Text, translated from the 1595L5Add, 1595 Latin, 1597German 5th Add., 1601 Latin, 1602 German, 1603 Latin, 1606 English, 1608/1612 Italian, 1609/1612 Latin/Spanish edition, which has Latin text, & 1624 Latin Parergon/1641 Spanish, but also text in Latin:
196.1. {1595L5Add{GALLIA, {1597G5Add & 1606E{(now FRANCE)}1597G5Add & 1606E} as it was in the time of STRABO and the rest of the ancient [geographers].
196.2. All that portion of the earth which the ocean, the Mediterranean sea, {not in 1606E{{the Alps}not in 1606E}, the Pyrenee mountains and the river Rhine border and encircle is called by old writers GALLIA or GALACIA, and its inhabitants CELTI or CELTÆ. Therefore Ptolemæus properly named it CELTOGALACIA. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{We have demonstrated and shown at large on our ancient map of Europe [Ort 189] that the name Celtes was more wide-spread in the past. Also, that Gallia [then] reached beyond the Alps as far as the river Rubicon, because indeed that part of Italy (as far as we know) was in possession of them and they inhabited it. But here we only intend to describe that [part] that is properly and truly called Gallia, whose borders we have recorded as being the ocean, the river {1606E only{Rhine}1606E only} and the mountains.
196.3. The ancients divided it into GALLIA TRANSALPINA, that is, Gallia beyond the Alps, and GALLIA CISALPINA, that is, Gallia on this side of the Alps}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. Mela and Plinius {1597G5Add, 1602G & 1608/1612I only{Eutropius and Suetonius}1597G5Add, 1602G & 1608/1612I only} divide it into two parts, one lying towards the North, the other towards the South. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{This Plinius and his follower Solinus [divided] by the two hills Gebenna and Jura. Mela [divided it] by the hill Gebenna and the river Rhône, which is the same way as how Eutropius and Suetonius divide it}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. They call that part which is towards the North GALLIA COMATA {1606E only{because its inhabitants wore their hair long}1606E only}, the others, [living] towards the South they called GALLIA BRACCATA {1606E{after the short kind of coat that the people of that area commonly wore}1606E only}. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{The whole is divided by Cæsar into three parts, one of which, (he says), is inhabited by the BELGÆ, another by the AQVITANI, and the third by those who in their language are called CELTÆ, and in ours GALLI. The river Garonde separates the Galli {1606E instead{Celtæ}1606E instead} from the Aquitanes, and the rivers Seine and Marne separate them from the Belgæ.
196.4. But GALLIA NARBONENSIS is not mentioned in this partition, which part Plinius and Pomponius Mela describe separately by itself, and which Cæsar describes under the name of PROVINCE. Nevertheless, Ptolemæus in his description {not in 1606E{of Gallia}not in 1606E}, and Ammianus after him, attribute this to Gallia, and [therefore] divide the whole into four parts, namely AQVITANIA, LVGDVNENSIS (the very same name as Celtica), BELGICA and NARBONENSIS. But not everyone makes this division with the same borders. For Cæsar places the Helvetians next to the Gauls or Celtes, who are placed by Plinius and Ptolemæus we just mentioned in Belgica. Cæsar defines Belgica to extend from the Rhine to the Marne, Plinius from the river Schelde to the Seine. Cæsar mentions the river Garonde as the border between the Celtes and the Aquitanes, as does Pomponius Mela. But Strabo takes as its border the river Loire, and [does] that after the prescription of Augustus, with whom Ptolemæus also agrees.
196.5. Strabo just mentioned, (I do not know after which authors) says that the Belgæ inhabit [the area] between the Rhine and the ocean, and among them lists the Veneti as the people who live utmost towards the Western sea. But I am afraid that in that place instead of Belgæ he should have said Celtæ, noting that according to all geographers and historiographers, the Veneti people are placed in Gallia Celtica or Lugdunensis}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. [In] subsequent times, the whole country of Gallia was divided into many parts, as we may see in Sextus Rufius, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Ammianus, in a book entitled Liber Notitiar., and another called Dignitatum Libellulus}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, in which the authors consider the [number of] parts and regions of it to be seventeen, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{all of which are offered to your view on this map}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.6. But afterwards, in the course of time, namely, after the time of Charlemaigne, it was divided into two parts only, one [being called] AVSTRASIA, that is East [France], the other NEVSTRIA, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{(as they spell it corruptly)}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, or Vestria, or rather Westria, that is West [France]. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{So much concerning the name of the country, its limits and bounds, which Suetonius in his life of Julius claims to contain in circumference 32 hundred miles. Now it remains that we write something in a similar manner about its nature, temperature and commodities.
196.7. Claudianus writes that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} this is a most blessed and happy country {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{with respect to its location. And Cæsar in the third book of his Civil wars reports it to be}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} most healthy. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Seneca in the third [book] of his Natural Questions says that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} it is full of brooks and rivers. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Solinus reports that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} in former times it had sacred, vaporish springs. Strabo reports that all of it is well watered and moistened by brooks and rivers, and that the places along which they run are for the most part excellent areas, (for Sidonius says that here are large open [spaces]) or else small, rising hills. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{The same author records that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} it produces great quantities of grain, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{millet and mast}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, and that all kinds of cattle breed here. {not in 1597G5Add& 1602G{[Sidonius, mentioned before, writes in Maioranus' Panegyric that it is plentifully provided with cattle]. Nothing in [France] is superfluous, unless it be [those parts] where it is either marshy, or fenny, or overgrown with wood.
196.8. Trebellius in his Balista reports it to be fruitful in grain}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, which is confirmed by Cicero in his oration for Marcus Fonteius, where he writes that great quantities of corn used to be carried from this country by the Romans, and we may read in {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{the third book of Cæsar's Commentaries and in}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} Dion's 39th book how they used to send their ambassadors for provision of corn {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{to the Veneti, a people of this country}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. But Plinius claims that this corn was the lightest and worst kind of corn among all those sorts of corn usually brought to Rome. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{The same author in another place has left in writing that the people of Aquitania ate panic-grass.
196.9. Solinus praises France as a fortunate country considering the fatness of its soil and its many rich commodities, [being] in many places replenished with vines and orchards, & blessed with great quantities of all things necessary for the needs of living creatures}{1608/1612I has instead{beasts}1608/1612I instead}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. But let us also hear what Pomponius Mela says about this country. It is a land very fruitful, chiefly with grass and corn, pleasant to behold, and beautified with many great and excellent forests. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Any kind of corn that does not whither in the cold is yielded by this country, [but] not everywhere}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, nor are there many dangerous and obnoxious beasts.
196.10. Let us also hear what Julianus, the emperor, an eye witness, has to say about this country {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{in his Misopogenes {not in 1606E{in his words addressed to Morentinus}not in 1606E}. The winter here is very mild, because of the warmth of the ocean, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{as one thinks, or else this may be due to a certain soft gale of wind that blows from there}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}; and the sea water seems to be warmer than the sweet [river] water. Whether it is for this reason [that the climate in France is mild] or for any other unknown to me I cannot tell, yet I am sure that it is true. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{The winter in this land is very temperate and mild to its inhabitants}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. Moreover, the best vines grow here. And many also, by their art and industry, have succeeded in making figs grow here, which in winter they are careful to cover with wheat straw or stubble and such things, by way of clothes, to defend them with these against the violence and attacks of the wind. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{So far Julianus}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.11. It is true indeed that the cold, (because the country, according to Cæsar {not in 1597G5Add& 1602G{in the first book of his Commentaries}{1603L, 1609/1612L/S & 1624LParergon/1641Sinstead{Gallic wars}1603L, 1609/1612L/S & 1624LParergon/1641S instead, not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} lies far [to the] North), usually extends and slackens the ripening of the corn. For which reason we may well add in this place, as Varro has recorded in his first book on farming, that in Gallia Transalpina (as he says) there are some regions {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{bordering on the Rhine}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, where neither vine, nor olive, nor apples will grow, unless they manured their soil with a white kind of chalk dug from the earth which Plinius calls marga, {1606E only{that is, marle}1606E only}, but Claudianus calls it Galliam nive feracem, {1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only{[that is:] France fertile with snow}1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only}, and Lucianus speaks of French ice, and from there derives that proverb in Petronius Arbiter colder than French snow.
196.12. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Diodorus says that when its rivers are frozen, they cannot only be crossed by a few, but even by whole armies, with their carts and waggons. He also adds that instead of water, these are replenished with snow. This is why Aristoteles in his De Admiranda, if I am not mistaken, reports among his wonders that France breeds no asses. Seneca confirms in the third book of his Natural questions that it is windy. The North-West wind (Circius) (he says) bothers France. Although it is prone to overthrow houses and buildings, they say thanks to it, as if they attribute their health to it, which perhaps may seem false and imagined, but the same author adds the following words to it in that very place: Augustus, (who was afterwards made into a god), built and dedicated a temple to this wind, at the time when he stayed in France. About this wind you may read more in Aulus Gellius' 2nd book, [in the] 22nd {1608/1612I has instead{12th}1608/1612I instead} chapter. But I take it to be that the North wind, which oppresses those places called Campi lapidei {1606E only{Stondon}1606E only} (about which we shall speak later) causes these things to be known to this day.
196.13. Cicero in his oration De provincijs consularibus, moved (as it seems) by the harshness of this wind, cried out, truly or falsely: What can be found that is sharper or rougher than those places? What more desolate than their towns? What more barbarous than their nations? What larger than their ocean? Yet, for all that, it never prevented or hindered them to learn from Rome's cradle (as Macrobius reports in his second book on Somnium Scipionis) or from the Massilians, as reported in Trogus Book 43, to plant both vines and olives. Plinius notes that a certain Elico, a Swiss or Helvetian, {1606E only{(having been entertained in Rome because of his skill in smiths work and carpentry) on his return to his own country}1606E only} brought with him from Italy dry figs, raisins, [olive] oil and wine. From that time onwards, there was such an abundance of vines [in France] that Columella as it were complained, that the Italians gave up their vintage since then.
