Chapter 31

1249Apuleius, Catullus, and Diodorus Siculus all speak of this singular custom.

1250A note in the French edition says, “This surprise of the Vettones is nothing extraordinary. Amongst all barbarous nations, savages especially, the promenade is an unknown exercise. When roused by necessity or passion, they will even kill themselves with fatigue; at other times they remain in the most perfect inaction. The first thing which strikes a Turk on coming to any of the polished nations of Europe, is to see men promenading without any other aim but that of pleasure or health.”

1251Head-dress shaped like a drum.

1252At the present day in Bilboa, the capital of Biscay, the women work far more than the men; they load and unload vessels, and carry on their heads burdens which require two men to place there.

1253We must remark that so far from the dowry given by men to their wives being an evidence of civilization, it is a custom common amongst barbarous people, and indicative of nothing so much as the despotic power of the man over the wife. These dowries were generally a sum of money from the husband to the father of his intended, on the payment of which he acquired the same power over her as over a slave. Aristotle, speaking of the ancient Greeks, tells us expressly that they bought their wives, (Polit. ii. c. 8,) and observing that amongst barbarous nations women were always regarded in the same light as slaves, he cites the example of the Cyclopes, who exercised, according to Homer, sovereign authority over their families (Odyss. l. ix. 114). This custom was so well established amongst the Greeks at the time of the poet, that he does not hesitate to introduce it amongst the gods (Odyss. viii. 318). It was not unknown among the Jews, and Strabo, in his fifteenth book, tells us that the Indians bought their wives.

1254Cæsar and Athenæus attribute this custom to the Gauls, and Valerius Maximus to the Keltiberians. Those men who attached themselves to the interests of any prince or famous personage, and who espoused all his quarrels, even devoting themselves to death on his account, are named by Athenæus σιλοδοῦροι, and by Cæsarsoldurii. Speaking of 600 soldiers devoted in this manner to a Gaulish prince, named Adcantuannus, Cæsar (l. iii. c. 22) says, “Sibi mortem consciscant; neque adhuc hominum memoriâ repertus est quisquam, qui, eo interfecto cujus se amicitiæ devovisset, mori recusaret.” Plutarch tells us that Sertorius had in his suite many thousand Iberians devoted to him. The following epitaph of these men, who, after the death of Sertorius, sacrificed themselves, being unwilling to survive him, was extracted by Swinburne from the Annals of Catalonia.Hic multæ quæ se manibusQ. Sertorii turmæ, et terræMortalium omnium parentiDevovere, dum, eo sublato,Superesse tæderet, et fortiterPugnando invicem cecidere,Morte ad præsens optata jacent.Valete posteri.

Hic multæ quæ se manibusQ. Sertorii turmæ, et terræMortalium omnium parentiDevovere, dum, eo sublato,Superesse tæderet, et fortiterPugnando invicem cecidere,Morte ad præsens optata jacent.Valete posteri.

Hic multæ quæ se manibus

Q. Sertorii turmæ, et terræ

Mortalium omnium parenti

Devovere, dum, eo sublato,

Superesse tæderet, et fortiter

Pugnando invicem cecidere,

Morte ad præsens optata jacent.

Valete posteri.

1255The country between the Ebro and the Pyrenees.

1256These Igletes are the same which Stephen of Byzantium names Gletes, and by an error of the copyist Tletes. Herodotus places them between the Cynetæ, and the Tartessians, and Theopompus in the neighbourhood of the Tartessians. The position between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, which Asclepiades the Myrlean thus gives them, supports the opinion of those who reckon that Rosas was founded by the Rhodians, and that the people of Marseilles did not settle there till afterwards; it is more than probable that the Igletes were nothing more than Ignetes or Gnetes of the Isle of Rhodes.

1257Caslona.

1258Merida.

1259Casaubon supposes that this is the river Ptolemy names Merus. Lopez, Geograf. de Estrabon, lib. iii. p. 232, thinks it the Narcea.

1260Pomponius Mela and Pliny coincide with Strabo in making this city belong to the Asturians; Ptolemy however describes it under the name of Noega Ucesia as pertaining to the Cantabrians. Some say it corresponds to the present Navia, others to Pravia. Groskurd reckons it Gajon, or Navia, or Santander.

1261Carthagena.

1262Tarragona.

1263Murviedro.

1264Iviça.

1265Majorca.

1266Palma.

1267Pollerça.

