The Via Latina forms the third portion of the description of the Classical Topography of the Roman Campagna, of which two parts have already appeared in these Papers (Via Collatina, Via Praenestina, and Via Labicana, i. 125 sqq.; Via Salaria, Via Nomentana, and Via Tiburtina, iii. 1 sqq.). The general remarks made in the introductions apply, in. the main, to the present portion also: and the preliminary matter may, therefore, be comparatively brief. It is fortunate that Professor Tomassetti has dealt fully with the mediaeval topography of the Via Latina in La Via Latina nel Medio Evo(Rome, 1886, reprinted from the Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria). This indispensable work contains also a very large amount of information as to the classical period, and it will be necessary to cite it constantly in these pages.

The Via Latina originated (cf. Papers, i. 128) during the gradual establishment of the Latin League in the form in which it appears as. completed about 370 B.C. The dates of the various military operations given by Livy as occurring in Algido must not, naturally, be pressed; we can only say generally that the pass of Algidus was a position of considerable importance in the warfare against the Aequi in 465–389 B.C., and that the road must have gone at least so far—possibly further, inasmuch as Signia is said to have been founded by Tarquinius Superbus, and a fresh colony sent there in 495 B.C. Nor can we fix the date of the transformation of the Via Latina into a permanent military highway.

During over eight years I have been searching diligently for such material as is available to throw some light on the history of the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths of Italy and their Art. The following notes represent that portion of the material so gathered which refers to Rome.

Treating of gold- and silverwork in Rome in a bold spirit one would be obliged to include almost all the most famous artists of all Italy, because, sooner or later, they nearly all gravitated to Rome. In thus flocking to the Papal Court and to the head of the Church of Rome, they went to the principal source of patronage of the Arts in Italy.

The four papers here printed are part of the fruits of a study of the development of Roman reliefs undertaken during the last three years in Rome. The object of this study has been to attempt to determine the Roman or Alexandrian origin of the ‘Hellenistic’ reliefs that have been the subject of so much controversy. The result of this main investigation will be published elsewhere at a later time. In the meantime it is hoped that these papers will help in some degree towards the explanation of some important Roman monuments, and towards a clearer knowledge of the development of Roman imperial art. To Professor Hülsen and Dr. Ashby I owe much for the help they have so kindly given me; but I am most deeply indebted to Mr. Stuart Jones, without whose aid these studies would never have been written.

The department of Graeco-Roman Antiquities in the British Museum possesses among its ivories, which deserve perhaps more attention than has hitherto been paid to them, a small statue representing a hunchback (Fig. 1).

The figure is three inches in height, and is placed on a circular moulded base, which is also of ivory and antique. The ivory has flaked and is worn away in places, but it is, as a whole, in good preservation, and nothing of importance has been lost. No information exists as to the provenance of the statuette, but it forms part of the Townley Collection, which was acquired by the Museum in 1805. That collection was made in Italy, and it may be presumed that the ivory was bought and probably found in the same country.

To theorize with regard to the development of South Italy in prehistoric times is at once easy and dangerous: easy because the ascertained facts to be accounted for are few, dangerous because the chance of new and disconcerting discoveries is greatest in an unexplored territory. At the same time the theory which is at present most widely held with regard to the early iron age in South Italy is not entirely convincing. Until recently the history of South Italy in pre-Roman times was almost a complete blank, no explanation being possible because there were no facts to be explained. But the discoveries at Torre del Mordillo, Spezzano Calabrese, Piedimonte d'Alife, Cuma, Suessola, and other places have lately provided a certain basis for construction. Very few attempts, however, have been made to supply the explanation of these data; indeed archaeologists were already well employed upon the far more copious material of Northern and Central Italy. But in 1899 interest in the south of the Peninsula was heightened by Quagliati's discovery of a terramara at Tarentum. To anyone who has examined the immense mass of material from this site there can be no particle of doubt that the terramara of Scoglio del Tonno at Tarentum is exactly identical in type with the terremare of the Po valley.