantages of their
many enterprises. Their more manly and more
intrepid neighbors attacked them with success,
and stripped them in process of time of their most
valuable provinces.f
They were obliged to yield all the fertile
plains that border the Po, and extend from the
Alps to the Apennines, to the valor of the Gauls,
who settled in that delightful country, and gave
it the name of Gallia, to which was afterwards
added the distinctive appellation of Cisalpina.
The Samnites expelled them from the still more
delicious and more desirable region of Campania ;
the Umbri retook several of their ancient posses-
sions ; so that at the appearance of the Romans
on the theatre of Italy, the Etrurians were con-
fined to the territory that still bears their name,
and extends from the Tiber northward to the

* Athenaeus'.

t Strabo