now the Apennine; a mountain, or ridge of mountains, running through the middle of Apennine Italy, from north-west to south-west, for 700 miles, in the form of a crescent (Pliny); beginning at the Alps in Liguria, or the Rivieria di Genoa; and terminating at the strait of Messana, or at Reggio, and the promontory Leucopetra; and separating, as by a back or ridge, the Adriatic from the Tuscan sea (Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy, Polybius, Vitruvius). This mountain, though high, is greatly short of the height of the Alps. Its name is Celtic, signifying a high mountain.