9. The [coast] which extends from this [last city] to the river Var, and the Ligurians who dwell near it, contains the Massilian cities of Tauroentium,[1366] Olbia,[1367] Antipolis,[1368] Nicæa,[1369] and the sea-port of Augustus Cæsar, called Forum Julium,[1370] which is situated between Olbia and Antipolis, and distant from Marseilles about 600 stadia. The Var is between Antipolis and Nicæa; distant from the one about 20 stadia, from the other about 60; so that according to the boundary now marked Nicæa belongs to Italy, although it is a city of the people of Marseilles, for they built these cities [as a defence] against the barbarians who dwelt higher up the country, in order to maintain the sea free, as the barbarians possessed the land. For this [region] is mountainous and fortified by nature, leaving however a considerable extent of plain country near Marseilles; but as you proceed towards the east the country is so hemmed in by the mountains, as scarcely to leave a sufficient road for passage by the sea-shore. The former districts are inhabited by the Salyes,[1371] the latter by the Ligurians, who border on Italy, of whom we shall speak afterwards. It should here be mentioned, that although Antipolis is situated in the Narbonnaise, and Nicæa in Italy, this latter is dependent on Marseilles, and forms part of that province; while [CAS. 184] Antipolis is ranked amongst the Italian cities, and freed from the government of the Marseillese by a judgment given against them. 10. Lying off this narrow pass along the coast, as you commence your journey from Marseilles, are the Stœchades islands.[1372] Three of these are considerable, and two small. They are cultivated by the people of Marseilles. Anciently they contained a garrison, placed here to defend them from the attacks of pirates, for they have good ports. After the Stœchades come [the islands of] Planasia[1373] and Lero,[1374] both of them inhabited. In Lero, which lies opposite to Antipolis, is a temple erected to the hero Lero. There are other small islands not worth mentioning, some of them before Marseilles, others before the rest of the coast which I have been describing. As to the harbours, those of the sea-port [of Forum-Julium][1375] and Marseilles are considerable, the others are but middling. Of this latter class is the port Oxybius,[1376] so named from the Oxybian Ligurians.—This concludes what we have to say of this coast.