BRIGANTI´NUS LACUS(Bodensee, or Lake of Constanz), also called Lacus Brigantiae (Ammian. 15.4), while Pomponius Mela (3.2) mentions it under the names of Lacus Venetus and Lacus Acronius, the former being probably the name of the upper part of the lake, and the latter that of the lower. (Comp. Plin. Nat. 9.29; Solin. 24; Strab. iv. pp. 192, 207, vii. pp. 292, 313, who mentions the lake without stating its name.) The general opinion of the ancients is, that the lake is formed by the Rhine, but that its waters do not mix with those of the river. This belief, however, is unfounded. According to Strabo, the lake was one day's journey from the sources of the Ister, and the tribes dwelling around it were the Helvetians in the south, the Raetians in the south-east, and the Vindelicians in the north. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the form of the lake was round, and the lake itself 360. stadia in length. Its shores were covered with thick and impenetrable forests, notwithstanding which the Romans made a high road through the thickets, of which traces still exist at some distance from the northern shore, where the lake anciently appears to have extended further than it now does. Not far from an island in the lake, probably the island of Reichenau, Tiberius defeated the Vindelicians in a naval engagement. (Strab. vii. p 292; comp. G. Schwab, Der Bodensee, Stuttgart, 1828,8vo.)
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