"The most con

merly inhabited by numerous Celtic tribes. siderable among these Celtic nations," he adds, "were the Boii, the Insubri, and the Senones, who with the Gæsatæ, destroyed the city of Rome. These last, the Senones, were afterwards entirely destroyed by the Romans; but the Boii were driven out of their seats. The Insubri are still in existence. They had Mediolanum for their metropolis, which was formerly a village, for they all inhabited villages, but now a considerable city beyond the Po, and adjoining the Alps. Near to Milan, they have Verona, also a large city, and the smaller ones of Brexia, Mantua, Regium, and Comum. Comum (Como) was at first also a small town.'

The Boii appear to have taken a principal share in this migration across the Alps, as in all the expeditions of the Celtic nations. Pliny, in describing the country in Cisalpine Gaul, from which they had been expelled, says that Cato reported the number of their tribes to have been one hundred and twelve.+ Niebuhr seems inclined to suppose that the Gauls in Pannonia and Noricum were a part of these Boii from the Cisalpine, and it appears that Strabo had this meaning: but there was a great part of the Gallic race, as we shall presently observe, already in the countries beyond Helvetia, on the banks of the Danube, and in the eastern parts of Germany, and in Noricum and Pannonia.

I have been the more careful to collect the particular statements, and to illustrate the general tenour of information given by ancient writers, respecting the settlements of the Gauls in Italy, on account of certain disputed points connected with the history of this invasion. Some matters of importance in reference to the general history of the Celtic race, will be found to turn upon the question to what department of nations the Cisalpine Gauls belonged. Some have declared that the invaders were not Celtic, but Teutonic tribes, and they defend the assertion on the ground that the conquerors of Italy, as well as those of Asia Minor afterwards to be mentioned, are

* Strabo, lib. 5. p. 300. Ed. Oxon.

+ Plin. H. N. 3. c. 15.
G 2

reported by the ancient writers to have been a people of fair, or xanthous complexion. If it were demonstrated that the different complexions of mankind are specific characters, and as permanent as the difference between horses and asses, the circumstance that the Celts are reported to have resembled the Teutonic nations in this respect would be a very perplexing one but that, as I have already shown in the former parts of this work, and as I shall have occasion further to prove hereafter, is by no means the case. Many ancient authorities testify that the Celtic tribes were in some instances as fair as the Teutones themselves. But postponing this consideration for the present, it will be admitted by those who candidly estimate the authority of the statements above collected, that the emigrants from Gaul into the valley of the Po were certainly Gauls, and not Germans. Neither is there any ground, however slight, for the assertion, that some of them were Belgic, while others were Celtic Gauls. The tribes of the first migration, who formed the great mass, or the clans led by the leaders of the Bituriges, came principally from the neighbourhood of the Loire, and from the heart of Celtic Gaul. This may be said likewise of the Cenomani, who are found near the upper country of the Loire, and to the westward of the Senones. The alliance between the Cenomanians and the Bituriges, whose leaders assisted their enterprise, confirms their Celtic origin. The Insubres were clans in the territory of the Hædui, and associated with that powerful nation, who, by all their political connections, are well ascertained to have been Celta, and who as such were known at Rome long before the Belgæ were ever heard of.* In describing them particularly, Cæsar evidently professes to give a specimen of the Gallic, which at that time meant the Celtic character. Indeed, the circumstance that the Hædui formed a part of the confederacy of the Bituriges, is of itself an argument that they were of the Celtic family. The Boii in Gaul, in Italy, and in

* Divitiacus, prince of the Hædui, a Druid, was the hospes, or family friend, of Atticus, and expounded to Cicero the Celtic doctrine of the metempsychosis.

their different settlements in Germany are always mentioned as Celts, and expressly so termed. All their connections were with Celtic tribes. Of all the tribes mentioned, the Senones were situated farthest towards the north: they approached the borders of the Belgæ. That the Senones were a Celtic tribe is sufficiently clear, from their situation to the southward of the Seine; and they are always mentioned by Cæsar and other writers in connection with the Celts, and as taking part in the disputes of the Celtic Gauls, but are not by any writer termed Belgians, or named as entering the frequent confederations of the Belgic race. Cæsar indeed evidently includes these among the Celtic Gauls when he says that the Rhemi were of all the Belgian tribes nearest to the province. Pinkerton, the principal abettor of the opinion which ascribes Belgic origin to the Cisalpine Gauls, asserts, without a doubt, that the Senones had no share in this migration; but that the people so termed were the Semnones, a totally different people, and inhabiting a remote part of Germany, and forming a subdivision of the great Suevic, or northern German race. Such a way of getting rid of difficulties which lie in the way of an hypothetical theory, is too bold an adventure on the ignorance or indolence of the reader.

