Laudator Temporis Acti

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), Short Talks with the Dead and Others (London: Jonathan Cape, 1928), pp. 47-48:

And what else of Livy? Why, to conclude with: Livy having set it down in his histories that such and such things were certainly done, has, of course, been the butt of all our new criticism. He said that the French came over into Italy from the N.W., which is where you would expect them to come from. They still come over from that direction to-day. 'The Turinian Passes and the Doria' — for who (in the face of all the surroundings, the Ticino fighting, the proceeding onwards to the site of Milan) would accept the 'Juliae' reading? Eh? Thou nineteenth-century doubter? Thou Boche? Thou Pre-historic Ass? But our moderns are careful to explain that the French did nothing of the sort, but came over from the Germanies and by the Brenner and to the east thereof. In this, therefore, Livy is our brother, for he also is subject to being set right by dwarfs and to suffering the fantasies of fools.

Belloc is referring to a notorious crux in Livy 5.34.6-9, esp. 5.34.8 (on the migration of the Gauls into Italy; tr. B.O. Foster; select critical apparatus from R.S. Conway's 1914 Oxford Classical Text of Livy):

[6] There the Alps stood over against them; and I for one do not wonder that they seemed insuperable, for as yet no road had led across them—as far back at all events as tradition reaches—unless one chooses to believe the stories about Hercules. [7] While they were there fenced in as it were by the lofty mountains, and were looking about to discover where they might cross, over heights that reached the sky, into another world, superstition also held them back, because it had been reported to them that some strangers seeking lands were beset by the Salui. [8] These were the Massilians, who had come in ships from Phocaea. The Gauls, regarding this as a good omen of their own success, lent them assistance, so that they fortified, without opposition from the Salui, the spot which they had first seized after landing. They themselves crossed the Alps through the Taurine passes and the pass of the Duria; [9] routed the Etruscans in battle not far from the river Ticinus, and learning that they were encamped in what was called the country of the Insubres, who bore the same name as an'Haeduan canton, they regarded it as a place of good omen, and founded a city there which they called Mediolanium.

[6] Alpes inde oppositae erant; quas inexsuperabiles visas haud equidem miror nulladum via, quod quidem continens memoria sit, nisi de Hercule fabulis credere 7 libet, superatas. [7] Ibi cum velut saeptos montium altitudo teneret Gallos circumspectarentque quanam per iuncta caelo iuga in alium orbem terrarum transirent, religio etiam tenuit quod allatum est advenas quae rentes agrum ab Saluum gente oppugnari. [8] Massilienses erant ii, navibus a Phocaea profecti. Id Galli fortunae suae omen rati adiuvere ut quem primum in terram egressi occupaverant locum patientibus Saluis communirent. Ipsi per Taurinos saltus <saltum>que Duriae Alpes transcenderunt; [9] fusisque acie Tuscis haud procul Ticino flumine, cum in quo consederant agrum Insubrium appellari audissent, cognominem Insubribus, pago Haeduorum, ibi omen sequentes loci condidere urbem; Mediolanium appellarunt.

8 saltumque Duriae Alpes scripsi, Madvigii uestigiis insistens qui saltus uallemque Duriae Alpes luculenter diuinauit: saltusque iuriae Alpes H (fort. recte si Duriae pro iuriae corriges): saltusque iuliae alte alpis PE?: saltusquae iuliae alte alpis FB (alpes F²): saltusque iuliae alta alpis Up: saltusque iuliae alpis Vorm. MOE² uel E³DLA (alpes M¹ uel M²): saltusque iulie alpes A²: saltusque inuiae Alpis Rhenan.

Madvig, Emendationes Livianae, 2nd ed. (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1877), pp. 144-145:

Sed restat dubitatio in nomine loci, quo Alpes Galli transierunt. Nam neque Alpem singulari numero Livius aut quisquam prosæ orationis scriptor dixit, ex quo sequitur Alpis accusativum esse, et Iuliæ Alpes longissime ab iis locis, de quibus agitur, distant. Itaque multa excogitata sunt, quæ substituerentur; sed ea omnia aut alia habent incommoda (— velut inviæ regionis significatio et prorsus post ea, quæ paulo ante dicta sunt, supervacanea est et nihil ad locum definiendum pertinet —) aut a codicum vestigiis longe discedunt, pleraque utroque in genere reprehenduntur. Quoniam nemo per populum aliquem Alpes transcendere recte dicitur, nedum, qui e Gallia veniat, per Taurinos, qui ab oriente Alpium habitant, necessario per Taurinos saltus coniungenda sunt. Itaque excidisse videtur nomen alterum ante que. In codicibus, qui momentum faciunt, (et fere ceteris quoque) id est, quod præscripsi, nisi quod P habet Iuliæ alte Alpis, litterarum geminatione ortum, H1 autem iuriæ Alpis, in quo veri vestigium servatum esse puto; Livium enim scripsisse suspicor: per Taurinos saltus vallemque Duriæ Alpes transcenderunt. Vallem significat Duriæ fluminis, per quam ab Alpibus Centronicis (le mont Cenis) ad Padum descenditur. Strabo IV p. 203 Duriam septentrionalem significare videtur, quoniam cum Salassis coniungit, sed quod Centrones commemorat et Druentiam e Gallica parte adversam e regione esse scribit, aperte ad meridianum amnem pertinet. Ea autem via Gallos transgressos esse, omnes consentiunt.

R.M. Ogilvie, in his updated Oxford Classical Text of Livy, doesn't even mention the conjectures of Madvig and Conway at 5.34.8.