Ch. 17.
16. Brundisīnī: the people of Brundisium, the modern Brindisi. It was a seaport of Calabria, the chief naval station of the Romans on the Adriatic Sea, and their regular port of departure for Greece.
Ch. 18.
17. annō: sc. ab urbe conditā.
18. extrā Ītaliam: ‘the Roman power was now dominant throughout the peninsula to the river Aesis; the valley of the Po, however, was still reckoned a part of Gaul.’
24. contrā Āfrōs: i.e. Carthaginians. Carthage was one of the first cities of the ancient world. It was situated on the north coast of Africa, and was said to have been founded by Phoenicians from Tyre under the leadership of Dido. Carthage had been the ally of Rome in the war against Pyrrhus. But the growing commercial activity of Carthage caused jealousy to arise which resulted in the three wars for the supremacy of the West,—known as the Punic wars. The first was from 264 B.C. to 241 B.C. The second 218-202 B.C. and the third 149-146 B.C. It resulted in the capture and destruction of Carthage by the Romans under P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Creighton, Ch. III.
26. rēge Siciliae Hierōne: Hiero was the king of Syracuse and its dependencies. Nearly all the rest of Sicily was in the power of the Carthaginians.
Page 23.
Ch. 19.
2. rēs māgnae: ‘great operations.’