mountainous regions. The Allobroges were Celts, though their name means 'those of another march or district:' they were so called doubtless by some of their Celtic neighbours, but the name which they gave themselves is unknown. The peoples on the eastern bank of the Rhone formed a confederation, at the head of which stood the Allobroges, so that they may be said to have had the control of the navigation of that river and of the important traffic carried on by means of it. The Allobrogic confederation formed in its turn a member of the larger one headed by the Arverni.[1] Lastly, my principal authorities for the inscriptions found in the country of the Allobroges are Allmer's collection of the inscriptions of Vienne,[2] and a succinct account of the gods of the Allobroges by the late M. Florian Vallentin, one of the best known archæologists of the south of France.
Mercury
is the god with whom the monuments lead one to begin, and the first inscription to which I would call your attention was found among some Roman ruins near the village of Beaucroissant in the department of the Isère, and it is said to have read: Mercurio Aug(usto) Artaio Sacr(um) Sex(tus) Geminius Cupitus, ex voto.[3] The place of finding is recorded to have been once called Artay, though the name is unknown there now; but the names Artas
- ↑ Vallentin, Rev. Celtique, iv. 1, 2.
- ↑ Inscriptions antiques et du Moyen Age de Vienne en Dauphiné; consisting of six octavo volumes of letter-press description of them, supplemented by a quarto one of plates, published at Vienne in the year 1875.
- ↑ Allmer, iij. 112; Vallentin, Rev. Celtique, iv. 17.