1268Gosselin observes that the greatest length of Majorca is 14 leagues and a half; its breadth at the narrowest part 8 leagues; and adds, that by confounding stadia of unequal value, Strabo makes Majorca a long narrow island, whereas in fact its form approaches nearer to that of a square.

1269Minorca.

1270Viz. the Phœnicians.

1271Immediately after the word μελαγκραΐνας, which we have translated black rush, the text of our geographer runs on as follows: “resembling the schœnus, a species of rush from which cords are made. Philetas in his Mercury [says] ‘he was covered with a vile and filthy tunic, and about his wretched loins was bound a strip of black rush, as if he had been girt with a mere schœnus.’” It is evident that this passage is the scholium of some ancient grammarian, and we have followed the example of the French editors in inserting it in a note, as it is a great impediment in the middle of Strabo’s description of the equipment of the island warriors.

1272“Cibum puer a matre non accipit, nisi quem, ipsa monstrante, percussit.” Florus, lib. iii. c. 8. The same thing is stated by Lycophron, v. 637, and Diodorus Siculus, l. v. c. 18.

1273Cadiz.

1274The rock of Gibraltar.

1275This mouth of the Guadalquiver, opposite Cadiz, no longer exists.

1276The Mediterranean.

1277Padua.

1278“The length of the island of Leon, at the extremity of which the city of Cadiz is situated, is about 9500 toises, which are equivalent to 100 Olympic stadia.”Gosselin.

1279L. Cornelius Balbus was a native of Cadiz, and descended from an illustrious family in that town. His original name probably bore some resemblance in sound to the Latin Balbus. Cadiz being one of the federate cities, supported the Romans in their war against Sertorius in Spain, and Balbus thus had an opportunity for distinguishing himself. He served under the Roman generals Q. Mettellus Pius, C. Memmius, and Pompey, and was present at the battles of Turia and Sucro. He distinguished himself so much throughout the war, that Pompey conferred the Roman citizenship upon him, his brother, and his brother’s sons and this act of Pompey was ratified by the law of the consuls, Cn. Cornelius Lentulus and L. Gellius,B. C.72. It was probably in honour of these consuls that Balbus took the Gentile name of the one, and the prænomen of the other. It was for this Balbus that Cicero made the defence which has come down to us. The reason which induced Strabo to notice, as something remarkable, that Balbus had received the honours of a triumph, we learn from Pliny, who, noticing the victories which he had gained over the Garamantes and other nations of Africa, tells us he was the only person of foreign extraction who had ever received the honour of a triumph. “Omnia armis Romanis superata et a Cornelio Balbo triumphata, uni huic omnium externo curru et Quiritium jure donato.” Plin. lib. v. c. 5. Solinus likewise says of him, (cap. xxix. p. 54.) “Primus sane de externis, utpote Gadibus genitus accessit ad gloriam nominis triumphalis.”

1280This word signifies “The Twins.”

1281Gosselin says, the temple of Saturn appears to have stood on the site of the present church of S. Sebastian, and that of Hercules at the other extremity of the island on the site of St. Peter’s.

1282Groskurd supposes that we should here read, “[certain citizens of Cadiz have appropriated to themselves possessions in the interior of the island,] but the whole sea-shore is inhabited in common,” that is, by shepherds who pastured the grounds in common.

1283Gosselin shows that we ought to read 500 stadia in this place.

1284The rock of Gibraltar.

1285The Ape-mountain near Ceuta.

1286The text is corrupt, but it is needless to go through all the emendations proposed.

1287This passage of Pindar has not come down to us.

1288ψεῦσμα Φοινικικόν, a proverbial mode of speaking, having its origin in the bad faith of the Phœnicians [_fides Punica_].

1289Regio.

1290Strabo, in his 17th book, gives a different locality to these altars.

1291These were twelve altars, of fifty cubits each, erected to the twelve gods. _Vide_ Diodorus Siculus, l. XVII. c. 95.

1292The text is ἐν τοῖς παραδόξοις, which Gosselin renders, “Les ouvrages qui traitent des choses merveilleuses.”

1293Strabo’s argument is here so weak, that one can hardly believe it can have ever been seriously made use of.

1294This method of explaining the ebb and flow of the sea, by comparing it to the respiration of animals, is not so extraordinary, when we remember that it was the opinion of many philosophers that the universe was itself an animal. Pomponius Mela, (De Situ Orbis, lib. iii. c. 1,) speaking of the tides, says, “Neque adhuc satis cognitum est, anhelitune suo id mundus efficiat, retractamque cum spiritu regerat undam undique, si, ut doctioribus placet, unum (_lege_ universum) animal est; an sint depressi aliqui specus, quo reciprocata maria residant, atque unde se rursus exuberantia attollant: an luna causas tantis meatibus præbeat.”