196.14. And Plutarchus {not in 1606E{in his Convivialis Bk. 5}not in 1606E} records that they used to send from Vienne {1606E only{in France}1606E only} to Rome that wine {1606E only{which had a taste like pitch}1606E only}, called vinum picatum as soon as a demand for it developed. Therefore I would be happy to understand what Vopiscus and Eusebius mean when they say that emperor Probus was the first [emperor] that granted the Gauls to plant and grow vines. Does anyone believe that until this time there were no vines in any part of France except only in {not in 1606E{Braccata or}not in 1606E} Provence? Yet, Plinius mentions the vine[s] of Biturigum, as also the vine[s] of Auvergne. I have to confess my shallowness of understanding in this matter.
196.15. {1601L{Julianus the emperor writes in his Misopogones that in his time there was an excellent [sort of] vine in Paris, and Isidorus recommends the vine[s] of Berry}1601L}. Strabo plainly states that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} there were here [of] metals both gold and silver, and the best of those in {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{the mountain Cemmenus}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, {1597G5Add, 1602G & 1606E only{now called Montaignes de' Auvergne}1597G5Add & 1602G only}, or de Cevennes, as Poldus claims}1606E only}. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{[And] that there were also excellent gold mines among the Tarbelli}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, and iron mines in Perigort and Berrie. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Athenæus writes that gold was delved in some part of Celtica. Ausonius calls the Tarn, a river in Aquitania, the golden flood. Diodorus in his fifth book lists various golden rivers. From here it comes, as we read in Procopius, that the Gauls only coined gold found in their own native soil, which was not stamped like other money with the picture of the Roman emperors, but only with a stamp of their own.
196.16. Cassiodorus in the seventh {1608/1612I has instead{sixth}1608/1612I instead} book, 37th {1624LParergon has instead{32nd}1624LParergon instead} section of his Variar. [volume 7] mentions their coins in these words: Gallis auctoribus sine aliquo adhuc signo ad metalla translata est [For money, [named after the back of some cattle] is by French authors without any stamp translated to metals]. This was the reason, it seems, that by Manilius Gallia [France] is considered rich, by Dion flourishing in wealth, [was] by Josephus [called] the rich Galles, and in Sibyls oracles the French wealthy in gold. And although Diodorus writes that they have no silver {1608/1612I has instead{gold}1608/1612I instead}, yet Athenæus reports that a wood, set on fire by accident so heated up the Pyrenee mountains that they issued and produced great streams of melted silver. Moreover, Strabo reports that there were silver mines among the Rutheni and Gabali, {1606E only{certain nations and people from Aquitane}1606E only}.
196.17. Cæsar speaks of}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} certain copper {1608/1612I has instead{iron}1608/1612I instead} mines in various places. It is noted by Plinius that the amethyst, {1606E only{a certain kind of jasper}1606E only}, is found in France, as also coral {1606E only{near Marseille}1606E only} around the Stchadæ islands. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Amber is also found here, in a river of the Celtæ, if we may believe Dion Prusæus. I think it to be true if he referred to the Celto-Germanes, but I consider it wrong if he was referring to the Celto-Galles. There also grows here, as Plinius reports, the purple vaccinia or berries with which}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} they used to dye the clothes of their servants and slaves. Elsewhere, he attributes to this country such rich tinctures as scarlet, purple and tyrian, {1606E only{which were in very high esteem in Rome}1606E only}.
196.18. Vitruvius assigns another sort of scarlet dye to France. Galenus testifies as a truth that nard[oil] {1606E & 1624LParergon/1641S only{(which apothecaries use to make treacle)}1606E & 1624LParergon/1641S only} used to be brought from France. Plinius shows that the best kind of firs grow on the mountains [of the] Jura and Vogesus, and elsewhere [he shows] that birch first came from France, which they used to boil, to draw a glutinous and clammy slime out of it, which was used instead of bitumen. Also that the plant [called] hyacinth {1606E only{or crow-toe}1606E only} grows and prospers here exceedingly. That they sow linen or flax, of which, being spun and woven, (as Strabo writes) they make sails, although Cæsar states that the Veneti people of Armorica {1606E instead{America or Britain}1606E instead} used skins of leather for sails. That the lemon tree grows here may be gathered from Paterculus, who says that Julius Cæsar made preparations for his French triumph [arch by using] lemon trees.
196.19. {not in 1603L, 1609/1612L/S & 1624LParegon/1641S{But there are in this country not only these and similar plants and trees for the profit and use of man, but there are also some that are poisonous and pernicious to mans nature}not in 1603L, 1609/1612L/S & 1624LParergon/1641S only}. Of which sort there is the yew-tree, and of those, according to the testimony of Cæsar, a great abundance, which Dioscorides reports to be in Narbonne so deadly poisonous that whoever sleeps under it or shall sit and rest in its shade, will not only be hurt, but will often be killed by it. About this tree Plinius adds this, that it has been established by experience that in France the wine jars made of it for wayfaring men and travellers have killed and poisoned those who drank from them. And Cæsar claims that a certain Cattivulcus, king of the Eburones, did himself in with the juice of the yew tree {1606E only{of which there was a great abundance in France}1606E only}.
196.20. Aristoteles among his Wonders mentions a kind of poison which is found in this country, called by him xenicon, the Greek copy has [in Greek lettering except in 1608/1612I] toksikon. But we shall have the occasion to talk about this somewhere else. So much concerning things without life. Now concerning living creatures{not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{, {1606E only{if you have the patience, we will record, in as few words as we can, what we have read and found in all ancient writers}1606E only}.
196.21. Trebellius in his life of Claudius the emperor mentions}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} a famous breed of mares in this country. The infinite number of dogs of this nation {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{are not only highly recommended by the poets Ovidius, Oppianus and the poet Gratius, but also even by Pollux the grammarian, and Euphrada the orator. Plinius says that he saw with his own eyes in the grand arena of Pompei the great hart-wolf (Lupus cervarius) brought from France}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. Their swine, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{according to the writings of Strabo}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, are noted for their great size, strength and swiftness, which are to whoever is not used to them, as dangerous as the fiercest wolves. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{For which reason it cannot be denied that Athenæus wrote very truthfully that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} they had the best bacon, and that {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{(as witnessed by Strabo just mentioned)}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} in such great quantities, that from here they not only furnished Rome, but also most [other] places in Italy.
196.22. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{I read in Varro's treatise de lingua Latina, {1606E only{that is, about the Latin language}1606E only}, that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} there are very large hares here. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{The same author also mentions French wool, which according to Strabo is very coarse. If we believe Plinius mentioned before, in the upper coasts of France towards the Northern ocean a bird is found, {1606E only{similar to a swan}1606E only}, called onocrotalus. Also, as he says, fresh river salmon is caught there. [There is also] in the French ocean a mighty sea fish called Physeter {1606E only{or whirlpool}1606E only}, which raises itself out above the sea in the manner of a great column or pillar, higher than the very sails of ships, spouting forth as it were a deluge of water, {1606E only{ready to drown and sink even very tall ships}1606E only}.
196.23. Likewise there are, as the same author says, mermaids, elephants and sea-rams. In the river Arare {1606E & 1609/1612I have instead{Saône}1606E & 1608/1612I instead}, as Stobeus finds in Calisthenes, there breeds a huge kind of fish called by the inhabitants in that area clupea, which, as long as the moon is waxing, seems to be of a white colour, but when the moon wanes, it turns black, and when its body grows to be of an extraordinary size, it is killed by its own spine or bones. In the head of this fish a small bone is found not unlike a grain of salt, (Plutarchus in his book de Montibus claims it to be like a crumb {1606E only{or a little quantity of frankincense [raisin used as incense]}1606E only} which is a special remedy against the quartan ague [third day fever] if during the waning of the moon it is applied to the left side of the body. Glycas, [based] on Anastasius calls this fish clopia, but Plutarchus, in the place mentioned before, calls it scolopidon.
196.24. It is almost incredible what a marvellous multitude of frogs you find here. Such, I say, was their abundance, that the inhabitants of a certain city were driven out and forced to seek another place to live in. Yet Plinius, whom we have mentioned so often, vouches this to be true, citing Varro as his source. And Trogus in his 15th book claims the same thing to have happened to the Abderites, {1606E only{a certain people in Trace}1606E only}.
196.25. But let us turn to other, [even] more wonderful things of this region. The first is a story of fossile fish dug from the ground, which is as strange as any, about which Pomponius Mela speaks these very words: in Gallia Narbonensis there is the fountain Salsula, which produces water that is not sweet, but more brackish than the water of the sea. Close by there is a field, all green and covered with short and slender reeds, yet, it swims and floats on the surface as if supported by a pole. It is of such a nature, as the middle part of it plainly shows, that, being cut off from the rest, it floats like an island, and allows itself to be pushed and drawn back and forth. Moreover at those places that are cleared by digging through them, the sea underneath appears shaded. Then, either out of ignorance of the truth, or purposely disposed to tell a lie, it pleased our authors as well as also the Greek [ones], to leave in writing for those who lived after them, that fish was dug out of this ground in that country, which [fish], coming there from the deep sea, was killed by those who dug for them, and was drawn dead out of the clearings just mentioned. So much from this author.
196.26. Now, whether Strabo and Athenæus should be numbered among those Greek writers whose credit Mela extenuates in this matter, I do not know. For Strabo in his 4th {1601L, 1603L and 1608/1612I instead{6th}1601L, 1603L, 1608/1612I instead} book says that near the river Ruscino, (in the very same province that Mela describes), there is a lake in the proximity, and a little further away from the sea a watery fenny piece of ground full of salt pits, in which you find mullets which they used to take out of the earth. For as soon as a man digs 2 or 3 {1606E has instead{3 or 4}1606E instead} feet deep into the ground, thrusting an eel spade into the mud, he shall sometimes by chance hit or kill the fish just mentioned, which is of reasonable growth and size. This kind of fish, like the eel, lives and breeds in the mud. That is what he writes.
