historian, "and make a noise with their arms, which they are accustomed to do for those whose speech they approved." Even now he had not all the power in his own hands, for we are told that the people determine, after the trial was over and the general fully acquitted, to send reinforcements of ten thousand men to aid in the defence of Avaricum. Cæsar admits that this defence was maintained with skill as well as bravery. One would almost think that he is speaking of the French of the present day.* "The Gauls," he says, "opposed the uncommon bravery of our soldiers with plans of every kind, as they are a nation of the greatest ingenuity, and very apt at making those things which are imparted to them by any one. For they turned aside the hooks, which, when they had attached, they drew in by engines, and they took away the earth of the mound by mines, the more skilfully because among them there are great iron mines, and all kinds of mines are known and practised by them. Moreover, they had fortified the entire wall on all sides with towers, and had covered these with hides; also in their frequent daily and nocturnal sallies they either set fire to the mound, or attacked our soldiers occupied in the work; and they equalled the height of our towers as much as the mound daily increased raised these towers. And this they did, having spliced the upright posts of their towers; and they retarded our opened mines from being carried on, by burnt and very sharp wooden stakes, and by boiling pitch, and by stones of very great weight, thus preventing our men from approaching the walls."+

In the next chapter we have a full description of the Gallic walls, whose strength was such as to render them almost inpregnable. In another part of the same work we have a description of the Gallic war ships. The keels were somewhat flatter than those of our ships, says the historian, in order that they might be able to sustain the banks and the departure of the tide more easily; the prows were very

*En tragant les récits de ce long ouvrage plus d'une fois j'ai me suis arrêté d'émotion; plus d'une fois j'ai cru voir passer devant mes yeux l'image d'hommes sortis d'entre nous; et j'en ai conclu que nos bonnes et nos mauvaises dispositions, ne sont point nées d'hier sur cette terre où nous les laisserons.-Hist. des Gaulois, tome iii., pp. 506-7.

† Singulari militum nostrorum virtuti consilia cujusque modi Gallorum occurrebant, ut est summæ genus solertiæ atque ad omnia imitanda atque efficienda quæ ab quoque tradantar aptissimum. * Tum crebis diurnis nocturnisque eruptionibus aut aggeri ignem inferebant aut milites occupatos in opere adoriebantur et nostrarum turrium altitudinem quantum has quotiadanus agger expressebat commissis suarum turrium malis adæquaebant.-De B. G., lib. vii., c. 22.

upright, and the poops also fitted to the violence of the waves and the tempests. The whole ships were made of oak, in order that they might bear any force and injury which might be necessary. The benches were made out of foot-beams, a foot broad, fastened with iron rails of the thickness of the thumb finger; the anchors were fastened to iron chains instead of ropes.; hides and thin leather, tenderly made up, were used instead of sails, &c.*

It would not be necessary to proceed any further, in order to prove that the Gauls must have attained a high degree of civilization in the time of Cæsar. A people who had more than a hundred large towns, most of them fortified; who, to a considerable extent, cultivated the arts and sciences, and who had such ships as those described by Cæsar, could not be considered as barbarians. But we have further testimony than this. We are expressly told that the Druids gave instruction not only in Greek and Latin, but also in astronomy, geography, &c. The students had so much to learn, says the Roman historian, that many remain twenty years under instruction; nor do they consider it lawful to commit those things to writing, although they use the Greek letters in nearly all other affairs in public and in private transactions. This seems to me to have been established for two reasons: because they neither wish their discipline to be divulged to the common people, nor that those who learn, relying on writing, should cultivate their memory less, which ordinarily happens to most men; depending on the aid of writing, they relax their diligence in thoroughly learning and cultivating the memory.

*

**

Moreover, they discuss and impart to the youth many things about the stars and their motion, about the magnitude of the world and the earth, about the nature of things, about the power and majesty of the immortal gods.t

Now, if we turn to any of the Punic wars, we shall find that in these too the Gauls played an important and brilliant part. If any people of the time may be said to have held the balance of power between the rival republics of Rome and Carthage, it was the Gauls. Their alliance was solicited in turn by the Romans and Carthaginians, and whichever side succeeded in securing it was sure to be victorious, as long as they

De Bel. Gal., lib. iii., c. 13.

† Necque fas esse existimant ea literis mandare quum in reliquis fere rebus publicis privatisque rationibus Græcis literis utantur. Multa præterea ac sideribus atque corum motu de mundi ac terrarum magnitudine de rarum naturâ de deorum immortalium vi ac potestate disputant et juventuti tradunt.-De B. G., lib. vi., c. 14.

could hold it. This we see amply illustrated in the series of brilliant victories gained by Hannibal, on his first invasion of Italy; and in the final destruction of Carthage. In the former instance, the Gauls had been induced to join the invaders of Italy, partly because they had been badly treated by the Romans, and partly because Hannibal presented them splendid inducements in money and lands. But, towards the close of the second Punic war, they began to see that the promises of Hannibal were much better than his performances. In the mean time the Romans were doing their best to conciliate them-making them more magnificent offers than ever. Both Polybius and Livy tell us that the Gauls were the first to offer any resistance, worthy of the name, to the triumphant march of Hannibal over the Alps. They had been favorable to his cause until they learned that he had attacked and routed troops of Iberians who offered to dispute his march. This led them to apprehend that he was coming, not to strike a blow at the Roman power, but to subjugate themselves; and accordingly they resolved to oppose him. When he arrived on the northern side of the Pyrenees, he found the Gauls assembled at Ruscinon, ready to give him battle. Hannibal did all in his power to reassure them. He requested an interview with their chiefs, protesting that he had come as a guest, not as an enemy, and that, except he was forced by the Gauls themselves, he would never draw his sword against them. In addition to these assurances, he offered to wait upon them at Ruscinon, where they were assembled, if they had any objection to visit him in his camp. They agreed to meet him, a conference was held, at which he removed all their scruples, and a treaty of alliance was the result.

