78 C R A N I A BBITANNICA. [CHAP. V. CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BRITAIN. 79
1 t
Gallic tribe of Caclurci were celebrated in the time of Strabo ; and in that of Pliny, the whole of
Gaul was in repute for its different linen fabrics*. The Belgio and Armorican tribes of the Moriui
and Caleti are especially named as engaged in these manufactures; so that we can hardly refuse
a knowledge of this art to the allied people of the opposite coasts of South Britain, where linen
doiibtless constituted the principal material of the dress of the women, as well as of the braccse
and vests worn in siunmer by the other sexf. That woollen fabrics were manufactured by the
Gauls at a period probably long anterior to that of Julius, is evident from Strabo, who, expressly
stating that he describes the customs of the Gauls as they existed before the Roman conquest,
in the following section speaks of the thick mantle or sagivm, well known as the leena, which
they wove from the long and thick wool of their sheep J. The manufacture of striped and
checked woollens, or plaids, was altogether a GaUic invention,—sautiiUs d i v i d e r e O a l l i a ins t i tui t
—and a kind of embroidered tapestry or carpeting, t a p e s p i c t u s , was also the product of the
Celtic looms §. The Gallic and British plaids, in the earliest times, were probably produced by
combining, in the form of chequers, the several natural varieties of wool,—white, brown, and
black. Brighter colours were subsequently introduced, and we know from Mai-tial, that the
Gauls affected red especially, for the colom- of their dress ||. Colours of every hue, including even
a purple rivalling that of Tjre, were imparted to textile fabrics, by means of dyes derived from
plants alone, which, however, had the effect of being liable to wash out^. Beda refers to a shellfish,
cochlea, common in Britain, which yielded a most beautiful and durable scarlet dye ; which
though not noticed by any classical writer, may have been employed in earlier times by native
British dyers**.
Both sexes were much addicted to the use of personal ornaments, and a profusion of gold
was worn ; bracelets, armillcB, on the arms and wrists, tores, or untwisted collars round the neck,
and even breast-plates, all of this metal, were common ornamentstt- Rings were worn on the
middle, instead of the fourth finger, as by the polished nations of the timeii. For nearly two
thousand years, the tore or twisted rod of gold, round the neck, was the characteristic ornament
of the Celts ; in which they resembled the ancient Persians and a few other eastern nations. The
first mention of the use of the toro by the Cisalpine Gauls, is aboiit the fourth centm-y before
oiu- sera§§. It is related that in the year 361 B.C., Titus Manlius, having taken a tore from the
* Strabo, Ub. iv. c. 2. § 2. Pliny, lib. xix. § 2. Though
sail-cloth is the fabric chiefly insisted on by Pliny, it is ob-vious
that his remarks do not exclusively apply to it. He refers, in
the same passage, to the manufacture of linen for clothing by
the German tribes ; an art which he implies they had acquired
at a later period than the Gauls, and which they practised in
subterranean caves and dwellings, similar probably to the
earth-houses and Picts'-houses of Britain,
t Pliny, l o c . c i t . Tacitus, Germ. c. 17.
X Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4. § 2, 3. The Atrebates of Belgic
Gaul were celebrated for their manufacture of woollen saga
down to the third century. Trebell. Poll. Gallien. c. 6.
Jerome in the fourth century (adv. Jovin. hb. ii. p. 106) also
speaks of the indumenta of the .itrebates, as one of the luxuries
of his times : they were probably fine woollen tunics.
§ Pliny, lib. viii. % 74, 73. Pliny likewise ascribes to the
Gauls the invention of mattresses and cushions stuffed with
soft flax, tow, or with the refuse wool from the scourer's vats,
which were gradually substituted for the paillasse, stramentum.
used even by the Romans. The different sorts of mattresses
in use at Rome were known by Gallic names. Phuy, lib. viii.
§ 73 ; lib. xix. % 2.
I] "Roma magis fuscis vestitur, GalHa rufis."—Martial,
xiv. V. 129.
^ PHny, lib. xsii. § 3. The vaccinium, or whortleberry, is
especially named as used in Gaul, for dyeing the garments of
a purple colour. lb. lib. xvi. § 31. A commoner blue was
doubtless obtained from woad, the British ylaslys.
** Beda, Hist. Eccles, c. 1. This mollusk was probably
the Bucdmm lajiillus.
t t Strabo,lib.iv.c.4. §5. Diod. lib. v. c. 27. These passages
refer to the customs of the Gauls, bntthere is ample archseological
evidence that they are likewise applicable to the Britons.
I J PUny, lib. xxxiii. § 6. Pliny here speaks, "Galliie
Britanniasque."
