BOOK I. state of barbaric life. The Troglodytes of Asia are said to have lived in caves; and Tacitus describes some of the ruder German tribes as dwelling under ground. The practice of several animals which burrow in the earth may have suggested the custom; and it suits that savage state into which even the emigrants from civilised society may lapse, among woods and marshes, want and warfare, if they lose the knowledge of the mechanic arts, or the tools which these require. Ephorus added, that they had an oracle deep under ground. The Kimbri swore by a brazen bull, which they carried with them. In battle they appeared with helmets representing fierce beasts gaping, or some strange figures; and added a high floating crest to make them look taller. They used white shining shields, and iron mail, and either the battle-axe, or long and heavy swords. They thought it base to die of a disease, and exulted in a military death, as a glorious and happy end. 32 CALLIMACHUS applies to these people the epithet horse-milkers. 33 This incident corresponds with the preceding accounts. The attachment to mare's milk has been common to most nations in their uncivilised state. Most rude and poor nations drink the milk of the animals they ride: as the Arabs of the desart use that of their camels. This habit suits their moveability, scanty property, small supply of food, and a sterile or uncultivated country. THE religious rites of the Kimmerians included occasionally human sacrifices; one of the most 32 Plut. in Mario. Val. Max. 1. ii. c. 6. II. ancient and universal superstitions, which affected CHAP. and disgraced mankind in the first stages of their idolatrous and polytheistic worship. Strabo, after remarking of the Kimbri, that their wives accompanied them in war, says that many hoary priestesses of their oracle followed, clothed in white linen garments bound with a brazen girdle, and with naked feet. These women, with swords in their hands, sought the captives through the army, and threw them into a brass vessel of the size of twenty amphora. Then one of the prophetesses, ascending an elevation, stabbed them singly, as suspended above the cauldron; and made her divinations from the manner in which the blood flowed into it. The other assistants of the horrible superstition opened the bodies, and predicted victory from the inspection of the bowels. In their conflicts, they used a species of immense drum; for they struck upon skins stretched over their war chariots, which emitted a very powerful sound. 34 Plutarch describes the women to have been placed on their waggons in the conflict with Marius; and when the men gave way in the battle, to have killed those who fled, whether parents or brothers. They strangled their infants at the same time, and threw them under the wheels, while fighting the Romans, and at last destroyed themselves rather than survive the calamity. These descriptions lead us to recollect some analogous passages of Tacitus concerning the Britons at the period of the Roman invasion. He describes women, with firebrands in their hands, running like furies among the army of the Britons in Anglesey; and adds, that they BOOK I. The Kelts sprang from Kimmerians. stained their altars with the blood of their captives; and consulted their gods by the fibres of men. He mentions also, that before their destruction of the colony at Camelodunum, “Women, agitated with the prophetic fury, sang its approaching ruin." 35 BUT upon investigating the remains of antiquity, we find another ancient people, placed in some of the western regions of Europe, at the time when Greek history begins. They were called KeλTOI, and afterwards гaλarai; and Cæsar says of them, that they called themselves Celta, or Keltæ, though the Romans 'gave them the appellation of Galli, 36 The Keltoi, to follow the Greek orthography of 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. 37 That the Kelta were Kimmerians is expressly affirmed by Arrian in two 35 Tacitus Annal. lib. xiv. Stabat pro litore diversa acies, densa armis virisque, intercursantibus feminis. In modum furiarum, veste ferali, crinibus dejectis, faces preferebant-Nam cruore captivo adolere aras; et hominum fibris consulere deos fas habebant-Et feminæ in furore turbatæ, adesse exitium canebant. 36 Cæsar. Comment. de Bell. Gall. lib. i. s. 1. Pausanias says of these people, They have but lately called themselves yaλaraι• They anciently called themselves KEATO, and so did others," p. 6. And that yaλarai was but another appellation of the KEATO, see Diod. Sic. lib. v. p. 308. ed. Hanov. 1604. So Origin calls the Druids of Gaul, Faxarov Spvadas, 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. 37 Strabo, lib. i. p. 106. In another place he says, Magnetus was utterly destroyed by the Treres, a Kimmerian nation, lib. xiv. p. 958. passages; and with equal clearness and decision CHAP. by Diodorus 39, and is implied by Plutarch.40 42 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, and including much of Spain "2; but he likewise divided the world into four parts, and made the Kelts to inhabit one of the four towards the west.43 This 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. 38 Appian in Illyr. p. 1196., and de Bell. Civ. lib. i. P. 625. 39 Diod. Sic. lib. v. p. 309. 40 Plut. in Mario. 41 Plut. in Mario. 42 Strabo, lib. iv. p. 304. 43 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 Kelte; and in the North, the Scythians. 44 Ephorus was a disciple of Isocrates, who desired him to write a history, (Photius, 1455,) which he composed from the return of the Heraclide 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. extolled for his knowledge by Polybius, Diodorus, and Dionysius Halicarnassus. But he is II. BOOK I. The Kelts in the West 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. IN the time of Herodotus, the Kelts were on of Europe. the western coasts of Europe. He says, that they inhabited the remotest parts of Europe to the west; and in another part, he states them to live beyond the pillars of Hercules, and about Pyrene ; and he places among them the origin of the Danube.46 49 ARISTOTLE frequently mentions the Kelts. In one place, he notices them as neither dreading earthquakes, nor inundations; in another, as rushing armed into the waves 48; and in another, as plunging their new-born infants in cold water, or clothing them in scanty garments. In other works attributed to him, he speaks of the British island as lying above the Kelts 50: 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.51 He elsewhere speaks of Keltica, and the Iberians.52 He places the Kelts above Iberia; and remarks, 45 Herod. Melpom. c. 49. So Arrian. 48 Arist. nou Evônμ. lib. iii. c. 1. 50 De Mundo, c. iii. p. 552. Herodotus places a people, 51 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. 52 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. |