Book V: Chapter XXXV (original) (raw)

Livy

a.u.c. 363Belloveso haud paulo laetiorem in Italiam viam di5dabant. Is quod eius ex populis abundabat, Bituriges Arvernos Senones Haeduos1 Ambarros Carnutes Aulercos excivit. Profectus ingentibus peditum equitumque copiis in Tricastinos2 venit.

6Alpes inde oppositae erant; quas inexsuperabiles visas haud equidem miror nulladum via, quod quidem continens memoria sit, nisi de Hercule fabulis credere7libet, superatas. Ibi cum velut saeptos montium altitudo teneret Gallos circum spectarentque quanam per iuncta caelo iuga in alium orbem terrarum transirent, religio etiam tenuit quod allatum est advenas quaerentes8agrum ab Saluum gente oppugnari. Massilienses erant ii, navibus a Phocaea profecti. Id Galli fortunae suae omen rati adiuvere ut quem primum in terram egressi occupaverant locum patientibus Saluis3 communirent. Ipsi per Taurinos saltus saltumque9Duriae Alpes4 transcenderunt; fusisque acie Tuscis haud procul Ticino flumine, cum in quo consederant agrum Insubrium appellari audissent, cognominem Insubribus, pago Haeduorum, ibi omen sequentes loci condidere urbem; Mediolanium appellarunt.

XXXV. Alia subinde manus Cenomanorum5 Etitovio

• 1Haeduos H. J. Mueller: aeduos Ω.
• 2Tricastinos ϛ (cf. xxi. xxxi. 9): tricaspinos Ω: tris caspinos D.
• 3patientibus Saluis Valesius: patentibus (petentibus B) siluis Ω.
• 4saltumque Duriae Alpes Conway: saltusque iuriae alpes H: saltusque iuliae alpis (alpes M1 or M2A2) Ω: saltusque (or quae) iuliae alte (alta U) alpis(alpes F2) PE?FBU.
• 5Cenomanorum Glareanus: germanorum Ω.

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the gods proposed a far pleasanter road, into b.c. 391Italy. Taking out with him the surplus population of his tribes, the Bituriges, Arverni, Senones, Haedui, Ambarri, Carnutes, and Aulerci, he marched with vast numbers of infantry and cavalry into the country of the Tricastini.1

There the Alps stood over against them; and I for one do not wonder that they seemed insuperable, for as yet no road had led across them—as far back at all events as tradition reaches—unless one chooses to believe the stories about Hercules. While they were there fenced in as it were by the lofty mountains, and were looking about to discover where they might cross, over heights that reached the sky, into another world, superstition also held them back, because it had been reported to them that some strangers seeking lands were beset by the Salui. These were the Massilians, who had come in ships from Phocaea. The Gauls, regarding this as a good omen of their own success, lent them assistance, so that they fortified, without opposition from the Salui, the spot which they had first seized after landing. They themselves crossed the Alps through the Taurine passes and the pass of the Duria; routed the Etruscans in battle not far from the river Ticinus, and learning that they were encamped in what was called the country of the Insubres, who bore the same name as an Haeduan canton, they regarded it as a place of good omen, and founded a city there which they called Mediolanium.2

XXXV. Presently another band, consisting of Cenomani led by Etitovius, followed in the tracks

• 1Tribes in central Gaul some of whose names survive in the modern Bourges, Auvergne, Sens, and Chartres. The Tricastini were in the Roman province (Provence).
• 2Now Milan.

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