EUROPE TO-DAY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 46, 22 January 1938, Page 2

EUROPE TO-DAY

ITALY LONG AGO. *AVe are coming to tho land of beautiful possessions. Let us recall its past before we travel far. Taranto was colonised by Spartans as early as 705 13. C., and was the scene in 280 13. C. of consternation when the llomans were amazed at the elephants, the first they had seen, brought by Pyrrhus. In 410 13. C. the Carthaginians began a long series of attacks on Sicily, and in 390 33. C. the Gauls* sacked Home, but the Capitol was saved by geese which calded as the enemy drew near at dead of night.

In 260 the llomans won their first naval battle over tho Carthaginians. In 256 they defeated a great Carthaginian fleet off Sicily. At Cannae wo may see the spot where Hannibal annihilated the Homan army; and at Zama in Africa we may visit the spot where Scipio annihilated Hannibal’s army. In 146 B.C. the rivalry between Carthage and Rome for tho ‘mastery of the world was ended by the destruction of Carthage. To the east coast of Italy flows the Rubicon, and as wo watch its waters we recall how Julius Caesar crossed it in 49 B.C. Five years later ho was murdered before Pompey’s statue. We may recall how, about 68 A.D., St. Paul was beheaded at Home. We may remember that in 79 an eruption of Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum, near Naples. Wo may picture, while at Canossa in North Italy, that day in 1077 when the Emperor Henry the Fourth waited barefoot in the snow in order to submit to Pope Gregory the Seventh, known as Hildebrand. (G)