Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/297

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B. IV. C. II. § 1.
GAUL. AQUITAINE.
283

of about 2000 stadia.[1] The Garonne, after being augmented by three other rivers[2] discharges itself into the [ocean] between the [country] of the Bituriges, surnamed the Vivisci,[g 1] and that of the Santoni;[3] both of them Gallic nations.

The Bituriges are the only foreign people who dwell among the Aquitani without forming a part of them. Their emporium is Burdegala,[p 1] situated on a creek formed by the outlets of the river. The Loire discharges itself between the Pictones and the Namnetæ.[4] Formerly there was an emporium on this river named Corbilon, mentioned by Polybius when speaking of the fictions of Pytheas. “The Marseillese, [says he,] when interrogated by Scipio[5] at their meeting, had nothing to tell about Britain worth mentioning, nor yet had the people of the Narbonnaise, nor those of Corbilon; notwithstanding these were the two principal cities of the district, Pytheas alone dared to forge so many lies [concerning that island].” Mediolanium[p 2] is the capital of the Santoni. The part of Aquitaine next the ocean is for the most part sandy and meagre, producing millet, but barren of all other fruits. Here is the gulf which, with that on the coast of Narbonne, forms the isthmus. Both these gulfs[p 3] go by the name of the Galatic gulf. The former gulf belongs to the Tarbelli.[6] These people possess the richest gold mines; masses of gold as big as the fist can contain, and requiring hardly any purifying,

    Pyrenees run from south to north; that the Garonne and the Loire flowed in the same direction; that the Cevennes stretched from west to east; and that the coasts of Gaul, from the Pyrenees, rose gently towards the north, bending considerably east.”

  1. ↑ The Garonne becomes navigable at Cazères near to Rieux, in the ancient Comté de Comminges. From this point to its mouth, following the sinuosities of the river, there are about 68 leagues of 20 to a degree, or 2030 Olympic stadia. The Loire is navigable as far as St. Rambert, about three leagues from St. Etienne-en-Forez, that is to say, double the distance assigned by Strabo. 2000 stadia measured from the mouth of the Loire would extend merely as far as Orleans.
  2. ↑ Probably the Arriége, the Tarn, and the Dordogne.
  3. ↑ The present Saintes was the capital of this nation.
  4. ↑ Poictiers was the capital of the Pictones or Pictavi, and Nantes of the Namnetæ.
  5. ↑ Scipio Æmilianus.
  6. ↑ The Tarbelli occupied the sea-coast from the Pyrenees to the Lake of Arcachon.
  1. ↑ Bordeaux.
  2. ↑ Saintes.
  3. ↑ The Gulfs of Gascony and Lyons.
  1. ↑ Ἰοσκῶν MSS.
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