The Rhone and Roman Authors

The Graian and Pennine Alps, not counting towns of lesser note, have Avenches, a city now abandoned, to be sure, but once of no slight importance, as is even yet evident from its half-ruined buildings. These are the goodly provinces and cities of Gaul. It would be unfitting and absurd to say nothing of the Rhone, a river of the greatest celebrity. Rising in the Pennine Alps from a plenteous store of springs, the Rhone flows in headlong course towards more level places. It bursts into the lagoon called Lake Leman. From there without any loss of volume it flows through Savoy and the Seine Province. (Ammianus Marcellinus, The Roman History (15.11.12-17), translation http://perseus.uchicago.edu)

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