PREFACE



whose life goes back almost to the dawn of history, and
whose present is indissolubly connected with the past.
  How can a reasonably just picture be given of a country
whose capital is Rome and whose roads stretching north
and south therefrom were built by and bear the names to-
day of a decemvir and of a consul who was slain by Hanni-
bal, without taking into account the continuity of its people
and the causes which have contributed thereto The fol-
lowing anecdote may serve to illustrate this idea.
  O:-e of the famous palaces of Rome to-day is the Palazzo
MIassimo, the horne of Prince Massimo. The story goes
that Napoleon asked the present occupant's grandfather
if it were true that he was descended from Fabius Maxi-
mus. The reply was: "I do not know that it is true, but
it has been a tradition in the family for some thirteen or
fourteen hundred years."
  It is not only Rome that is eternal, it is the Italian People
that is eternal. It is Italy that is eternal, and that was
eternal even when Metternich declared that Italy was only
a Geographical Expression-as eternal as the seas which
wxasih her shores: seas which Ulysses sailed and which
Homer sang.
  Based on this idea-that the key to Italy's relation to the
War is to be found in her traditions; her history-especially
during the last hundred years-and in her geographical and
economic situation, this work is divided into three parts.
The first is introductory and contains in outline the History
of the Italian People in the long period when they were in-
cluded in and bound under the Holy Roman Empire. The
second contains the story of their evolution, from the con-
ception of their National Consciousness on through the long
and hitter struggle with the Austrian Empire for their
Libe:rty, down to the time when, under a Constitutional
Sovereign, they developed into a new and United Italy, to
become, almost at a bound, one of the Great Powers of
Europe; yet with one step before her: the complete round-
ing out of her People, and the possession of her ancient
strategic frontiers.



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