196.27. Athenæus in his 8th book, [based] on Polybius' 34th book of histories, writes like this: that from the Pyrenee mountains when you come to Narbonne, the fields along which the rivers Iliberis and Ruscino flow, are plain and excellent. In these fields those fishes are found which they call fossils, that is, [fish] dug from the ground. For the soil in that place is soft and green, with much grass growing on it. Underneath the grass, the earth being sandy two or three cubites deep, you shall find water that has soaked [the area] there, and issues from these rivers, in which fishes roam through those streams to find their food, because they take delight in the roots of that grass. The entire coast is full with fish underground, which are caught as soon as the earth is cast up.
196.28. And {1601L{Dalechampus, on [the authority of]}1601L} Athenæus, has written that this way of fishing in that place continues to the present day. I have always been of the opinion that this little history which Aristoteles has left on record in his Book of Wonders may aptly be referred to here, [namely] how on the borders of Marseilles near the Ligustic sea there is a lake which, bubbling and streaming, casts forth an infinite multitude of fish, surpassing all belief, &c. Plinius says in his 9th book, chapter 17, that in the season when mullets breed, in the province of Narbonne, [if] a man takes a male mullet out of the pools where they breed, and draws a long string or line through its mouth and quills, fixes it firmly and then puts it into the sea, holding the other end of the line in his hand, and draws the line in, he shall have a number of spawners or females following him closely at the tail [of the bait] to the banks of the shore. {1606E only{Probably, if he does the same with a female at spawning season, he shall have as many males following after her}1606E only}.
196.29. In the very same province, according to the same author {1624LParergon/1641S{book 18, chapter 22}1624LParergon/1641S}, there is a famous well named Orge, in which certain herbs grow, so much desired and sought after by cattle, that to seek and obtain a mouthful of them, they will thrust their entire head into it, till over their ears, until they find them. In another place in Plinius {1624LParergon/1641S{[namely] book 30, chapter 2}1624LParergon/1641S} I read the following: There is a city in Gallia named Tungri [Tongeren], much renowned for a noble fountain which runs through many pipes. It has an odour resembling the rust of iron, although this taste is not perceived until the end, after you have finished drinking. This water is purgative and drives away tertian agues [second day fever], expels [kidney] stones, and cures the accompanying symptoms. Put this water on a fire or near to it, and you shall see it [turn] opaque, but at last it will turn red.
196.30. Moreover, this province {not in 1606E{of Narbonne}not in 1606E}, as described by St. Augustinus in his book De civitate Dei, has a fountain near Gratianopolis {1606E only{or Grenoble}1606E only}, very much like the holy well in Epirus, which, if you dip a burning torch in it, it immediately extinguishes the fire, and if you hold it a good way off without any fire on it, it will start burning again of its own accord.
196.31. Artimedorus is an author [who says that] on the sea coast of France there is a lake which is called Lacus duorum corvorum, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{that is, the lake of the two crows}1606E & 1608/1612I only}, in which he says that two crows can normally be seen, each having a right wing of a white colour. This is where everyone goes in any matter about which there is a controversy, and on a high table each party puts a cake for himself. When the crows fly there, they will devour one cake, and break the other into small crumbs, and he will obtain the cause against his enemy whose cake is broken and thrown down. But Strabo judges this story to be a mere fable.
196.32. Aristoteles also considers as one of his Miracles the highway in his time called Heraclea via, which is reported to have extended from Italy all the way to the Celto-Galles or Celtiberi. On this road all passers by, whether Greek or home borne, are carefully inspected and guarded by the inhabitants, lest any harm or misfortune should befall them on their journey. For those within whose borders the harm is done, are by law punished or bound to repair the loss.
196.33. Vitruvius writes that in Marseille tiles are made which, when cast into the water, float and do not sink. I may now aptly among these miracles describe that field which is called Campus Lapideus, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{that is, Stonedon or Stone-field}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. All [geographers] place it between Marseille and the mouth of the river Rhône. Plinius calls it the memorial of Hercules' battles, because Hercules in this place fought against Albion & Bergion, the sons of Neptune, and having spent all his arrows, called upon his father Jupiter, who cast down with great power a shower of stones in his defence and aid. {1606E only{And anyone would truly believe that it had been raining stones indeed, so many were there, all over the place, and spread around far and wide}1606E only}. This fable is also confirmed by Mela, Solinus, {1601L{Hyginus}1601L} and Martianus.
196.34. Yet, above them all I willingly prefer the opinion of Strabo, who describes it {not in 1606E{based on Xylander}not in 1606E} [as follows]: There is a plain at a distance from the sea of about one hundred stadia or furlongs from one side to the other, {1608/1612I only{of about 12 miles in the middle}1608/1612I only} and it has a round shape. It is after the event called the stony plain. For it is full of stones, as big as a man can hold, underneath of which grass grows, yielding great quantities of food of pasture for cattle. But in the middle of it, there is water, salt pits and salt. The whole region that borders on it upwards lies open to the winds, but on this plain it is chiefly the Northern wind which blows violently and impetuously, with as a result, so they say, that stones are blown up and whirled into the air, and men are blown out of their wagons and by the force of the winds, and stripped of both armour and clothing.
196.35. The same author also advances this probable reason [for the many stones there, provided] by Posidonius, who says that once it had been a lake, which dried up because of the continuous tossing and turning of the water this way and that way, and therefore turned into [a field with] many stones, somewhat resembling the pebble stones [found] on the banks of rivers or sea shores, very similar in size, smoothness &c. {1601L{Aristoteles in the 2nd book and 8th chapter of his Meteors claims it to have become so stony because of an earthquake, and calls it the Phlegræan plain}1601L}. Diodorus {not in 1606E{in his fifth book}not in 1606E} describes the very same plain (although not with the same name), together with the winds haunting it. The forest of Arduenna is also here, (in Belgica I mean), about which Tacitus writes in the 5th book of his Annals like this:
196.36. They sought those forests which were named Arduenna. Are there perhaps many with this name? Can this be proved on the authority of Pomponius Mela, because in one place he says that Gallia is pleasant to behold because of its many excellent forests? I cannot accept that this is true, considering that in all old histories (as I know them) mention is made of only one forest with this name. Yet I am convinced that it was scattered both in length and width, and one part was separated from another, yet they were all comprised under one and the same name. For Cæsar claims it to be of a huge size, and indeed, even the largest forest in all of Gallia, namely the one extending itself from the river Rhine through the middle of the country of the Trevires to the entrance of the borders of Rheims, and then going down towards the place where the rivers Schaldis and Mosa meet, was more than 1500 {1606E instead{500}1606E instead} miles in length. These miles {1606E only{(counting 8 stadia for a mile)}1606E only} amount to 4000 stadia, which is what Strabo assigns to it, but based on authors (as he supposes) that are not worthy to be believed, if that place [in the manuscript] is not corrupt.
196.37. For the learned Causabonus, {1606E only{the glory of France, and an honour to his country}1606E only}, in his learned commentaries on the writer just mentioned, hardly thinks the place [in the manuscript] to be without error. Neither does it seem likely to be true that Cæsar, who witnessed this forest with his own eyes, was ignorant of its size. That Diana was surnamed Arduenna after this forest is proved by an old monument of marble about we shall speak in greater detail later}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. So far concerning this region.
196.38. Now we continue by discussing the people. Pausanias claims [France] to be a populous region. And Livius [says] it is fruitful with men. {1601L{Polybius also, in the 2nd book of his civil wars, says the same. For he writes that Cæsar subdued 400 different tribes in his realm of France}1601L}. Iornandes says that they exceed the average stature of men. Their bodies, according to Hirtius, are to be marvelled at for their mighty limbs and [overall] size, and according to Ammianus they were tall of stature. And that they are of exceeding tallness, taller than other nations, is apparent out of Cæsar, when he says that with respect to their own tallness and excellent stature, all the Gauls mostly considered the Romans to be real dwarfs.
196.39. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Moreover, Strabo plainly states that they were tall of stature, tender and soft fleshed, and of a very fair complexion. That they had a white colour, and were snow-white fair, seems to be supported by these words of Petronius to Gyrton: Incretæ facies, ut Gallia suos ciues putet, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{Their faces were painted so that the French would think they were French born}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. That is to say that by those means they might imitate the natural beauty and whiteness of the Gauls, and not, as my singular good friend [Camden]in his most learned and exact description of England writes, that the Gauls used to whiten their faces to look more beautiful, which cannot be proved on the authority of any ancient author, if I am not in error. And no wonder, seeing that nature itself has voluntarily bestowed on them this beauty and whiteness. This is the reason, why the poet says that the Gauls had Lactea colla}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{that is, white necks}1606E & 1608/1612I only}.
196.40. [For the fact] that they usually wore their hair long (for which reason one part of Gallia was called Comata), {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{I have as my sources Strabo and Clemens Alexandrinus}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, as also Agathias, who writes that it was an ordinary custom among the kings of France never to have [their hair] cut or shortened, but [that they] continued to be unshaven from their cradle to their dying day, and to have their hair hanging trimly upon their shoulders, with their hair in front curiously threaded, falling down upon either shoulder. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Livius tells their hair to have been long and yellow}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. Diodorus says it was naturally reddish, and that they strengthen this colour by art. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{For according to Leopardus the interpreter in his Emendations, they washed their hair continually with a dye made of chalk and they turned it up from the forehead towards the crown [of the head] into a nodule, so that they might be conspicuous and eminent, and to look as much as possible like Pans and satyrs}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.41. They also dressed up their hair so thickly that it differed in no respect from the manes of horses. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Was this the reason then, that Claudianus said: Gallia crine ferox, that is, the Frenchman, grim of countenance, because of his long hair? Plinius says that soap was an invention devised by the French to dye the hair on their head yellow, in as much that Claudianus says that the French men have Aureos vertices, that is, yellow heads. And Vergilius says that they have aureas cæsaries that is golden braids. {1601L{Relevant also are those words which Tertullianus uses in his book De cultu feminarum, that is, about the ornaments of women, where he says that some of them used to dye their hair with saffron}1601L}. For the very same reason Ammianus calls the French Candidos & rutilos, whitish and reddish, deriving their nomination from their skin and hair.
