For the present I forbear to speak of its genius, its manners, its men, and the nations whom it has conquered by eloquence and force of arms. The very Greeks themselves, a race fond in the extreme of expatiating on their own praises, have amply given judgment in its favour, when they named but a small part of it ‘Magna Græcia[1155].’ But we must be content to do on this occasion as we have done in our description of the heavens; we must only touch upon some of these points, and take notice of but a few of its stars. I only beg my readers to bear in mind that I am thus hastening on for the purpose of giving a general description of everything that is known to exist throughout the whole earth. I may premise by observing that this land very much resembles in shape an oak leaf, being much longer than it is broad; towards the top it inclines to the left[1156], while it terminates in the form of an Amazonian buckler[1157], in which the spot at the central projection is the place 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 the town of Rhegium, which is situate on the shoulder of the Peninsula, just at the bend of the neck as it were. The distance would be much greater if measured to Lacinium, but in that case the line, being drawn obliquely, would incline too much to one side. Its breadth is variable; being 410 miles between the two seas, the Lower and the Upper[1158], and the rivers Varus and Arsia[1159]: at about the middle, and in the vicinity of the city of Rome, from the spot where the river Aternus[1160] flows into the Adriatic sea, to the mouth of the Tiber, the distance is 136 miles, and a little less from Castrum-novum on the Adriatic sea to Alsium[1161] on the Tuscan; but in no place does it exceed 200 miles in breadth. The circuit of the whole, from the Varus to the Arsia, is 3059 miles[1162]. As to its distance from the countries that surround it—Istria and Liburnia are, in some places[1163], 100 miles from it, and Epirus and Illyricum 50; Africa is less than 200, as we are informed by M. Varro; Sardinia[1164] is 120, Sicily 1-1/2, Corsica less than 80, and Issa[1165] 50. It extends into the two seas towards the southern parts of the heavens, or, to speak with more minute exactness, between the sixth[1166] hour and the first hour of the winter solstice.