advantages of the Italian peninsula.

　　The advantage of Italian geography over Greek geography is simply that it is easier to start a life and develop into a society on the Italian peninsula comparing to the Balkan Peninsula. While the Balkan Peninsula is very mountainous, with eighty percent of territory consist of mountains ranging from 8000 to 10000 feet high, making agriculture and communication very hard to carry through, the Italian Peninsula had less abrupt landform and much flatter mountains. The Greeks were much more isolated comparing to the Romans also due to this geographical reason. But both peninsulas had the advantage of exploiting sea products. With water surrounding three sides of the land and long shorelines, transportation by ferries makes it easier to go across the continent and establish colonies later on, especially for the Romans who made full use of this advantage by expanding its borders. Rome is located in the west, where the fertile lands were, and approximately central on a north-south scale, which allowed it to oversee in all for directions, having control in most regions. Not only Rome had the flexibility to expand, it was also provided with the natural shield of the Alp Mountains against the north, making it hard for invaders to get pass. Due to its geographical advantages, Rome was able to develop into a large expanding empire.