subdued by the Roman arms; but only repelled in their attempts to harass
their neighbours.

This whole country, however, from its central situation, could not but
be annumerated to one of the provinces of the empire; and accordingly we
find that Rhaetia itself (which by the accounts of ancient
geographers[W] appears to have extended its limits beyond the lake of
Constance, Augsburg, and Trent, towards Germany, and to Como and Verona
towards Italy) was formed into a Roman province, governed by a
pro-consul or procurator, who resided at Augsburg; and that when in the
year 119, the Emperor Adrian divided it into Rhaetia _prima_ and
_secunda_, the governor of the former, in which the country I am now
speaking of must have been comprized, took up his residence in two
castles situated where Coire now stands, whilst the other continued his
seat at Augsburg. But notwithstanding these appearances, no trace or
monument of Roman servitude is to be met with in this district, except
the ambiguous name of one mountain,[X] situated on the skirts of these
highlands, and generally thought to have been the _non plus ultra_ of
the Roman arms on the Italian side.

From the difficulty those persevering veterans experienced in keeping
this stubborn people in awe, I mean to infer that such strenuous
asserters of their independence, whom the flattering pens of Ovid and
Horace represent as formidable even to Augustus, and preferring death to
the loss of their liberties,[Y] favoured by the natural strength and
indigence of their country, were not very likely to be so far subdued by
any foreign power inferior to the Roman, as to suffer any considerable
revolution in their customs and language: for as to the irruptions of
the Goths, Vandals, and Lombards, in the fifth and sixth centuries,
besides a profound silence in history concerning any successful attempt