as a Belgic tribe. to these, south ward, wei«£be Vel-io-*
Casses, or Velii Casii, whose capital was RotomagiiSj^supposed-
to be Rouen. These were likewise!,.according to Caesar, a België
tribe*., though included in Lugdunepsis; All the other tribes
of the northern frontier appear,to have heen Celtic, namely, the
Parish, who inhabited the banks and islands of the Seine ;.and
whose close alliance with the Senones indicates ;that they
were of the same division of5 Gaulish nations,; the. MëMi.or
Meld.ae, who, liyeckin the corner of land between the ;Seine
and Marne, a little below Paris, and the Tricasses, about
Troyes; or Augustobona, which . was their Capital. These.were
probably Celts.
With respect to all thé principal tribes, of Gallia, Lugdu-
pensjs,. who were situated remotely from the boundaries which
Caesar assigns to Belgic Gaul, and in the, central parts, there
tpdbe no» room for doubt that they w.eré,,ofc. Celti^rajce.
The Sequani and llelvetii in the east were transferred-to
Belgica, but the other nations known to the Romans before
the first war of Caesar; against the Belgm swete^always incladed
among the Celts,. They lived within the .frontier marked, out
by Caesar ,as the utmost Kmit óf Celtica, and were further fret*»
Belgica than the Senones, who appear clearly, from. Caesar’s
account of the Belgiewar to have been Celts, and much^nèarer
than the Rhemi, who, as the same writer affirms,.were.pf;alkthó
Belgic tribes nearest to the Celtic frontier^ ;JN|ost. of them were
associated in the different ppnfederacies of Celtic.tribes which
were,formed on a principle of clanship or consanguinity^ We
do not indeed find in ancient writers , the slightest hint that
communities belonging t o either, of the greatLëivisiohs were
intermixed with or interspersed between others, or that nations
living to the southward of the. Seine „were o f -Belgic iorigin^ or
that those far to the northward of that rwer were iCeltse.^:. In
the absence of particular information we have, therefore, a right
to . assume that tribes in the heart of Gallia Belgica were
Belgians, and that.those who were surrounded,by the nations
of Lugdunensis were really^ Celts; This is aq important
observation, because, if .conceded,,; it will overturn the hypor
theticai. systems óf some late writers, who havé assumed, without
the slightest evidence, thak there were Belgic tribes in the
TRIBES - OF AQUITAXIA : OF X ARBON EX SIS. 67
middle of Celtic. Gaul: It will still be worth while, for reasons
which will hereafter appear, to enumerate the most remarkable
tribes- both of the!Celtic and Belgic raees. R I shail begin
with a short notice of the Aquitani and the nations to the
^southward of the Ga'Mia‘Celtica of Csesar.
I. Within the limits of Aquitania properly so termed, that
is*the bltl/Aquitania of' Caesar before it was extended in the
rfeign 'of Augustus,l>we have the following tribes .
The Vasates or'Vbrsa-tae of Ausohius'and Ammianus, are pr04
bably the Vocatpsl' of Caesar, the Basavoeates of Pliny, the
Vasarii of Ptolemy, who inhabited:,the little territory of
Bazadbis; Their, city was Cossium, soon termed Vasatae;
now. 'Ba^fe’3b
The i®lus^„fes of1 Caesar and- Pliny in the present Condo-
mois. The Auscii or Avokioi were the most famous of the
Aquitaniari tribes: they inhabited Armagftac. Their, city
tvas rAu^ii^ta-,: the’/Climberrum of Melaf the Peutingerian
Table dntl "Antdnine’s Itinerary,'the Auscius.of the Jerusalem
IfiliferaTy) irow Anch, distant thirty-four .levie s from Tblosa.
^ ! ’Phe- Cdhvebllf: a colony of mixed descent, relics,; of the
Sertoriah .army $whose towns weVe Lugdunum, now St. Bertrand,
A^fim Conv'enaf-urn, now B^ghbresy Calagorr.is, Bene-?
harnufc, ~ffbw Bearn. TheSociates,1 the Tarusatesi, the Ga-
%Hiui, the Bigerriones,’ the Preciani/ the G antes,4 Sibuzates,
^^Mfe"ifeffff|htioned b^< Caesar or Pliny. The.* Lectorates
of Antbrnhus are supposed", by Mannertto be the-;S6,criatfs pf
‘Caesar, whose town; not named by him, was perhaps the Lectura
bf the Itinerary.# The Tarbelli reached^o the Pyrenees'.
Nearly aftthe^e tribes bear names which evidently .bespeak
thbir Euskarian or Iberian' origin. „Except the Convenae they
were of the genuine Spanish, or Aquitanian race.
II. TribeVof tne Roman Provfft<^, or of Gallia Narbonensis,
The Roman Provinpe "was considered by reejmcients as a
parallelogram, bounded by:the Pyrenees on one sideband the
feet of the Alps' on the-opposite, to *tlife northward and south-sward
by the' sea and the ridge bf Mount Ctmmenus.' It was
* These tribes and places are eiiuraerated from Ptolemy and Pliny and from
the geographical treatise of Mannert, in whose work they are mentioned more
at length.
F 2