迦太基可不能容忍这样的竞争，新兴强权的出现对它就如同梦魇。必须趁羽翼未丰，扼杀掉这个年轻的对手，否则迦太基将威望大跌，失去作为西地中海绝对统治者的地位。经过仔细调查，终于搞清楚了大致的真实情形。

　　The west coast of Italy had long been neglected by civilisation. Whereas in Greece all the good harbours faced eastward and enjoyed a full view of the busy islands of the Aegean, the west coast of Italy contemplated nothing more exciting than the desolate waves of the Mediterranean. The country was poor. It was therefore rarely visited by foreign merchants and the natives were allowed to live in undisturbed possession of their hills and their marshy plains.

　　长期以来，意大利西海岸一直是被文明之光忽略的地区。在希腊，所有的良港都面朝东方，注视着商业繁忙、生意兴隆的爱琴海岛屿，分享文明与通商的便利。而与此同时，意大利西海岸则一无所有，除地中海冰冷的波涛拍击着荒芜的海岸，再没有任何激动人心的事情发生。这是一片极端贫穷的地区，外国的商人们少有造访。当地的士著居民安静寂寞地生活在绵延的丘陵和遍布沼泽的平原之上，似乎与世隔绝。

　　The first serious invasion of this land came from the north. At an unknown date certain Indo-European tribes had managed to find their way through the passes of the Alps and had pushed southward until they had filled the heel and the toe of the famous Italian boot with their villages and their flocks. Of these early conquerors we know nothing. No Homer sang their glory. Their own accounts of the foundation of Rome (written eight hundred years later when the little city had become the centre of an Empire) are fairy stories and do not belong in a history. Romulus and Remus jumping across each other's walls (I always forget who jumped across whose wall) make entertaining reading, but the foundation of the City of Rome was a much more prosaic affair.

　　这片土地上发生的第一次严重侵略来自北方。在某个日期不详的时刻，一些印欧种族的游牧部落开始从欧洲大陆 向南迁移。他们在白雪皑皑的阿尔卑斯群山中婉蜒前进，发现了翻越山脉的隘口，随即潮水般地涌进亚平宁，延伸到部族的村庄与牲畜遍布于这个形状酷似长靴的半岛。对于这些早期的征服者，我们知之甚少。如果没有一个荷马人曾歌唱过他们的辉煌往昔，他们的战功与远征则难作信史。他们自己对于罗马城建立的记述，则产生于800年之后。当时这座小城已经成长为一个大帝国的宏伟中心。这些记述不过是些神话故事，与真实的历史相去甚远。罗慕洛斯和勒莫斯跳过了对方的城墙，但到底谁跳过了谁的墙，我一直记不清楚。它们是有趣的睡前读物，让不肯安睡的孩子们着迷。但说到罗马城建立的真实过程，那无疑是一件乏味而单调的事情。