geograghy of greece and rome

greeces geograghy






Much of Greece is mountainous and rocky terrain, with the occasional plain. The Pindus Mountains start in northern Greece and stretch south to the Gulf of Patra. In the southern part of Greece are the Peloponnesus Mountains.
About 20% of Greece is made up of islands. Crete is a large island located in the Mediterranean Sea. It is a popular tourist area for its beautiful mountains, coastline, and many ancient ruins.
Most of the people in Greece live along the coast, or along rivers and harbors.

Geography

Mainland Greece is a mountainous land almost completely surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Greece has more than 1400 islands. The country has mild winters and long, hot and dry summers.

The ancient Greeks were a seafaring people. They traded with other countries around the Mediterranean. Many cities created settlements overseas known as colonies.

Greek cities were founded around the Black Sea, North Africa, Italy, Sicily, France and Spain. Many tales and legends grew up about the strange lands and creatures that could be found across the sea.

 romans geograghy

The Italian Peninsula has a mixture of hills, plains, and mountains that alters the climate of Italy. This distinctive geography not only changes the climate but also separates Italy into different zones. The Apennine Mountains run through most of Italy. The mountains split the center of Italy into East and West Zones. These zones contrast in many ways with each other. The Eastern Zone, the lowland areas on the east side of the Apennine Mountains bordering the Adriatic Sea, is much more desolate than the western Side.

The West Zone, the lowland areas west of the Apennine Mountains bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea, had fertile soil composed of such materials as potash and phosphates, an advantage the area held over the East Zone. The West Zone had stable rivers, such as the Arno and the Tiber, that were easily navigable as far as Turin. The East Zone had terribly weak rivers that became raging torrents that eroded the landscape in the winter and dried up streams in the summer. The West Zone had excellent harbors for unloading goods from trade ships, while the East Zone didn’t have good harbors. Last of all, the sheer size of the West Zone dwarfed that of the East Zone. At one point in the East Zone, between the Biferno and Rimini Rivers, there is a 350-kilometer stretch in which the distance between the mountains and the sea is only 30 kilometers.

The Apennine Mountains prove to be a vital member of the Italian geography. This boundary not only culturally separated the East and West Lowland areas, but also provided a huge barrier to attack. If Italy was ever attacked from one side, it would be able to build enough forces on the other side of the mountains in time to counter the opposing force. This natural layout prevented any swift attacks from either the Adriatic or the Tyrrhenian Seas.

Italy’s geography contributes greatly to the climate of the region. The center zone of Italy enjoys the Mediterranean climate of mild winters, hot summers, moderate annual rainfall, and heavy precipitation during winter months. The rainfall in the winter is so heavy that the area suffers fierce droughts during the summer months. The most telling sign of climatic differences in Italy is the olive tree. The olive tree grows almost everywhere in peninsular Italy and along the Ligurian Riviera but they are not found growing North of the Apennines.

The Ancient peninsula of Italy has beautiful attributes such as the Alps Mountains, the Apennine Mountains, and the Po River Valley. In fact, the topography of Italy is not very normal. If you consider the areas under 300 kilometers altitude plains, only 1/5 of Italy would be plains. Another 2/5 would be the hilly territory between 300 and 1000 kilometers above sea level. The last 2/5 is a mountainous region that is above 1000 meters in altitude. The mountains of Italy reach their highest points in the Abruzzi regions at the Gran Sasso d’Italia, which is 2914 meters, and the Montagna della Maiella, which is 2795 meters in height. But with these positive additions to the landscape come negative ones. The entire Apulia region, also known as the "heel" of Italy, was desolate. Throughout history it remained culturally isolated, and politically unimportant. At one point, Greek city-states settled the Apulia region until Rome later easily conquered it. After it was taken, it was sparsely settled since the living conditions were terrible. Cicero stated in the 1st century BC that Apulia was the most sparsely populated part of Italy.

Due to the limited means of travel and communication in Ancient Rome, people lived in areas where the lay of the land was used to their advantage. The way communication was established in Ancient Italy, the network of rivers was crucial. The lowest available crossing was at the lowest point of the Tiber River. The first Roman bridge ever built was the Pons Sublicus, and it was built at this location. The technology at the time of building the bridge was not sophisticated enough to construct one long bridge but, conveniently, Tiber Island was halfway between the river’s edge. So the builders, under the reign of Ancus Marcius, built two small bridges. One bridge led from one side to Tiber Island and one bridge led from the island to the opposite side. This location had a defensible position and plenty of fresh water, so it was inevitable that a city would prosper at this location.

Ancient Rome was a great city. Its mix of climate, fertility, geography and culture brought settlers from all over Italy who wished to live within the city walls. This explains how Ancient Rome and its surrounding cities came to be great cities, and how they came to be prosperous parts of the Empire.

Italy has a very large defense to the North. The Alps Mountains, which lock the peninsula off from the rest of Europe, are a great defense because they are impassable during the winter months, which account for half of the year. During the summer they are easily passable. Trails through the mountains have been widely recognized since the first settlers inhabited the area. While these mountains served as a deterrent for attack, they at no point separated Rome from the rest of Europe. Often throughout history mass migrations through the mountains occurred. This can be found in several cases, such as the incursions of the Celts and the Cambri in the 1^st century BC, and the barbarian invasions in the 5th and 6th centuries.

The Po River Valley accounts for 70% of the lowland area in Italy. The Po Plain is the most agriculturally productive area of the entire Roman Empire. Strabo and others have written about its economic and social prosperity since ancient times. The authors heralded the extremely fertile land in their works. The area of the Po Plain was heavily wooded in ancient times, and trees supplied an ample amount of acorns, which fed a healthy amount of swine. The swine in the forests provided the entire meat supply for the people of Ancient Rome.

The lower side of the Po River Valley is a flood plain today, but in times before Roman settlement in the area, the Po River Valley was all swamps and marshes. When Hannibal was attacking Rome in 218 BC, these swamps proved to be a major deterrent. In 109 BC, censor M. Aemilius Scaurus constructed a system of canals and dikes to reclaim the land from swamps. During the first century, Augustus and others implemented these plans to turn Northern Italy into the most prosperous area of the Empire.

The many natural advantages of this Po River Valley site were obvious, and Livy states this through words read by Camillus: "Not without reason did gods and men choose this spot for the site of our city – the salubrious hills, the river to bring us produce from the inland regions and sea-borne commerce from abroad, the sea itself, near enough for convenience yet not so near as to bring danger from foreign fleets, our situation in the very heart of Italy – all these advantages make it of all places in the world the best for a city destined to grow great."