GJULISH ROADS. 12.5 



and probably for the simple reason that horn is softer than 

 stone. Never, M. Megnin adds, could the horn of the 

 hoofs alone of ever so many generations of horses, passing 

 and repassing, produce any notable furrowing on the rock, 

 and particularly as seen in the imprints at the staircase- 

 like Languetine of Alaise. ' To wear the rock in such a 

 manner iron horse-shoes were necessary.'' In a country 

 so rocky and mountainous as Brittany or Franche-Comte, 

 the employment of the horse on anything like a large 

 scale was simply impossible without efficient shoeing, and 

 this attrition of the living rock goes a long way to prove 

 that the Celtic Gauls of this region armed the hoofs of 

 their horses with metal. But the exertions of French 

 archaeologists have afforded us additional and incontestable 

 evidence of this fact in their researches in the Celtic 

 graves, particularly those which abound in the vicinity of 

 Alesia.^ This large hill, covered with the ruins of the 



' Megnin. Op. cit. p. 17. Bial. Cliemins, Habitations, et Oppi- 

 dum de la Gaule au Temps de Caesar. Paris, 1864. 



^ Alesia, now perhaps Alise-Sainte-Reine, in the department Cote- 

 d'-Or, was the capital of the Mandubii, a GaUic people, who dwelt in 

 what is now Burgundy. Much discussion has lately taken place as to 

 which Alesia — for there are several — Caesar refers. Smith (Classical 

 Dictionary) gives it as an ancient town of the Mandubii in Gallia Lug- 

 dunensis, said to have been founded by Hercules, and situated on a 

 high hill (now Auxois), which was washed by the two rivers Lutosa 

 {Oze) and Osera (Ozerain). It was an important fortress, the siege 

 and capture of which was, undoubtedly, the greatest military achieve- 

 ment of Caesar. All Gaul had risen against the Romans, even the 

 -/Edui, the old allies of the oppressors ; but Caesar conquered them un- 

 der Vercingetorix, and besieged them in Alesia. No less than 80,000 

 men were shut up in this town or fort ; while Caesar, with 60,000 

 troops, lay before it. The Roman General immediately erected a line 

 of contravallation, extending for four leagues, in order to reduce the 

 place by famine, since its situation on a hill, 1500 feet high, and on all 



