called Celto-Scythæ."* That the Greeks denominated the northern nations Celto-Scyths, has been before observed. Anastasius, a writer of

the ninth century, says the ancients were accustomed to call all the northern region Scythia, where are the Goths and Danes;† and Ortellius remarks, "Celtas cum Scythis, conjungit Aristoteles de mundo." A line of demarcation has been drawn between the two people, at the point "where the waters flow eastward to the Euxine, and westward to the Atlantic;" but they are so little discriminated, that a precise definition of their territories is impossible, and when we speak of the one people, we must "often include an idea of both."||

The Goths, or Scythians, are, therefore, an aboriginal people of Europe, differing in some respects from their predecessors the Celts. That they were of the same race, but later in the stream of population that flowed westward, is the clear inference from all that the ancients have left us concerning them.

Strabo observes, that the Greeks called the Getæ, Dacians, and reckoned both Thracians, because they all used the same language. Thrace anciently extended from the Danube to the Gulf of Corinth, and when the dispute between Erectheus, and Eumolpus the Thracian, who laid claim to Athens as part of his father's territory, was settled, it was agreed that both people should be considered as one, and that the mysteries celebrated at Eleusis, the capital of Thrace, should be equally revered at Athens.** Thus, 3000 years ago, the Greeks and Barbarians were but beginning to consider themselves different people. The cognate marks by which nations of identic origin are recognised, were not effaced among the Scythic race long after the unmixed Celts had been confined to the west. When Xenophon finished the retreat of the 10,000 among the Getæ, 398 years, A. c. the Greeks were then received as a kindred people.tt

The wisdom, the learning, the justice, and the clemency of the Scythic nations, have been much extolled. So great praise could not have been bestowed without some reason, and we therefore find many illustrious persons of antiquity were connected by birth with the Getic tribes.

The Celts, who were "the most remote inhabitants towards the west "§§ 500 years before the advent of Christ, retained the same posi*In vita Marii. + Pinkerton's Inquiry, i. 192. Geographia, 1595. He considers all the ancient inhabitants of Europe, Celts, and quotes many authorities to prove all the northern nations of that race. See his map

of Europe, &c.

Thucydides, ii. 29. Hence Pausanias speaks of the Getæ obtaining "that part of Thrace which is beyond the Ister," i. c. 9.

** See Clarke on Coins, p. 66, with his authorities.

ft Herodotus, iv. 93, ap. Caledonia. Strabo, Lib. vii. says the Celts and Thracians mingled together.

‡‡ Anacharsis. Menander, the inventor of comedy. Zamalxis, who wrote of a place of happiness in a future state, &c. &c. &c.

§§ Except the Cyneta. Herodotus, iv. c. 3.

tion when Cæsar commenced the Gallic war, fifty-seven years before that era. At this time they appeared in three great divisions: the Celtæ, the Belgæ, and the Aquitani; distinct from each other, and separated from the Germans by the river Rhine. * We have here a proof of the gradual formation of several nations, from one numerous and wide-spread race; for the more ancient historians were ignorant of these divisions, and the terms, even at the above period, seem to have been applied more as local distinctions of the same race, than indications of different people.

Diodorus relates, what he tells us few knew any thing about, that "the Celta inhabited the inland parts about the Alps, and on this side the Pyrennean mountains, called Celtica; and those who were below this part, southward to the ocean, and the mountain Hyrcinus, and all as far as Scythia, were called Gauls; but the Romans called all the inhabitants by one and the same name of Gauls."† Cæsar, who describes the three nations as differing from each other in customs, language, and laws, at the same time says, that the whole people continued to denominate themselves Celta, which term was also sometimes used by the Romans with the more familiar appellation of Galli, as other writers also notice.

Ammianus Marcellinus, who lived 438 years later than Cæsar, thinks it rather a matter of conjecture than of fact, that Gaul was inhabited by three sorts of people, and he as a soldier, had often come in contact with their troops, and had served in Gaul and Germany, along with numerous bodies of Celtic auxiliaries.

An examination of the ancient historians and geographers, will show the positions of the three nations, and wherein they differed from each other, and from the people who dwelt around them.

