§5.34.1de transitu in Italiam Gallorum haec accepimus: Prisco Tarquinio Romae regnante Celtarum, quae pars Galliae tertia est, penes Bituriges summa imperii fuit; ii regem Celtico dabant.
Concerning the crossing of the Gauls into Italy, we have received the following account: While Tarquinius Priscus was reigning at Rome, the supreme power among the Celts, who form the third part of Gaul, was in the hands of the Bituriges; they used to provide the king for the Celtic nation.
Ambigatus is fuit, §5.34.2virtute fortunaque cum sua tum publica praepollens, quod in imperio eius Gallia adeo frugum hominumque fertilis fuit, ut abundans multitudo vix regi videretur posse.
This king was Ambigatus, a man pre-eminent both for his own personal merit and fortune and those of the public, because under his rule Gaul was so fertile in crops and men that the teeming multitude seemed scarcely capable of being governed.
§5.34.3hic magno natu ipse iam exonerare praegravante turba regnum cupiens Bellovesum ac Segovesum, sororis filios, inpigros iuvenes, missurum se esse in quas dii dedissent auguriis sedes ostendit: §5.34.4quantum ipsi vellent numerum hominum excirent, ne qua gens arcere advenientes posset.
Being himself now advanced in years and wishing to relieve his kingdom of this oppressive multitude, he declared that he would send Bellovesus and Segovesus, his sister's sons, active young men, to whatever settlements the gods should point out by augury: they were to raise as large a number of men as they themselves wished, so that no nation might be able to repel them as they came.
tum Segoveso sortibus dati Hercynii saltus; Belloveso haud paulo laetiorem in Italiam viam di dabant.
Then to Segovesus the Hercynian forests were assigned by lot; to Bellovesus the gods gave a far more pleasant path into Italy.
§5.34.5is, quod eius ex populis abundabat, Bitariges, Arvernos, Senones, Haeduos, Ambarros, Carnutes, Aulercos excivit.
He, summoning those who were superfluous from his peoples, the Bituriges, Arverni, Senones, Haedui, Ambarri, Carnutes, and Aulerci, set out.
profectus ingentibus peditum equitumque copiis in Tricastinos venit.
Having set forth with immense forces of infantry and cavalry, he came to the Tricastini.
Alpes inde oppositae erant; §5.34.6quas inexsuperabiles visas haud equidem miror nulladum via, quod quidem continens memoria sit, nisi de Hercule fabulis credere libet, superatas.
Beyond them the Alps rose up in opposition; and I do not indeed wonder that they seemed impassable, since they had never yet been crossed by any path, as far at least as continuous memory goes, unless one is pleased to believe the stories about Hercules.
§5.34.7ibi cum velut saeptos montium altitudo teneret Gallos circumspectarentque, quanam per iuncta caelo iuga in alium orbem terrarum transirent, religio etiam tenuit, quod adlatum est advenas quaerentes agrum ab Salluvium gente oppugnari.
While the height of the mountains was holding the Gauls there as if hemmed in, and they were looking around to see by what way they might cross over those ridges joined to heaven into another world, a religious consideration also detained them, because news was brought that some strangers seeking land were being attacked by the Salluvii.
§5.34.8Massilienses erant ii navibus a Phocaea profecti.
These were the Massilienses, who had set out in ships from Phocaea.
id Galli fortunae suae omen rati adiuvere, ut, quem primum in terram egressi occupaverant locum, patientibus Salluviis communirent.
The Gauls, deeming this an omen of their own fortune, assisted them so that they might fortify the place which they had first seized upon landing, with the Salluvii permitting it.
§5.34.9ipsi per Taurinos saltus vallemque Duriae Alpis transcenderunt fusisque acie Tuscis haud procul Ticino flumine, cum, in quo consederant, agrum Insubrium appellari audissent, cognominem Insubribus, pago Haeduorum, ibi omen sequentes loci condidere urbem; Mediolanium appellarunt.
They themselves crossed the Alps through the Taurini passes and the valley of the Duria, and having routed the Etruscans in battle not far from the river Ticinus, when they heard that the land where they had settled was called the Insubrian territory, homonymous with the Insubres, a district of the Haedui, they followed the omen of the place and founded a city there; they called it Mediolanium.