A Roman River: and a Roman poet

Extract

To-day, not for the first time, the borderland between France and Germany, a land of hills, forests, and rivers, has been the unhappy scene of warfare. Though its pleasant prospects are worthy of activities less vile, man has used the natural gateways of this region for purposes of war, as well as of peaceful intercourse, discreditably often. It is through one of these gateways that the Mosel flows, linking the Gauls and the Germanics. This delightful river rises in the Vosges and, flowing north-eastward, adds breadth to the broad Rhine at Coblenz. On its way it passes by Metz, of French military fame, and later by Trier, or Trèves, a lovely old place which as Augusta Treverorum was in Roman times one of the most important towns of western Europe. Now the river's course is disfigured by fortified barriers, named after a legendary hero and a modern politician. But in Roman times it was a land of peace more continuously than at any other period.