The Child's First History of Rome Author:Elizabeth Missing Sewell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE CHILD'S FIEST HISTORY OF ROME, CHAPTER I. THE FOUNDATION OP ROME, B. C. 763. 1. If we desire to understand the his. 1164to 763. tory of any country... more », that is, what hap- pened to the people who lived in it in years past, we must begin by learning where the country itself is, and wlfat it is like. 2. The history of Rome is the history of a people who once dwelt in Italy, and, being extremely brave, fought against other nations and conquered them, and at last became the masters of a great part of the world. We shall find Italy in the map of Europe— Germany and Switzerland lie to the north of it; the Adriatic Sea bounds it on the east; and the Mediterranean on the south and west. Its shape is curious, something like a man's boot. 3. Italy is a very beautiful country; it is much warmer there than in England ; the winds are softer, the sky is of a deeper blue, and many lovely flowers and shrubs bloom in the open air, which we are obliged to keep carefully in green-houses. A high range of mountains, called the Apennines, runs through it from north to south; and below thesemountains there are smooth lakes and fertile valleys, amongst which grow corn and vines, orange groves and mulberry-trees, and all which can really be desired to support and make life pleasant. Italy ha often been called the garden of the world. jf. It is natural for us to wish to know who first inhabited this beautiful country—who governed the people and made laws for them—but it is very difficult to find out the truth ; and when we read the stories which are commonly told upon these subjects, we must remember that we cannot be as certain of them as we are of things which have happened in later years. All that we can really be sure of is, that in very ancient times Italy was divided into a great m...« less