10.

Such is the whole sea-coast from the Pillars to the confines of the Iberians and Kelts. The interior of the country lying above, and included between the mountains of the Pyrenees and the northern side [of Iberia], as far as the Astures, is principally divided by two mountain chains; the one of these is parallel to the Pyrenees, and takes its commencement from the country of the Cantabri, terminating at the Mediterranean. This is called the Idubeda.1216 The second, springing from the middle [of this first], runs towards the west, inclining however to the south and the sea-coast towards the Pillars. At the commencement it consists of bare hills, but after traversing the Plain of Spartarium, falls in with the forest lying above Carthage,1217 and the regions round Malaca.1218 It is named Orospeda.1219 The river Ebro flows between the Pyrenees and Idubeda, and parallel to both these mountains. It is fed by the rivers and other waters carried down [Pg 242]
[CAS. 161] from [the mountains]. Situated on the Ebro is the city of Cæsar Augusta,1220 and the colony of Celsa,1221 where there is a stone bridge across the river. This country is inhabited by many nations, the best known being that of the Jaccetani.1222 Commencing at the foot of the Pyrenees, it widens out into the plains, and reaches to the districts around Ilerda1223 and Osca,1224 [cities] of the Ilergetes not far distant from the Ebro. It was in these cities, and in Calaguris,1225 a city of the Gascons, as well as those of Tarraco1226 and Hemeroscopium,1227 situated on the coast, that Sertorius sustained the last efforts of the war, after being ejected from the country of the Keltiberians. He died at Osca, and it was near to Ilerda that Afranius and Petreius, Pompey’s generals, were afterwards defeated by divus1228 Cæsar. Herda is distant 160 stadia from the Ebro, which is on its west, about 460 from Tarraco, which is on the south, and 540 from Osca, which lies to the north.1229 Passing through these places from Tarraco to the extremities of the Vascons who dwell by the ocean, near Pompelon1230 and the city of Œaso1231 situated on the ocean, the route extends 2400 stadia, to the very frontiers of Aquitaine and Iberia. It was in the country of the Jaccetani that Sertorius fought against Pompey, and here afterwards Sextus, Pompey’s son, fought against the generals of Cæsar. The nation of the Vascons, in which is Pompelon, or Pompey’s city, lies north of Jaccetania.