On the whole, it appears to be the legitimate result of historical research, that all the Cisalpine Gauls are referable to the Celtic part of the Gaulish nations. Some additional confirmation of this opinion will be found in the sequel.*

* M. Thierry ventures to discriminate these tribes into two departments, and thinks one class Celtic and the other Belgic, that is, in his system, Welsh. The only ground for this attempt is his finding in the Irish or Gaelic language words which he conjectures to be etymons for the names of one class, and in the Welsh words which, with a little etymological ingenuity, will serve for epithets of the other set of tribes. Thus the Boii are said to have been Belgians by M. Thierry, merely because 'Bwg' means 66 a bogle," or ugly spectre, in Welsh. But if this etymology of the name were allowed, it would prove nothing to the purpose, unless it were first established that the Welsh was the dialect of the Belgæ.

SECTION VI. Of the Expeditions of the Gauls across the Rhine, and their Colonies in Germany, Noricum, and Pannonia.

Livy connects, as we have seen, the first expedition of the Gauls across the Alps, said to have been conducted by Bellovesus, with another migration under Sigovesus into the heart of Germany. Both these enterprises were undertaken, according to him, by tribes belonging to the confederacy of the Bituriges. The followers of Sigovesus made their way into the Hercynian Forest.

Several other writers mention emigrations of Gauls into the Hercynian Forest. By Tacitus the people who occupied that part of Germany are said to have been Boii, neighbours and allies of the Helvetii. Cæsar says, "that the most fertile parts of Germany in the neighbourhood of the Hercynian Forest, mentioned by Eratosthenes under the appellation of Orcynia, fell to the share of the Volca Tectosages, who settled in those parts and had ever since kept possession. They were in the highest reputation for justice and bravery, and no less remarkable than the Germans for poverty, abstinence, and patience of fatigue, conforming exactly to the customs of that people both in habit and the way of living."*

Cæsar appears to term the Gauls who inhabited the Hercynian Forest by a general epithet, Volcæ Tectosages. A people thus denominated are well known as a principal tribe in the southwestern part of Gaul, between the Pyrenees and the mountains of Cemmenus, or the Cevennes. They are mentioned by Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy, Mela, Livy, and others; and by the concurrent opinion of all the ancient writers are identified with the Tectosages or Tectosagi, the most powerful and celebrated of the three divisions or clans of Galatæ, who held the greater part of Asia Minor in subjection. The Volca of Gaul were divided into Volcæ Arecomici and Volcæ Tectosages. The former inhabited the west side of the Rhone, and their capital was Nemausus. The latter approached the Pyrenean mountains and had for their metropolis Tolosa or

*Tacitus, Germ. 28. Cæsar, Bell. Gall. 6. 24.

Toulouse. They were a people well known to the Romans, for it was in their territory that the city of Narbo was built by the Consul Q. Martius Rex, which became the capital of the province of Narbonensis. The Tectosages joined the Cimbri against the Romans, and were defeated by Sylla, who took prisoner one of their kings named Copillus.

The Tectosagi in the Hercynian Forest, by which name the old geographers designated a vast tract stretching through all the southern part of Germany, from the Schwartzwald in Swabia along the whole course of the Danube as far as the limits of Dacia,* were neighbours and confederates of another Celtic tribe, who, of all others, were most celebrated for their repeated migrations. The Boii were among the most warlike of the tribes of Cisalpine Gauls, and they were joined with the Senones in the sacking of Rome. Posidonius, as cited by Strabo, relates that the Boii formerly inhabited the Hercynian Forest, and there repulsed the invasion of the Cimbri.+ Ancient as well as modern writers differ as to the early seats of these people: Strabo was of opinion that the Boii of Germany were emigrants from Italy; that they had been a fugitive part of the Boii who had been long settled to the southward of the Po, in the Cisalpine; but the account which he gives of this passage in their history has been shown to be erroneous by M. Zeuss. Strabo says "the greatest of the Celtic nations, viz. in Cisalpine Gaul, were the Boii, the Insubri, and the Senones, who, together with the Gæsatæ, made an incursion on Rome and gained possession of the city. These last, the Senones, were afterwards entirely destroyed by the Romans; but the Boii were driven out of their country, and passing over to the neighbourhood of the Danube, took up their abode with the Taurisci, and fought with them against the Dacians till they were completely extirpated, and

Cæsar de B. G. 6. c. 24. 25. "Oritur ab Helvetiorum et Nemetum et Rauracorum finibus, rectâque fluminis Danubii regione pertinet ad fines Dacorum et Anartium : hinc se flectit sinistrorsus." According to this representation the Hercynian Forest must have occupied Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, and part of Hungary to the river Theiss, and in the neighbourhood of the Theiss have reached northward towards Silesia and Bohemia.

+ Strabo, lib. 7. p. 293. ed. Casaub.

Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme, von Kaspar Zeuss. München, 1837.