§§ The passage in Virgil, "turn lactea colla auro innectunt
u r " (J3n. lib. viii. v. 660), refers to the year 3D0 B.C., when
Rome was taken by the Gauls under Brennus.
neck of a gigantic Gaul whom he had kiUed at the Anio in single combat, received the cognomen
of T o r q u a t u s ; and the tore, as the coins of the ManUan famUy show, was ever afterwards retained
by them as a badge*. It appears round the neck of a Gaulish hero on coins without legends, of
the class of ainei fiisi, attributable to the Cisalpine town of Ariminum, which were probably
issued between the year 396 B.C., when the Gauls occupied that territory, and 268, when the
Romans sent a colony thither t. It was probably often conferred as a reward for valour, as
bracelets, hence called mriolce by the Celts, are expressly stated to have beenj ; and on Gaulish
coins, the figure of Victory driving a chariot, is represented with a tore in the left-hand, in place
of a crown, as on Greek coins. On some of these autonomous Gaulish coins, and pai-ticularly on
those of the Senones of northern Gaul, the tore with bulbous ends, precisely resembling examples
found in Britain, distinctly appears encircling the neck of the chief or divinity represented on
them§. In war, the tore appears to have been worn by all the Gaulish chiefs and warriors of
distinction; and in the battle near Telamo (B.C. 225), between the Romans and united Cisalpine
and Transaliiine Gauls, all the combatants in the foremost ranlcs were adorned with tores of gold
about the neck and wrists ||. The number of the secostly ornaments, which became the spoil of
the Romans in theii- wars -udth the Gauls, was sometimes prodigious. In his victory over the
Boian Gauls (B.C. 191), P. C. Scipio Nasica took no less a number than fourteen hundred and
seventy tores, which were carried before him in his triumph^. That the tore was in common use
in Britain is evident, not only from the instance of Boadicea already quoted, but also from that
of Caractacus, among whose spoils of war, carried with him in the trimnph before Claudius, tores
are expressly mentioned**. The use of this ornament long survived the Roman sway in Britain.
The Welsh poet Aneurin, in the sixth century, teUs us that in the battle of Cattraeth, there
were "three hundred and sixty-three chieftains wearing the golden torctt." Llywarch Hen,
about the same period, apostrophises the British King Cyndhelan, as " Wearer of the tore,
stubborn chief in combat" ; and in another place he says,
" Four-and-twenty sons I have had,
"SYearing the golden wreath, leaders of armies!"
To a stni later date, there are notices of its use by the Irish and Welsh princes. King
Brian Boroibme (A.D. 1004.) is described as offering a tore of gold of the weight of twenty ounces,
on the altar of the church at ArmaghiJ. At a very late period of the middle ages, there is a
* Livy, hb. vii. c. 10. See the tore, of funicular form with
bulbous ends, on the denarius of L. Manhus Torquatus, Consul
in the year 65 B.C. Different forms of the tore are seen on the
figures of Gauls on the Amendola sarcophagus ; and on one
of the Lyons bronzes already referred to.
t "L'iEs Grave del Mus. Kircher," Rom. 1839,p. 106-110.
Class. IV. Tab. 1. No. 1-7. Carelhus, edidit Cavedonius,
" Nummorum Itahse Vetcris," Lips. 1850, tab. 56. fig. 1: e. f.
50. fig. 4, 53. fig. 1,57. fig. 1.
i Phny, lib. xxxiii. 12. Isidor. Hisp. lib. xix. c. 30.
§ These arc the coins with legends SENODON, CALEDU,
and ATEULA. See De la Saussaye, " Revue Numismat."
1840, vol. iii. p. 178. pi. 12. Akerman, " Coins of Hispania,
Gallia and Britannia," 1846, p. 162. pi. 19.
[I Polybius, Hist. lib. ii. c. 29, 31. Polybius uses the term
^aviavTjs, which, as he seems to imply, was a Gallic word, manah
and explains it of " the golden circlet (i^eXXioc) which they wore
romid their arms and necks." Some have supposed that the
manak differed from the tore in being of untwisted form, and
that this was intended by the thick sohd gold circlets, KpUoi xa-
•Xels oXoxpuVot, of Diodorus (lib.v.c. 27). Such were the golden
collars and armlets, twelve in number, altogetherweighing 21 lbs.
6 ozs. 14 dwts., found within a megalithic structure near Quentin
in Brittany. Archceologia, vol. xxvii. p. 1.
^ Livy, lib. xxxvi. c. 4 0 : see also hb. xxxiii. c. 36; lib. xxiv.
c. 42 :—" mmuli aurei, torques armillceque magnus numerus."
See also, as to the Transalpme Gauls, in 124 B.C., Entrop.
hb. iv. c. 22.
** " Phalerse torquesque."—Tacitus, Ann. lib. xii. c. 36.
t t Gododin, v. 229. See also v. 185, 388, 638.
See an elaborate paper On the Tore of the Celts," by
Mr. S. Birch, F.S.A. Archseological Journal, 1846, vol. ii.
p. 368 ; vol. iii. p. 27. Numerous examples of tores found in
the British Isles and in France, are figured and described in this
memoir. See also a paper "On Gold Armillte," by Mr. A.
Way, F.S.A. Archseological Journal, 1849, vol. vi, p. 48.
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