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.