Res Gestae

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).

In Aquitania, which trends towards the Pyrenees mountains and that part of the Ocean which extends

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towards Spain, the first province is Aquitania, much adorned by the greatness of its cities; leaving out numerous others, Bordeaux and Clermont are conspicuous, as well as Saintorige and Poitiers.

The Nine Nations[*](The country between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, Aquitania in the narrower sense. The names of the nine nations are not known.) are ennobled by Auch and Bazas. In the Narbonese province Eauze, Narbonne, and Toulouse hold the primacy among the cities. The Viennese province rejoices in the distinction conferred by many cities, of which the most important are Vienne itself, Aries and Valence; and joined to these is Marseilles, by whose alliance and power we read that Rome was several times supported in severe crises.

Near these are Aix-en-Provence, Nice, Antibes, and the Isles d’Hyères.

And since we have reached these parts in the course of our work, it would be unfitting and absurd to say nothing of the Rhone, a river of the greatest celebrity. Rising in the Pennine Alps from a plenteous store of springs, the Rhone flows in headlong course towards more level places. It hides its banks with its own stream[*](That is, it receives no tributaries, yet fills its channel full.) and bursts into the lagoon called Lake Leman. This it flows through, nowhere mingling with the water outside, but gliding along the surface of the less active water on either hand, it seeks an outlet and forces a way for itself by its swift onset.

From there without any loss of volume it flows through[*](Really between. ) Savoy and the Seine Province,[*](Maxima Sequanorum.) and, after going on for a long distance, it grazes the Viennese Province on the left side and the Lyonnese on the right side. Next, after describing many meanders, it receives the Arar,

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which they call the Sauconna,[*](Saône.) flowing between Upper Germany and the Seine Province, and gives it its own name. This point is the beginning of Gaul, and from there they measure distances, not in miles but in leagues.

After this the Rhone, enriched by the tributary waters of the Isère, carries very large craft, which are frequently wont to be tossed by gales of wind, and having finished the bounds which nature has set for it, its foaming waters are mingled with the Gallic Sea through a broad bay which they call Ad Gradus[*](The Gulf of Lyons; of. Grau-du-Roi.) at about the eighteenth milestone distant from Arles. Let this suffice for the topography of the region; I shall now describe the appearance and manners of its people.