Other than this there were a number of
earth roads leading from Rome in various directions. One of the most
ancient of these was that over which Pyrrhus marched as far as
Pr?neste, known as the Via Latina, which ran over the Tusculum Hills,
and the Alban Mountain. The Via Ostiensis ran down the left bank of the
Tiber; the Via Saleria ran up the river to Tibur, and was afterward
continued, as the Via Valeria, over the Apennines to the Adriatic.
[Illustration: ROMAN STREET PAVEMENT.]
The population of Italy (at this time less than three million) was
divided into three general classes: first, the _Roman Citizens_,
comprising the members of the thirty-three tribes, stretching from Veii
to the river Liris, the citizens in the Roman colonies, and in certain
municipal towns; the _Latin Name_, including the inhabitants of
the colonies generally, and some of the most flourishing towns of
Italy; and the _Allies_, or all other inhabitants of the peninsula
who were dependent upon Rome, but liked to think that they were not
subjects. The Romans had been made rich and prosperous by war, and were
ready to plunge into any new struggle promising additional power and
wealth.
X.
AN AFRICAN SIROCCO.
All the time that the events that we have been giving our attention to
were occurring--that is to say, ever since the foundation of Rome,
another city had been growing up on the opposite side of the
Mediterranean Sea, in which a different kind of civilization had been
developed.
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