[3] The Monœci Portus is merely a roadstead, not capable of containing either many or large vessels. Here is a temple dedicated to Hercules Monœcus.1 The name seems to show it probable that the Massilian voyages along the coast extended as far as here. Monœci Portus is distant from Antipolis rather more than 200 stadia. The Salyes occupy the region from thence to Marseilles, or a little farther; they inhabit the Alps which lie above that city, and a portion of the sea-coast, where they intermingle with the Greeks. The ancient Greeks gave to the Salyes the name of Ligyes,2 and to the country which was in the possession of the Marseillese, that of Ligystica.3 The later Greeks named them Kelto- Ligyes,4 and assigned to them the whole of the plains extending as far as Luerion5 and the Rhone. They are divided into ten cantons, and are capable of raising troops not only of infantry, but of cavalry also. These people were the first of the Transalpine Kelts whom the Romans subdued after maintaining a lengthened war against them and the Ligurians. They closed [against the Romans] all the roads into Iberia along the sea-coast, and carried on a system of pillage both by sea and land. Their strength so increased that large armies were scarcely able to force a passage. And after a war of eighty years, the Romans were hardly able to obtain a breadth of twelve stadia for the purpose of making a public road. After this, however, the Romans subdued the whole of them, and established among them a regular form of government, and imposed a tribute.6
1 μόνοικος, an epithet of Hercules signifying ‘sole inhabitant.’ According to Servius, either because after he had driven out the Ligurians he remained the sole inhabitant of the country; or because it was not usual to associate any other divinities in the temples consecrated to him.
4 κελτολίγυες, or Kelto-Ligurians.
5 Kramer is of opinion that we should adopt the suggestion of Mannert, to read here Avignon.
6 We have adopted the reading of the older editions, which is also that of the French translation. Kramer however reads <*>όβον, and adds φόρον in a note.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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