City
Vesontine
Besançon
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Vesontio, now Besançon in France, was the chief stronghold of the Sequani, a Gallic people. The town sits inside an almost closed loop of the river Doubs, its one narrow neck guarded by a steep hill, and Caesar, who described this natural fortress at length, took it by forced marches in 58 BC before the Germanic king Ariovistus could. The map gives it the usual pair of towers and makes it a meeting point of roads. Its two routes to Augusta Raurica, near Basel, show how the map's long format distorts: neither reaches a hundred Roman miles, yet both stretch across almost a whole parchment sheet.