Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/321

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B. IV. C. VI. § 9.
THE ALPS.
307

the Sequani,[1] the Boii, and the Germans.[2] But the Licattii, the Clautinatii, and the Vennones[3] proved the boldest amongst the Vindelici; and the Rucantii and Cotuantii amongst the Rhæti. Both the Estiones and Brigantii belong to the Vindelici; their cities are Brigantium, Campodunum, and Damasia, which may be looked upon as the Acropolis of the Licattii. It is narrated, as an instance of the extreme brutality of these robbers towards the people of Italy, that when they have taken any village or city, they not only put to death all the men capable of bearing arms, but likewise all the male children, and do not even stop here, but murder every pregnant woman who, their diviners say, will bring forth a male infant.[4]

9. After these come certain of the Norici, and the Carni, who inhabit the country about the Adriatic Gulf and Aquileia. The Taurisci belong to the Norici. Tiberius and his brother Drusus in one summer put a stop to their lawless incursions, so that now for three and thirty years[5] they have lived quietly and paid their tribute regularly. Throughout the whole region of the Alps there are hilly districts capable of excellent cultivation, and well situated valleys; but the greater part, especially the summits of the mountains inhabited by the robbers, are barren and unfruitful, both on account of the frost and the ruggedness of the land. On account of the want of food and other necessaries the mountaineers have sometimes been obliged to spare the inhabitants of the plains, that they might have some people to supply them; for these they have given them in exchange, resin, pitch, torches,

  1. ↑ The people of Franche Comté.
  2. ↑ The Germans of Wirtemberg and Suabia.
  3. ↑ The Licattii appear to have inhabited the country about the Lech, and the Clautinatii that about the Inn; the Vennones the Val Telline.
  4. ↑ This disgusting brutality however is no more barbarous than the intention put by Homer into the mouth of Agamemnon, “the king of men,” which Scholiasts have in vain endeavoured to soften or excuse—
    τῶν μή τις ὑπεκφύγοι αἰπὺν ὄλεθρον,
    χεῖράς θ ᾽ ἡμετέρας, μηδ ᾽ ὅν τινα γαστέρι μήτηρ
    κοῦρον ἐόντα φέροι, μηδ ᾽ ὃς φύγοι, ἀλλ ᾽ ἅμα πάντες
    Ἰλίου ἐξαπολοίατ ᾽, ἀκήδεστοι καὶ ἄφαντοι.
    Iliad vi. 57–60.
  5. ↑ This expedition of Tiberius took place in the eleventh year of the Christian era; Strabo therefore must have written his fourth book in the 44th year.
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