Res Gestae

Next comes First, or Upper, Germany where besides other free towns are Mayence and Worms and Spires and Strasburg, famous for the disasters of the savages.[*](At the battle of Argentoratus (Strasburg); see xvi. 12.)

After these the First province of Belgium displays Metz and Treves, splendid abode of the emperors.[*](Augusta Trevirorum was the headquarters of the Roman commanders on the Rhine, and a frequent residence of the Roman emperors; Ausonius, in his Ordo Urbium Nobilium gives it sixth place.)

Adjoining this is the Second province of Belgium, in which are Amiens, a city eminent above the rest, and Chalôns[*](Châlons-sur-Marne.) and Rheims.

In the Seine province we see Besançon and Augst, more important than its many other towns. The first Lyonnese province is made famous by Lyons, Châlon-sur-Saône, Sens, Bourges, and Autun with its huge ancient walls.

As for the second Lyonnese province, Rouen and Tours make it distinguished, as well as Evreux and Troyes. The Graian and Pennine Alps, not counting towns of lesser note, have Avenche, a city now abandoned, to be sure, but once of no slight importance, as is even yet evident from its half-ruined buildings. These are the goodly provinces and cities of Gaul.

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

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,

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.

Almost all the Gauls are of tall stature, fair and ruddy, terrible for the fierceness of their eyes, fond of quarrelling, and of overbearing insolence. In fact, a whole band of foreigners will be unable to cope with one of them in a fight, if he call in his wife, stronger than he by far and with flashing eyes; least of all when she swells her neck and gnashes her teeth, and poising her huge white arms, proceeds to rain punches mingled with kicks, like shots discharged by the twisted cords of a catapult.

The voices of most of them are formidable and threatening, alike when they are good-natured or angry. But all of them with equal care keep clean and neat, and in those districts, particularly in Aquitania, no man or woman can be seen, be she never