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
of those barbarians upon this spot, it is scarce credible, that any of
them should have either wished or endeavoured to settle in a country,
perhaps far less hospitable than that which they had just forsaken,
especially after they had opened to themselves a way into the fertile
plains of Lombardy.
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