The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-10-08

and draw attention to the striking remains
Of Lgurlan oppfdd or stronghods still extant
In Provence OF these, by far the most extonsive
Is Entremont hardly known even in France be-
yond tho precincts OF the city OF AK Among
its ruins were discovered some fifty years ago
certain bas.relieis. pronounced 10 be preRoman.
and commonly described as Gaulish. As Pro-
vence however, was never occupied by Gauls.
and Entremont remained. up 10 tho period Of its
conquest by the Romans, tho chief fortress OF the
powerful Lgurian confederation Of the Saluvii.
which occupied almost the whole Of Provence,
there Ia good reason TO believe that the basreefs
In question now preserved In the Museum at AK
are Ligurian. and not Gaulish. That Entire
mont was an oppidum Of Ligurians and not Gauls
is further proved by the absence Of any signs Of
the wooden beams alternating with layers Of stone
which, as Cesar tells us, were Characteristic Of
tho Gallo method Of construction.
1t was In the year b. c. 23S, just twenty years
before tho invasion OF Italy by Hannibal, that
the first fighting took place between Romans
and Ligurians II continued internationally for
more than two centuries tho last collision 90
curing Is. c. H. when Augustus, as We have
said dislodged the long haired Igurians from
their stronghold In the Maritime Alps For
tho FIRST fifty years Of this period. the Lig urians
made common cause with Gauls or Carthaginiana
After the close OF tho second Punic War they
were left TO cope with the Romans single handed.
The period from i. c. lol TO b. C. ITO is prob
ably the eighty years war 10 which Strabo re-
fers when he says: The Lgurians closed ag ainst
the Romans all the roads leading TO Iberia along
the coast and carried on q system Of pillagc both
by sea and land. Their strength so increased
that largo armies wero scarcely able 10 force
passage, and, after war OF eighty years the
Romans were hardly able 10 obtain breadth
Of twelve stadia for the purpose of making q
public road" OF the dealings Of the Romans
with tho Ligurians, Plutarch, writing about fifty
years later than Strabo, remarks in his life OF
Aemilius Paulus, that "tho Romans did not
choose utterly to cut of the people OF Ligura,
whom they considered as a bulwark against the
Gauls who were always lowering over Italy"
Not even after Its complete conquest In the days
Of the Empire does that part OF Lguria which
correspondent TO tho Italian Riviera Of our day
appear ever to have been a favonte locality with
rich Romans Being. as a people, destitute
OF tho love Of scenery for It's own sake, tho Ro-
mans did not care to settle on q narrow ledge
between the mountains and tho sea where tho
difficulty OF getting supplies must have been
almost nsuperable in Roman times While how
ever the narrow Italian Liguha from the Magra
70 tho Var was little to the taste Of tho Romans
tho widening plains OF Transalpine Liguria,
tho modern Provence, where tho Alps gradually
recede from the shore. drew them irrcsistby
onward Hero the Romans settled in such num-
bers that Pliny the Elder, referring to tho Pro
vincia Narbonenas OF his day uhe second half
Of the first century A. d., says that it deserved
to be described rather as Italian than as provin-
cial, Italia reriuS guam propfncid."
Among the interesting episodes of Roman his
tory connected with Lguria which will be found
discussed at length in this book is the passage OF