BOOK I. 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.57 The next great movement of the Kelts, in the Italian States, that has been transmitted to us, occurred about 180 years after the preceding migration, when Brennus led them to that attack upon Rome itself, in which they became masters of the city, killed its senate, and had nearly taken its capitol, when Camillus rescued the perishing republic from its barbaric conquerors. 58 One hundred and ten years afterwards, Greece suffered from the irruptions of this prolific people, under another Brennus. 59 The Kelts burst from Illyria, into Macedonia and Thrace, poured thence into Thessaly, passed the strait of Thermopyla, as Xerxes had done, and proceeded to attack Delphi, when they were affected and destroyed by that panic which the reputation of the place, and the contrivances of its priesthood produced, and which preserved Greece from their further desolations. 60 These 57 We derive our information of this important event and its date 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 direction of the Hercynian forest. But Bellovesus commanded the invasion of Italy. Livy, Hist. lib. v. c. 34. The elder Tarquin died 578 years before the Christian æra. 56 Dionysius Halicar. places this Keltic irruption, epodos keλtwv, in the first year of the ninety-eighth Olympiad, or 120 years after Junius Brutus and Collatinus. Lib. i. p. 60. 59 That the leader of the Keltæ in the attack of Rome, and their chief a century after in their invasion of Greece, should both be named Brennus, induces one to believe that this word is rather a descriptive than a personal appellation, and therefore to recollect that Brennin means a king in the Welsh and ancient British language. 60 The fullest account of this expedition of the Kelts into Greece, occurs in Pausanias, Attic. lib. i. p. 6—8., and Phoc. lib. x. p. 643-655. II. events occurred about 280 years before our Saviour's CHAP. birth. The Kelts are noticed afterwards as attempting Asia Minor, and as serving in the armies of Ptolemy and also of Antigonus 61, and they had frequent battles with the Romans, but usually experienced ruinous defeats62; especially in that tremendous conflict with Quintus Fabius Maximus, of which Cæsar reminded the Gauls of his day 63, when they were about to war with him, and in which Strabo states, that 200,000 Kelta were cut off. 64 Strabo remarks of the Keltæ, that it was common to them and the Iberians to lie on the ground 65; that they used waxen vessels 66; that they were addicted to human sacrifices, from which the Romans reclaimed them 67; and that they were accustomed to bring home the heads of their enemies and fix them on the gates of their towns. 68 That the Keltæ, or Gauls, were easier conquered than the Spaniards, he ascribes to their fighting more in masses. 69 In the time of Alexander, there were Kelts on the Adriatic who offered him their friendship with language which he thought arrogant. 70 The expeditions and positions above noticed of the Kelts, prove that they were in the habit of spreading themselves from France into other countries; and considering the spirit of enter 61 Pausan. lib. i. p. 23. 63 Cæsar de Bell. Gall. 62 Liv. Hist. 6 Strabo places the scene of this battle where the Isar and the Rhone flow, near the Kemminon mountains. The conqueror erected a trophy of white stone, and built two temples, one to Mars, and one to Hercules, p. 283. 65 Strabo, p. 249. 67 Ib. p. 303. 66 Ib. p. 233. 6 He says, that Posidonius declares he saw several of their heads, p. 303.; a custom which Strabo thought barbarian; but which reminds us of our own legal practice with executed traitors. Ib. p. 299. 70 Strabo, lib. vii. p. 462. Arrian, lib. i. p. 8. The account, related on the authority of Ptolemy Lagus, his general and king of Egypt, is, that the king received the ambassadors with great civility, and asked them at his banquet what they most dreaded, expecting a complimentary answer as to himself. But they said they feared nothing, unless that the sky should fall and overwhelm them, though they highly valued his friendship. Alexander admitted them to his alliance, but called them arrogant. BOOK I. The Kelts enter Britain. prise, the abundant population, and power of the Keltæ in France, and the vicinity and fertility of Britain, we cannot avoid believing, that they crossed the sea to colonise it. Cæsar expressly mentions, that one of the Keltic kings in Gaul, Divitiacus, who governed there the Suessiones, and was the most powerful prince in that country, had subjected also part of Britain to his power. 