frontiers of Apulia, viz., the Picentians, Pelignians, Marrucinians, Vestinians, Marsians, Frentanians, Sabines, etc., and they extend down to Rome. The country north of them was occupied by the Umbrians, inhabiting an extensive territory, though they were already a declining people, having been broken by the Etruscans. These Etruscans were then already in full possession of the country as far as the neighbourhood of Rome, and on the other side they extended to the very summits of the Alps in Raetia, and the Alpine tribes in the district of Graubündten belonged to them: they were a great and mighty nation, occupying the whole of the north of Italy. The north-east was inhabited by the Veneti, and in the north-west the Ligurians extended as far as the Ticinus. But then the Gauls invaded Italy, crushed some of the Ligurian tribes, overpowered and annihilated the Etruscans on the Po, with the exception of a few places, such as Mantua and Verona; they even advanced into Picenum, and ruled over many tribes which were not expelled by them. All those who were able to offer resistance remained, but all the others were extirpated; wherever the Gauls appeared, they changed the country which they did not occupy for themselves into a wilderness, and forests arose where formerly agriculture had been flourishing. Hence, when subsequently the Romans extended their dominion in those parts, they found the country a desert, and as such it is described even by Polybius. I shall not here enter into a description of the condition of Italy, which was the result of the Roman conquest, for I should have to repeat the same afterwards in giving you an account of the separate countries: even a general outline would render it necessary to enter into great detail. We shall at once pass on to the seventh century, as the period of regular organisation, when the Sempronian laws completely fixed the boundaries of Italy. Italy then extended as far as Ariminum, and on the other side as far as the river Macra. The country north of those points was in ordinary life called _Gallia Cispadana_, but it did not form a province by itself, in the sense of a country regularly governed by propraetors or proconsuls. Before the time of Augustus, and even during the first years of his reign, Gallia Transpadana and Venetia were not included in Italy, but were under a military administration, sometimes united with Illyricum and sometimes with Gaul in the wider sense of the name. Augustus first joined that country politically to Italy, as it had long since become Latinised by the extraordinary influx of Romans from Latium. This is quite surprising. The use of the Latin language seems to have become universal with extraordinary rapidity, and sometimes even in the short space of a single generation. It is remarkable how quickly such a change takes place, while afterwards there occurred a stand-still, and no further extension took place. In France the Latin language had spread