196.42. I read in Livius {1608/1612I only{commented on by Castalione}1608/1612I only} that they all wear long beards. Diodorus depicts them in their true colours thus: Some (he says) shave their beards, some others let their beards grow, although not very long. The gentlemen and noblemen shave their cheeks, but they allow their beards on their chin to grow so long, that they cover their bodies. As a result of which it happens that when they eat, they are everywhere full of crumbs and food, and when they drink, the drink will go down as it were through a pipe or funnel}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. They use all the means they can invent not to grow too fat.
196.43. And if any young man exceeds the prescribed measure of his girdle, he is (as Strabo has left on record) punished for it. So much for their outward appearance. Now it remains to say something about their nature and disposition, for which no writer is more skillful in knowledge, and more ancient in writing than Cæsar. Listen to these words, which are scattered here and there in various places in his French Wars {1606E & 1608/1612I have instead{Commentaries}1606E & 1608/1612I instead}:
196.44. The counsels, he says, of the Gauls, are hasty and unpremeditated. In their deliberations, they are fickle and mostly intent on changing matters. It is a common custom among them to force even wayfaring people to stay [with them], whether they like it or not, to tell them what news he heard, or what he knows about any matter whatsoever. And the common people have the habit of flocking to merchants [that have come to their] cities, and to urge them to tell from which countries they come, and what things they know about them. And being impressed by these unreliable reports and hearsay, they hold counsels, sometimes on the most important matters, which [may] lead to regret by and by, seeing that they have been foolishly misled by uncertain rumours, and also realising that various people have told them fabricated news to satisfy their fancies. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{So far Cæsar}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.45. Also, we may read almost the very same things about these people in Polybius, Orosius, Trebellius and Vopiscus. But the following peculiar custom of theirs, which they have in their counsels and assemblies, is not to be omitted, which is (as Strabo reports) like this: if, he says, anyone with noise and other outcry troubles whoever is speaking, the sergeant will come to him with an uncovered knife in his hand, and will command him to be quiet, threatening him [with his weapon]. He does this [at most] three times, and if the party will still not hold his peace and be quiet, the sergeant will cut off so much from his cassock that the remainder is of no use at all any more.
196.46. Diodorus and Strabo claim them to be sharp-witted and not without some smattering knowledge about learning. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{The same is said by Symmachus, who recommends their study in good letters}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. Polybius, who is more maliciously disposed towards them, is not ashamed to say that they neither apply themselves to any learning, nor to any kind of trade.
196.47. But now listen what Hirtius reports about them: they are plain men in their dealings, and in no way deceitful. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{They are used to fight their battles by prowess, not by treachery. Strabo praises them in a similar way: they are of an honest disposition, without fraud or guile, and not at all malicious or spiteful. Don't you think this is the reason that the same author elsewhere calls them simplices, simple? and by Servius Pigrioris ingenij, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{of dull wit}1606E & 1608/1612I only} and by Firmicus stolidos, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{foolish}1606E & 1608/1612I only}? and by Julianus Stupidos & rusticitatem amantes}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{[that is:] blockheads, and affecting some rustic kind of foolishness}1606E & 1608/1612I only}?
196.48. But on the opposite side, listen what Lucius Florus writes: {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{let no man only call the French savage, for they are crafty fellows, carrying out their intentions. Is this false? Or is it true, and likely that they learned it later, from the Romans? [They] who, (as Trogus records), sent Servilius to Africa and had given him the secret command [to see] if he could by any means defeat Hannibal with the help of those who most of all envied his power? But this was not true, and is corrected by}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} Julianus the emperor, himself an eye witness, and in daily contact with them, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{and therefore more credible in this particular case, because he does not only praise them on the basis of Florus mentioned before, but also on the basis of all ancient writers}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, [says] that they do not know how to be flattering. [For] they live honestly and simply, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{without deceit or pretense towards all men, according to the laws of justice and equity}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.49. They only worship {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Venus, the goddess of marriage, for}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} wedlock and offspring, and Bacchus, the god of pleasure, so that they have sufficient occasions to drink wine. Ælianus reports that of all men living they are most ready to expose themselves to dangers. Florus says that they are immanissimos, {1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only{most savage}1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only}. Cicero and Eumenius [call them] Immanes et barbaros, {1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only{cruel and barbarous}1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only}, Lucanus, Trogus and Hegesippus [call them] Feroces, {1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only{fierce}1597G5Add, 1602G & 1606E only}, Avienus {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{and Seneca}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} [call them] Truces, stern or grim, Cassiodorus [calls them] Crudeles, {1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only{cruel}1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only}, Lucanus [calls them] Sanguinos, {1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only{bloody}1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only}. Lampridius says that they have Duras & retrogradas mentes, {1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only{hard and backsliding minds}1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only}. Vopiscus says that they are Gentium omnium inquietissimos, of all nations most unquiet. Livius and Polybius [call them] Molles & effeminatos, {1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only{delicate and effeminate}1597G5Add, 1602G, 1606E & 1608/1612I only}. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{And the same Polybius says elsewhere that they are faithless, and much given to debauchery and drunkenness}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, which Diodorus, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Athenæus and Clemens Alexandrinus}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} confirm[s] to be true.
196.50. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{The before mentioned Livius says that they are exceedingly prone to anger, which these people are not able to constrain or moderate, and all in all very covetous {not in 1606E{to have gold}not in 1597G5Add, 1602G & 1606E}. Mela writes that they are proud and superstitious. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Silius [calls them], vain babblers}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} and Plutarchus {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{in his life of Pyrrhus}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} [says] that they are exceedingly greedy for money. Such [words of] praise receives this nation, all of them resulting from [those having] a serious feeling of being wounded, and therefore, I leave it to them to approve and justify the truth of all these assertions.
196.51. Nevertheless, we still have, among others, these two examples of their cruelty. One of them [is found] in Trogus, who writes that in their wars and fights against Antigonus, when by forecasts {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{based on the entrails of beasts offered in sacrifice}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, their utter destruction and overthrow was foretold, they did not fall into a state of amazement and fear, but rather, engulfed in fury and madness, they killed their wives and children, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{starting the success they had hoped for in the war with a most unnatural murder, &c}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. The other example you may see in Lucius Florus, who writes that some of them, taken prisoner in a battle, succeeded in biting and gnawing into pieces the chains with which they were bound, and [subsequently] cut each others throats.
196.52. Unless one would prefer to think that these were rather proofs and examples of their love for liberty. For both Orosius and Leo the emperor have left in writing that these people are most eager [to retain] their liberty. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Pausanius in his Phocica describes their great valour in the battle at Thermopylæ. I cannot but wonder in my mind at Marcus Victorinus, who calls these men base cowards, who have greater trust in their heels than in their hands, [whereas] Claudianus calls them courageous, and Salustius [calls them] warlike, powerful, mighty in arms and feats of war before the Romans. Or does this Victorinus happily dream up his own interpretation of Cæsars words? As their courage is eager and ready to engage in wars so they [also] have womanish and faint hearts in suffering and enduring calamities?}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.53. Or [did Victorinus think of] these [words] of Livius? In the first onset or assault [in battle] the Gauls are more stout than men, but at last they are more faint-hearted than women? Or these words of the same author? Often experience has proved this to be true that, if you can endure and sustain their first attack, which they make in hot blood and desperate fury, their bodies get faint with sweat and weariness, so they are unable to [continue] bearing their weapons &c., or something similar in Florus?
196.54. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{It has been found true in [practical] experience that like their first assault is more than that of men, their last is less than that of women.
196.55. They have this one property in common with the snow of their country: as soon as they have become hot in battle, they immediately start sweating profusely. And if they stir ever so little, they melt like snow in the sun.
196.56. Or this of Dion? The Gauls are inspired by an insatiable lust to do whatever they are doing, in the sense that they know no compromise in boldness, nor in fear, but at some moment they will suddenly fall from boldness into fearfulness, and by and by from fear into desperate rashness.
196.57. Or this judgment of Strabo about them? It is a warlike and fierce nation, very eager to attack. Being provoked to battle, they fight in groups thronged together, not heeding their defence, and that very visibly. Through which it happens that they are easily trapped, if their enemy uses some kind of strategy at his best advantage, enticing them to engage in battle, fitted out and armed as they are with nothing but strength and desperation}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.58. Leo the emperor in his book De Bellico apparatus characterises them quite differently. The French, (he says), are stout in courage, and valiant in war. To be faint-hearted or give up ever so little a piece of ground is considered a great disgrace, and seen as no better than running away &c. Now then, if this nation is indeed so womanish and of such cowardice, so unwilling to labour, so inconstant and unable to persist in battle, [then] can you tell me, Oh Roman that you are, why Cicero {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{in his oration Pro Provincijs Consularibus}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} wrote that this Gallia was so terrible in your eyes?
196.59. Why did Sallustius say that all of Italy trembled and shook in fear of this people, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{inasmuch that the Romans did not use to contend with them for glory and ambition, but only to safeguard their lives and their country? How did it happen that in Trogus we find the following words about the kings of the East? There was such a great fright for the French name, and for their prosperous success in all wars, that these [Eastern kings] supposed that they were never by themselves capable of keeping their majesty out of danger, nor to recover it again, decayed and lost as they were, without the help of the valour and prowess of the French.
196.60. {1601L{And why does Appianus, in the second book of his Civil wars say that they cause such a terrible fright to the Romans that in the law which granted freedom from military service to priests and old men, [enlistment from] the French wars was excepted?}1601L}. Sosipater gathers from Varros second book on Antiquities that the Gauls most ingeniously affected two things, namely military knowledge and eloquence. This explains Iuvenalis' saying Gallia vel potius nutricula causidicorum [Gallia, or the wet nurse of prattling lawyers].{1606E only{Whether France should indeed be called France or the lawyers nurse I do not know for certain}1606E only}. {1624LParergon{Africa, if it was decided to punish because of language [Juvenalis Saturae VII, 148-149]}1624LParergon}.
