Fertility and Beauty of the Plains Near Capua
Hannibal, however, had not adopted this plan without
good reason. For the plains about Capua are the best in
Italy for fertility and beauty and proximity to the sea, and for
the commercial harbours, into which merchants run who are
sailing to Italy from nearly all parts of the world. They contain, moreover, the most famous and beautiful cities of Italy.
On its seaboard are Sinuessa, Cumae, Puteoli, Naples, and
Nuceria; and inland to the north there are Cales and Teanum,
to the east and south [Caudium note] and Nola. In the centre
of these plains lies the richest of all the cities, that of Capua.
No tale in all mythology wears a greater appearance of probability than that which is told of these, which, like others
remarkable for their beauty, are called the Phlegraean plains;
for surely none are more likely for beauty and fertility to have
been contended for by gods. In addition to these advantages,
they are strongly protected by nature and difficult of approach;
for one side is protected by the sea, and the rest by a long
and high chain of mountains, through which there are but
three passes from the interior, narrow and difficult, one from
Samnium [a second from Latium note]
and a third from Hirpini. So that if the Carthaginians succeeded in fixing their quarters
in these plains, they would have the advantage of a kind
of theatre, in which to display the terrors of their power before
the gaze of all Italy; and would make a spectacle also of the
cowardice of their enemies in shrinking from giving them
battle, while they themselves would be proved beyond dispute
to be masters of the country.
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