70 BELGIC TRIBES.
assisted in wars against the’Allobroges and Helvetii* and bad
they been of a different race from, the other - people; .of Celtica
the fact would not:■ have - remainedeither )jim---
noticed: 8., The*;Ambarri, mentioned* together with other
tribes of this region of Gaul, in the- celebrated invasion of
Italy. 9. The Boii were, as Mannert observes, an ancient
people of 'Geltic-Tace, who dwelt, from the earliest times when
known tö us* partly in northern Italy, partly in the south of
Germany, near the Danube. ;Pressed by German and other
neighbouring nations* a part of the Boii passed into Bohemia; a
part going westward became allies/of the Helvetii, with whom
they were defeated by Cassar, and forced to seek refuge, in the
Country of the Heedui, who took them into their protection*
In all their political relations the-Boii werequite separateifeni'
the Belgae, among whom they have been reckoned by some
late writers without a shadow ,d#<historical evidence.; .t .,Gsesar
was well acquainted with the Haedui and Boii,at the time of
his first war against the Belgae, of whom he speaks as of a
people hitherto/altogether unknown. $ Caesar indeed- ekpre^ly
affirms that the Rhemi were, .of; all the<Belgian,tribes, that
situated most nearly to Geltica, that is the/furthest towards
the south.
S ection IV— O f the Beiges.
The existence of the Belgae appears, as I hpye observed,
to have been wholly unknown to. the Romans until the time
of Caesar. They_became an object of interest to the conqueror
of Gaul on the occasion of a confederacy enterafl into
by many of the Belgic tribes, with the view of resisting the
encroachment of the Roman arms, under which a great part
of Celtica had been already subjugated. On the first
tidings of this confederation, Caesar enjoined on the Senones
and other- Celtic tribes on the borders-of the Belgae, to watch
their movements, and from the, Rhemi, who of all the Belgic
tribes lived nearest—viz. to the border of Celtica and to Italy
—he inquired into the number and power , of the states
that were in league against him. “ Quum ab his quaereret
GERMAN ORIGIN OF SOME BELGIC TRIBES. 71
quae; civitates, quantaeque in armis essent, et quid in bello
pdssent, sio'-reperiebat'; plerosque Belgas;<esse-ortos ab Germanist
RhenubfqUe'aiitiquitus transductos, propter loci fer*
tilitatem *ibit c'oftfeedis&e'*i jGalloSque qui ea l©Ca incolerent,
expulisse* «IMe^ueMesfeep’-iqui,. patrunr -■ nostroruna memoria,
omn i Gallia; •CimbrosqUe intra; fines suos
liigredii; 'prehibderint. $£ %ua ex -re fieri*; intif; earum re rum
memoria*- magnambsfbi auctoritatena^j inagnosque spiritus in
re<i»ilitari sumeveniW- ‘Caesarafterwards enbaaaerates the dif-*-
ferent Belgic; tribes who entered into this alliance against the
Romans, and' it -seems tfcdbe dearly implied that tfeeyeieonsti-
the Belgie daation. The/tribes men?-
tioned -bn this?iOcbasion - are the Belloai&ciy or* people of the
Country* about Beanyais^ who-wepe'th^orEldstipdwerful of .the
Bel^m^the*Sues«iones* who had tweisvetowns; the Nervii,the
?MbfetMdistant and the most barbarous .tribe ; the.Atreb'ates, in
Artois^the’ Ambiaail, the Morini, the 'Menapii* the; Caleti, the
Fdk)GU^s'e& and Veromandui, the Advatud*; lastly, the Con-
drusiy Eburones, Gahraes* and Psemani* wholure comprehended
«wdferthireemmon appeffatiohssfo“ Germans.” From
this enumeration< ifife worthy of remark that*the Trevesriare
omitted, though th.fey ■ are elsewhere mentioned; amonfjjp the
principal Belgian nations.
- It is remarkable that although Caesar had been told by the
Rhemish people, in general terms* that most of' the Belgae
wbVe of German origin, he yet in coming to a particular enumeration
mentionsfour tribes who were by distinction termed
Germans, as if the claim of a German extraction was not so
well established with respect to the rest.
• The question, what Belgic tribes were /of German origin
and what were of the Celtic stock, or allied to it, seems to
have refcurred to several subsequent writers, and Tacitus and
Strabohave attempted a solution.
Tacitus thinks it’probable that Gallic tribes in earlier times
frequently emigrated into Germany : he mentions the Boii,
who occupied Bohemia, and the Helvetii, as undoubtedly,
Gauls. Respecting the Osi of Germany, and the Aravisci of
Pannonia, both having the same manners and language, he
is in doubt whether the Osi migrated into Germany or the5