196.61. {not in 1608/1612I{Also, in another place Gallia causidicos docuit facunda Britannos}not in 1608/1612I}, [that is] {1606E only{'The eloquent French first taught the English to plead at bar'. Was this the case in Juvenalis' time? Or did he rather predict what was to happen in times to come? For our nation [Britannia] never felt this misery until the days of William the First. Columella in his first book on Farming says that Sine causidicos satis felices olim fuere futuræque sunt urbes [the lawyers without that used to be sufficiently happy, and the cities will be]}1606E only}. {1601L{Saint Ambrosius in his epistle to Rusticus highly praises the most flourishing studies of France, and the richness of the French tongue, and Claudianus in his fourth Panegyric on the consulship of Honorius recommends the learned inhabitants of France}1601L}.
196.62. Concerning their warfare, take these very few things gathered from ancient writers, first from Cæsar: this is the way of the Gauls (he says) when they begin a war. They declare a general muster, to which by common law all the young men are compelled to come in their armour, and whoever comes last of all is in open fight with all the reports {1606E & 1624LParergon/1641S only{to be tipped with iron, a cubite or a little more in length, and a little less than two hands wide}1606E & 1624LParergon/1641S only} and a kind of javelin {1601L{called Meris}1601L}{1603L, 1609/1612L/S & 1624LParergon/1641S in left margin: Should be read as Materis, and it seems to please people more learned than Caesar that this is the same as Matara}1603L/1609/1612L/S, & 1624LParergon/1641S}, {or rather, as others say, under all kinds of cruel torments put to death}not in 1608/1612I}.
196.63. From Strabo: Their armour, depending on their stature, is a long sword hanging on the right side, a long shield, spears as suitable to this, (which Diodorus calls, as some learned people state, Materis, similar to the kind of weapon that Cæsar calls Matara. {1601L{Some of them also use bows and slings}1601L}. Moreover, they have another weapon of wood in the form of a dart which they sling, not with a thong {1606E only{fastened to the middle [as the Irish nowadays use]}1606E only}, but merely with the bare hand & yet, for all that, they will throw it further than an archer can shoot.
196.64. Nonius [based] on Varro mentions a kind of weapon proper to the French called Gesa in these words: Qui gladijs cincti sive scuto cum binis gesis, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{that is, who were armed with swords and bucklers with two Gesæ}1606E & 1609/1612I only}. About these, Vergilius writes like this: Duo Quisque Alpina coruscant Gesa manu, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{Two Geses weapons, which the French brandish, did each party choose}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. Servius in his Comments on this passage interprets them as Hastas viriles, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{manlike spears}1606E & 1608/1612I only}, and adds that valiant soldiers used to be called Gesi in the French language. But it ought in fact to be written with the diphthong æ as Gæsa (about which you may see what we have written on the old map of Spain [Ort 193], {1606E only{or see Mr. Clarencieux Camden in his Britannia, where he has learnedly discussed this subject and about this word will fully satisfy you, among the rest)}1606E only}.
196.65. {not in 1603L only{This may be the reason why a kind of people here were called Gæsati because they carried and used these Geses}not in 1603L only}. On this I have written more elaborately in my Thesaurus. The authors mentioned confirm that their horsemen are better than their footmen, and that these horsemen used to come to the battlefield with many carts and large carriages, as Cæsar says. Livius and also Pomponius Mela write that they skirmish in chariots and waggons. The same is said about them by Strabo, but he calls these waggons Essedes, which is all the same. From these chariots (says Diodorus) they first throw a dart at their enemy coming towards them, then, leaving their chariots, they fight on foot with their swords.
196.66. I understand from Vegetius that in skirmishes they used to fight in troops and various bands, containing six thousand men each, {1606E only{caternas he calls them. About which word, as also essedum, see M. Camdens Britannia}1606E only}. They were all naked above their navel, except that they covered their body, although very minimally, {1606E only{God knows [why]}1606E only}, with a long shield which was not wide enough to protect their whole body, as Livius and Polybius say. Thus, Gauls were Scutis protecti corpora longis, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{they shielded their bodies with long shields}1606E & 1608/1612I only}, as Vergilius reports. These shields, about the height of a man in length, were, as every man thought fitting, adorned with certain shapes and pictures of living creatures, embossed and sticking out from the surface of the shield itself, as Diodorus writes, who adds in another place that they defended or shielded their heads with a brass helmet higher than normal, in which were engraved either horns, or images of birds or quadruped beasts.
196.67. The same author says that they used trumpets in their wars. Their swords, says Polybius, were very heavy, and very long, as Livius writes, and without points, as Strabo tells us, made only for the purpose of wounding the enemy with downright blows. Vergilius (as Servius notes), writes alte consurgit in ensem, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{that is, he lifts his sword up high to give a greater blow}1606E & 1608/1612I only}, with which, if they made a hit, they cut off the heads of their enemies with one stroke. Yet, these swords were made without art, and of a soft kind of iron, as Polyænus reports in his eighth book.
196.68. About these same weapons Suidas reports on the basis of Polybius. They are made in such a manner that at the first onset they give one blow, and then they are immediately so crooked and bent both in length and width, that unless you grant them the opportunity to retire and to strengthen [and straighten them out] with their feet, the next stroke can do no harm. Diodorus calls them Spathæ, and says that they hang by a brass chain on their right side. Nevertheless Julius Pollux recommends this French sword, calling it {1606E & 1608/1612I only{by its Greek name}1606E & 1608/1612I only} (machæra).
196.69. Polybius, Strabo and Diodorus tell us that they wore around their necks gold chains, (which prompted Vergilius to say: Lactea colla, auro innectuntur, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{their lily-white necks adorned with gold), and around their arms and wrists costly bracelets. And those that were in high places, and had authority, wore their garments dyed and covered with gold}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. (Atque aurea vestis {1606E & 1608/1612I only{[that is:] and golden garments the French wore}1606E & 1608/1612I only}, says Vergilius). They adorned and decorated their swords, shields and head pieces, says Plinius, with coral. Some of them also, says Diodorus, guilded their iron breast plates.
196.70. When they go to battle, there is among them such singing, howling, shouting, dancing, such a noise of shields, which they shake after their countries fashion, and such a great and fearful clattering of armour that all places around them seem to resonate with it, as Polybius and Livius jointly report. Strabo and Diodorus report that they also fought against their enemies with dogs. Moreover they took with them to war some good-for-nothing people, (if we may believe Possidonius in Athenæus), who had to sing songs in their honour and praise, and indeed, the same is reported by Diodorus. If they are victorious over their enemies in battle, they have the custom to sacrifice their captives to their gods, as Athenæus truly believes, [based] on the testimony of Sosipater. When they return from battle, (hear what Strabo reports about them), they attach the heads of their [slain] enemies to the manes of their horses and set them upon the town gates, to be viewed and seen by everybody.
196.71. But the heads of noblemen (hear Diodorus) they embalm with spices, and they lay them in cases with the greatest care possible, and they show them to strangers, and will not part with them [these embalmed heads], neither to their parents, nor to any other of their friends, for any money. Livius writes that they offered the spoils of their [enemies] dead bodies in triumph, and cut off the head from the body in their temple, which is held in great reverence among them. {1603L{Afterwards, the head having been cleaned, as is their custom, they gild the skull, which they consider as a holy vessel, from which they drink at solemn feasts and sacrifices. And this [gilded skull] is the cup of the priests and rulers of the temple}1603L}. Which is why Silius writes like this: At Celta vacui capitis circumdare Sueti ossa (nefas) auro & mensis ea pocula servant, [that is:] {1606E & 1608/1612I only{But this vile custom the Celtes observe, The heads from the carcasses of their foes to pull, Which set in gold they most curiously carve, And instead of cups do drink from dead men's skulls}1606E & 1608/1612I only}.
196.72. About the procedures in their horse battles, which they call Trimarcisia, read Pausanias' Phocica. Also, about their Silodunes, as Athenæus calls them, or Soldures as Cæsar calls them, read the authors just mentioned, and if you please, add to them those things which Leo the emperor has written in the eighteenth book, 88th section of his De Bello apparatus.
196.73. Now it remains that we also say something about their ordinary way of living. Throughout all of Gallia (says Cæsar){not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{there are only two kinds of men of significance, and held in high esteem. The one are the Druids, the other are their knights. These knights {in right margin in Latin editions, 1606E in text{(about the Druids we have spoken at length in our map of Gallia [as] described by Cæsar)}1606E}, when the need arises, and when any war may break out, give themselves altogether to feats of arms. And if among them any man is of important descent and ability, he will have with him more servants and retinue}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.74. The Druids are occupied with holy matters. They are in charge of public and private sacrifices, and interpret and discuss matters of religion &c. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{But their community is controlled as if they were slaves. And the noblemen may deal with them in all respects as they do with their slaves}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. They [the noblemen] do not allow their sons to appear in their presence openly until the time has come that they have grown up, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{and may fill the rooms of the soldiers. And they consider it shameful if a son, as long as he is a boy, should be seen openly in his fathers company. Look how much money the men receive from their wives as a dowry! They make an estimate of their own possessions, and attach a value to them. All of which is added up in one stockpile, and any increase is reserved, and whoever lives longer than another will receive the stockpile and the increase during past years, being the survivor.
196.75. The men have authority of life and death &c. over their wives as over their children. This much we have collected from the sixth book of Cæsar's Gallic Wars {1606E & 1608/1612I have instead{Commentaries}1606E & 1608/1612I instead}, where you may read about many other related things well worth the observation. Diodorus Siculus observes that their women are very excellent personages, and as regards the size of their bones and strength hardly inferior to men. They are very fertile, good nurses, or, as Strabo observes, very good breeders and educators of children. As Plutarchus writes in the eighth book of his Convivialis (1606E has instead{Symposion}1606E instead}, when they went to the bath to wash themselves, they would usually bring their children and little ones along, as also a pan of porridge, with which they used to feed to them there.
