Geography

​Of all people, the Helvetii are the first to inhabit the country along the Rhine, in whose territory are the sources of the river in Mount Adula. This is a part of the Alps, from which the Adouas also flows in the opposite direction, toward the interior of Celtic land, and fills Lake Larius, near which Comum is founded, and from there flows into the Padus, of which we shall speak later. The Rhine also spreads out into great marshes and a large lake, which is bordered by both the Raeti and the Vindelici, some of the Alpine and transalpine tribes. Asinius says its length is six thousand stadia, but it is not so; for in a straight line it would exceed half of that only a little, and even if a thousand stadia were added for its windings, they would be sufficient. For it is swift, and for this reason also difficult to bridge, and after descending from the mountains, for the rest of its course it is carried flatly through plains; how then is it possible for it to remain swift and violent, if in addition to its flatness we should assume many long windings? And he also says that it has two mouths, blaming those who say it has more. To be sure, both this river and the Sequanas encompass a certain amount of territory with their windings, yet not so much. And both flow toward the north from the southern regions; and Britain lies opposite them—so near to the Rhine indeed that Cantium, which is the eastern promontory of the island, can be seen, but a little further from the Sequanas; and here the deified Caesar also established his shipyard when sailing to Britain. The navigable part of the Sequanas, for those who receive the cargoes from the Arar, is only a little more than that of the Liger and that of the Garouna; and the distance from Lugdunum to the Sequanas is one thousand stadia, and less than double this from the mouths of the Rhodanus to Lugdunum. They say that the Helvetii, though rich in gold, nevertheless turned to plunder when they saw the wealth of the Cimbri; and that two of their tribes, out of three, were wiped out in the course of their campaigns. Yet the multitude of their descendants from the remainder was demonstrated by the war against the deified Caesar, in which about four hundred thousand lives were destroyed, and he permitted the remaining eight thousand to be saved, so that he might not leave the country vacant for the Germans, who were neighbors.