§1.1.1Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur.
Gaul is a whole divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, another the Aquitani, the third those who in their own language are called Celts, in our own Gauls.
§1.1.2Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt.
All these differ from one another in language, customs, and laws.
Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen, a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit.
The Garonne River divides the Gauls from the Aquitani, and the Marne and Seine divide them from the Belgae.
§1.1.3Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae, propterea quod a cultu atque humanitate provinciae longissime absunt, minimeque ad eos mercatores saepe commeant atque ea quae ad effeminandos animos pertinent important, §1.1.4proximique sunt Germanis, qui trans Rhenum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt.
Of all these, the bravest are the Belgae, because they are furthest removed from the civilization and refinement of the Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind, and they are nearest to the Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war.
Qua de causa Helvetii quoque reliquos Gallos virtute praecedunt, quod fere cotidianis proeliis cum Germanis contendunt, cum aut suis finibus eos prohibent aut ipsi in eorum finibus bellum gerunt.
For which reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valor, as they contend with the Germans in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war in their territories.
§1.1.5[Eorum una pars, quam Gallos obtinere dictum est, initium capit a flumine Rhodano, continetur Garumna flumine, Oceano, finibus Belgarum, attingit etiam ab Sequanis et Helvetiis flumen Rhenum, vergit ad septentriones.
[One part of these, which it has been said the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning from the river Rhone, is bounded by the Garonne river, the Ocean, and the territories of the Belgae, borders also on the side of the Sequani and Helvetii upon the river Rhine, and stretches toward the north.
§1.1.6Belgae ab extremis Galliae finibus oriuntur, pertinent ad inferiorem partem fluminis Rheni, spectant in septentrionem et orientem solem.
The Belgae rise from the extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part of the river Rhine, and look toward the north and the rising sun.
§1.1.7Aquitania a Garumna flumine ad Pyrenaeos montes et eam partem Oceani quae est ad Hispaniam pertinet; spectat inter occasum solis et septentriones. ]
Aquitania extends from the Garonne river to the Pyrenean mountains and that part of the Ocean which is next to Spain; it looks between the setting of the sun and the north.]