Famous Cities XIX. — Narbonne

Nor shalt thou be unsung, Martian Narbonne, who gav'st thy name to that Province (Provence) which once spread over a vast realm and held sovereign sway over its numerous inhabitants. Where the Allobroges encroach upon the Graian borders and Alpine peaks shut out Italy, where the Iberians are parted from thee by Pyrenaean snows, where Rhone sweeps headlong from his sire Leman, and the Cevennes thrust deep into the plains of Aquitaine, right on to the Teutosagi and Belcae, rustic folk, — all was Narbonne: thou in all Gaul wast first to display the insignia of the Roman race under an Italian proconsul.

What shall I say of thy harbours, mountains, lakes? What of thy peoples with their varied differences of garb and speech? Or of the temple of Parian marble, once thine, so vast in bulk that old Tarquin, the first builder,' would not scorn it, nor Catulus the second, nor he who last raised the golden roofs of the Capitol, Caesar himself. Thee the merchandise of the eastern sea and Spanish main enrich, thee the fleets of the Libyan and Sicilian deeps, and all freights which pass by many different routes o'er rivers and o'er seas: the whole world over no argosy is afloat but for thy sake.