Geography

​After these, there live those who are already close to the innermost recess of the Adriatic and the regions around Aquileia, namely, some of the Norici and the Carni; and to the Norici belong also the Taurisci. But Tiberius and his brother Drusus put an end to all their unchecked incursions in a single summer, so that it is now the thirty-third year since they have remained quiet and paid their taxes regularly. Throughout the whole mountainous region of the Alps, there are indeed some hilly places capable of being well cultivated, and well-settled valleys, but yet the greater part, and especially around the peaks, where indeed the plunderers used to gather, is wretched and barren because of the frosts and the ruggedness of the soil. Therefore, on account of the scarcity of food and other things, they sometimes spared the people in the plains, so that they might have them as suppliers; and in return they gave them resin, pitch, torchwood, wax, cheese, and honey, for of these they had an abundance. Above the Carni lies Mount Apenninus, which has a lake that empties into the river Atesinus; and this river, after receiving another river, the Atagis, empties into the Adriatic. From the same lake, another river also flows into the Ister, called the Isaras. For the Ister also takes its source from these mountains, which are many-branched and many-peaked. For as far as this point from Liguria, the heights of the Alps extended continuously and presented the appearance of a single mountain, but then, relaxing and becoming lower, they rise again into several parts and several peaks. First of these is the ridge beyond the Rhine and the lake, sloping towards the east, which is moderately high, where the sources of the Ister are near the country of the Suebi and the Hercynian forest; and there are other ridges turning towards Illyria and the Adriatic, of which are both the said Mount Apenninus and Mount Tullum and Phligadia, which lie above the Vindelici, from which the Douras, the Clanis, and several other torrent-like rivers join the stream of the Ister.

​And the Iapodes too, a tribe already mixed of Illyrians and Celts, live around these places, and Ocra is near them. Now the Iapodes, who were formerly rich in men and had their dwellings on both sides of the mountain, and held sway by means of their robberies, have been completely worn down, having been subdued in war by Augustus Caesar. Their cities are Metulum, Arupinoi, Monetium, and Vendon. After them is the city of Segestica, in a plain, past which flows the river Saus, which empties into the Ister. The city is situated advantageously for the war against the Dacians. Ocra is the lowest part of the Alps, where they border on the Carni, and through which they carry merchandise from Aquileia in four-wheeled wagons to the place called Nauportus, a journey of not much more than four hundred stadia; and from there it is carried down by the rivers as far as the Ister and the regions in that quarter. For indeed a navigable river, flowing from Illyria, runs past Nauportus and empties into the Saus, so that it is easily carried down to Segestica and to the Pannonians and Taurisci. And the Colapis also joins the Saus near the city; both of these are navigable, and they flow from the Alps. The Alps also have wild horses and cattle. And Polybius says that an animal of peculiar shape is also produced in them, resembling a deer in form except for its neck and coat, which resemble a wild boar, and having under its chin a lump about a span long, with hair at the tip, and of the thickness of a colt’s tail.