1295Thirty degrees.

1296The Persian Gulf.

1297Alcolea.

1298Some MSS. read 50 stadia.

1299This is the sense of the text, πᾶσαν τὴν κύκλῳ παρωκεανῖτιν.

1300We are not aware that the Ebro passes through any lake.

1301This is probably a description of the appearance of the Druids. Tacitus, (Ann. lib. xiv. 30,) speaking of the consternation into which the Druids of Anglesey threw the Roman soldiers who had disembarked there, says, “Druidæque circum, preces diras, sublatis ad cœlum manibus, fundentes, novitate adspectus perculere milites, ut, quasi hærentibus membris, immobile corpus vulneribus præberent.” Immediately before these words he thus describes the women, “Stabat pro litore diversa acies, densa armis virisque, intercursantibus feminis in _modum furiarum_, quæ veste ferali, crinibus dejectis, faces præferebant.”

1302Viz. that the Cassiterides are farther removed from the coasts of Spain than the rest of the southern coasts of England.

1303Transalpine Gaul.

1304Gaul is properly divided into the four grand divisions of the Narbonnaise, Aquitaine, Keltica, and Belgica. Strabo has principally copied Cæsar, who appears only to have divided Gaul into Aquitaine, Keltica, and Belgica. Cæsar however only speaks of the provinces he had conquered, and makes no mention of the Narbonnaise, which had submitted to the Romans before his time. Strabo seems to have thought that the Narbonnaise formed part of Keltica.

1305Lyons.

1306The whole of this passage, says Gosselin, is full of mistakes, and it would seem that Strabo quoted from an inexact copy of Cæsar. To understand his meaning, we must remember that he supposed the Pyrenees extended from north to south, instead of from east to west; and since he adds that these mountains divide the Cevennes at right angles, he must have supposed that this second chain extended from east to west, instead of from north to south. He likewise fancied that the Garonne, the Loire, and the Seine ran from north to south like the Rhine. Starting from such premises, it was impossible he could avoid confusion; thus we find him describing the Aquitani as north of the Cevennes, when in fact they dwelt north of the Pyrenees, between those mountains and the Garonne, and west of the southern portions of the Cevennes. Where he says that the Kelts dwelt on the other side or east of the Garonne, and towards the sea of Narbonne and Marseilles, it is clear that he prolonged Keltica into the Narbonnaise, since this last province extended along the Mediterranean from the frontiers of Spain to the Alps. Cæsar had stated that the Gauls (the Kelts of Strabo) _ipsorum lingua Keltæ, nostri Galli_, dwelt between the Garonne, the Seine, the Marne, and the Rhine. Finally, Strabo appears to have assigned the greater part of Gaul to the Belgæ in making them extend from the ocean, and the mouth of the Rhine, to the Alps. This considerably embarrassed Xylander, but as we have seen that Strabo transported a portion of the Kelts into the Narbonnaise, it is easy to imagine that, in order to make these people border on the Belgæ, he was forced to extend them as far as the Alps, near the sources of the Rhine. Cæsar located the Belgæ between the Seine, the ocean, and the Rhine.

1307Liger.

1308From the ocean to the Mediterranean, and vice versa.

1309Alluding to the superiority of the climate on the shores of the Mediterranean.

1310We shall see in the course of this book, that under the name of Alps Strabo includes the different mountain-chains separated from the range of Alps properly so called. This accounts for his extending those mountains on the west as far as Marseilles, and on the east beyond Istria.

1311The Marseillese.

1312The Salyes inhabited Provence.

1313As Strabo has made no previous mention of this river, the words “as we have said before” are evidently interpolated.

1314This temple was built on Cape Creus, which on that account received the name of Aphrodisium. Many geographers confound this temple with the _portus Veneris_, the modern Vendres, which is at a short distance from Cape Creus.

1315Nîmes.

1316Beaucaire.

1317Aix.

1318Gosselin, who considers that the former numbers were correct, enters at some length on an argument to prove that these 53 miles were 62, and differs also in computing the succeeding numbers.

1319The cantons of Vaison and Die.

1320Cottius possessed the present Briançonnais. That portion of the Alps next this canton took from this sovereign the name of the Cottian Alps. Cottius bore the title of king; and Augustus recognised his independence; he lived till the time of Nero, when his possessions became a Roman province.

1321Nîmes.

