Napoleon III - History of Julius Caesar Vol. 2 of 2

(See Plate I.)

Geographical Description.

I. TRANSALPINE Gaul had for its boundaries the ocean, the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean, the Alps, and the Rhine. This portion of Europe, so well marked out by nature, comprised what is now France, nearly the whole of Switzerland, the Rhine Provinces, Belgium, and the south of Holland. It had the form of an irregular pentagon, and the country of the Carnutes (the Orléanais ) was considered to be its centre. 40 40 De Bello Gallico , VI. 13.

An uninterrupted chain of heights divided Gaul, as it divides modern France, from north to south, into two parts. This line commences at the Monts Corbières, at the foot of the Eastern Pyrenees, is continued by the Southern Cévennes and by the mountains of the Vivarais, Lyonnais, and Beaujolais (called the Northern Cévennes), and declines continually with the mountains of the Charolais and the Côte-d’Or, until it reaches the plateau of Langres; after quitting this plateau, it leaves to the east the Monts Faucilles, which unite it to the Vosges, and, inclining towards the north-west, it follows, across the mountains of the Meuse, the western crests of the Argonne and the Ardennes, and terminates, in decreasing undulations, towards Cape Griz-Nez, in the Pas-de-Calais.

This long and tortuous ridge, more or less interrupted, which may be called the backbone of the country, is the great line of the watershed. It separates two slopes. On the eastern slope flow the Rhine and the Rhone, in opposite directions, the first towards the Northern Sea, the second towards the Mediterranean; on the western slope rise the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne, which go to throw themselves into the ocean. These rivers flow at the bottom of vast basins, the bounds of which, as is well known, are indicated by the lines of elevations connecting the sources of all the tributaries of the principal stream.

The basin of the Rhine is separated from that of the Rhone by the Monts Faucilles, the southern extremity of the Vosges, called Le trouée de Belfort , the Jura, the Jorat (the heights which surround the Lake of Geneva on the north), and the lofty chain of the Helvetic Alps. In its upper part, it embraces nearly all Switzerland, of which the Rhine forms the northern boundary, in its course, from east to west, from the Lake of Constance to Bâle. Near this town the river turns abruptly towards the north. The basin widens, limited to the east by the mountains which separate it from the Danube and the Weser; to the west, by the northern part of the great line of watershed (the mountains of the Meuse, the Argonne, and the western Ardennes). It is intersected, from Mayence to Bonn, by chains nearly parallel to the course of the river, which separate its tributaries. From Bonn to the point where the Rhine divides into two arms, the basin opens still more; it is flat, and has no longer a definite boundary. The southern arm bore already, in the time of Cæsar, the name of Waal (Vahalis), and united with the Meuse 41 41 De Bello Gallico , IV. 10. below Nimeguen. To the west of the basin of the Rhine, the Scheldt forms a secondary basin.

The basin of the Rhone, in which is comprised that of the Saône, is sharply bounded on the north by the southern extremity of the Vosges and the Monts Faucilles; on the west, by the plateau of Langres, the Côte-d’Or, and the Cévennes; on the east, by the Jura, the Jorat, and the Alps. The Rhone crosses the Valais and the Lake of Geneva, follows an irregular course as far as Lyons, and runs thence from north to south to the Mediterranean. Among the most important of its secondary basins, we may reckon those of the Aude, the Hérault, and the Var.

The three great basins of the western slope are comprised between the line of watershed of Gaul and the ocean. They are separated from each other by two chains branching from this line, and running from the south-east to the north-west. The basin of the Seine, which includes that of the Somme, is separated from the basin of the Loire by a line of heights which branches from the Côte-d’Or under the name of the mountains of the Morvan, and is continued by the very low hills of Le Perche to the extremity of Normandy. A series of heights, extending from north to south, from the hills of Le Perche to Nantes, enclose the basin of the Loire to the west, and leave outside the secondary basins of Brittany.

The basin of the Loire is separated from that of the Garonne by a long chain starting from Mont Lozère, comprising the mountains of Auvergne, those of the Limousin, the hills of Poitou, and the plateau of Gatine, and ending in flat country towards the coasts of La Vendée.

The basin of the Garonne, situated to the south of that of the Loire, extends to the Pyrenees. It comprises the secondary basins of the Adour and the Charente.

The vast country we have thus described is protected on the north, west, and south by two seas, and by the Pyrenees. On the east, where it is exposed to invasions, Nature, not satisfied with the defences she had given it in the Rhine and the Alps, has further retrenched it behind three groups of interior mountains – first, the Vosges; second, the Jura; third, the mountains of Forez, the mountains of Auvergne, and the Cévennes.

The Vosges run parallel to the Rhine, and are like a rampart in the rear of that river.