From the Garonne to the Seine and Marne was the possession of the CELTE, who retained their ancient and appropriate name, as they did also that of their country, which was called Celtica. From the Seine to the Rhine were the territories of the BELGE, who were the most celebrated nation of Gaul. This people believed themselves descended of the GERMANNI, from whom they were only separated by the Rhine; but in those ancient times, when the Germans are said to have sent this colony across the river to settle in Belgica, were they not themselves Celtæ, with whom they retained the common tradition of being indigenous?§ Dio Nicæus says, that, in the most ancient times, the inhabitants of both sides of the Rhine called themselves by the same name, Celts; and he himself calls the Belgians, Celtics. Josephus calls the German legion,

* Cæsar de Bello Gallico, i.

De Bello Gallico. Pliny, iv.

Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum.

↑ Lib. v. c. 2.

Like the Celts, they also affected a celestial

origin. In their old poems they celebrated Tuisto, a god sprung from the earth, and

his son, Mannus, as their first parents.

Quoted in Ritson's Memoirs of the Celts.

THE BELGIANS AND GERMANS.

31

which formed Caligula's body guard, the Celtic; and Ortellius, who cites many authorities, says the unanimous opinion of all historians is, that those called Gauls and Germans were Celts. * Strabo found the two people closely resembled each other in manners and personal appearance, from which he conceived that the Germans had been rightly named the brethren of the Gauls. His etymology may be wrong, but the term was certainly imposed by the Romans, and never acknowledged by themselves. Suidas, in like manner, affirms that the Celts were also called Germans, but Schoepflin understands him to mean otherwise.§ Many Gallic nations were settled on the German side of the Rhine, and one of the most considerable was that of the Helvetii, who are described by Cæsar as in no respect different from the other inhabitants;|| at the same time he says, they were not entirely similar to the Celts. T This is inconsistent with what he has elsewhere observed of these colonies,** and perhaps implies no greater variation than what is observable between the remote districts of all countries; for throughout his Commentaries, it does not appear that the difference between the Celtic nations was very material. Tacitus, finding so many Gauls in Germany, endeavors to account for part of them, by saying they were vagabonds, who, being reduced by poverty to the necessity of leaving their own country, settled on the waste lands that appeared to belong to no certain proprietor. Cæsar says, these Gaulish emigrants established themselves in the most fruitful places; but even had these tracts been entirely unoccupied, bands of robbers, however desperate they may have become, would have had some difficulty in taking forcible possession of them. The Germans looked sharply after their waste lands, and were by no means inclined to let strangers occupy even the most desert places. The poor Ansibarians, one of their own tribes, after an unsuccessful revolt, were not permitted to settle any where among them, but were exposed to all the Roman vengeance for asserting their liberty, and wandered about until they were utterly exterminated.†† The probability is, that the Gallic colonies obtained peaceable settlements from the claims of national affinity; and it may be proof of a good understanding between the two people, if it goes not farther, that several German tribes made common cause with the Belgic armies in the Gallic war. Tacitus has himself, in another place, acknowledged the close resemblance of the nations inhabiting both sides of the Rhine; and the tradition that the Belgians were a colony of Germans, may have arisen from some faint recollection of the progress of the ancient Celta to the west of Europe.

It has been much disputed whether the Germans are of Scythic or Sar

* Geographia, sub Europa. He also speaks of " Celtica sive Germanica." See also Sheringham, de Anglorum gentis origine.

+ Lib. iv. p. 195, vii. p. 290.

‡ Mr. Greatheed, in Archælogia, xvi. Clarke says the word signifies swordsmen or

matian origin. It is scarcely necessary to add much on a subject which has been treated with a greater degree of attention than it perhaps merits.* Pomponius Mela says, the Sarmatæ and the Germanni were the same people, and Pliny affirms that they were anciently Scyths: the name Scythæ, says he, is changed into that of Sarmatians and Germans.† Pausanias remarks the nomadic state in which the Sauromatæ lived,‡ and in which they bore so strong a resemblance to the Scythians, of whom, according to Procopius, they were but a tribe. Some of the Sarmatæ appear, from Pliny, to have been in Pannonia, and Diodorus brings them from Medea; but they may, with some propriety, be said to have perambulated rather than inhabited a country.§

The extent of Germania in later times seems not to have been very well ascertained. It was called Lochlin, or Lychlin, by the British tribes; a name that repeatedly occurs in the works of the bards, and was extended to Scandinavia. A Gaëlic MS., of the ninth or tenth century, describes Gaul and Lochlin as one and the same country, only divided by the Rhine.

