XII.] DESCRIPTION OF EUROPE. 253
north to south; but in other respects his general idea of the
geographical features of these countries was accurate. He was
acquainted with the five great rivers of Spain which flow towards
the Atlantic—the Baetis (Guadalquivir), the Anas (Guadiana),
the Tagus, the Durius (Douro), and the Minius (Minho)—and
with the Iberus (Ebro), which reaches the Mediterranean. He
knew also the watershed which divides these, and which gradually
rises as it advances southward, until it joins the Sierra Nevada;
and he was aware that along the northern coast there was a
mountain region between the Pyrenees and Cape Finisterre. In
Gaul he draws especial attention to the completeness of the river
system, in which respect that country has greater advantages than
any other in Europe, and to the easy communication which
existed between one river-basin and another, and the consequent
facilities which were provided for trade routes3. Very effective,
too, is the contrast here presented by the advanced civilisation
of the province of Baetica, which at this time was completely
Romanised, and the primitive condition of the tribes in the
centre and north of Spain; and the leading features of character
of the Iberian race in that knd, and of the Celtic tribes in Gaul,
are interestingly delineated. We find here also a striking de-
scription of the two famous cities of Gades and Massilia, both in
respect of their sites and of the condition of their inhabitants.
It gives us an impressive idea of the commerce of Gades, when
we are told that the greater part of its population was to be
found, not in the place itself, but on the sea2: and in the account
of Massilia we find a sketch of its political constitution, to which
Aristotle had devoted a treatise, and a notice of its learning and
its schools, which caused it to become a Greek university for
southern Gaul8.
Italy and Sicily are the subject of the fifth and sixth books.
Here again Strabo is greatly indebted to Posidonius,
though no small part of his material was derived
from his own observation and researches, or from
Agrippa's wall-map and its accompanying commentary—for this
seems to be what is meant by the ' Chorography,' to which he
frequently refers* He commences with a true conception of the
1 4,1.14. * 3, $, 3, » 4. i. $.