288 STRABO. CASAL-B. 193. wise asserts that this river has two mouths, and blames those who say that it has more. 1 This river and the Seine embrace within their tortuosities a certain extent of country, which however is not considerable. They both flow from south to north. Britain lies opposite to them ; but nearest to the Rhine, from which you may see Kent, which is the most easterly part of the island. The Seine is a little further. It was here that divns Cgsar established^ dock-yard when he sailed to Britain. The navigable portion of the Seine, commencing from" the point where they receive the merchandise from the Saone, is of greater extent than the [navigable portions] of the Loire and Garonne. From Lugdunum 2 to the Seine is [a distance of] 1000 stadia, and not twice this distance from the outlets of the Rhone to Lugdunum. They say that the Hel- vetii, 3 though rich in gold, nevertheless, devoted themselves to pillage oliT)eholding the wealth jrf the^Cimbri, 4 [accumulated by that means ;] and that two out of their three tribes perished entirely in their military expeditions, iiowever, the multitude of descendants who sprang from this remainder was proved in their war with divus Cassar. in which about 4QQ.OOO of their number were destroyed ; the 8000 who survived the war, being spared by the conqueror, that their country mi^ht not be_ left desert, a prey to the neighbouring Germans. 5 4. After the Helvetii, the Sequani 6 and Mediomatrici 7 dwell along the Rhine, amongst whom are the Tribocchi, 8 a German nation who emigrated from their country hither. Mount Jura, which is in the country of the Sequani, separates that people from the Helvetii. To the west, above the Hel- vetii and Sequani, dwell the JEdui and Lingones; the Leuci and a part of the Lingones dwelling above the Mediomatrici. The nations between the Loire and the Seine, and beyond the Rhone and the Saone, are situated to the north near to the 1 Ptolemy says it has three. It appears that the ancient mouths of this river were not the same as the present. 2 Lyons. 3 The Swiss. 4 Gosselin identifies the Cimbri as the inhabitants of Jutland or Den- mark. 5 Casaubon remarks that the text must be corrupt, since Strabo's ac- count of the Helvetii must have been taken from Ceesar, who (lib. i. c. 29) states the number of slain at 258,000, and the survivors at 110,000. 6 The Sequani occupied La Franche-Comte. 7 Metz was the capital of the Mediomatrici. 8 These people dwelt between the Rhine and the Vosges, nearly from Colmar to Hagenau.
