Mommsen is Hard

Mommsen is proving to be more difficult to get through than I anticipated. I'm finding that I'm slow to make progress and staying motivated to read it is a challenge.

The problem is context. I don't understand any of the geographic places or the different populations he's talking about. There are the Romans, The Latins, and the Italians...Aren't they all the same? Guess not. Then there's Numidia and Numantia, are they the same? Is one a city and the other a country? I recognize Libya and there was one reference to Tunisia. These only sort of help, at least I can locate the general vicinity but otherwise it's the Jabberwocky of geography.