The Jura, separated from the Vosges by the Gap (trouée) of Belfort , rises like a barrier in the interval left between the Rhine and the Rhone, preventing, as far as Lyons, the waters of this latter river from uniting with those of the Saône.

The Cévennes and the mountains of Auvergne and Forez form, in the southern centre of Gaul, a sort of citadel, of which the Rhone might be considered as the advanced fosse. The ridges of this group of mountains start from a common centre, take opposite directions, and form the valleys whence flow, to the north, the Allier and the Loire; to the west, the Dordogne, the Lot, the Aveyron, and the Tarn; to the south, the Ardèche, the Gard, and the Hérault.

The valleys, watered by navigable rivers, presented – thanks to the fruitfulness of their soil and to their easy access – natural ways of communication, favourable both to commerce and to war. To the north, the valley of the Meuse; to the east, the valley of the Rhine, conducting to that of the Saône, and thence to that of the Rhone, were the grand routes which armies followed to invade the south. Strabo, therefore, remarks justly that Sequania ( Franche-Comté ) has always been the road of the Germanic invasions from Gaul into Italy. 42 42 Strabo, IV. 3, p. 160 From east to west the principal chain of the watershed might easily be crossed in its less elevated parts, such as the plateau of Langres and the mountains of Charolais, which have since furnished a passage to the Central Canal. Lastly, to penetrate from Italy into Gaul, the great lines of invasion were the valley of the Rhone and the valley of the Garonne, by which the mountainous mass of the Cévennes, Auvergne, and Forez is turned.

Gaul presented the same contrast of climates which we observe between the north and south of France. While the Roman province enjoyed a mild temperature and an extreme fertility, 43 43 The Narbonnese reminded the Romans of the climate and productions of Italy. (Strabo, IV. 1, p. 147.) the central and northern part was covered with vast forests, which rendered the climate colder than it is at present; 44 44 Pomponius Mela, who compiled in the first century, from old authors an abridgement of Geography, says that Gaul was rich in wheat and pastures, and covered with immense forests: “Terra est frumenti præcipue ac pabuli forax, et amœna lucis immanibus.” ( De Situ Orbis , III. 2.) – ( De Bello Gallico , I, 16.) – The winter was very early in the north of Gaul. ( De Bello Gallico , IV. 20.) Hence the proverbial expression at Rome of heims Gallica . (Petronius, Satir. 19. – Strabo, IV., 147-161.) – See the “Memoire on the Forests of Gaul” read before the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, by M. Alfred Maury. yet the centre produced in abundance wheat, rye, millet, and barley. 45 45 Strabo, IV., p. 147. – Diodorus Siculus, V. 26. The greatest of all these forests was that of the Ardennes. It extended, beginning from the Rhine, over a space of two hundred miles, on one side to the frontier of the Remi, crossing the country of the Treviri; and, on another side, to the Scheldt, across the country of the Nervii. 46 46 Cæsar, after having said (V. 3) that the forests of the Ardennes extended from the Rhine to the frontier of the Remi, ad initium Remorum , adds (VI. 29) that it extended also towards the Nervii, ad Nervios . Nevertheless, according to chapter 33 of book VI., we believe that this forest extended, across the country of the Nervii, to the Scheldt. How otherwise could Cæsar have assigned to the forests of the Ardennes a length of 500 miles, if it ended at the eastern frontier of the Nervii? This number is, in any case, exaggerated, for from the Rhine (at Coblentz) to the Scheldt, towards Ghent and Antwerp, it is but 300 kilomètres, or 200 miles. The “Commentaries” speak also of forests existing among the Carnutes, 47 47 De Bello Gallico , VIII. 5. in the neighbourhood of the Saône, 48 48 “Citra flumen Ararim … reliqui sese fugæ mandarunt atque in proximas silvas abdiderunt.” ( De Bello Gallico , I. 12.) among the Menapii 49 49 “Menapii propinqui Eburonum finibus, perpetuis paludibus silvisque muniti.” ( De Bello Gallico , VI. 5.) and the Morini, 50 50 “(Morini et Menapii) … silvas ac paludes habebant, eo se suaque contulerunt.” ( De Bello Gallico , III. 28.) and among the Eburones. 51 51 “(Sugambri) primos Eburonum fines adeunt … non silvæ morantur.” ( De Bello Gallico , VI. 35.) In the north the breeding of cattle was the principal occupation, 52 52 Strabo, p. 163, edit. Didot. and the pastures of Belgic Gaul produced a race of excellent horses. 53 53 De Bello Gallico , IV. 2. In the centre and in the south the richness of the soil was augmented by productive mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead. 54 54 Strabo, pp. 121, 155, 170, edit. Didot.