71 From him also we learn, that the Kelts of Armorica called upon some of the British tribes to aid them against his hostilities 72; and one of his reasons for attacking Britain was that it had assisted the Keltic Gauls to resist him. 73 He speaks also of its being visited by the Keltic merchants; and before his invasion of Britain, he sent one of the Keltic princes of Gaul, whom he had made a king, into our island to persuade the Britons to be friendly to the Roman state, because the authority of this chieftain was great in Britain. Thus Cæsar affords sufficient evidence of the military and commercial intercourse between the two nations in his time, a fact favourable to the opinion of the affinity, between some parts of their respective populations. That colonies of Keltic race entered the British islands from Gaul, has always appeared to our antiquaries so probable, that there is scarcely any circumstance on which they have so cordially agreed. The Welsh tradition may be therefore read without incredulity, which deduces two colonies from Gaul, not Kymry or Kimmerians, but of Kimmerian origin; the one from Armorica, and the other from Gascony. 74 72 Lib. iii. c. 9. 73 C. 18. 71 Lib. ii. c. 4. 74 The fifth triad is this: "The three peaceful people of the isle of Britain. The first were the nation of the Kymry, who came with Hu Cadarn to the island of Britain. He obtained not the country, nor the lands, by slaughter or contest, but with justice and peace. The other was the race of the Lloegrwys, who came from the land of Gwasgwyn; and they were of the first race of the Kymry. The third were the Brython, and from the land of Llydaw they came; and they were of the first race of the Kymry. And these were called the three peaceful nations, because The distinction taken as to their origin suits the situation of the Kelts, who, to use the expression of the triad, were of the first race of the Kymry. The Armorican emigration was of the tribe called Brython 75, a name which recals to our recollection, that Pliny found a people called Britanni remaining in Gaul in his time.76 The colony from Gascony was the Lloegrwys, whose name became attached to that part of the island which they occupied; for the largest part of England has been always named Lloegr by the Welsh poets" and chroniclers. 78 Tacitus expresses his belief, that the Gauls peopled Britain 79 and Bede derives its inhabitants from Armorica. 80 The position of the Kelts on the maritime regions of the west of Europe, bringing them more within the reach of intercourse with the civilised nations of antiquity, who frequented the ocean, they had begun to feel the influence of the superior progress of the improved part of the world. The Grecian settlement of the Phocians, at Marseilles, about 540 years before the Christian æra, flourished afterwards into great they came one to the other with peace and tranquillity; and these three nations were of the first race of the Kymry, and they were of the same language." Trioedd ynys Prydain. 2 Archaiol. p. 58. 75 The Brython are frequently mentioned by the old Welsh poets: by Aneurin, in his Gododin, 1 Archaiol. p. 10., and by Taliessin, p. 31. 50. 66, 67. 73. He once mentions the Morini Brython, in his Prif Gyfarch, or Primary Gratulation, p. 33. 76 Pliny Hist. Nat. lib. iv. c. 31.; and Dionysius. "Aneurin speaks of Lloegr, p. 7., and calls its inhabitants Lloegrwys, p. 4. 9. and 11. Taliessin has Lloegr, p. 64. and 59., and Lloergrwys, p. 51. 55. Llywarch Hen and Myrddhin also use both words, as 108. 117. 153., &c. 78 Besides the fabulous Brut Tysilio, and the Brut ab Arthur, 2 Archaiol. p. 116, 117., their historical chronicles Brut y Saeson, and the Brut y Tywysogion, p. 469. 471., &c. speak of England under this name. 79 Tacitus Vit. Agric. In Camden's Britannia numerous analogies of manners and language between the Britons and Gauls are collected, to prove their identity of origin. Some of these are worth our consideration. So Bede Hist. Eccl. lib. i. c. 1. We have two collateral proofs from the analogy of language of the affinity between the inhabitants of Britain and the ancient Kelts. Pausanias, mentioning that every Keltic horseman was followed to battle by two attendants, says that the Kelts called this custom, in their native language, Trimarkisian, because the name of a horse among the Kelts is Markun, Phoc. lib. x. p. 545. Mark is also a horse, tri is three, and trimarkwys is literally three horsemen, in the ancient British, and present Welsh. Cæsar states, that the Keltic people, who bordered upon the ocean, were in his time called Armoricæ, lib. v. c. 44. In the ancient British, and in the Welsh, armor-uch literally mean upon the sea-heights. CHAP. II. BOOK I. wealth and consequence. 81 Strabo, p. 272, 273. Justin. L. 43. c. 3. 83 Ib. p. 304. 8 Ephorus stated, that they occupied the largest part of Spain, up to Cadiz. Strabo, p. 304. And Strabo mentions, that before the Carthaginians possessed Spain, the Keltoi and the Tyrians held it, p. 238. Mr. Garnett in his communications to the Philological Society remarks, that "the Irish or Gaelic resembles the Welsh language in many points of grammatical structure, in a considerable proportion of its vocabulary, and in that remarkable system of initial mutation of consonants which distinguishes the Celtic from all other languages in Europe. An intelligent contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine (September, 1843), referring to this statement, gives a list of seventy or eighty words in C only, which are nearly identical, and adds, "the conclusion have come to is, that Welsh must have been the Aboriginal language of Ireland, as it forms the basis of the Irish language." - Gent. Mag. Sept. 1843, p. 265. |