mightily of spreading their own praises -- have given ample
judgment in favor of Italy, when they named simply a
small part of it "Magna Græcia." But we must be content
in this case, as in our description of the heavens. We must
only touch upon these points, and take notice of merely a
few of its stars.

I may begin by remarking that this land very much re-
sembles in shape an oak-leaf, being much longer than it is
broad; towards the top it inclines to the left [if one is facing
south], while it terminates in the form of an Amazonian
buckler, ¹ in which the central projection is called Cocinthos,
while it sends forth two horns at the end of its crescent-
shaped bays -- Leucopetra on the right, and Lacinium on the
left. It extends in length 1020 miles, if we measure from
the foot of the Alps at Prætoria Augusta through the city of
Rome and Capua to Rhegium, -- which is situate on the
shoulder of the Peninsula, just at the bend of the neck as it
were. The distance is much greater if measured to Lacinium,
but in that case the line, being drawn obliquely, would in-
cline too much to one side. The breadth [of Italy] is vari-
able; being 410 miles between the two seas, the Lower
[Tuscan] and the Upper [ Adriatic], and the rivers Varus
[by Gaul] and Arsia [by Istria]; at about the middle and in
the vicinity of the city of Rome, from the spot where the
river Aternus flows into the Adriatic to the mouth of the
Tiber, the distance is 136 miles, and a little less from Cas-
trum-Novum on the Adriatic sea to Alsium on the Tuscan; --
but at no place does it exceed 200 miles in breadth. The
circuit of the whole from the Varus to the Arsia is 3059 miles. ²
As to its distance from the countries that surround it,
Epirus and Illyricum [nearest points toward Greece] are

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