THE ALLOBROGE GAULS VIENNE, METROPOLIS OF THE ALLOBROGES Polybius Strabo	Greek text by Polybius (History, III, 50) after a translation by G. Barruol. "Hannibal had been going up the river (the Isère) for ten days, he had covered 800 stadia (148 km.) and was climbing the lower slopes of the Alps when he found himself exposed to a very serious threat. As long as he had been on flat ground (the valley of the middle and lower Isère in Allobroge territory), none of the Allobroge chiefs had dared attack the Carthaginians, either for fear of the (Carthaginian) cavalry or of the Barbarians escorting them (the Segovellauni, neighbours of the Allobroges, who lived between the junctions of the Drôme and the Isère with the Rhône). But when the Segovellauni had returned to their land of origin and Hannibal began to enter the mountain range, the Allobroge chiefs, acting in concert, gathered a considerable contingent and occupied the positions that dominated the places where he would necessarily have to go through (the Arc valley, territory belonging to the Ceutrons, neighbours of the Allobroges)".