poor, as well as the rich, to take a part in public affairs." Relieving
the citizen of all drudgery, the system created a class characterized by
elegant leisure, refinement, and culture.

We find an almost exact historical parallel to all this in the feudal
aristocracy of mediaeval Europe. Such a society has been well likened to a
great pyramid, whose top may be gilded with light, while the base lies in
dark shadows. The civilization of ancient Hellas was splendid and
attractive, but it rested with a crushing weight upon all the lower orders
of Greek society.




SECTION III. ROMAN HISTORY.


CHAPTER XXII.

THE ROMAN KINGDOM.
(Legendary Date, 753-509 B.C.)


DIVISIONS OF ITALY.--The peninsula of Italy, like that of Greece, divides
itself into three parts--Northern, Central, and Southern Italy. The first
comprises the great basin of the Po, lying between the Alps and the
Apennines. In ancient times this part of Italy included three districts--
Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, which means "Gaul on this (the Italian) side of
the Alps," and Venetia.