196.76. A notable example of their importance and valour you shall find in his Book of Virtues, where he tells that they developed the custom among them that both for matters at home in time of peace as well as abroad in time of war, they used the counsel and advice of their wives, and whatever was done was done partly by their views. Polyænus also, in his seventh book, reports the very same thing about them. In spite of the fact that their women are most beautiful, yet, as Athenæus and Diodorus both confirm, men are much given to buggery, and to love boys beyond all measure. But whether this is true or not I cannot tell. I would prefer to think that it was not generally approved of by all the Gauls, but only specifically by those who inhabited that part of the country called Gallia Braccata, where the Massilians, a people descended from the Greek lived, whose wantonness and effeminate manners are manifestly reproved as a fault in those sayings and proverbs cited by Suidas: {not in 1603L & 1609/1612L/S{Massiliam venis}not in 1603L & 1609/1612L/S} [cf. Erasmus Chiliades 3.10.99]{1608/1612I only{[you come from Marseille]}1608/1612I only} and Massiliam naviges [Erasmus Chiliades 2.3.98] [May you sail to Marseille].
196.77. I also connect this with what I have read in the ninth book of Clemens' Recognitions, spoken, as I suppose, on the very same occasion. There was an ancient law or custom among the Gauls, he says, which ordained that to a man just married boys should be given openly, and in the sight of the whole company, which was not considered a matter of shame or dishonesty among them. And I truly think that Strabo spoke about this custom of them in these words: It was in no way considered a wrong thing if they committed buggery with young men in their flourishing age {1606E instead{early twenties}1606E instead}1606E}.
196.78. About the Celtæ also, this saying of Stobæus is not to be omitted, where he writes that it was a more heinous crime & an offence most severely punished if one killed a stranger than if one killed one of his own countrymen, for one meant only banishment, but the other death. But don't you think that this was a law only intended against murders committed on the Via Heraclea?}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.79. Their clothes which they normally wore, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{as Strabo says}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, were a kind of cassock {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{somewhat like a Spanish cloak (Saga it is called by the Romans), mentioned by Vergilius in these words: virgati lucent sagulis, {1606E only{trim they shine in striped rugs}1606E only}. These were woven of a coarse kind of wool, and were in their language called Lænæ, (yet the judicious Casaubonus in his learned commentaries about this passage in Strabo thinks that the text is corrupt and that we ought to read Chlænas rather than Lænas). They also wore breeches (braccæ they call them), embellished or adorned, or loose, as Lucanus says. Instead of coats they used a slit-sleeved garment which came down to their waist and buttocks, and as Martialis says: Dimidiasque nates Gallica palla tegit, [that is:]{1606E & 1608/1612I only{A curtailed pall the Gauls did wear, that scarcely would hide their tail}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. This kind of garment is still in use here, {1606E only{in the Low countries}1606E only}, made in the very same form and fashion, and is called in our language Pallatrock for Rock [in Flemish] is the same as Vestis in Latin, [namely] plants, vegetation. Aristoteles in the seventh book of his Politics, in my opinion, speaks about this kind of garment when he says that the Gauls wore a kind of short gabardine.
196.80. Martialis just mentioned speaks about a kind of garment used among the Gauls which he calls Bardocucullus Santonicus, [that is:] {1606E & 1608/1612I only{The hooded cloak or Xantoigne}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. But Plinius, next to these, mentions another kind of garment common among them, in the following words: wool by itself, spun together and wrought in the manner of felt, makes a kind of cloth, and if, in [the process of] making it, you apply vinegar, it will become so stiff and solid that you shall not be able to pierce it with the stroke of a sword. This [cloth] I think was first invented by the French. The same author reports that these people [also] first made that kind of cloth that is provided with scutcheons [shield-like protecting facets] or lozenge work [square protecting pieces]. In Isidorus, on [the authority of] Plautus, these words are cited: Linnæ cooperta est textrino Gallia [France is all covered by the weaving of linen], {1606E only{for the meaning of which I refer to the author himself, for the copies of Isidorus are very corrupt here [Isidorus Origines 19.23.3]}1606E only}.
196.81. Diodorus Siculus says that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} they used to wear rings {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{on their fingers, but Plinius reports that they wore them}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} only on their middle finger. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Cæsar writes that they loved oxen and such kinds of animals useful for work. Now in a similar manner we will say something about their food and manner of living.
196.82. In their work they used earthen vessels, very heavy and strong, and excellently decorated with flowers}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. At supper generally all of them sit down, not only on stools, but also on the ground, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{on wolf skins or dog skins, spread out on it. Strabo says that during their meals they sit on their beds or on cloth lying on the ground. They are served at their tables by little boys. The fire is close by, where their pots with boiled food hang simmering, and spits full of roasted meat are continually going [around], as Diodorus reports}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. Their meats are mostly salt pork and bacon, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{yea, but sometimes they will eat any other kind of meat whatsoever, and that often dressed with milk, as Strabo has left on record. But Athenæus' words, taken from Possidonius, are worth noting: the Celtæ have their drinks on wooden tables, with some hay strewn underneath. These tables are not very high above the ground. They have bread, (which, as Plinius writes, has risen with leaven), but they have no great quantity of it. Their food is mostly meat, soaked [and boiled] in water, broiled on coals, or roasted on spits.
196.83. When this is brought to the table, they take the whole of it in both hands, and like ravenous lions tear it [apart] with their teeth. But if any of it is so tough that they cannot easily gnaw it, they will cut it into smaller pieces with a table knife. They tend to furnish their banquets with all kinds of fish, both sweet water fish, sea fish and shell fish of whatever kind, I mean, whatever the sweet rivers or brackish seas provide. These they broil, and dress with salt, vinegar and cumin seeds, which they also put into their pots. If many meet [and sit] together at one table, they sit around it in a circle. The best man always sits in the middle. I call him the best man, who either in martial bravery, nobility or wealth excels above the rest. The servants, pourers or such as wait at the table carry drinks to it in pot-like pitchers, either of potters metal, or else of clean silver. Their dishes and platters are of the same metal, on which their food is served. But some of them have brass ones, and others again instead of platters use baskets, made of twigs or osiers.
196.84. The wealthier sort drink wine brought from Italy, or from the area around Marseille, mostly made from pure grapes, but sometimes they dilute it, or add a little water, dercoma they call it. They sip it little by little from the same cup, all the time sipping and imbibing. A boy will carry the pot around in his two hands. But Plinius reports that they made a kind of drink from steeped corn, so strong that it would make a man drunk [easily]. Diodorus Siculus writes that they had a kind of drink which they call Zythum, {1606E only{(we now call it ale, the Britons, as Dioscorides reports called it Curmi or Cwrw as the Welsh now pronounce the word)}1606E only}. The same author also says that they made another kind of drink from the water in which they had washed or boiled honey combs {1606E only{(this we now call mead)}1606E only}, yes, and Ammianus Marcellinus says that they all the time made and invented new kinds of drinks, although [they have] wine, to imitate [the taste of wine] as closely as they could.
196.85. I also read in Diodorus Siculus that they used to eat human flesh. But whether this is to mean their enemies flesh only, of those slain in battle? That they did this at the battlefield of Thermopylæ is flatly stated by Pausanias. Or is it perhaps more likely that he spoke about them like this because they sacrificed human beings to their gods? For this was done in such a way, as Plinius reports, that it looked as if they had gnawed at [their victims]. And in Sextus Rufius we read about the Scordisci Galli that they used to drink human blood from the skulls of their enemies whom they had defeated on the [battle]field.
196.86. Diodorus writes that they used to ask strangers and travellers to their table, & after dinner or supper they would ask who they were, what they came for, from where they came, and where they would go [next]. It might also happen that, once they had filled their bellies, they would start arguing about anything, as the occasion would present, start quarrelling, and then to rise and challenge one another in the fields, in no way respecting each others life or limbs, and that in the following manner, as Possidonius in Athenæus reports. They being armed, he says, challenge one another to fight at some distance, only clashing with the points of their swords, never approaching more closely than the length of their weapons, as if they were afraid to hurt one another. Yet sometimes it happens that one of them is hurt, and then, if bystanders do not separate them, and keep them apart, they will not subside until one has paid with his life, {1601L{for which reason perhaps Horatius said: Non pauentis funera Galliæ}1601L}, [that is:] {1606E &1608/1612I only{And desperate France does not fear death}1606E & 1608/1612I only}.
196.87. In old times it was also an ancient custom among them that when the portions and joints of mutton were put on the table, the strongest and tallest man of them would take the leg, who might then be challenged by another as he saw fit, and to take it out of his hand would cost one of the two his life. Others take gold, or silver, or a certain number of hog-heads of wine to the arena, and take an oath that they will endure the same as those from which they had received this as a gift. They take these [treasures] and distribute them among their closest and dearest friends, stretch themselves on the ground on their back, and lie down on their shields, and someone standing by is to stab them in their throat, or cut off their [head by their] neck with a sword.
196.88. They lie down to sleep on grass or plants strewn on the ground, as Polybius reports, or on deer skins, as Diodorus records. In the thirteenth book of Athenæus, you shall find these words, in my opinion about Braccata Gallia [namely]: (They lie upon skins between two Ganimedes). And I am easily convinced, and I think all wise men with me, that he meant the Greeks of Marseille, and not the true and ancient Gauls, whose manner it was, as we have mentioned before out of Julianus the emperor, that they used that act only for the procreation of children}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.89. Their houses and places to live, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{says Cæsar}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, were mostly located in the woods, or on the banks of brooks and rivers, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{to protect themselves against the violence of the sun and the heat of summer, and those [dwellings], as Vitruvius writes, were made and covered with oak shingles, or else with straw. Strabo says that their dwellings are built in a round form, of planks and beams, covered with a large roof, made in a tapering fashion. This roof, as Plinius writes, was [made] of stubble.
