Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/324

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310
STRABO.
CASAUB. 208.

the rivers, and of its being equally near to all parts. It was on this account that Agrippa cut all the roads from this [as a centre] one running through the mountains of the Cevennes to the Santones[p 1] and Aquitaine,[p 2] another towards the Rhine; a third towards the ocean by the country of the Bellovaci[p 3] and Ambiani,[p 4] and a fourth towards the Narbonnaise and the coast of Marseilles.[1] The traveller, also, leaving Lugdunum and the country above on his left, may pass over the Pennine Alps themselves, the Rhone, or Lake Leman, into the plains of the Helvetii, whence there is a passage through Mount Jura into the country of the Sequani, and Lingones; here the road separates into two routes, one running to the Rhine, and the other[2] to the ocean.

12. Polybius tells us that in his time the gold mines were so rich about Aquileia, but particularly in the countries of the Taurisci Norici, that if you dug but two feet below the surface you found gold, and that the diggings [generally] were not deeper than fifteen feet. In some instances the gold was found pure in lumps about the size of a bean or lupin, and which diminished in the fire only about one eighth; and in others, though requiring more fusion, was still very profitable. Certain Italians[3] aiding the barbarians in working [the mines], in the space of two months the value of gold was diminished throughout the whole of Italy by one third. The Taurisci on discovering this drove out their fellow-labourers, and only sold the gold themselves. Now, however, the Romans possess all the gold mines. Here, too, as well as in Iberia, the rivers yield gold-dust as well as the diggings,

  1. ↑ La Saintonge.
  2. ↑ Gascony.
  3. ↑ Beauvoisis.
  4. ↑ Picardie.
  1. ↑ From Lyons this route passed by Vienne, Valence, Orange, and Avignon; here it separated, leading on one side to Tarascon, Nîmes, Beziers, and Narbonne, and on the other to Arles, Aix, Marseilles, Fréjus, Antibes, &c.
  2. ↑ This other route, says Gosselin, starting from Aouste, traversed the Great Saint Bernard, Valais, the Rhone, a portion of the Vaud, Mount Jura, and so to Besançon and Langres, where it separated, the road to the right passing by Toul, Metz, and Trèves, approached the Rhine at Mayence; while that to the left passed by Troies, Châlons, Rheims, and Bavai, where it again separated and conducted by various points to the sea-coast.
  3. ↑ The Italians also went into Spain, and there engaged in working the mines. Vide Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. c. 36, 38.
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