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assisted in wars against the Allobroges and Helvetii, and had they been of a different race from the other people of Celtica the fact would not have remained either concealed or unnoticed. 8. The Ambarri, mentioned, together with other tribes of this region of Gaul, in the celebrated invasion of Italy. 9. The Boii were, as Mannert observes, an ancient people of Celtic race, who dwelt, from the earliest times when known to us, partly in northern Italy, partly in the south of Germany, near the Danube. Pressed by German and other neighbouring nations, a part of the Boii passed into Bohemia; a part going westward became allies of the Helvetii, with whom they were defeated by Cæsar, and forced to seek refuge in the country of the Hædui, who took them into their protection. In all their political relations the Boii were quite separate from the Belgæ, among whom they have been reckoned by some late writers without a shadow of historical evidence. Cæsar was well acquainted with the Hædui and Boii at the time of his first war against the Belgæ, of whom he speaks as of a people hitherto altogether unknown. Cæsar indeed expressly affirms that the Rhemi were, of all the Belgian tribes, that situated most nearly to Celtica, that is the furthest towards the south.

SECTION IV. Of the Belga.

The existence of the Belgæ appears, as I have observed, to have been wholly unknown to the Romans until the time of Cæsar. They became an object of interest to the conqueror of Gaul on the occasion of a confederacy entered into by many of the Belgic tribes, with the view of resisting the encroachment of the Roman arms, under which a great part of Celtica had been already subjugated. On the first tidings of this confederation, Cæsar enjoined on the Senones and other Celtic tribes on the borders of the Belgæ, to watch their movements, and from the Rhemi, who of all the Belgic tribes lived nearest-viz. to the border of Celtica and to Italy -he inquired into the number and power of the states that were in league against him. "Quum ab his quæreret

quæ civitates, quantæque in armis essent, et quid in bello possent, sic reperiebat; plerosque Belgas esse ortos ab Germanis; Rhenumque antiquitus transductos, propter loci fertilitatem ibi consedisse, Gallosque qui ea loca incolerent, expulisse; solosque esse, qui, patrum nostrorum memoria, omni Gallia vexata, Teutones Cimbrosque intra fines suos ingredi prohibuerint. Qua ex re fieri, uti earum rerum

memoria, magnam sibi auctoritatem, magnosque spiritus in re militari sumerent." Cæsar afterwards enumerates the different Belgic tribes who entered into this alliance against the Romans, and it seems to be clearly implied that they constituted the great body of the Belgic nation. The tribes mentioned on this occasion are the Bellovaci, or people of the country about Beauvais, who were the most powerful of the Belgæ; the Suessiones, who had twelve towns; the Nervii, the most distant and the most barbarous tribe; the Atrebates, in Artois, the Ambiani, the Morini, the Menapii, the Caleti, the Velocasses and Veromandui, the Advatuci; lastly, the Condrusi, Eburones, Cæræsi and Pæmani, who are comprehended under the common appellation of " Germans." From this enumeration it is worthy of remark that the Treveri are omitted, though they are elsewhere mentioned among the principal Belgian nations.

It is remarkable that although Cæsar had been told by the Rhemish people, in general terms, that most of the Belgæ were of German origin, he yet in coming to a particular enumeration mentions four tribes who were by distinction termed Germans, as if the claim of a German extraction was not so well established with respect to the rest.

The question, what Belgic tribes were of Germən origin and what were of the Celtic stock, or allied to it, seems to have recurred to several subsequent writers, and Tacitus and Strabo have attempted a solution.

Tacitus thinks it probable that Gallic tribes in earlier times frequently emigrated into Germany: he mentions the Boii, who occupied Bohemia, and the Helvetii, as undoubtedly Gauls. Respecting the Osi of Germany, and the Aravisci of Pannonia, both having the same manners and language, he is in doubt whether the Osi migrated into Germany or the

assisted in wars against the Allobroges and Helvetii, and had they been of a different race from the other people of Celtica the fact would not have remained either concealed or unnoticed. 8. The Ambarri, mentioned, together with other tribes of this region of Gaul, in the celebrated invasion of Italy. 9. The Boii were, as Mannert observes, an ancient people of Celtic race, who dwelt, from the earliest times when known to us, partly in northern Italy, partly in the south of Germany, near the Danube. Pressed by German and other neighbouring nations, a part of the Boii passed into Bohemia; a part going westward became allies of the Helvetii, with whom they were defeated by Cæsar, and forced to seek refuge in the country of the Hædui, who took them into their protection. In all their political relations the Boii were quite separate from the Belgæ, among whom they have been reckoned by some late writers without a shadow of historical evidence. Cæsar was well acquainted with the Hædui and Boii at the time of his first war against the Belgæ, of whom he speaks as of a people hitherto altogether unknown. Cæsar indeed expressly affirms that the Rhemi were, of all the Belgian tribes, that situated most nearly to Celtica, that is the furthest towards the south.

