• Marseilles, about equidistant from the Ebro, in Spain, and the Magra, which divides the Genoese and Tuscan territories. Being a small river, it has but a short journey to make. ↩
• Buggia is a city in Africa, on nearly the same parallel of longitude as Marseilles. ↩
• The allusion here is to the siege of Marseilles by a portion of Caesar’s army under Tribonius, and the fleet under Brutus. Purgatorio XVIII 101:⁠— “And Caesar, that he might subdue Ilerda, Thrust at Marseilles, and then ran into Spain.” Lucan, who describes the siege and sea-fight in the third book of his Pharsalia , says:⁠— “Meanwhile, impatient of the lingering war, The chieftain to Iberia bends afar, And gives the leaguer to Tribonius care.” ↩