de bello gallico, 1.2

Among the Helvetii by far the most noble and rich was Orgetorix. This man, in the consulship of Marcus Messalla and Marcus Pupius Piso, influenced by a desire for kingship, made a conspiracy of the nobility and persuaded the state to leave from their borders with all their troops: it was very easy to gain possession of all Gaul when/because they excelled everyone in virtue. He persuaded them (of) this more easily by this, because the Helvetii everywhere are contained by the nature of the place: from one part by the Rhenus river, most wide and deep, which divides Helvetian territory from the Germans; from another part by Mt. Iura, most high, which is between the Sequani and the Helvetii; (from the) third (part) by lake Lemannus and the river Rhodanus, which divides our province from the Helvetii. By these things it was happening both that they wandered less widely and that they could make war on their neighbors less easily; from which part the men, desirous of war, were afflicted with great grief. Moreover, for the multitude of men and for the glory of war and of their bravery, they thought that they had petty (i.e. narrow, scanty) territory, which extend in longitude 240 miles, in latitude 180 miles.