The AQUITANI, the third division of the Celta, were situated between the river Garonne and the Pyrennean mountains, and they called their country Aremorica.¶ The most considerable difference between the Gauls was found in the inhabitants of this district, who resembled the Iberians more than the other Celts.**

This personal resemblance of the two nations may have arisen from their vicinity to each other, and a different complexion from the northern Gauls appears to have been the effect of a warmer climate; but a better reason for the similarity may be found in the authorities already quoted, as well as in others, where it appears that the Iberians were themselves originally Celtæ, who, crossing the Pyrennees, acquired the name of Celtiberi, or rather Celta-Iberi; the inhabitants of both sides of these mountains living in amity and friendship, intermarrying, and wearing the same dress, the Celts inhabiting the accessible parts of the mountain itself.†† Ephorus, according to Strabo, extends Gaul to the city of Cadiz.

The Gauls, after having remained in the west and north of Europe until they had become very numerous, sent back their redundant population to seek for new settlements in the countries which were peopled by the first Celtic migrations, but where all recollection of their common origin was apparently lost, and many colonies were established in various places.

* See the works of Dr. and James Macpherson, Pinkerton, and many others.

† Lib. iv. c. 12. In lib. ii. c. 13, he expressly says, European Scythia comprehended Germany. Lib. i. c. 21. § Macpherson's Introduction. Report of the Committee of the Highland Society on the Poems of Ossian, Appendix, p. 309. Lychlyn, i. e. the lake of standing water, is the Welsh name for the Baltic. ¶ Cæsar, de B. G. vii. c. 32. Pliny, iv. c. 17.

** Strabo, iv. p. 176.

tt Diod. Sic. v. c. 2. Strabo, iii. p. 162. Appian, in Ibericis, lib. vi. c. 2. "Gallorum Celta miscentes nomen Iberis." Lucan, iv. 9

ANCIENT LANGUAGES.

33

Italy itself was originally peopled by the Celta, in their progressive advances to the extremities of the west. The Umbrians, "an exceeding great and ancient people," were the first known inhabitants, and were certainly Gauls, and the progenitors of the Sabines, whom Cicero calls the flower of Italy. Like the Aquitani about the Pyrennees, the Celts dwelt on each side of the Alps. Near them were the Turinois, Agoniens, and many other nations of the same race.† The Ligurians, Hetruscans, Venetians, Insubrians, &c. were undoubtedly Celts; but many Gallic colonies at different periods settled in Italy, where a national relationship, in all probability, assisted them in obtaining favorable possessions. The territories of this people were called by the Romans Cisalpine Gaul; and when they had been subdued, and had obtained the privileges of Roman citizens, the province was distinguished by the name of Gallia Togata.

The apparent variety of LANGUAGES among the ancient inhabitants of Europe, is advanced as a strong argument in proof of a diversity of races. The Celts were the sole people who, after their migrations, settled in the west and north of Europe, and spreading themselves over a large continent, they became separated into cantons or nations, that acquired or assumed distinctive appellations. As the learned Dr. Murray observes, "each horde soon multiplied into various nations, regulated by similar customs, and loosely connected by language." Various circumstances operating on their common speech, gave rise to peculiar pronunciation or dialect. The change of old, the substitution of new words, and other causes affecting articulation, produce, in time, great difference between the speech of distant places in an extensive country; but among nations of identic origin, there must long continue a close affinity of language. That the Celtic and Gothic are derived from the same source is evinced by many works of profound learning, and if a resemblance or connexion between them is still to be traced, the similarity must have been much more perceptible 2000 years ago. Thucydides says, that before Homer's time, there was no distinction known between the Greeks and those called Barbarians; that the whole inhabitants closely resembled each other in customs, manners, and language, and lived in a good understanding with each other.

The language of the Greeks and Thracians was anciently as much alike as their religion; and Orpheus, Museus, with several other poets, celebrated as Greeks, were certainly Thracians.§ Ovid says that the Getic language, although much altered, still retained evident marks of its Grecian original. Wachter shows that the Celto-Scyths, being the

Servius, in Eneid, Solinus. Tzetzes on Lycophron, Pezron, &c. Pliny tells us the Tuscans won 300 cities from them, and amera, according to Cato, was founded 964 years before the war with Perseus. + Polybius, &c.

+ M. Bullet, Memoir sur la langue Celtique, i. c. 4, says the difference of climate will alter a language.

§ Orpheus is represented as a native of Thessaly, but this country was originally part of Thrace. Strabo.