This is the first treaty on record in which honor is done to the female sex. In one of the articles it was stipulated that if the Carthaginian soldiers gave any cause of complaint to the Gauls, it should be preferred before Hannibal, or before his lieutenants in Spain; but that the complaints of the Gauls against the Carthaginians should be judged, without appeal, by the wives of the former. Nor was this deference to women anything new on the part of the Gauls. "Cette coutume," says Thierry, " de soumettre à l'arbitrage des femmes les plus importantes decisions politiques, particulièrement aux Aquitains et aux Ligures, du moins parmi les habi

*Plutarch, De Virtut. Mulier, p. 246.

tans de la Gaule, prenait sa source dans le respect et la condescendance dont la civilisation ibérienne entourait ce sexe; les hommes, si l'on en croit le temoinage des historiens n'avaient pas à se repentir d'une si pacifique institution."*

It is admitted by Livy, that when the Roman senate sent ambassadors to the Gauls to solicit their aid against the Carthaginians, they were assailed with hisses and derisive laughter, when they boasted of the glory and greatness of Rome; so that the magistrates and chiefs found considerable difficulty in restoring order. After the excitement had sufficiently subsided, the ambassadors were told "that having no reason to complain of the Carthaginians more than they had to praise the Romans, they declined to take up arms against the former in favor of the latter; that on the contrary, they knew that the Romans dispossessed, of their lands in Italy, those Gauls who had established themselves there; and that they imposed heavy taxes upon them," &c. This stern reply enraged the Romans, who overloaded with reproaches the people who refused to be at once their soldiers and their slaves. First it was admitted on all hands, that it was of the greatest importance to secure an alliance with the Gauls; now, because this has failed, the latter are declared to be "ferocious, inconstant, and insatiable for money ;"+ in short, of such a character that neither Hannibal, nor anybody else, could rely for any time on their fidelity.

They remained faithful long enough, however, to enable Hannibal to vanquish Sempronius, the Roman Consul, at Trebia; to force Flaminus to make a precipitate retreat from Thrasymene; and, soon after, to defeat Terentius Varro and Paulus Æmilius, killing forty thousand infantry and two thousand seven hundred cavalry. Most historians are of opinion that, had Hannibal followed up the successes thus accomplished by the bravery and impetuosity of the Gauls, he might have taken Rome almost without resistance. But he was aware of what might be called the ruling passion of his allies, who were still as fond of wine as when, according to Plutarch, they first set out in search of it; "they so much admired the liquor, and were so enchanted with the new

Hist. de Gaulois, tome i., p. 267.

+ Sed ne illi quidem ipsi satis mitem gentem fore (adeo ferocia atque indomita ingenia esse), ni subinde auro cujus avidissima gens est principum animi concilientur.-Tit. Liv., 1. xii., c. 20.

It

pleasure, that they snatched up their arms, and taking their parents with them, marched to the Alps to seek that country which produced such excellent fruit, and in comparison with which they considered all others barren and ungenial."* was precisely because Hannibal was acquainted with their failings in this way that he led them to Capua, after they had gained the several victories alluded to. His object was to afford them temporary gratification, so that they might be encouraged to still greater exertions. But a more fatal blunder he could hardly have committed; for so besotted did they become at the emporium of the rich wines of Italy, that they cast off all restraint, and never again yielded that ready obedience which is essential to the success of all military operations, especially those carried on in an enemy's country. Polybius, the enemy of all imposture, and the most resolute vindicator of the truth of history, informs us in his third book (p. 227), that when Hannibal came to count the number of his slain, at the battle of Trebia, he found that almost all, certainly nine tenths, belonged to the ranks of his brave allies. According to the same authority, the whole force of Hannibal amounted to ninety thousand men, at least seventy thousand of whom were Gauls, when he fought his most glorious battles. "With such a disproportion," says Thierry, "between the nucleus of the Punic army and its auxiliaries, Hannibal was no more in reality than a Gallic chief."+

As soon as the Gauls became demoralized, so that he had to depend on his own men-the Carthaginians and Numidians his star began to wane, and he was forced to fly from Africanus, who, before attempting to take the field, had used all the influence he possessed to conciliate the Gauls. First, he was successful, as a politician and statesman, in convincing the most formidable enemies of his country that, after all, it was not their interest, but rather their misfortune, to fight against the Romans in favor of the Carthaginian oligarchy. He found it necessary, however, to adduce stronger arguments in proof of this than mere words. Hannibal, no longer receiving his usual supplies from home, was unable pay his auxiliaries. Scipio, upon the other hand, had the * Plutarch, Life of Camillus, p. 102.

to

† Avec une telle disproportion entre le noyau de l'armée punique et ses auxiliaires Annibal n'était plus en realité qu'un chef des Gaulois.-Hist. des Gaulois, t. i., p. 292.