196.90. Their gates, if we may believe Nicolaus in Stobæus, were continually open. Julianus the emperor in his Misopogonus tells a tale from which we gather that they used hot-houses or stoves such as are still used to this day in some places in this country}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. Villages they have, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{as Polybius notes}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, without any walls or ramparts for defence {1606E only{against the assault of their enemies}1606E only}. For Trogus reports that they learned from Marseille to enclose their towns with walls and ramparts.
196.91. The manner and way of building of these walls you may gather from the seventh book of Cæsar's Gallic wars {1606E has instead{Commentaries}1606E instead}, where you shall also find what follows: when anything important or noteworthy happens, they give notice of it through the fields and plains by loud cries and shouting to one another, and so onwards, like our hue and cry, until it reaches the outermost border of their kingdom. Ammianus in his twenty-fifth book says that they gave themselves very much to swimming. In hunting, as I gather from Cornelius Celsus, they use to hit deer with poisoned arrows. Also Gellius, [based] on Plinius, cites these words with the same meaning: The Gauls, when they went hunting, used to dip their arrows in the juice of hellebore [sneezing herb], truly believing that the meat of such deer as were struck and killed by them would be far more tender than it would be otherwise. But because of the poison of the hellebore, they say that they used to cut away a great deal of flesh around the place where the arrow had struck.
196.92. Similarly, Plinius mentions the herb limeum with which they made a kind of ointment called venenum cervarium, [that is:] {1606E & 1608/1612I only{Hart[deer]-poison}1606E & 1608/1612I only}, with which in hunting they impregnate their arrows. Aristoteles in his Admiranda tells that among the Celtæ a kind of poison is known which they call Toxicum [poison], (the Latin interpreter reads Xenicum [strange]), which infects and kills so swiftly that the hunters of that country when they have struck a deer with an arrow dipped in the juice of this herb, run as fast as they can and immediately cut away all the flesh in the area where the arrow went in to prevent the poison from spreading further and from putrefying the whole deer, and mar it, so that it is good for nothing, &c. Plinius tries to convince me that this concoction or poison was made of the yew-tree (taxus they call it), where he says that those poisons which we now call toxica with which they dipped their arrows, were once called taxica. Of the poisonous and venomous nature of the yew-tree we have spoken before.
196.93. But there was a tree which grew among the Celtæ, much similar to the fig tree, whose fruit that it bore was shaped like that on the top of a Corinthian pillar. When cut, this fruit yields juice which, if anyone dips his arrow in it and strikes someone with it, will kill him instantly because of that wound, as Strabo tells as reported by others. That the Gauls did not fear the danger of earthquakes is plainly stated by Aristoteles and Plutarchus. But whether this is true or false I dare not say.
196.94. Another notable example (unless one considers this an imaginary and deceitful tale) about the great boldness or rather desperate rashness [of the French] I find in Ælianus' {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{varia historia}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} which goes like this: they consider it, he says, such a foul and shameful act to run away that often they make no haste to get away from houses that they see are ready to fall upon their heads, nay, they will hardly leave houses that are on fire so that many times they will be burnt to ashes together with that house. Many will also [continue to] stand still [in the sea] until the waves and tide of the sea engulf them. Moreover, some of them will cast themselves into the sea in full armour, and with their swords drawn, shaking [the water] off their spears, they behave as if they could either fray or wound it. Let the credulous Jew believe it, if he will, [but] I will never believe a word of it, although I know that Stobæus, and before him Nicolaus, truly believed all of this to be true.
196.95. Here I find that saying of Plinius by experience to be very true, that there is hardly a greater threat to the truth than when a false tale is told by a serious author. But should we perhaps think that I requite one tale with another, [and] that this was that sight which Lucianus in his Apologia writes about, [saying] that his friend Sabinus went as far as the West ocean {1603L, & 1609/1612L/S instead{Gallia}1603L & 1609/1612L/S instead} to see [for himself]?}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.96. Their funerals, according to their manners and state, are very gorgeous and costly. All the things which the deceased in their lifetime truly loved and had affection for, yea, even such living creatures as they liked most, were cast into the fire and burnt, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{and not long ago, within the memory of our forefathers, even servants and followers whom they loved extraordinarily much, when all the ceremonies of the funeral had been performed, were cast into the fire, and burnt together with their masters and mistresses. This is what Cæsar reports about them. Pomponius Mela adds to this, that [together] with the dead, they burn and bury in the ground all things which they commonly used when they were still alive.
196.97. Their accounts and debts were deferred until doomsday. Some of them there were who would willingly cast themselves into the fires and graves of their friends, truly persuading themselves that they should continue to live together with them. Diodorus Siculus also reports that some of them would cast their letters into the fire where their deceased friends were being burnt to ashes, truly believing that they would read [these letters] there}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}.
196.98. For the opinion of Pythagoras about the immortality of the soul had taken strong footing and deep root among them, convinced as they were that afterwards, their [present] bodies being dead, they would in the course of time return in different bodies. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Listen also what Valerius Maximus says about this matter: it was an ancient, common custom, he says, amongst the Gauls, as old records prove, to lend money in this world, to be repaid in the world to come. Which the author just mentioned calls Philosophiam fneratoriam, [that is:] {1606E & 1608/1612I only{a covetous or stingy kind of philosophy, practised at the time by some usurers}1608/1612 only}. {1606E only{But can you tell me where now a man may borrow a hundred pounds, on good security, until that day? I doubt whether there is any pale-faced cut-throat usurer, a glorious smooth-tongued goldsmith, a crafty mock-lawyer scrivener, or any rag merchant broker, in this city of ours, that was ever a Pythagoras scholar? All the Jewish sect, I think, by their practices, agree with Sadduces, who thought and taught that there was no resurrection of the soul to be expected after this life}1606E only}.
196.99. It is no miracle or strange matter to think that the Gauls followed Pythagoras' opinion, if it is true what a certain Alexander in Clemens Alexandrinus tells us, namely that Pythagoras did travel to France. Tertullianus, [based on] Nicander, writes that they used to lie outside all night on the graves and tombs of valiant men, expecting there to receive the answer to some oracle. I do not give half a penny for the opinion of the great orator Tullius when he says in his oration which he addressed to Marcus Fonteius, that the Gauls are hardly prone to follow any religion at all, for Livius, although he may in other things be partial, and although he hardly deals with this nation, yet he plainly states that they are not very ignorant about religion.
196.100. And Cæsar, in the seventh book of his wars of France, who knew these people thoroughly, says that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} they were much given to religion and service to some god or other. Also, he says that they did in particular worship the god Mercury, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{of whom there were amongst them many images and statues, [as] they considered him to be the author and inventor of all arts and sciences. They also consider him}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} to be their guide and leader on all journeys, on the roads they travelled. They supposed him to have great power and luck in all kinds of dealings and profitable trade for money. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{To him they offered human flesh as a sacrifice}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}, {1601L{as Minutius Felix writes}1601L}.
196.101. Next to him, they also worshipped Apollo, Mars, {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Jupiter}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} and Minerva. About these gods they held the very same opinion that other people in the world did, namely that Apollo, when prayed to, drives away all diseases. Minerva first taught the basics of all arts and occupations. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{Jupiter ruled and moderated the motion of the heavens}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G}. Mars was president and guardian of the wars. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{That the Celtæ honoured Jupiter, whose image or statue was a most excellent tall oak, is plainly stated by Maximus Tyrus.
196.102. About Mercury, hear what Plinius writes in the seventh chapter of his thirty-fourth [volume]: Zenodorus, he says, made in our time, in the French city of Clermont in Auvergne (Auvernia the ancients call it) the greatest and most gorgeous statue that was ever made in the whole world. He worked altogether for ten years on a statue of Mercury, at an expense of HS.CCCC, {1606E only{that is, as some interpret it, four hundred thousand sesterties, which in our money amounts to 3533 pounds, six shillings and eight pence}1606E only}{1608/1612I has instead{300 great sestertii, or 7500 scudi}1608/1612I instead}.
196.103. Strabo says that Diana, the Ephesian goddess, had a temple at Marseille. Also, Polyænus {not in 1606E{in his eighth book}not in 1606E} says that the French-Greek (Gallo-Græci) worshipped Diana, which {1624LParergon/1641S{Polyænus in book 8}1624LParergon/1641S} Plutarchus in his book on the Fortitude of women confirms to be true. But next to this Diana they worship another, by them called Arduenna, as is confirmed by an ancient inscription in marble about which we shall say more in a moment. This goddess in all probability seems to have been worshipped in the forest Arduenna. For although it is written [as] DEANÆ ARDVINNÆ, yet I think that there is no one versed in and fairly familiar with ancient inscriptions that would not know that by this [inscription] is meant Dianæ Arduennæ. For the ancient Romans often used I for E and conversely E for I, as the learned will bear me witness of.
196.104. And in honour of her, this forest was consecrated and made holy, or as I rather think, some temple was built here and dedicated to her service, built either by the ancient Gauls, [and] bestowed so devoutly and religiously as we told before, or, if you prefer that, by the Romans themselves, in the largest and most renown forest or wood within the circumference of their whole empire, a place most worthy and most suitable for this goddess. And is this really a wonder, I ask you? This being, I say, a place most fitting and convenient for this goddess Diana to inhabit and find her abode in. For she is called by all ancient heathen writers {1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon only, in Greek lettering{(Angoterai) Venationi}1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon only}, Venatrix, Nemoralis, Nemorum & silvarum dea, virgini & custodi, [that is:] {1606E only{The goddess of hunting, the goddess of the woods, hunting fields and forests, and the maiden keeper of them}1606E only}{1603L, 1609/1612L/S & 1624LParegon/1641S{(for these are the epithets which the noble classical writers used)}1603L, 1609/1612L/S & 1624LParergon/1641S}.
