By Gaul we generally understand France--the Gallic, or Gaulic nation. But Gaul at that time was the name of the country not only of what we now call France, but of a great deal of the north of what we call Italy. So the Gauls had not very far to come to reach Rome. Although the Capitol, the citadel, was saved from the Gauls at this time, the Gauls destroyed the city completely, and after their retirement the Romans set about its rebuilding. You will see, of course, that I have only told you, so far, who the Romans were not. I have not told you who they were. But I have a very good reason for {166} that. I have not told you, and I am not going to tell you, because I do not know. Rome has been called the City of the Seven Hills, because it is built on those seven hills which stand above the River Tiber that runs out westward into the Mediterranean Sea. What we do know is that peoples from the neighbouring country came and settled themselves on one or other of these hills. They were peoples of different origins. The most civilised, in the earliest days of this settlement, were from the district called Etruria. They were Etruscans. The Sabines were another of these peoples. And there were Latins from Latium, in which district Rome itself was situated. These peoples became united into one state under rulers of the Latin race, and that, in very few words, appears to have been the origin of the Roman nation. The Etruscans seem at first to have been pushed off the hills into the plains by the others, and there was frequent fighting between the plain people and the hill people. For their protection from the attacks from the plains, the early kings of Rome built walls round the seven hills; but the Etruscans, though they had given way at first to the Latins and Sabines, must have come back as conquerors. They were a powerful people. They imposed their own kings upon the Romans, and Romans and Etruscans together became the strongest nation in the country.