that their country was too cold for the ass, which our present experience contradicts; or, perhaps, we should rather say, that the temperature of France has been softened, by the demolition of its forests, the disappearance of its marshes, and the cultivation of its soil. Hipparchus also mentioned Keltica, but seems to have extended it into the arctic circle; for he placed Keltæ at the distance of six thousand stadia from Marseilles; and said that the sun shone all night in Keltica during the summer, and was not raised above the horizon more than nine cubits in winter. 53 THE opinions may be fanciful, but they show this great astronomer's notion of the extent of the Keltic population. The Boii who named Bohemia, and the Helvetians, are both admitted to be Keltic.54 THE tendency of the notices of the Kelts, by Herodotus, Aristotle, and Ephorus, is to show, that in their times, this people lived in the western parts of Europe, about Gaul and Spain. They are spoken of as being in the same places by later writers.55 But the evidence of Cæsar is particularly interesting on this subject. In his time the German or Scythic hordes had spread themselves over Europe, and had incorporated, or driven be 53 Strabo cites Hipparchus, p. 128.; but adds his own belief, that the Britons were more north than Keltica, by fifteen hundred stadia. In the time of Strabo the Kelta were not more north than France. Hipparchus lived one hundred and fifty years before Strabo, and Keltica had become much limited when the Roman wrote, by the successful progress to the Rhine of the German nations. The Belge had then passed this river, and even entered Gaul. 54 See Tac. Mor. Germ.-Strabo, lib. vii.-Cæsar. de Bell. Gall. 55 As Pausanias, p. 62. Diod. Sic. p. 308.; and Strabo in many places; also by Livy. CHAP. II. I. BOOK fore them, the more ancient races, whom we have been describing. But he found the Kelts possessing, at the period of his entrance into Gaul, the most considerable, and the best maritime part of it. He mentions that the Seine and the Marne separated them from the Belgæ, and the Garonne from the Aquitani. 56 But if the Kelts occupied the sea-coast of France, from the Seine to the Garonne, and had been driven to the Seine by the invasions of northern assailants, they were in a position extremely favourable for passing over into Britain, and had been under the same circumstances to impel them to it, which afterwards drove the Britons to seek refuge on a part of their coast, when the Saxons pressed upon them. THE Kelts had certainly been much spread upon the Continent, in the times anterior to Cæsar, and had shaken both Greece and Rome by perilous invasions. From the earliest of their predatory migrations which has been recorded by the classical writers, we find, that they were in the occupation of France about 600 years before the Christian æra. At that period, their population in this country was so abundant, that their chiefs recommended two of their princes to lead a numerous body over the Alps into Italy. One large multitude passed them near Turin, defeated the Etrurians or Tuscans, and founded Milan; another party settled about Brixia and Verona, while succeeding adventurers spread themselves over other districts. The reign of Tarquinius Priscus at Rome marks the chronology of these expeditions."7 56 Cæsar. Comment. de Bell. Gall. lib. i. c. 1. 57 We derive our information of this important chronology and event from Livy. He states, that when Tarquinius Priscus reigned, II. THE next great movement of the Kelts, in the CHAP. Italian States, that has been transmitted to us, occurred about 180 years after the preceding migration, when Brennus led them to that attack upon Rome itself, in which they became masters of the city, killed its senate, and had nearly taken its capitol, when Camillus rescued the perishing republic from its barbaric conquerors. 58 59 ONE hundred and ten years afterwards, Greece suffered from the irruptions of this prolific people, under another Brennus. The Kelts burst from Illyria, into Macedonia and Thrace, poured thence into Thessaly, passed the strait of Thermopylæ, as Xerxes had done, and proceeded to attack Delphos, when they were affected and destroyed by that panic which the reputation of the place, and the contrivances of its priesthood produced, and which preserved Greece from their further desolations. 