Geography: The Italian Peninsula

      The Italian Peninsula lies in the geographic centre of the Mediterranean basin, surrounded on three sides by what the Romans called Mare Nostrum, "Our Sea." The land is separated from the rest of Europe by the Alps, a rugged mountain chain that provides the people of northern Italy with a formidable protective barrier. The peninsula is approximately 1000 km long and 200 km wide and is itself divided along most of its length by Apennine Mountains. This diagonal barrier, no higher than about 3000 m, to this day remains difficult to penetrate, and in Roman times, served to make internal communication difficult.
       Although the Romans preferred to travel by boat, there were few rivers that were easily navigable for most of their length. The most important were to Po River, which for many centuries acted as a border between the civilized inhabitants of Italy and their wilder neighbours to the north, and the Tiber River in central Italy. The story of Rome is the story of the growth, expansion, and influence of a small settlement in the Tiber River Valley, about 20 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea.
      Although there were few good harbours and the Romans were unadventurous sailors, coastal trade was brisk. To the southeast were the ports of Brindisi and Taranto. To the northeast were the two ports of Genoa and La Spezia. the later Roman navies were stationed in the bay of Naples south of Rome and in the north on the estuary of the Po, at Ravenna. An artificial, commercial port was built at Ostia at the mouth of the tiber to supply the city of Rome. The word "port," in fact, comes from the Roman name for this place, Portus.
      While the Italian Peninsula was generally fertile along the narrow coastal plains and in river valleys, an expanding urban population led to an increased reliance on grain imported from Sicily and Egypt. From the height of the Roman Empire to its ultimate collapse in the sixth century CE, the urban population of Rome was dependent on foreign imports.
     The climate of the peninsula is relatively mild. In winter and summer, temperatures along the coasts are moderated by the proximity of the seas, although greater extremes of cold and heat are felt farther inland. In the summer months, the heat is intensified by a dry, southerly breeze that rolls away the clouds to allow the sun's uninterrupted glare. In winter, from October to March, the win'd direction is reversed, bringing cold fronts in from the European continent and making the seas unsuitable for sailing. The relatively mild climate, general agricultural prosperity, seclusion from the rest of Europe, and central position in the Mediterranean world, were all important factors in the rise of Rome.

Writing: ECHOES from the past published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.