Italy is one of the great powers of the world, and its soldiers and seamen performed an important part in the World War.

1. Look on a physical map of Italy and tell why many of its people live very near the sea.

2. Rome is about the latitude of Chicago. Why has it a far milder climate?

ANCIENT ITALY

The most important civilization in the peninsula developed on the banks of the Tiber River in a narrow valley called Latium.

The city of seven hills.-The Latins founded the city of Rome (about B. C. 753) on seven hills overlooking the Tiber, about fifteen miles from its mouth. Thus they secured the advantages of a seaport without the danger of attack by water from warlike enemies.

Rome united the various tribes in her neighborhood into a strong province, then reached out and conquered the region south of the Po River. This growing power captured Sicily and annexed Corsica and Sardinia. It conquered its rival Carthage,

Days of power.-In the time of Christ this "world empire" extended from the lowlands of Scotland, the Rhine and the Danube River, and the Black Sea southward to the Sahara Desert. It spread eastward from Rome to Armenia and the Tigris River, and westward to the Atlantic Ocean, making the great Mediterranean Sea a "Roman lake." The

Romans drove pirates and robbers from its waters and filled the harbors with naval and commercial vessels. They carried on trade with the Orient, even to India, by caravans over the various routes we have crossed. Connections with these routes were made by boats on the Black and Red Seas and the Indian Ocean.

In the second century A. D. the Romans added the province of Dacia north of the Danube River and the region east of Mesopotamia to their dominions. The emperor of Rome then ruled over a territory about the size of the United States and had 100,000,000 subjects.

To control these vast dominions great armies as well as many officials were necessary. The soldiers lived in fortified camps called castra, from which we get the modern names Chester, Manchester, Worcester, etc. Barbarians came to these camps to trade, and towns often sprang up around them as railroad centers do at junctions to-day. These towns soon contained amphitheaters, temples, baths, and aqueducts. The Romans gave excellent schools and just laws to their conquered provinces. They made the Latin language known throughout the civilized world. Rome was the teacher of the world in law and government as Greece was in art and literature.

To rush armies to distant seats of trouble and to send messages to provinces, Rome constructed the best highways the world had seen until the coming of the railroad. These roads were built mainly by soldiers in times of peace and ran out in all directions from the walls of Rome to the boundaries of the empire.

Declining years. With the wealth of the world at their command, the Romans became very lazy and degenerate. In a few hundred years they fell a prey to the barbarians in the northern part of their empire. These people threw off the yoke of Rome and sacked the Imperial City itself in the fifth century A. D.

1. Why was Rome's position a favorable one for the growth of a great world power?

2. Trace the boundaries of the Roman empire at the times of its greatest extent. In what continents was it located? Give its area and population.

3. Read, if possible, one of the following or some other work and give a description of the life of a boy in Rome: Ten Boys, by Jane Andrews, Chapter V; The Dawn of American History in Europe, Nida, Chapters II, III, and IV, or parts of History of Other Lands, Vol. III, Terry.

THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY

During the time of the greatest glory of Rome, the "Golden days of the Cæsars," Paul, the apostle, carried to it the new religion of Jesus Christ. He went to this city of 1,200,000 people, not as a missionary, however, but as a Roman prisoner.

Sowing the seed.-Paul dwelt two years in Rome in his own hired house and received all that came to him, "preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him" (Acts 28. 30, 31). From here he wrote his letters to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon. Of the first Christian church in Rome no record is left, so no one knows by whom it was founded.

Paul's second sojourn in the Imperial City was short and his friends few, for the Christians had been scattered by the terrible persecutions of Nero. It is probable that the aged apostle was thrust into the dark Mamertine prison, and that it was from here that he sent the word to Timothy, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4. 6, 7). It is believed that Paul was finally executed, though the exact place of his martyrdom is not known.

While Rome decayed, the Christian Church founded by a few brave apostles and followers of Christ grew. Missionaries went to the borders of the empire and beyond them into the trackless forests of northern Europe. These men spread abroad the Roman civilization as well as the Christian religion.

Prepared soil.—The Roman empire had itself prepared the world for Christianity. It had united it all under one government with a common language, the Latin. The Roman authorities had allowed the practice of any form of worship not seriously immoral. Most of the emperors had tolerated the Jews, hence many of their subjects had become used to the idea

of the worship of one God. The marvelous system of Roman roads made the carrying of the message easy.

Persecution and victory.-Subject peoples and some from all classes of the Romans themselves accepted Christianity during the first three centuries

A. D. The Romans demanded, however, that all inhabitants of their capital worship the emperor. The Christians refused, and bitter persecutions ensued. The wonderful bravery of the many who suffered torture and death caused thousands of people to believe. In the fourth century the new faith had so many adherents that the Roman Emperor Constantine issued an Edict of Toleration. By this he put Christianity on an equal footing with other religions in these words: "We grant to Christians and to all others full liberty of following that religion which they may choose." From this time Christianity advanced rapidly.