Res Gestae

This country of Gaul, because of its lofty chains of mountains always covered with formidable snows, was formerly all but unknown to the inhabitants of the rest of the globe, except where it borders on the coast; and bulwarks enclose it on every side, surrounding it naturally, as if by the art of man.

Now on the southern side it is washed by the Tuscan and the Gallic Sea; where it looks up to the heavenly Wain,[*](The septentriones, the constellation of ursa major, representing the north.) it is separated from the wild nations by the channels[*](As it enters the sea, the Rhine divides into several branches.) of the Rhine. Where it lies under the west-sloping sun[*](As there is no specific western constellation, sidus seems to mean sun; cf. Pliny, N.H. ii. 12; etc., and solis ortus, below, of the east.) it is bounded by the Ocean and the Pyrenaean heights; and where it rises towards the East it gives place to the bulk of the Cottian Alps. There King Cottius, after the subjugation of Gaul, lay hidden alone in their defiles, trusting to the pathless ruggedness of the