probable m the account given by Livy, that the., destruction of
Rome was the result of a. new inroad of Transalpine Gauls,
The colonjsing expeditions of the Gauls took place, as we have-
seen, in various directions, and it may be presumed that all
these emigrations were not simultaneous.. The causes* which
gave rise to them may have been something permanent in the
social condition of the Celtic tribes, or in. the physical circumstances
©f the country which they inhabited; and these movements
were probably repeated from time to time, as in later
ages were those;, of the northern Teutonic people,. from the
era of Marius to the invasion of Italy bypthe Langobards.
What were the particular causes which gave rise to the earliest
of these migrations from Gaul, it. is impossible, at this*
distance o f time, to determine. , Niebuhr conjectures that;
they were-occasioned by the pressure of Iberian tribes from,
the ^ south, who were driving "the Gauls out of the north of
Spam, and but of Aquitaine; but we hay$ no b&iden#e that
the Gauls ever possessed those countries, and it is very improbable
that a people so feeble as were the Iberians,-in comparison
of the Celts, should have succeeded in-expelling
the latter, a warlike race of mountaineers, from the whole line
qf^the Pyrenees. Thierry and others have imputed the Same
movements to the .encroachment of the Belgaefrom the n o rth ,
supposing that a t the same period they were crossing, theRhine,»
and driving the Celtae out of the north of Gaul; b u t-d ^ u e i a
movement ever took place, there is_no sufficient reason fob
connecting it in point of time, with the migration of t^e
from the southern provinces. An excess of population, and
the desire of plunder and of possessing by force the-towns
and better cultivated lands belonging to neighbouring and
less warlike people, were the causes to which the ancient
writers ascribe these emigrations of the Gauls ; and there is
much probability that this is the true account: we are assured
that similar circumstances have given rise to corresponding
effects in later times, of which the repeated invasions
of southern Europe by the northern nations are universally
known examples. J
Nearly all the tribes mentioned as dividing between
them the Cisalpine territory were branches of nations celebrated‘
affit^Hhe-Tihnsalpine^©tl^ ^^Straifeo says expressly
that the ltalian Gàufe the same races with
fhe?Transalpin^-4fihes. * 0 ttfricd*Müller has observed that the
tecouhts'"given by the ancient-"writers of théir setting out and
gpadùahad¥ancés; and of the- circumstances attending the invasion
*df Italy, are5consistent with all that we know of thé
manners of thèse 'bàrbatous nâtiôhs,' ànd' éven Niebuhr admits
that Livy certainly ^drew his narrative,^ however he’may
h av l obtained it, from a genuine' Celtic-.tradition. The migration
appears to have taken piaffe, in two; principal massés :
the first-movement was made by several nations, möstly from
the neighbourhood of the Loire, combined, under a ruling clan,
the Bituriges. This is a -kiri’d b f federal relation frequenfamong
the Celtic tribes. We find in Italy, in like manner, theLingones,
undér théelientela of the Boii.d* The BiturigCs;iwith their con-
fdderatenations,possessedthecehtre ofCeltibGaüI. In their land
was Avariteum, a strongly fortified and populbu s town, jh’Cæsaÿ’s
tinle. the- Chief dity of Gaul. The' migf atory march' of thèse confederate
tribes was at first directed towards the south of Gaul,
where the Ligurian nation^ %eW at th a t spread 'over an
extensive region.' The lâ tte r appear to haveheen' shbdiied, by
the'Celts,- and* to have accompanied them in théir invasion of
Italy as subordinate allies; Accordingly, in tKe^idst of the
newq^htt-lement- ‘-Conquered’ for themsèlfes by thcSe nations
of thevLóiré}-which had the name of .&stifeia ànd Milan fôr
its metropolis, we find the "city of N pvaria ’ founded by the
Veftaeomacores, termed by Pliny Woèoétii, who,, according
to Cato,, were a* Ligurian people.^ ' Near theip, around Vereelte,
and likewise under the protection of the Ifisubres, the
Salyes, or Salluvii settled theràsëïye^tdgetHêVwith thq* Libici,
and lower down, on the Ticinus; [the Lævi and Marrci, also
L ig u rian s.^T h e march of the Cenomani must be considered
as a sequel or concluding part of this first migration, since the
latter were a-sUbdivision o fth e Aulerci; and among the subor-
* ^ r a ^ lib ., v^p.298. Oxford,,^.
tfÜluver. Ital. Ant,, pi, 271.^ ^ '^ t r u s k g r ’ÊinL !p. 154.
$ Plin. Hist. Nat. iii/2 1 .
PiinAbid. Polÿb, 2? Müller/4éi^ p. tóö.
VOL. III. G