DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0026
8
NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
tricts, habits and customs exist which can be traced to
these remote ancestors. The Marsi afford an example of
the truth of this. The banks of Lake Fucinus,1 near which
they dwelt, abounded with asps and vipers, and the water
with snakes, which the Marsi were skilled in charming, —
as Virgil describes (2Eneid, VIE),— and still in various
parts of Southern Italy their descendants are seen support-
ing themselves on what they gain as snake-charmers.
In the third century b. c. the Romans were masters of
the peninsula; after the fall of the Western Empire, Goths,
Lombards, and Romans of the Eastern Empire were power-
ful in turn, until, in a. d. 1042, the Normans became sole
masters of the land. It cannot be said, however, that they
established a government until Robert Guiscard, in a
quarter of a' century (1060-1085), united the detached
sovereignties within the Neapolitan territory, and trans-
mitted to his successor a kingdom sufficiently organized to
be maintained and strengthened, until, in 1127, under the
nephew of Robert Guiscard, — Roger IL, the great Count
of Sicily, — a monarchy was founded which united Sicily
and the Neapolitan territory, and remained under the rule
of the Normans until it passed to the House of Hohen-
staufen in 1194.
In spite of the incursions of Romans, Ostrogoths, and
Lombards, and the conquests of Normans and Suabians,
the customs of the ancestors of this people, such as that to
which we have referred, and notably the ancient language,
obstinately survived. After the earlier Samnite and Oscan
tongues were lost, Greek retained its hold, and was the lan-
guage of the people among themselves long after they had
found it needful to make Latin their mercantile tongue;
1 Drained by Prince Torlonia, who opened the tunnel on which thirty thou-
sand men had worked eleven years in the time of the Emperor Claudius.
The modern work was done in thirteen years, and finished in 1875. The re-
claimed land, thirty-six thousand acres, is now a model farm, colonized by
families from the Torlonia estates.
NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
tricts, habits and customs exist which can be traced to
these remote ancestors. The Marsi afford an example of
the truth of this. The banks of Lake Fucinus,1 near which
they dwelt, abounded with asps and vipers, and the water
with snakes, which the Marsi were skilled in charming, —
as Virgil describes (2Eneid, VIE),— and still in various
parts of Southern Italy their descendants are seen support-
ing themselves on what they gain as snake-charmers.
In the third century b. c. the Romans were masters of
the peninsula; after the fall of the Western Empire, Goths,
Lombards, and Romans of the Eastern Empire were power-
ful in turn, until, in a. d. 1042, the Normans became sole
masters of the land. It cannot be said, however, that they
established a government until Robert Guiscard, in a
quarter of a' century (1060-1085), united the detached
sovereignties within the Neapolitan territory, and trans-
mitted to his successor a kingdom sufficiently organized to
be maintained and strengthened, until, in 1127, under the
nephew of Robert Guiscard, — Roger IL, the great Count
of Sicily, — a monarchy was founded which united Sicily
and the Neapolitan territory, and remained under the rule
of the Normans until it passed to the House of Hohen-
staufen in 1194.
In spite of the incursions of Romans, Ostrogoths, and
Lombards, and the conquests of Normans and Suabians,
the customs of the ancestors of this people, such as that to
which we have referred, and notably the ancient language,
obstinately survived. After the earlier Samnite and Oscan
tongues were lost, Greek retained its hold, and was the lan-
guage of the people among themselves long after they had
found it needful to make Latin their mercantile tongue;
1 Drained by Prince Torlonia, who opened the tunnel on which thirty thou-
sand men had worked eleven years in the time of the Emperor Claudius.
The modern work was done in thirteen years, and finished in 1875. The re-
claimed land, thirty-six thousand acres, is now a model farm, colonized by
families from the Torlonia estates.