HKB
being mountainous and rugged, and therefore both receiving the wave violently and also casting it back. Whereas Posidonius truly remarks that they are for the most part low and sandy.
The country which we are describing is fertile, and irrigated by rivers both large and small, all of which flow from the eastern parts parallel with the Tagus: most of them are navigable and full of gold dust. After the Tagus, the most noted rivers are the Mondego[1130] and the Vouga,[1131] which are navigable but for a short distance. After these is the Douro,[1132] which flows from afar by Numantia,[1133] and many other colonies of the Keltiberians and Vaccæi; it is capable of being navigated in large vessels for a distance of nearly 800 stadia. Besides these there are other rivers, after which is the [river] of Lethe, which some call the Limæa,[1134] others the Belio,[1135] it likewise rises amongst the Keltiberians and Vaccæi. After [CAS. 153] this is the Bænis, (some call it the Minius,[1136]) by far the largest river of Lusitania,[1137] being navigable for a distance of 800 stadia. Posidonius says this too rises amongst the Cantabrians.[1138] An island[1139] lies before its outlet, and two moles affording anchorage for vessels. A natural advantage [of this country] well deserving of commendation is, that the banks of the rivers are so lofty as to be capable of containing the entirety of the water raised by the high tides of the sea, without either being overfilled, or overflowing the plains. This was the limit of Brutus’s expedition. Beyond there are many other rivers parallel to those I have named.
The Artabri are the last of the people [on this coast]. They inhabit the promontory called Nerium,[1140] which is the boundary [of Iberia] on its western and northern sides. Around it dwell the Keltici, a kindred race to those who are situated along the Guadiana.[1141] They say that these latter, together with the Turduli, having undertaken an expedition thither, quarrelled after they had crossed the river Lima,[1142] and, besides the sedition, their leader having also died, they remained scattered there, and from this circumstance the river was called the Lethe.[1143] The Artabri have besides many cities established round the Gulf, which mariners and those familiar with the places designate as the Port of the Artabri. At the present day the Artabri are denominated the Arotrebæ. About thirty[1144] different nations occupy the country between the Tagus and the Artabri. Notwithstanding the fertility of the country in corn, cattle, gold, silver, and numerous other similar productions, the majority of its inhabitants, neglecting to gain their subsistence from the ground, passed their lives in pillage and continual warfare, both between themselves and their neighbours, whom they used to cross the Tagus [to plunder]. To this the Romans at length put a stop by subduing them, and changing many of their cities into villages, besides colonizing some of them better. The mountaineers, as was natural, were the first to commence this lawless mode of life: for living but scantily, and possessing little, they coveted the goods of others, who being obliged to repulse them, of necessity relinquished their proper employments, and instead of pursuing agriculture took up arms. Thus it happened that their country, being neglected, became barren notwithstanding its natural advantages, and inhabited by bandits.