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9 * * 
bited that part of Belgic Gaul between the Maefe and 
the Rhine, which is now the electorate of Triers; 
and were conquered by Caefar, with the reft of the 
Gallic nations. But Pliny fpeaking of them fais, 
they were lihri antea (i), that is, tho fubjeCt to the 
Romans, yet, with fome limitations, permited to 
govern themfelves by their own laws (2). By the 
words liberi antea Harduin underftands him to 
mean, that they were free both before that time, and 
then continued fo ; but others think his defign was 
to intimate, that tho they had before been free, they 
were then deprived of their liberty by Vefpaftan, on 
account of their joining with Civilis in the late di- 
fturbances of the Roman government (3). But I 
find no particular mention of this in antient writers ; 
and it is plain from Vopifcus, that they injoyed this 
privilege long afterwards. For in his life of the em- 
peror Florianus he recites a letter, writen by the Ro- 
man fenate to that of the T revert^ in which is this, 
expreflion : XJt ejiis liberi, et fe?nper fuiftis, laetari 
VOS credimus (4). Their cheif city, which was 
fttuated on the Mofelle, being made a Roman colony 
in the reign of Auguftus, is by Tacitus called Colonia 
Treverorwn, but by others more frequently Augufta 
Treverorum, and now Triers (5). 
The three following lines of the infcription con- 
tain the names of three deities, to whom this altar 
• (ij H. N. Tom. I. pag. 224. /. 5. 
(2) Strab. L.XYU.pag.^iq. 
(3) Cellar. Geograph, antiq. Tom, i, p. 201. 
(4) 5*. . 
(-5) Cellar, ibid. p. 202. 
was 
