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Strabo - "Geography"
Strabo, born in Amasia in the kingdom of Pontus (on the coast of the Black Sea, modern northern Turkey), 63 B.C. (in the same year as Gaius Octavius, the future emperor Augustus).
II.v.8:"For although they could have held even Britain, the Romans scorned to do so, because they saw that there was nothing at all to fear from the Britons(for they are not strong enough to cross over and attack us), and that no corresponding advantage was to be gained by taking and holding their country. For it seems that at present, more revenue is derived from the duty on their commerce than the tribute could bring in, if we deduct the expense involved in the maintainance of an army for the purposes of guarding the island and collecting the tribute; and the unprofitableness of an occupation would be greater still in the case of the other islands about Britain."
IV.v.2: (speaking of the rivers Rhine, Seine, Loire and Garrone), "There are only four passages which are habitually used in the crossing from the mainland to the island: Those which begin at the mouths of the rivers - the Rhenus, the Sequana, the Liger and the Garumna."
IV.v.3"At present, however, some of the chieftains there, after procuring the friendship of Caesar Augustus by sending embassies and by paying court to him, have not only dedicated offerings in the Capitolium, but have also managed to make the whole of the island virtually Roman property. Further, they submit so easily to heavy duties, both on their exports from there to Celtica, and on their imports from Celtica (these latter are ivory chains and necklaces and amber gems and glass vessels and other pretty wares of that sort), that there is no need of garrisoning the island."
References
Sources Used
"Strabo's Geography" Translation by Horace Leonard Jones (Loeb Classical Library, Heinemann, London 1917)
Cite this work
McKeown, J., "Geography," http:// romans.etrusia.co.uk
/strabo.php, 21 February 1999.