Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/327

 BOOK V. ITALY, SUMMARY. The Fifth Book contains a description of Italy from the roots of the Alps to the Strait of Sicily, the Gulf of Taranto, and the region about Posidonium ; likewise of Venetia, Liguria, Agro Piceno, Tuscany, Rome, Campania, Lucania, Apulia, and the islands lying in the sea between Genoa and Sicily. CHAPTER I. 1. AT the foot of the Alps commences the region now known as Italy. The ancients by Italy merely understood (Enotria, which reached from the Strait of Sicily to the Gulf of Taranto, and the region about Posidonium, 1 but the name has extended eyen to the foot of the Alps ; comprehending on one side that portion of T^Tguria situated by the sea, from the confines of Tyrrhenia to the Var ; and on the other, that portion of Istria which extends as far as Pola. It seems probable that the first inhabitants were named Italians, and, being successful, they communicated their name to the neighbouring tribes, and this propagation [of name] continued until the Romans obtained dominion. Afterwards, when the Romans conferred on the Italians the privileges of equal citizenship, and thought fit to extend the same honour to the Cisalpine Galatas and Heneti, 2 they comprised the whole under the general denomin- ation of Italians and Romans ; they likewise founded amongst them numerous colonies, some earlier, some later, of which it would be difficult to say which are the most considerable. 2. It is not easy to describe the whole of Italy under* any one geometrical figure ; although some say that it is a pro- montory of triangular form, extending towards the south and winter rising, with its apex towards the Strait of Sicily, and 1 The Gulf of Salerno. 2 Venetians.