IRON IVITH THE GAULS. 117 



once the defeat of her armies placed her existence in 

 danger.' 



Cicero says : ' From the beginning of our Republic, 

 all our wise men have looked upon Gaul as the most 

 redoubtable enemy of Rome.' 



' The Romans,' says Sallust, ' held then, as in our days, 

 the opinion that all other peoples must yield to their 

 courage ; but that with the Gauls it was no longer for 

 glory, but for safety, that they had to fight.' 



When the nations we term classical first became ac- 

 quainted with the northern races, German and Celt had 

 long been in possession of iron, and formed all their war- 

 like weapons of that metal. Indeed, they w^re far from 

 being the barbarians historians have often represented 

 them. M. Fournet remarks : 'The Gauls were no more 

 savages than the Germans ; the Romans found with these 

 people arts hitherto unknown to them, and the barbarism 

 only existed with the sworn calumniators of other nations.'' 



Among the Gauls, in the north, the breeding of cattle 

 was the principal occupation,^ and the pastures of Belgic 

 Gaul produced a race of excellent horses. ^ In the centre 

 and in the south the richness of the soil was augmented 

 by productive mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead.'^ 

 The country was, without doubt, intersected by carriage 

 roads, since the Gauls possessed a great number of all 

 sorts of waggons,^ since there still remain traces of Celtic 



' Le Mineur. Lyons, 1863. ^ S'lrabo, p. 163 j edit. Didot. 



^ De Bello Gallico, lib. iv. 2. ■* Strabo, pp. 121, 155, 170. 



^ ' Carpenta Gallorum.' (Florus, i. 13.) — * Plurima Gallica (verba) 

 valuerunt, ut reda petorritum.' (Quintilian, De bistitutione Oratorio, 

 lib. i. cap. V. 57.) — 'Petorritum enim est non ex Grsecia dimidiatum, 

 sed totum transalpibus, nam est vox Gallica. Id scriptum est in libro 



