Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/688

 672 PROTE. PROTE (ITpccTTj). 1. An island off the western coast of Messenia. [See Vol. II. p. 342, b.] 2. One of the Stoechades off the southern coast of Gaul. [Stoechades.] PKOTUNICA, a place in Bithynia, on the road from Nicaea to Ancyra. (/<m. Ilieros. p. 573.) It is possibly the same place as Protomacrae {Upunufxd- Kpai) mentioned by Ptolemy (v. 1. § 13). [L. S.] PROVI'NCIA. The part ot Gallia which bordered on Italy and was bounded on the south by the Medi- terranean was Gallia Provincia (Caes. B. G. i. 19), a term by which Caesar sometimes distinguishes this part of Gallia from the rest, which he calls " omnis Gallia " {B. G..) or " tota Gallia " (5. G. vii. 66). The Provincia in Caesar's time was bounded on the north by the Rhone from the western extremity of the Lacus' Leuiannus {Lake of Geneva) to the junction of the Rhone and the Sadne. Geneva, which belonged to the Allobroges, was the furthest town in that direction [Geneva]. Along the southern side of the Lake of Geneva the limit was the boundary between the Allobroges who were in the Provincia and the Nantuates who were not. (J5. G. iii. 6.) The Alps were the eastern boundary. Ocelum [Ocelum] was in the Citerior Provincia or Gallia Cisalpina, and the country of the Vocontii was in the Ulterior Provincia or in the Provincia Gallia (5. G. i. 10). On the west the Mons Cevenna (CeyewTies) southward from thelatitude of Lngdunum {Lyon) was the boundary. The Volcae Arecomici •were within the Provincia, and also the towns of Narbo {Narhonne), Carcaso (Carcassone), and To- losa (Toulouse), as we see from a passage in Caesar {B. G. iii. 20). Part of the Ruteni, called Provin- ciales {B. G. vii. 7), were in the Provincia; and also the Helvii, who were separated from the Arverni by the Cevenna (5. G. vii. 8). Tlie Ruteni who were not in the Provincia, the Gabali, Nitiobriges, and Cadurci bordered on it on the west. The Roman troops were in this country during the Second Punic War when Hannibal was on his road to Italy; but the Romans first got a footing there through the people of jIassilia, who called for their help B.C. 154. In b.c. 122 the Romans made a settlement, Aquae Sextiae {Aix), which we may consider to be the commencement of their occupation of the country east of the Rhone. [Gallia, Vol. I. p. 953.] The conquest of the Salyes and Vocontii, and of the Allobroges, gave the Romans all the country on the east side of the Rhone. The settle- ment of Narbo (Narhonne) in b.c. 118, near the border of Spain and in a position which gave easy access to the basin of the Garonne, secured the Ro- man dominion on the west side of the Rhone as far as the Pyrenees. But the Romans had many a bloody battle to fight before they were safe on Gallic ground. The capture of Tolosa {Toidouse) in the country of the Volcae Tectosages by the consul Q. Servilius Caepio (b. c. 106) extended the limits of the Pro- vincia as far as this rich town. (Dion Cass. Fr. 97, &c.) But the Roman dominion was not safe even in B. C. 58, when the proconsul Caesar received Gallia as one of his provinces. His subjugation of all Gallia finally secured the Romans on that side. [Vol. I. p. 954, &c.] In the division of all Gallia by Augustus the Provincia retained its limits pretty nearly: and it was from this time generally called Narbonensis Provincia, and sometimes Gallia Braccata. The names which occur in the Greek writers are : KiKroyaXaria tiap- Souvrjala (Ptol. ii. 10. § 1), ^^ Nopgoimis, FaKaTia PKOVINCIA. 7/ Nap§a)i'r)cria, and t) TaXaria fi vep 'NupSura. There is no doubt that the name Braccata or Bra- cata is derived from the dress of the Galli (" eos hie sagatos bracatosque versari," Cc. pro Fontew, c. 15), and the word " braca " is Celtic. Strabo (iv. p. 178) says that the form of the Narbonensis resembles that of a parallelogi-am ; but his comparison is of no use, and it is founded on an erroneous notion of the position of the Pyrenees. [Vol. I. p. 949.] Ptolemy determines the eastern boundary of the Provincia by the west side of the Alps, from Mons Adulas (perhaps Mont St. Gothard) to the mouth of the Varus ( Var), which separated Narbonensis from Italia. Part of the southern boundary was formed by that part of the Pyrenees which extended from the boundary of Aquitania to the promontory on the Mediterranean where the temple of Venus stood, by which Ptolemy means Cap Crevx [Portcs Veneris]. The rest of the southern boundary was the sea, from the Aphrodisium to the mouth of the Vai: The western boundary remained as it was in the time of Caesar, as it seems ; for Carcaso and Tolosa are placed in Narbonensis by Ptolemy and Pliny (iii. c. 4). Ptolemy places Lugdunum or Convenae, which is on the Garonne and near the Pyrenees, within the limits of Aquitania, and he mentions no place in Aquitania east of Lug- dunum [Convenae]. East of the Convenae and at the foot of the Pyi'enees were the Consorani, part of whom were probably in Aquitania and part in Narbonensis [Consorani]. The western boundary of Narbonensis therefore ran from the Pyrenees northwards, and passed west of Toulouse. Perhaps it was continued northwards to the Tarnis {Tmti). We cannot determine the point where the Cevennes became the boundary ; but if part of the Ruteni were still in the Narbonensis, the boundary may have run along the Tai'ii to the Cevennes and the Mons Le- sura, one of the highest points of the range (/>« Lozere). From the Lozere northwards the mountain country borders the Rhone as far as Lugdunum, which was not in Narbonensis. The northern bound- ary of Narbonensis ran along the Rhone from Lug- dunum to Geneva at the west end of the Leman lake. Pliny mentions the Gehenna (Cebenna) and the Jura as northern boundaries of the Provincia ; but his notion of the direction of the Jura was not exact, though it is true that the range touches a part of the northern boundary. Ptolemy makes the Adulas the southern limit of the eastern boundary of Belgica (ii. 9. § 5); and Adulas is also the northern limit of the eastern boundary of Narbonensis. The southern boundary of Belgica from the Adulas westward was the northern boundary of Narbonensis. It is difficult to say whether the geographer is making a boundary of his own or following an administrative division ; but we may certainly conclude that the Narbonensis contained the upper valley of the Rhone (the Valais), for the Bernese Alps which form the northern side of this great valley are a natural boundary, and the Helvetii were not in the Valais [Helvetii]. We may conclude then that the Seduni, Veragri, and Nantuates, who were not within the Provincia as defined by Caesar, were within the limits of the Narbonensis. One of the common roads to Italy was from Octodurus {Martigny in the Valais) over the Alpis Pennina (Great St. Bernard). The Narbonensis is thus a natural division comprehend- ing the upper valley of the Rhone, the Leman lake and the countries south of it to the Alps, the country on the south side of the Rhone from the lake to