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It's a close-up of Geneva and the area just to the west of it. Here is yet another map to help you see the geography of the area.
Comentarii de belo gallico best trainslation full size#
Click on it to view it full size in a new window. This second route is indicated on the map with bright green dots. Caesar mentions that there is a bridge near Geneva, and also that in some places, the Rhone is shallow enough to wade across. The second route that Caesar mentions in chapter 6 of book I is actually crossing over to the south side of the Rhone, into Gallia Narbonensis, in the territory of the Allobroges. If the Helvetii were to cross over to the south side of the river, they would be on Roman soil (and that's a big no-no). The river Rhone apparently is the border between the Sequani and the Roman territory known as Gallia Narbonensis. This does indeed look like a narrow, difficult way to travel! But the advantage here is that this route keeps them out of Roman territory. If you look closely, you will be able to see that the blue dots follow along on the north side of the Rhone, between the river and the mountains. The river Rhone is the river the flows in a generally southwesterly direction from the southern tip of Lake Geneva. The first route Caesar mentions is the one that is "narrow and difficult, between Mount Jura and the river Rhone (by which scarcely one wagon at a time could be led)." On the map, that route is illustrated by bright blue dots. In book I, chapter 6 of Caesar's Gallic Wars, Caesar mentions that there are two routes by which the Helvetii might leave their homeland. This map, by Feitscherg, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This next map shows the various tribes of Gaul in more detail. It shows a broad overview of the locations of the Gallic tribes. For example, you can see on the maps below that if the Helvetii cross over to the southern side of the Rhone, they would technically be in Roman territory, and Caesar was not OK with that. So I have put these maps here so you can see the geography of Gaul and where the various tribes are located. When you're studying Caesar's Gallic Wars, it's much easier to understand what is going on if you have access to a good map.
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