1322Durance and Cavaillon.

1323Embrun.

1324Briançon.

1325Sezanne, or perhaps Chamlat de Seguin.

1326Uxeau.

1327About 600 years before the Christian era.

1328Ἀφίδρυμά τι τῶν ἱερῶν. Gosselin gives a note on these words, and translates them in his text as follows, “one of the statues consecrated in her temple.”

1329τιμοῦχος, literally, one having honour and esteem.

1330We have seen no reason to depart from a literal rendering of the Greek in this passage, its meaning, “whose ancestors have not been citizens,” &c., being self-evident.

1331This name has evidently been corrupted, but it seems difficult to determine what stood originally in the text; most probably it was Rhodanusia.

1332Agde.

1333Taurenti.

1334Eoube.

1335Antibes.

1336Nice.

1337The people of Marseilles.

1338Aquæ Sextiæ, now Aix.

1339Solinus tells us that in his day the waters had lost their virtue, and that their fame had declined. “Quarum calor, olim acrior, exhalatus per tempora evaporavit; nec jam par est famæ priori.” _Solin._ cap. 8. The victory of Sextius, mentioned by Strabo, is said to have been gained in the year of Rome 629.

1340The Cape de Creus, a promontory on which was the temple of the Pyrenæan Venus.

1341The Gulf of Lyons.

1342The Cape de Cette.

1343Gosselin says, “The Island of Blascon is a rock opposite Agde, on which remains a fortified castle, which preserves the name of Brescon. This rock has been connected with the mainland, to form the port of Agde.”

1344Ἄταξ.

1345At the present day Narbonne is not situated on the Aude, the course of that river being changed. The lake of Narbonne, mentioned by Strabo, is not the present lake of Narbonne, but the lake of Rubine.

1346Arles.

1347Ῥoυσκίνων.

1348ὁ Ἰλίβιρρις.

1349Viz. Ruscino, now superseded by Perpignan on the Tet; and Ilibirris, now Elne on the Tech.

1350“This ancient city,” says Gosselin, “no longer exists, with the exception of an old tower, scarcely a league from Perpignan, which still bears the name of the Tower of Roussillon.”

1351This river does not rise in the Cevennes, but in the Pyrenees.

1352Ὄρβις.

1353This name is evidently corrupt; the Arauris of Mela and Ptolemy (the modern Herault) is probably intended.

1354The Orbe.

1355Beziers.

1356Agde.

1357The French _bise_.

1358βράσται σεισμοί, earthquakes attended with a violent fermentation.

1359The text has, “both of their opinions are credible,” (πιθανὸς μὲν οὖν ὁ παρ’ ἀμφοῖν λόγος,) but this is discountenanced by the whole sentence.

1360From the “Prometheus Loosed,” which is now lost.

1361The historian, son of Andromachus.

1362The mouths of the Rhone, like those of other impetuous rivers, are subject to considerable changes, and vary from one age to another. Ptolemy agrees with Polybius in stating that there are but two mouths to the Rhone, and those which he indicates are at the present day almost entirely filled up; the one being at Aigues-Mortes, the other canal now called the Rhône-Mort.

1363Two Helvetian tribes who united themselves to the Cimbri to pass into Italy, and were defeated near Aix by Marius.

1364Now l’étang de Berre or de Martigues.

1365The French editors propose to read here five mouths, thus referring to the opinion of Timæus. This, Kramer observes, Strabo probably intended to do. Still, as there were some who were of opinion the Rhone has seven mouths, as appears from Apoll. Rhod. Argonaut. iv. 634, he did not venture to touch the text.

1366Taurenti.

1367Eoube.

1368Antibes.

1369Nice.

1370Fréjus.

1371Inhabitants of Provence.

1372Les Isles d’Hières, a row of islands off Marseilles.

1373Isle St. Honorat.

1374Isle Ste. Marguerite.

1375Fréjus.

1376Between the river d’Argents and Antibes.

1377Cavaillon.

1378From the mouth of the Durance to the mouth of the Isère, following the course of the Rhone, the distance is 24 leagues, or 720 Olympic stadia.

1379The Vocontii occupied the territories of Vaison and Die. The Tricorii appear to have inhabited a small district east of Die, on the banks of the Drac. The Iconii were to the east of Gap; and the Medylli in La Maurienne, along the Aar.

1380The Sorgue.

1381Vedene.

1382Avignon.

1383Orange.

1384Le mont Ventoux.

1385Casaubon remarks that Æmilianus is a name more than this Roman general actually possessed.

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