Res Gestae
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).
But in fact a people of Asia from Phocaea, to avoid the severity of Harpalus,[*](An error for Harpagus, see Index.) prefect of king Cyrus, set sail for Italy. A part of them founded Velia[*](Modern Castellamare della Bruca.) in Lucania, the rest, Massilia[*](Marseilles.) in the region of Vienne. Then in subsequent ages they established no small number of towns, as their strength and resources increased. But I must not discuss varying opinions, which often causes satiety.
Throughout these regions men gradually grew civilised and the study of the liberal arts flourished, initiated by the Bards, the Euhages and the Druids.[*](The three are connected also by Strabo (iv. 4. 4), who says that the bards were poets; the euhages (οὐάτεις), diviners and natural philosophers; while the Druids studied both natural and moral philosophy. L.C.L. ii. p. 245.) Now, the Bards sang to the sweet strains of the lyre the valorous deeds of famous men composed in heroic