196.105. Lactantius, Lucanus and Minutius Felix say that they had three gods who they in their language were called Esus, or Hesus, Teutates and Taranus. The learned mostly take them to be Mars, Mercury and Jupiter, {1606E only{see Mr. Camdens Britannia}1606E only}. In Ausonius mention is made of a god of theirs whom they called Belenus, whom Herodianus, in the judgment of the learned Julius Scaliger, calls Belis. And whether this is the same as Tibelinus, to whom Tertullius refers, is disputed by Petrus Pithæus in his Adversaria, who interprets it to be the same as what Apollo is {1606E only{to the Greeks}1606E only}.
196.106. Moreover, Abellio was one of their gods, as Scalinger we mentioned before in the same place tells us on the basis of an ancient inscription. The same author also mentions Onuana, a goddess of theirs. Saint Augustinus in his book De Civitate Dei says that they had certain unclean spirits or devils they called Dusij in the catalogue and listing of their gods. But whether they worshipped the god Serapis, (the same perhaps as Pluto), is discussed in detail and learnedly by the above mentioned P. Pithæus in the third chapter of his Adversaria, on the basis of certain words from the sixteenth book of Ammianus Marcellinus' history. I refer you to him for your further satisfaction.
196.107. {1601L, in 1608/1612I after the next sentence{From Florus we learn that they worshipped Vulcanus as a god, where he writes that they promised to give him the armour and weapons of their enemies the Romans}1601L, in 1608/1612I after the next sentence}. Athenæus says that they turned their faces toward the right when they did their service to their gods. Plinius, in the second {1608/1612I has instead{first}1608/1612I instead} chapter of his twenty-eighth book, writes about this matter like this: In the worshipping of the gods we offer to kiss the right hand, and we will bend and sway the whole body, which the Gauls considered to be most religious if it were done towards the left hand. To these [gods] they offered in their sacrifices human beings and other objects, but especially to Mars, as Cæsar states, who writes about them like this:
196.108. To him (namely, to Mars), when they have fought any battle, they mostly bequeath those things that they have won in the [battle]field, those beasts and living creatures that they conquered, and they take their kill and offer them as a sacrifice. All other things whatsoever they bring to one place. In various cities, at certain holy and consecrated places, you may see great piles of these things. And you shall hardly ever find any man so backward in religion or so ungodly, that he will either hide and conceal those things he had obtained in the [battle]field, or who will take away anything once it has been consecrated and piled up at those sacred and religious places. And if it so happens that anyone is either so sacrilegious or audacious as to take anything away, he will be punished by their laws with the most cruel tortures. Diodorus Siculus reports very similar things about them.
196.109. They keep, in the chapels and temples of their gods, he says, a great amount of gold which had been offered to them at one time or another, lying scattered here and there in every corner. And yet no man, for his life dares to be so bold as to touch a single piece of it. But Cæsar resumes the subject in the same discussion: Those of them, he says, who are sick or seriously diseased, and those who are in some grave danger, or who are to go to war, for their sacrifices will either kill and offer other men, or else make a vow that if their purpose be fulfilled, to sacrifice themselves.
196.110. And in these ceremonies of them, they use the advice, direction and assistance of the Druids. And this they do for the following reason: namely, because they truly believe that for the life of each man preserved, the immortal gods can in no other way be satisfied and pleased except with the life and blood of another man. And for this purpose they have certain sacrifices arranged to be publicly solemnised and to be carried out.
196.111. Others have certain statues of a huge and mighty size, whose limbs and parts of the body are made of branches intertwined with one another, which they fill with people who are alive. Then these statues will be set on fire, and the people within them are smothered and finally burned together with the statues, and utterly reduced to ashes. The death and punishment of those who are caught for murder, or felony, or any other odious crime they consider to be much more pleasing to their gods than the death and sacrifice of other men. But when a sufficient number of such wicked men is lacking to fuel this tragedy, then honest, guiltless men will be forced to play a part, and will undergo a punishment they never deserved. So far Cæsar.
196.112. The same almost, but in very different words, is what Strabo writes about them: some, he says, in their divine services are shot through with arrows, or else are hung by the neck until they are dead, and then, making a huge pile or stack of hay, and sticking upright a pole through the middle of it, they burn the whole pile, [containing] all kinds of beasts and cattle, and reasonable creatures, men and women.
196.113. Similarly, Diodorus Siculus writes about the subject like this: Condemned men, whom they will keep for a period of five years continually bound to a stake, they will finally together with other goods and cattle sacrifice and burn in a huge bon-fire. Minutius Felix says that to their god Mercury they also used to sacrifice men. Tertullianus says in Apologetico that Maior ætas, Mercurio prosecatur [that is:] {1606E & 1608/1612I only{The older people are hewn to pieces and sacrificed to Mercury}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. Thus, it had been much better for the Gauls, as Plutarchus writes in his Book on Superstition, if they never would have had any kind of knowledge about the gods at all, than to have accepted the belief that these gods might in no other way be pleased and satisfied than with the lives and blood of mortal beings, and to think that this is the best and only authentic sacrifice and offer ever to be performed.
196.114. Solinus also says plainly that this sort of sacrifice and detestable custom was in no way a worship and service pleasing the gods, but rather a serious injury and wrong done to religion, most offensive to the gods. The custom of killing people was not only performed when they offered sacrifices to their gods, but even for their predictions and magic. For they took those men that were appointed for the ceremonies and sacrifices and striking them on the back, by the panting [and writhing] of their bodies they guessed and predicted the outcome of the event at hand, as Strabo reports about them.
196.115. When they deliberate and congregate on any matter of great importance, they observe, says Diodorus, an odd and strange custom and ceremonious superstition. In the course of killing and sacrificing a man [in such a situation], they hit him in his middle with a sword. But without the advice and presence of one of the Druids, they may not perform any kind of sacrifice at all. And although these butcheries and massacres of men were forbidden by Tiberius Cæsar, as Plinius says, yet, Eusebius, in his fourth book de Præpar. Evang. complains bitterly that}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} these were still being practised in his time, and he lived, as everyone knows, in the days of Constantine the Great.
196.116. {not in 1597G5Add & 1602G{It has been recorded by Plinius that these people used, in their witchcraft, magic, and in response to the demand of prophecy, the herb verucine. {not in 1606E{In Spartianus' Pescennio I read that for the Gauls something was holy when they perceived it as innocent}not in 1606E}. And so much about the three Galliæs in general, about which}not in 1597G5Add & 1602G} you may read a lot more in Cæsar, Livius, Ammianus, Strabo, Diodorus, Polybius and Athenæus}1597G5Add & 1602G end here}. Something might also have been said about every part in particular, if the limited size of these sheets had been capable of containing such an extensive discussion. And also, much might have been said about Gallia Narbonensis, the fourth part, which was a province of the Romans much different from the other three as regards the nature of its soil, and the qualities of its inhabitants and people, which was, as Pomponius Mela writes, better manured, more populated and more fertile, and therefore was also a far more pleasant and excellent area that any of the rest. But about this we have spoken elsewhere separately.
196.117. Behold the inscription, about which we spoke before, and with which we promised to acquaint you. TO THE GODS OF THE DECEASED, QVINTVS. CAESIVS, SON OF QVINTVS CLAVDIVS, ATILIANVS, PRIEST OF DEANA ARDVENNA, [Celtic tree goddess, identified as Diana], HAS MADE THIS FOR HIMSELF AND HIS INHERITORS, IN WIDTH 12 FEET, IN DEPTH 15 FEET, ON THE 4TH BEFORE THE IDEN OF OCTOBER, DVRING THE CONSVLATE OF EMPEROR CAESAR, FLAVIVS DOMITIANVS AND GAIVS VALERIVS MESSALINVS [October 13, 85 AD]. This marble stone was found with this inscription on the highway called Decia Salaria, near a place called Seven Baths (Septem Balnea) and from there conveyed to Marseille, as Julius Jacobonius, in his adjoinder to the commentaries of Baptist Fonteus, written about the ancient family and stock of the Gæsij, cited from P. Ligorius. {1601L{DIANA ARDOINNA is also mentioned in a certain old inscription [given] in that worthy work by Smetius which he has written and [which is] entitled De inscriptionibus antiquis, on sheet number eight of twenty-two sheets}1601L}. {1606E only{About other inscriptions, coins, statues and such monuments of the Gauls, or any [others] that may in any way illustrate the history of this country, if you want to receive further instruction, we advise you to have recourse to the Smetius mentioned, [to] Fulvius Ursinus and others that have applied themselves to these subjects}1606E only which ends here}.
{1595L5Add, 1595L, 1601L, 1603L, 1608/1612I, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S only: [first a woodcut showing two sides of the same coin, the left one bearing the name PANSA, the right one IOVIS AXVR [God protecting the ancient city in the region of the Volsci, later called Terracina] and GAIVS VIBIVS, SON OF GAIVS, GRANDSON OF GAIVS [in abbreviated from], because we have said, in agreement with Strabo, that the Gauls bind their hair, so that they resemble the Panes [tree and field gods resembling Pan] this coin showing Gaivs Vibius with the head of Pan, so that one can be compared to the other, and we have seen to it that it has been depicted here as well}1595L5Add & 1595L end here}. {1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S only{and I disagree with the very learned and knowledgable man of antiquity, viz. Fulvius Ursinus, which is caused by the fact that many other coins often display a depiction, or a trace of that, of the name of the person who took care for these coins to be minted. An example of that is this coin of Pansa, based on Pan; On a coin of Florus, a flower; on a coin of Thorius, a bed or a bull; on a coin of Vitalis, a calf; on a coin of Lariscotus, a larch tree; on a coin of Musa, the Muses; on a coin of Valla, a wall; on a coin of Petronia, the goddess Petronia; on a coin of Sabinus, the Sabini; on a coin of Rhenia, kidneys, &c. Add to this what Fulvius himself discusses in his Roman Families, page 195.}1601L, 1603L, 1608/1612I, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S end here}.