Res Gestae

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.