I think it will be of use to give some account of these peoples, which must be indeed but a summary one, in order not to depart from the original plan of this work as defined in the preface.
We must, however, go back to the time when they first occupied these districts. I think the story is not only worth knowing and keeping in mind, but quite necessary for my purpose, as it shows us who were the men and what was the country on which Hannibal afterwards relied in his attempt to destroy the Roman dominion.
I must first describe the nature of the country and its position as regards the rest of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a>. A sketch of its peculiarities, regionally and as a whole land, will help us better to comprehend the more important of the events I have to relate.
<a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a> as a whole has the shape of a triangle of which the one or eastern side is bounded by the Ionian Strait and then continuously by the Adriatic Gulf, the next side, that turned to the south and west, by the Sicilian and Tyrrhenian Seas.
The apex of the triangle, formed by the meeting of these two sides, is the southernmost cape of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a> known as <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cocynthus&groupId=483&placeId=906">Cocynthus</a> and separating the Ionian Strait from the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sicilian Sea&groupId=972&placeId=1723">Sicilian Sea</a>.
The remaining or northern and inland side of the triangle is bounded continuously by the chain of the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alps&groupId=313&placeId=609">Alps</a> which beginning at Marseilles and the northern coasts of the Sardinian Sea stretches in an unbroken line almost to the head of the whole Adriatic, only failing to join that sea by stopping at quite a short distance from it.
At the foot of this chain, which we should regard as the base of the triangle, on its southern side, lies the last plain of all <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Italy&groupId=656&placeId=1199">Italy</a> to the north. It is with this that we are now concerned, a plain surpassing in fertility any other in Europe with which we are acquainted.
The general shape of the lines that bound this plain is likewise triangular. The apex of the triangle is formed by the meeting of the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Apennines&groupId=343&placeId=664">Apennines</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alps&groupId=313&placeId=609">Alps</a> not far from the Sardinian Sea at a point above Marseilles.
Its northern side is, as I have said, formed by the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alps&groupId=313&placeId=609">Alps</a> themselves and is about two thousand two hundred stades in length,
the southern side by the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Apennines&groupId=343&placeId=664">Apennines</a> which extend for a distance of three thousand six hundred stades.
The base of the whole triangle is the coast of the Adriatic, its length from the city of Sena<note place="end" resp="tr" id="note1"><emph rend="bold">Sena:</emph>Siniglia.</note>to the head of the gulf being more than two thousand five hundred stades;
so that the whole circumference of this plain is not much less than ten thousand stades.
Walbank Commentary