The second of the three great peninsulas of southern Europe, that which lies between the other two, is that of Italy. ♦Different meanings of the name Italy.♦ The name of Italy has been used in several meanings at different times, but it has always meant either the whole or a part of the land which we now call Italy. The name gradually spread itself from the extreme south to the north.[4] At the time when our survey begins, the name did not go beyond the long narrow peninsula itself; and indeed it hardly took in the whole of that. ♦Its meaning under the Roman commonwealth.♦ During the time of the Roman commonwealth Italy did not reach beyond the little rivers _Macra_ on one side, near _Luna_, and _Rubico_ on the other side, near _Ariminum_. The land to the north, as far as the Alps, was not counted for Italy till after the time of Cæsar. But the Alps are the natural boundary which fence off the peninsular land from the great mass of central Europe; so that, looking at the matter as a piece of geography, we may count the whole land within the Alps as Italy. It will be at once seen that the Italian peninsula, though so long and narrow, is by no means cut up into promontories and smaller peninsulas as the Greek peninsula is. Nor is it surrounded by so many islands. It is only quite in the south, where the long narrow peninsula splits off into two smaller ones, that the coast has at all the character of the Greek coast, and there only in a much slighter degree. ♦The Italian islands.♦ Close by this end of Italy lies the great island of _Sicily_, whose history has always been closely connected with that of Italy. Further off lie the two other great islands of _Corsica_ and _Sardinia_, which in old times were not reckoned to belong to Italy at all. Besides these there are several smaller islands, _Elba_ and others, along the Italian coast; but they lie a good way from each other, and do not form any marked feature in the geography. There is nothing at all like even the group of islands off western Greece, much less like the endless multitude, great and small, in the Ægæan. Through the whole length of the peninsula, like a backbone, runs the long chain of the _Apennines_. These branch off from the Alps in north-western Italy near the sea, and run through the whole length of the country to the very toe of the boot, as the Italian peninsula has been called from its shape. From all this it follows that, though Italy was the land which was destined in the end to have the rule over all the rest, yet the people of Italy were not likely to begin to make themselves a name so early as the Greeks did. Least of all were they likely to take in the same way to a sea-faring life, and to plant colonies in far off lands. § 1. _The Inhabitants of Italy and Sicily._ ♦Non-Aryans in Italy.♦