In The Time Of
Augustus, According To Strabo, It Had Increased So Much, By Means Of Its
Commerce, That It
Was not inferior to any city in Gaul, except Narbonne.
Indeed, not long after the entire conquest of Gaul by
The Romans, the
advantages which that country might derive, with respect to foreign
commerce, and internal trade, by its rivers, seem to have been fully and
clearly understood. The head of the Saone being near to that of the Moselle
and the Seine, merchandize was easily conveyed by land from one of these
rivers to the other. The Rhone also received many goods by means of the
rivers which joined it, which were conveyed, not only to the Saone, but
also to the Loire, in carriages. The Seine brought up goods almost as far
as the Moselle, from which they were conveyed to the Rhine. In the fourth
year of Nero's reign, the commander of the Roman army in Gaul joined the
Saone and the Moselle by a canal; and, though these canals were generally
made by the Romans, for purposes connected with the army, yet they were
soon applied to commerce. The merchandize of the Saone was brought by land
carriage to the Seine, and by it conveyed to the ocean, and thence to
Britain. There seems to have been regular and established companies of
watermen on these rivers, whose business it was to convey goods on them: an
ancient inscription at Lyons mentions Tauricius of Vannes, as the general
overseer of the Gallic trade, the patron or head of the watermen on the
Seine and Loire, and the regulator of weights, measures, and carriages; and
other ancient inscriptions state, that the government of the watermen who
navigated the Rhone and the Saone, was often bestowed on Roman knights.
Besides the ports on the Mediterranean, or on the rivers which flow into
that sea, the Gauls in Caesar's time, or shortly afterwards, seem to have
had several, ports on the ocean. Caesar reckons the present Nantz, though at
some distance from the sea, as inhabited by people who were skilled in
maritime affairs; and he expressly informs us, that he built his ships at a
port at the mouth of the Seine, when he was preparing to invade Britain. In
his wars against the Vanni he brought ships from the present provinces of
Saintoinge and Poitou, which we may thence conclude were inhabited by
people skilled in maritime affairs. In later times, there was a marsh
filled with sea-water, not far from Bourdeaux, which made that city a
convenient port, and a place of considerable commerce. Strabo mentions a
town of some commerce, situated on the Loire, which he represents as equal
in size to Narbonne and Marseilles; but what town that was has not been
ascertained.
The most powerful and commercial, however, of all the tribes of Gaul, that
inhabited the coasts near the ocean, in the time of Caesar, were the Vanni.
These people carried on an extensive and lucrative trade with Britain,
which was interrupted by the success of Caesar, (who obliged them, as well
as the other tribes of Gaul, to give him hostages,) and which they
apprehended was likely to be still further injured by his threatened
invasion of Britain; in order to prevent this, as well as to liberate
themselves, they revolted against the Romans.
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