SECTION IV. Of the Belgæ.

The existence of the Belgæ appears, as I have observed, to have been wholly unknown to the Romans until the time of Cæsar. They became an object of interest to the conqueror of Gaul on the occasion of a confederacy entered into by many of the Belgic tribes, with the view of resisting the encroachment of the Roman arms, under which a great part of Celtica had been already subjugated. On the first tidings of this confederation, Cæsar enjoined on the Senones and other Celtic tribes on the borders of the Belgæ, to watch their movements, and from the Rhemi, who of all the Belgic tribes lived nearest-viz. to the border of Celtica and to Italy -he inquired into the number and power of the states that were in league against him. "Quum ab his quæreret

quæ civitates, quantæque in armis essent, et quid in bello possent, sic reperiebat; plerosque Belgas esse ortos ab Germanis; Rhenumque antiquitus transductos, propter loci fertilitatem ibi consedisse, Gallosque qui ea loca incolerent, expulisse; solosque esse, qui, patrum nostrorum memoria, omni Gallia vexata, Teutones Cimbrosque intra fines suos ingredi prohibuerint. Qua ex re fieri, uti earum rerum

memoria, magnam sibi auctoritatem, magnosque spiritus in re militari sumerent." Cæsar afterwards enumerates the dif

ferent Belgic tribes who entered into this alliance against the Romans, and it seems to be clearly implied that they constituted the great body of the Belgic nation. The tribes mentioned on this occasion are the Bellovaci, or people of the country about Beauvais, who were the most powerful of the Belgæ; the Suessiones, who had twelve towns; the Nervii, the most distant and the most barbarous tribe; the Atrebates, in Artois, the Ambiani, the Morini, the Menapii, the Caleti, the Velocasses and Veromandui, the Advatuci; lastly, the Condrusi, Eburones, Cæræsi and Pamani, who are comprehended under the common appellation of " Germans." From this enumeration it is worthy of remark that the Treveri are omitted, though they are elsewhere mentioned among the principal Belgian nations.

It is remarkable that although Cæsar had been told by the Rhemish people, in general terms, that most of the Belgæ were of German origin, he yet in coming to a particular enumeration mentions four tribes who were by distinction termed Germans, as if the claim of a German extraction was not so well established with respect to the rest.

The question, what Belgic tribes were of German origin and what were of the Celtic stock, or allied to it, seems to have recurred to several subsequent writers, and Tacitus and Strabo have attempted a solution.

Tacitus thinks it probable that Gallic tribes in earlier times frequently emigrated into Germany: he mentions the Boii, who occupied Bohemia, and the Helvetii, as undoubtedly Gauls. Respecting the Osi of Germany, and the Aravisci of Pannonia, both having the same manners and language, he is in doubt whether the Osi migrated into Germany or the

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Aravisci into Pannonia.* Tacitus here seems to reckon Pannonia a part of Gaul, or rather of the country inhabited by Celtic nations, which we shall hereafter find to have been the case. The river which he supposes once to have been traversed by these two nations must be the Danube, and not the Rhine. He adds, speaking more particularly of the Belgæ, that the Treveri and Nervii are ambitious of being thought of German origin, as if the reputation of their descent would distinguish them from the Gauls, whom they resembled in person and effeminacy. The Vangiones, Tribocci, and Nemetes, who inhabit the bank of the Rhine, are, as he says, without doubt German tribes. To these Tacitus adds the Ubii and the Batavi, the last a tribe of the German Chatti.

We have here three Belgian tribes, besides the Ubii and Batavi,-which last are scarcely ever mentioned as Gauls,comprehended, besides the four of Cæsar, under the appellation of Germans. It is plain that Tacitus disbelieved the claim to a German descent set up by other tribes. None of the great nations of Belgic Gaul are among the tribes allowed by Tacitus to have been of German origin. The Belgic communities really German were some small tribes near the Rhine, among whom the Ubii and Tribocci are hardly reckoned as Gauls, but as tribes recently descended from the Germans.

Strabo has taken some pains to distinguish the German tribes who had settled themselves among the Belgæ. He says "Next to the Helvetii, in the descent of the river, the bank of the Rhine is inhabited by the Sequani and the Mediomatrices, among whom are settled a German nation, the Tribocci, who passed over from their own country. In the country of the Sequani is Mount Jura, which separates them from the Helvetii. Beyond the Helvetii and Sequani, towards the west, dwell the Hædui and Lingones, beyond the Medromatrices, the Leuci, and part of the Lingones." He then

* In another passage Tacitus seems to conclude that the Osi were from Pannonia, because they spoke the Pannonian language, viz. probably the dialect of the Aravisci. If these were not a Celto-Pannonian people, there seems to be no reason for mentioning them in this passage cited in the text, which refers simply to the mutual inroads of the Gauls and Germans on each other.

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