DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0123
Ch. I.
THROUGH ITALY.
95
south. At the post we once more entered
sledges, and with great satisfaction began to
descend, a vast mass of mountain hanging over
us on the left, and the Atagis, now called the
Adige, tumbling from steep to steep on our
right. Night soon enveloped us, and we pur-
sued our way with great rapidity down the
declivity through Marek and Middlewald, and
at length entered the episcopal city of Brixen, or
Bressinone.
We had now passed the wildest retreats and
most savage scenery of the Alps, once the im-
penetrable abode of fierce tribes of barbarians,
and the haunt of associated robbers, who plun-
dered with the numbers, the spirit, and the
discipline of armies. The Roman legions were
not unfrequently impeded in their progress, and
more than once stripped of their baggage by
these desperate mountaineers. The expedition
of Drusus, before alluded to, seems to have re-
duced the Alpine tribes, at least the Vindelici
and the Rhoeti, so far to subjection, as to ensure
a safe and easy passage through their territories
for many succeeding ages. The incursions,
invasions, and consequent anarchy, that pre-
ceded and followed the dissolution of the Roman
empire, naturally revived the fierceness of the
mountain tribes, and renewed the disorders of
THROUGH ITALY.
95
south. At the post we once more entered
sledges, and with great satisfaction began to
descend, a vast mass of mountain hanging over
us on the left, and the Atagis, now called the
Adige, tumbling from steep to steep on our
right. Night soon enveloped us, and we pur-
sued our way with great rapidity down the
declivity through Marek and Middlewald, and
at length entered the episcopal city of Brixen, or
Bressinone.
We had now passed the wildest retreats and
most savage scenery of the Alps, once the im-
penetrable abode of fierce tribes of barbarians,
and the haunt of associated robbers, who plun-
dered with the numbers, the spirit, and the
discipline of armies. The Roman legions were
not unfrequently impeded in their progress, and
more than once stripped of their baggage by
these desperate mountaineers. The expedition
of Drusus, before alluded to, seems to have re-
duced the Alpine tribes, at least the Vindelici
and the Rhoeti, so far to subjection, as to ensure
a safe and easy passage through their territories
for many succeeding ages. The incursions,
invasions, and consequent anarchy, that pre-
ceded and followed the dissolution of the Roman
empire, naturally revived the fierceness of the
mountain tribes, and renewed the disorders of