Cisalpine Gaul
This war itself I shall treat only summarily, to avoid
breaking the thread of my history; but I must go back somewhat in point of time, and refer to the period at which these
tribes originally occupied their districts in
Italy. For the story
I think is worth knowing for its own sake, and must absolutely
be kept in mind, if we wish to understand what tribes and
districts they were on which Hannibal relied to assist him in
his bold design of destroying the Roman dominion. I will
first describe the country in which they live, its nature, and its
relation to the rest of
Italy; for if we clearly understand its
peculiarities, geographical and natural, we shall be better able
to grasp the salient points in the history of the war.
Italy, taken as a whole, is a triangle, of which the eastern
side is bounded by the
Ionian Sea and the
Adriatic Gulf, its southern and western sides by
the Sicilian and Tyrrhenian seas; these two sides
converge to form the apex of the triangle, which is represented
by the southern promontory of
Italy called Cocinthus, and
which separates the Ionian from the Sicilian Sea.
1 The
third side, or base of this triangle, is on the north, and is
formed by the chain of the
Alps stretching right across the
country, beginning at
Marseilles and the coast of the Sardinian
Sea, and with no break in its continuity until within a short
distance of the head of the Adriatic. To the south of this
range, which I said we must regard as the base of the triangle,
are the most northerly plains of
Italy, the largest and most
fertile of any with which I am acquainted in all
Europe. This
is the district with which we are at present concerned.
Taken
as a whole, it too forms a triangle, the apex of which is the point
where the
Apennines and
Alps converge, above
Marseilles, and not far from the coast of the
Sardinian Sea. The northern side of this triangle is formed
by the
Alps, extending for 2200 stades; the southern by the
Apennines, extending 3600; and the base is the seaboard of
the Adriatic, from the town of
Sena to the head of the gulf, a
distance of more than 2500 Stades. The total length of the
three sides will thus be nearly 10,000 stades.
