Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/462

 448 STRABO. CASAUB. 292. and Vindelici, 1 [the Norici come next after the Vindelici in an easterly direction,] 2 and the desert of the Boii. 3 The nations as far as the Pannonians, 4 but more especially the Helvetii and Vindelici, inhabit high table lands. The Rhaeti and the Norici, 5 verging towards Italy, extend over the very summits of the Alps ; the former confining with the Insubri, 6 the latter the Garni, 7 and the districts about Aquileia. There is likewise another great forest, named Gabreta, on this side the territory of the Suevi, while beyond them lies the Her- cynian Wood, which also is in their possession. CHAPTER II. 1. SOME of the accounts which we receive respecting the Cimbri are not worthy of credit, while others seem likely enough : for instance, no one could accept the reason given for their wandering life and piracy, that, dwelling on a penin- sula, they were driven out of their settlements by a very high tide; 8 for they still to this day possess the country which they had in former times, and have sent as a present to Au- 1 The Vindelici occupied the country on the northern borders of the lake, with the regions of Swabia and Bavaria south of the Danube, and reaching to the Inn. Gossellin. 2 It is evident that some words have been omitted in this place. The words we have inserted are the conjecture of Cluverius and Groskurd. 3 As far as we can make out from Strabo and Pliny, book iii. cap. 27, the desert of the Boii stretched along the shores of the Danube from the river Inn to the mountains a little west of Vienna, which were the bound- ary between the Norici and the Pannonians. This strip of land is now called the Wiener-Wald, or Forest of Vienna. Doubtless it took its name of Desert of the Boii on account of its contiguity to the south of the country occupied by those people, and which still bears the name of Bohemia. 4 The Pannonians occupied the districts of Hungary west of the Danube. 5 The Norici inhabited that part of Austria which lies between the Danube and the Alps. 6 The Insubri occupied the Milanese. 7 The Garni have left their name to Carniola. 8 See also book ii. chap. 3, 6. Festus relates that the A.mbrones abandoned their country on account of this tide. The Ambrones were a tribe of the Helvetii, and more than once joined with the Cimbri.