the district in which they could have maintained themselves against the shock of the Ausonians, who were pressed on by the Sabines. But nothing decisive can be said on this point, we can only form conjectures; and we must carefully distinguish between what is conjectural and what is certain.[33] There is no occasion for saying anything more about the towns of the Hernicans which I have mentioned. On the side of a rock, near the town of Ferentinum, there still exists a fragment of a will engraved in the stone. A wealthy citizen leaves a legacy, and fixes the interest of his landed property. The late Madame Dionigi, who made a drawing of it and published it, states that two of the pieces of land still exist in that district and bear the same name. A great many things of this kind continue to exist in some parts of Italy from ancient times; he who lives there in intimate familiarity with every-day affairs, and who does not mind spending months in those places, may recover the past to an extent which we believe altogether impossible. The Hernicans formed part of the Roman and Latin confederacy, and had their share in the Feriae Latinae. In ancient times they were allied with Rome on equal terms, and shared with her and Latium all that they conquered in war. Afterwards this alliance was broken up, as I shall show in the second volume of my History,[34] because being weak and powerless, they could no longer claim their former rights. After the Gallic calamity, when Rome had fallen, they made themselves independent, and thirty years later the ancient treaty was renewed, and remained in force for fifty years, to the great advantage of the Hernicans. They were a small people, which did not extend, while Rome enlarged her dominion immensely. Hence the Romans demanded that the relation which had hitherto subsisted between them should be discontinued. In consequence of this, a war arose between them and the Hernicans, in which the latter had reason bitterly to repent their presumption. THE VOLSCIANS AND AEQUIANS.