Canosa di Puglia

Its only stream is the Aufidus, on the bank of which at Cannae was fought a famous battle.

Arpi, Asculum, and Canusium are interior towns.

In Calabria are Apigia, were the cities Brundisium and Tarentum.

The chief towns in Lucania and Bruttium were settled by the Greeks.

The defections for all of the panic they caused added up to fewer than a dozen communities that really mattered.

And the most telling loyalty of all came from the little town called Canusium, sitting practically next door to the battlefield.

If you remember, this is where the consul Varro had fled, looking out at the smoke of the worst defeat in the Republic's history and choosing Rome anyway.

That loyal heart of the confederation is the one thing Rome could not afford to lose.