60 These events occurred about 280 years before our Saviour's birth. The Kelts are noticed the chief sovereignty of the Kelta was with the Bituriges, (the inha- 58 Dionysius Halic. dates this Keltic irruption, podos kɛλrwv, in the first year of the ninety-eighth Olympiad, or 120 years after Junius Brutus and Collatinus. Lib. i. p. 60. 59 That the leader of the Keltæ in the attack of Rome, and their chief a century after in their invasion of Greece, should both be named Brennus, induces one to believe that this word is rather a descriptive than a personal appellation, and therefore to recollect that Brennin means a king in the Welsh and ancient British language. 60 The fullest account of this expedition of the Kelts into Greece occurs in Pausanias, Attic. lib. i. p. 6-8., and Phoc. lib. x. p. 643-655. BOOK afterwards as attempting Asia Minor, and as serv I. ing in the armies of Ptolemy and also of Antigonus 61, and they had frequent battles with the Romans, but usually experienced ruinous defeats 62; especially in that tremendous conflict with Quintus Fabius Maximus, of which Cæsar reminded the Gauls of his day, when they were about to war with him, and in which Strabo states that two hundred thousand Keltæ were cut off.64 STRABO remarks of the Keltæ, that it was common to them and the Iberians to lie on the ground; that they used waxen vessels; that they were addicted to human sacrifices, from which the Romans reclaimed them 67; and that they were accustomed to bring home the heads of their enemies and fix them on the gates of their towns.68 That the Keltæ, or Gauls, were easier conquered than the Spaniards, he ascribes to their fighting more in masses.69 In the time of Alexander, there were Kelts on the Adriatic who offered him their friendship with language which he thought arrogant. The expeditions and positions above no 61 Pausan. lib. i. p. 23. 62 Liv. Hist. 63 Cæsar de Bell. Gall. 64 Strabo places the scene of this battle where the Isar and the Rhone flow, near the Kemminon mountains. The conqueror erected a trophy of white stone, and built two temples, one to Mars, and one to Hercules, p. 283. 65 Strabo, p. 249. 67 Ib. p. 303. 66 Ib. p. 233. 68 He says, that Posidonius declares he saw several of their heads, p. 303.; a custom which Strabo thought barbarian; but which reminds us of our own legal practice with executed traitors. 69 Ib. p. 299. The account, re 70 Strabo, lib. vii. p. 462. Arrian, lib. i. p. 8. lated on the authority of Ptolemy Lagus, his general, and king of Egypt, is, that the king received the ambassadors with great civility, and asked them at his banquet what they most dreaded, expecting a ticed of the Kelts, prove that they were in the habit of spreading themselves from France into other countries; and considering the spirit of enterprise, the abundant population, and power of the Keltæ in France and the vicinity and fertility of Britain, we cannot avoid believing, that they crossed the sea to colonise it. Cæsar expressly mentions, that one of the Keltic kings in Gaul, Divitiacus, who governed there the Suessiones, and was the most powerful prince in that country, had subjected also part of Britain to his power." From him also we learn, that the Kelts of Armorica called upon some of the British tribes to aid them against his hostilities"; and one of his reasons for attacking Britain was that it had assisted the Keltic Gauls to resist him.73 He speaks also of its being visited by the Keltic merchants; and before his invasion of Britain, he sent one of the Keltic princes of Gaul, whom he had made a king, into our island to persuade the Britons to be friendly to the Roman state, because the authority of this chieftain was great in Britain. Thus Cæsar affords sufficient evidence of the military and commercial intercourse between the two nations in his time; a fact favourable to the opinion of the affinity between some parts of their respective populations. enter Bri THAT colonies of Keltic race entered the British The Kelts islands from Gaul, has always appeared to our anti- taiu. quaries so probable, that there is scarcely any circumstance on which they have so cordially agreed. complimentary answer as to himself. But they said they feared nothing, unless that the sky should fall and overwhelm them, though they highly valued his friendship. Alexander admitted them to his alliance, but called them arrogant. 71 Lib. ii. c. 4. |