Res Gestae

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. L.C.L. ii. p. 245.) Now, the Bards sang to the sweet strains of the lyre the valorous deeds of famous men composed in heroic

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 channels[*](As it enters the sea, the Rhine divides into several branches.) of the Rhine. Where it lies under the west-sloping sun[*](As there is no specific western constellation, sidus seems to mean sun; cf. Pliny, N.H. 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

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