The Western World and Rome 243 .J-, the most wonderful progress, the The western Mediter- ranean in and the Greeks were makim peoples of the western Mediterranean world had lagged far be- hind and had made little advance in civilization since the days Prehistoric -' times of the Swiss lake-dwellers.^ Some movements among these early westerners had occurred. Earliest Italy The lake-dwellers of Switzerland (p. 1 1) had pushed southward •■ -'h ■};-'"■■ '-} 1 I J 1 .>.)/ 1,- ' " ' ,'f>f^-^i'.>V,^'^.;:«f f.^r-?*r4^ Fig. 106. rREiiisTORic Sardinians Part of the bodyguard of Ramses II, king of Egypt, as shown on the wall of the temple of Abu Simbel (Fig. 30) in the thirteenth century B.C. Notice the heavy metal swords of these westerners, and see p. 53 through the Alpine passes and occupied the lakes of north- ern Italy. The remains of over a hundred of their pile- supported settlements (Fig. 105) have also been found under the soil of the Po valley, once a vast morass ; and the city of Venice, still standing on piles, is a surviving example of their methods of building in this region. They had their influence 1 The student should here reread pp. 10-16.
