Ch. XIV.
THROUGH ITALY.
485
are lost in oblivion. It is surprising· that an event
so interesting at the time, and so glorious to the
Guelphs, then the popular party in Italy; an
event connected with the fate of a powerful re-
public, and claiming the attention of all the Me-
diterranean, should not have been celebrated by
one or other of the many Poets which that very
century and the following produced in Italy ;
especially as the subject, like that of the Greek
poet, would have afforded an opportunity of dis-
playing all the varieties of the national character,
and all the diversities of the regions and the go-
vernments of Italy, with numberless anecdotes
taken from the records of its cities and of its illus-
trious families.
The other event to which I allude, is the long
and arduous contest between Genoa and Venice,
which the same historians produce as a parallel to
the second Punic war, both in its duration, in its
extent and in the perseverance and animosity of
the contending parties. Another feature of re-
semblance has been observed, and that is, that
the Power finally victorious seemed at one period
nearer ruin than its rival*; but though in this re-
* Adeo varia belli fortuna, ancepsque Mars fuit, ut pro-
pius periculum fuerint, qui vicerunt.—Tft. Liv. lib. xxi,
THROUGH ITALY.
485
are lost in oblivion. It is surprising· that an event
so interesting at the time, and so glorious to the
Guelphs, then the popular party in Italy; an
event connected with the fate of a powerful re-
public, and claiming the attention of all the Me-
diterranean, should not have been celebrated by
one or other of the many Poets which that very
century and the following produced in Italy ;
especially as the subject, like that of the Greek
poet, would have afforded an opportunity of dis-
playing all the varieties of the national character,
and all the diversities of the regions and the go-
vernments of Italy, with numberless anecdotes
taken from the records of its cities and of its illus-
trious families.
The other event to which I allude, is the long
and arduous contest between Genoa and Venice,
which the same historians produce as a parallel to
the second Punic war, both in its duration, in its
extent and in the perseverance and animosity of
the contending parties. Another feature of re-
semblance has been observed, and that is, that
the Power finally victorious seemed at one period
nearer ruin than its rival*; but though in this re-
* Adeo varia belli fortuna, ancepsque Mars fuit, ut pro-
pius periculum fuerint, qui vicerunt.—Tft. Liv. lib. xxi,