But the inhabitants of those countries affirm this beyond all else, and I have also read it inscribed upon their monuments, that Hercules, the son of Amphytrion, hastened to destroy the cruel tyrants Geryon and Tauriscus, of whom one oppressed Spain, the other, Gaul; and having overcome them both that he took to wife some high-born women and begat numerous children, who called by their own names the districts which they ruled.

But in fact a people of Asia from Phocaea, to avoid the severity of Harpalus,An error for Harpagus, see Index. prefect of king Cyrus, set sail for Italy. A part of them founded VeliaModern Castellamare della Bruca. in Lucania, the rest, MassiliaMarseilles. in the region of Vienne. Then in subsequent ages they established no small number of towns, as their strength and resources increased. But I must not discuss varying opinions, which often causes satiety.

Throughout these regions men gradually grew civilised and the study of the liberal arts flourished, initiated by the Bards, the Euhages and the Druids.The three are connected also by Strabo (iv. 4. 4), who says that the bards were poets; the euhages (οὐάτεις), diviners and natural philosophers; while the Druids studied both natural and moral philosophy. ii. p. 245. Now, the Bards sang to the sweet strains of the lyre the valorous deeds of famous men composed in heroic verse, but the Euhages,Properly, Vates (οὐάτεις). investigating the sublime, attempted to explain the secret laws of nature. The Druids, being loftier than the rest in intellect, and bound together in fraternal organisations, as the authority of Pythagoras determined, were elevated by their investigation of obscure and profound subjects, and scorning all things human, pronounced the soul immortal.

This country of Gaul, because of its lofty chains of mountains always covered with formidable snows, was formerly all but unknown to the inhabitants of the rest of the globe, except where it borders on the coast; and bulwarks enclose it on every side, surrounding it naturally, as if by the art of man.

Now on the southern side it is washed by the Tuscan and the Gallic Sea; where it looks up to the heavenly Wain,The septentriones, the constellation of ursa major, representing the north. it is separated from the wild nations by the channelsAs it enters the sea, the Rhine divides into several branches. of the Rhine. Where it lies under the west-sloping sunAs there is no specific western constellation, sidus seems to mean sun; cf. Pliny, ii. 12; etc., and solis ortus, below, of the east. it is bounded by the Ocean and the Pyrenaean heights; and where it rises towards the East it gives place to the bulk of the Cottian Alps. There King Cottius, after the subjugation of Gaul, lay hidden alone in their defiles, trusting to the pathless ruggedness of the region; finally, when his disaffection was allayed, and he was admitted to the emperor Octavian’s friendship, in lieu of a remarkable gift he built with great labour short cuts convenient to travellers, since they were midway between other ancient Alpine passes, about which I shall later tell what I have learned.

In these Cottian Alps, which begin at the town of Susa, there rises a lofty ridge, which scarcely anyone can cross without danger.

For as one comes from Gaul it falls off with sheer incline, terrible to look upon because of overhanging cliffs on either side, especially in the season of spring, when the ice melts and the snows thaw under the warmer breath of the wind; then over precipitous ravines on either side and chasms rendered treacherous through the accumulation of ice, men and animals descending with hesitating step slide forward, and waggons as well. And the only expedient that has been devised to ward off destruction is this: they bind together a number of vehicles with heavy ropes and hold them back from behind with powerful efforts of men or oxen at barely a snail’s pace; and so they roll down a little more safely. And this, as we have said, happens in the spring of the year.

But in winter the ground, caked with ice, and as it were polished and therefore slippery, drives men headlong in their gait and the spreading valleys in level places, made treacherous by ice, sometimes swallow up the traveller. Therefore those that know the country well drive projecting wooden stakes along the safer spots, in order that their line may guide the traveller in safety. But if these are covered with snow and hidden, or are overturned by the streams running down from the mountains, the paths are difficult to traverse even with natives leading the way.

But from the peak of this Italian slope a plateau extends for seven miles, as far as the post named from MarsModern Oulx, in the called mansio Martis; in the Amm. uses statio both of a military post, and of a station on the cursus publicus, but see Hyde, , p. 59. ; from there on another loftier height, equally difficult to surmount, reaches to the peak of the Matrona,Mont Genèvre. so called from an accident to a noble lady. After that a route, steep to be sure, but easier to traverse extends to the fortress of Briançon.

The tomb of the prince, who, as we said, built these roads, is at Susa next to the walls, and his shades are devoutly venerated for a double reason: because he had ruled his subjects with a just government, and when admitted to alliance with the Roman state, procured eternal peace for his nation.

And although this road which I have described is the middle one, the short cut, and the more frequented, yet there are also others, constructed long before at various times.

Now the first of these the Theban Hercules,See note, p. 176. when travelling leisurely to destroy Geryon and Tauriscus, constructed near the Maritime Alps and gave them the name of the GraianGrecian, but see Hyde, , p. 59. Alps. And in like manner he consecrated the castle and harbour of Monaco to his lasting memory. Then, later, after the passage of many centuries, the name Pennine was devised for these Alps for the following reason.

Publius Cornelius Scipio, father of the elder Africanus, when the Saguntines, famous both for their catastrophies and their loyalty, were besieged by the AfricansThat is, the Carthaginians, in 218 B.C. See Hyde, pp. 197 ff. with persistent obstinacy, wishing to help them, crossed to Spain with a fleet manned by a strong army. But as the city had been destroyed by a superior force,After a siege of eight months. and he was unable to overtake Hannibal, who had crossed the Rhone three days before and was hastening to the regions of Italy, by swift sailing he crossed the intervening space-which is not great-and watched at Genoa, a town of Liguria, for Hannibal’s descent from the mountains, so that if chance should give him the opportunity, he might fight with him in the plain while exhausted by the roughness of the roads.

At the same time, having an eye to the common welfare, he advised his brother, Gnaeus Scipio, to proceed to Spain and hold off Hasdrubal, who was planning to burst forth in like manner from that quarter. But Hannibal learned of this from deserters, and being of a nimble and crafty wit, came, under the guidance of natives from among the Taurini, through the Tricasini and the extreme edge of the Vocontii to the passes of the Tricorii. Starting out from there, he made another road, where it hitherto had been impassable; he hewed out a cliff which rose to a vast height by burning it with flames of immense power and crumbling it by pouring on vinegar;Cf. Livy, xxi. 37, 1–3; Juvenal, x. 153; etc. Pliny, xxiii. 57, attributes this power to vinegar, but Polybius does not mention the story, which is doubted for various reasons. then he marched along the river Druentia, dangerous with its shifting eddies, and seized upon the district of Etruria. So much about the Alps; let us now turn to the rest of the country.

In early times, when these regions lay in darkness as savage, they are thought to have been threefold,With this part of the account, cf. Caesar, , i. 1. divided into Celts (the same as the Gauls), the Aquitanians, and the Belgians, differing in language, habits and laws.

Now the Gauls (who are the Celts) are separated from the Aquitanians by the Garonne river, which rises in the hills of the Pyrenees, and after running past many towns disappears in the Ocean.

But from the Belgians this same nation is separated by the Marne and the Seine, rivers of identical size; they flow through the district of Lyons, and after encircling in the manner of an island a stronghold of the Parisii called Lutetia,Paris. they unite in one channel, and flowing on together pour into the sea not far from Castra Constantia.The site of Harfleur.