Book 3
3.5
The Artabri are the last of the people [on this coast]. They inhabit the promontory called Nerium,Cape Finisterre. which is the boundary [of Iberia] on its western and northern sides. Around it dwell the Keltici, a kindred race to those who are situated along the Guadiana.Anas. They say that these latter, together with the Turduli, having undertaken an expedition thither, quarrelled after they had crossed the river Lima,Limaea. and, besides the sedition, their leader having also died, they remained scattered there, and from this circumstance the river was called the Lethe.Or the river of Oblivion, apparently because they forgot to return to their own country. The Artabri have besides many cities established round the Gulf, which mariners and those familiar with the places designate as the Port of the Artabri. At the present day the Artabri are denominated the Arotrebae. About thirtyA few of the MSS. read fifty, which number seems to be countenanced by the statement of Pliny, that forty-six nations inhabited Lusitania: but then the limits he set to the country were more extended than those allowed by Strabo. different nations occupy the country between the Tagus and the Artabri. Notwithstanding the fertility of the country in corn, cattle, gold, silver, and numerous other similar productions, the majority of its inhabitants, neglecting to gain their subsistence from the ground, passed their lives in pillage and continual warfare, both between themselves and their neighbours, whom they used to cross the Tagus [to plunder]. To this the Romans at length put a stop by subduing them, and changing many of their cities into villages, besides colonizing some of them better. The mountaineers, as was natural, were the first to commence this lawless mode of life: for living but scantily, and possessing little, they coveted the goods of others, who being obliged to repulse them, of necessity relinquished their proper employments, and instead of pursuing agriculture took up arms. Thus it happened that their country, being neglected, became barren notwithstanding its natural advantages, and inhabited by bandits.
