Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/302

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
288
STRABO.
CASAUB. 193.

likewise asserts that this river has two mouths, and blames those who say that it has more.[1] This river and the Seine embrace within their tortuosities a certain extent of country, which however is not considerable. They both flow from south to north. Britain lies opposite to them; but nearest to the Rhine, from which you may see Kent, which is the most easterly part of the island. The Seine is a little further. It was here that divus Cæsar established a dock-yard when he sailed to Britain. The navigable portion of the Seine, commencing from the point where they receive the merchandise from the Saone, is of greater extent than the [navigable portions] of the Loire and Garonne. From Lugdunum[p 1] to the Seine is [a distance of] 1000 stadia, and not twice this distance from the outlets of the Rhone to Lugdunum. They say that the Helvetii,[2] though rich in gold, nevertheless devoted themselves to pillage on beholding the wealth of the Cimbri,[3] [accumulated by that means;] and that two out of their three tribes perished entirely in their military expeditions. However, the multitude of descendants who sprang from this remainder was proved in their war with divus Cæsar, in which about 400,000 of their number were destroyed; the 8000 who survived the war, being spared by the conqueror, that their country might not be left desert, a prey to the neighbouring Germans.[4]

4. After the Helvetii, the Sequani[5] and Mediomatrici[6] dwell along the Rhine, amongst whom are the Tribocchi,[7] a German nation who emigrated from their country hither. Mount Jura, which is in the country of the Sequani, separates that people from the Helvetii. To the west, above the Helvetii and Sequani, dwell the Ædui and Lingones; the Leuci and a part of the Lingones dwelling above the Mediomatrici. The nations between the Loire and the Seine, and beyond the Rhone and the Saone, are situated to the north near to the

  1. Ptolemy says it has three. It appears that the ancient mouths of this river were not the same as the present.
  2. The Swiss.
  3. Gosselin identifies the Cimbri as the inhabitants of Jutland or Denmark.
  4. Casaubon remarks that the text must be corrupt, since Strabo’s account of the Helvetii must have been taken from Cæsar, who (lib. i. c. 29) states the number of slain at 258,000, and the survivors at 110,000.
  5. The Sequani occupied La Franche-Comté.
  6. Metz was the capital of the Mediomatrici.
  7. These people dwelt between the Rhine and the Vosges, nearly from Colmar to Hagenau.
  1. Lyons.