I.

sprang

merians.

BOOK that they called themselves Celtæ, or Keltæ, though the Romans gave them the appellation of Galli. " THE Keltoi, to follow the Greek orthography of from Kim- the word, appear to have been one of the branches of the Kimmerian stock. The term Kimmerian, like German, or Gaul, was a generic appellation. The people to whom it extended had also specific denominations. Thus, part of the Kimmerians who invaded Asia, under Ligdamis were likewise called Trerones, or Treres. 38 That the Kelta were Kimmerians is expressly affirmed by Arrian in two passages"; and with equal clearness and decision by Diodorus 40, and is implied by Plutarch."1

As the Kimmerians traversed the north of Europe, from east to west, the Kelts seem to have proceeded more to the south and south-west. Some geographers, before Plutarch, extended the country of the Kelts as far as the sea of Azoph. Ephorus was probably one of these; for he is not only mentioned to have made Keltica of vast magnitude,

42

37 Cæsar. Comment. de bell. Gall. lib. i. s. 1. Pausanius says of these people, "They have but lately called themselves γαλαται. They anciently called themselves κελτοι, and so did others," p. 6. And that yahara was but another appellation of the XεATO, see Diod. Sic. lib. v. p. 308. ed. Hanov. 1604. So Origin calls the Druids of Gaul, reç`Taλarwy dovadas, adv. Cels. Galatai seems to be a more euphonous pronunciation of Keltoi; and Galli is probably but the abbreviation of Galatai. Strabo also says, all this nation whom they now call Gallikon or Galatikon, p. 298.

38 Strabo, lib.i. p. 106. In another place he says, Magnetus was utterly destroyed by the Treres, a Kimmerian nation, lib. xiv. p. 958.

99 Appian in Illyr. p. 1196., and de bell. civ. lib. i. p. 625. 40 Diod. Sic. lib. v. p. 309.

41 Plut. in Mario.

42 Plut. in Mario.

43

This

II.

and including much of Spain ; but he likewise di- CHA P. vided the world into four parts, and made the Kelts to inhabit one of the four towards the west.44 statement leads us to infer, that the Kelts had been considered to be an extensive people; which indeed the various notices about them, scattered in the writings of the ancients, sufficiently testify. All the classical authors, who mention the Kelts, exhibit them as seated in the western regions of Europe. While the Kimmerians pervaded Europe from its eastern extremity, to its farthest peninsula in the north-west, their Keltic branch spread down to the south-western coasts. When their most ancient transactions are mentioned by the Greek and Roman writers, we find them placed in France, and Spain, and emerging into Italy.

The Kelts

in the

In the time of Herodotus, the Kelts were on the western coasts of Europe. He says, that they West of inhabited the remotest parts of Europe to the Europe. west; and in another part, he states them to live beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and about Pyrene;

43 Strabo, lib. iv. p. 304.

44 Strabo, lib. i. p. 59. Ephorus, in his fourth book, which was entitled Europe, Strabo, p. 463., divided the world into four parts, ibid. p. 59.: in the East he placed the Indians; in the South, the Ethiopians; in the West, the Kelta; and in the North, the Scythians.

45 Ephorus was a disciple of Isocrates, who desired him to write a history, (Photius, 1455,) which he composed from the return of the Heraclidæ into the Peloponnesus to the twentieth year of Philip of Macedon. It obtained him a distinguished reputation. His geography is often mentioned, and sometimes criticised by Strabo. But he is extolled for his knowledge by Polybius, Diodorus, and Dionysius Halicarnassus.

46 Herod. Melpom. c. 49.

BOOK and he places among them the origin of the Danube, 47

I.

ARISTOTLE frequently mentions the Kelts. In one place, he notices them as neither dreading. earthquakes, nor inundations 48; in another, as rushing armed into the waves; and in another, as plunging their new-born infants in cold water, or clothing them in scanty garments. 50 In other works attributed to him, he speaks of the British island as lying above the Kelts he mentions Pyrene as a mountain towards the west in Keltica, from which the Danube and the Tartessus flow; the latter north of the columns of Hercules; the former passing through Europe into the Euxine. 52 He elsewhere speaks of Keltica, and the Iberians. 53 He places the Kelts above Iberia; and remarks, 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 disappearence of its marshes, and the cultivation of its soil. Hipparchus also mentioned Keltica, but seems to have extended it into the arctic circle;

47 Herod. Euterpe. c. 33. So Arrian. Herodotus places a people, whom he calls Cunesioi, beyond the Kelts.

48 Arist.

wy Nixoμ. lib. iii. c. 10. 49 Arist. n. Evdnu, lib. iii. c. 1.

50 Arist. ПIoT. lib. vii. c. 17.

51 De Mundo, c. iii. p. 552.

52 Meteor. lib. i. c. 12. This passage makes it probable, that by Pyrene the ancients meant the Pyrenees, though Herodotus calls it a city, and places it inaccurately as to the sources of the Danube.

53 De Mirab. Auscult. 1157. de Gen. An. lib. ii. c. 8. Strabo also calls their country Keltica, and Livy, Kelticum. Timagetes placed the springs of the Danube in the Keltic mountains. Schol. Appoll.

II.

for he placed Keltæ at the distance of six thousand CHAP. 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. 54

THE Opinions may be fanciful, but they shew 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.55

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. 56 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 before 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

54 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.

55 See Tac. Mor. Germ. Strabo, lib. vii.- Cæsar. de bell. Gall.

56 As Pausanias, p. 62. Diod. Sic. p. 308.; and Strabo in many places; also by Livy.

I.

BOOK Belgæ, and the Garonne from the Aquitani. 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.

æra.

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 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 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. 58

57 Cæsar. Comment. de bell. Gall. lib. i. c. 1.

58 We derive our information of this important chronology and event from Livy. He states, that when Tarquinius Priscus reigned, the chief sovereignty of the Kelta was with the Bituriges, (the inhabitants of that part of France where Bourges is now situated,) and that these gave a king to Kelticum. His name at that time, was Ambigatus. The princes whom he sent out at the head of these expeditions were Bellovesus and Sigovesus, his sister's sons. The party under Sigovesus took the