When
Caesar was setting out for
Italy, he sent
Servius Galba with the twelfth legion and part of the cavalry, against the
Nantuates, the
Veragri, and
Seduni, who extend from the territories of the
Allobroges, and the lake of
Geneva , and the River
Rhone to the top of the
Alps. The reason for sending him was, that he desired that the pass along the
Alps , through which [the
Roman] merchants had been accustomed to travel with great danger, and under great imposts, should be opened. He permitted him, if he thought it necessary, to station the legion in these places, for the purpose of wintering.
Galba having fought some successful battles and stormed several of their forts, upon embassadors being sent to him from all parts and hostages given and a peace concluded, determined to station two cohorts among the
Nantuates, and to winter in person with the other cohorts of that legion in a village of the
Veragri, which is called
Octodurus; and this village being situated in a valley, with a small plain annexed to it, is bounded on all sides by very high mountains. As this village was divided into two parts by a river, he granted one part of it to the
Gauls, and assigned the other, which had been left by them unoccupied, to the cohorts to winter in. He fortified this [latter] part with a rampart and a ditch.