Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/283

 B. iv. c. i. 5.* GAUL. THE NARBONNAISE. 269 temple, and evinced their great respect for Aristarcha by making her priestess. All the colonies [sent out from Marseille s] hold This goddess in peculiar reverence, preserving both the shape of fRe^mage [of the goddess 1, and also every rite observed in the metropolis. 5. The Massilians live under a well-regulated aristocracy. They have a council composed of 600 persons called timu- chi, 1 who enjoy~this dignity for life. Fifteen of these preside over the council, and have the management of current affairs ; these fifteen are in their turn presided over by three of their number, in whom rests the principal authority ; and theseagamby one. No one can become a timuchus who has noTcliildren, and who has not been a citizen for three genera- tions. 2 " Their laws, which are the same as those of the Ionian s, they expound in public. Their country abounds in olives and vines, but on account of its ruggedness the wheat is pnor. Consequently they trust more to the resources of the sea than of the land, and avail themselves in preference of their excellent position for commerce. Nevertheless they have been enabled by the power of perseverance to take in some of the surrounding plains, and also to found cities : of this number are the cities they founded in Iberia as a ram- part against the Iberians, in which they introduced the wor- ship of Diana of Ephesus, as practised in theiFfather-land, with the Grecian mode oFsacrifice. In this number too are Rhoa 3 [and] Agatha, 4 [built for defence] against the barbarians dwelling around the river Rhone ; also Tauroentium, 5 Olbia, 6 Antipolis 7 and Nicrea, 8 [built aAJL~campart"| against the nation of the Salyes and the Ligurians who inhabit the Alps. They 9 possess likewise drydocks^nd armouries. Formerly they had an abundance oFyessels, arms, and machines, both for the purposes of navigation and for besieging towns ; by means of which they defended themselves against the bar- , literally, one having honour and esteem. 3 We have seen no reason to depart from a literal rendering of the Greek in this passage, its meaning, "whose ancestors have not been citizens," &c., being self-evident. 3 This name has evidently been corrupted, but it seems difficult to de- termine what stood originally in the text ; most probably it was Rhoda- nnsia. 4 Agde. b Taurenti. 8 Eoube. 7 Antibes. s Nice. The people of Marseilles.