1.
All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani
another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our Gauls, the third. All these
differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the
Aquitani; the
Marne
and the
Seine
separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the
Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the
civilization and refinement of [our] Province, and merchants least frequently
resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and
they are the nearest to the Germans, who dwell beyond
the
Rhine
, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valor, as they contend with the Germans in almost daily battles, when they either repel
them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One
part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls
occupy, takes its beginning at the river
Rhone
; it is bounded by the river Garonne, the ocean, and
the territories of the Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the
Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the
river
Rhine
, and stretches toward the north. The Belgae rises from the
extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part
of the river
Rhine
; and look toward the north and the rising sun.
Aquitania
extends from the river Garonne to the Pyrenaean mountains and to that part of the ocean which
is near Spain: it looks between the
setting of the sun, and the north star.
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