Greek Texts & Translations

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 ^note and Aquitaine, ^note another towards the Rhine; a third towards the ocean by the country of the Bellovaci ^note and Ambiani, ^note and a fourth towards the Narbonnaise and the coast of Marseilles. ^note 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 ^note 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 ^note 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,