S e c t io n VI.— Of the Expeditions o f the Gauls dctoss the
Rhine, and their Colonies in Germanyi Noricum, and Pan-
nonia.
Livy connects, as we have seen, the fy-st expedition of the
Gauls across the Alps, said to have been conducted by Bello-
vesus, with another migration under Sigovesus. into ,the heart
of Germany. Both these enterprises were undertaken, according,
to him, by tribes belonging to the confederacy of the
Btturiges. The followers of Sigovesus made their way into
the Hercynian Forest.
Several other writers mention emigrations of Gauls into the
Hercynian Forest. By Tacitus the people who occupied that
part of Germany are said to have been Boii, neighbours and
allies of the, Helvetii. Caesar says, “ that the mps,t fertile
parts of Germany in the neighbourhood^ of the Hercynian
Forest, mentioned by Eratosthenes under tbe-^a[melfa^^of
Orcynia, fell to the shareof, the Vole® Tei^tosages, who settled
in those parts and had ever since kept possession. They
were in the highest reputation for justice and bravery, and no
less remarkable than the Germans for poverty, ^abstinence,
and patience of fatigue, conforming ex a c tly ,^ th
that people both, in habit and the way of living.” *
C®sar appears to term the Gauls who inhabited the Hercy nian
Forest by a general, epithet, Vole® Tectosages. A peopj&th'us
denominated are well known as a principal trib em the southwestern
p a rto f Gaul,:between the Pyrenees,,and the jn o u n - -
tains of Cemmenus, or the Cevennes. They are mentioned by
Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy, Mela, Livy, and others ; and by the
concurrent opinion of all the ancient writers are identified
with the Tectosages or Tectosagi, the most powerful and celebrated
of the three divisions or clans of Galat®, who held the
greater part of Asia Minor in subjection. The Vole® of
Gaul were' divided into Vole® Areeomici and Vole® Tectosages.
The former inhabited the west side of the Rhone,
and their capital was Nemausus. The latter approached the
Pyrenean mountains and had for their metropolis Tojosa or
* Tacitus, Germ. 28. Caesar, Bell. Gall. 6. 24.
Toulouse. They* were a people well known to the Romans,
for it was in their territory that the city of Narbo was built
b y theSon^ul Q. M a rti|| Rex, which became the capital of the
province of Narboriensis. The Tectosages joined the Cimbri
against the Romans* and were defeated by Sylla, who took
prisoner one of th^ir;kings na-met^Copillus.
The Tectosagi imthe Hercynian Folgst, by which name the
ol&gebgraphersdesignated a vast'tract1 stretching- through all
the ^phthern part: of Germany, froth the Schwartzwald in
f% ab ia along, the whole.course ©1 the Danube as,far as the
limits of Dacia,* were neighbours and con.federatea.of another
Celtie tribe, who, of all others, were. most celebrated for their
•repeated migrations. The1 Boii w ere, am on g tjie most warlike
of the tribes of Cfsalpih,e> Gagls, and they were joined with
the Sönohes in the sacking of Rome. ( Posidonius, g s fcited
by Strabb, relates that the Boii formerly inhabited.the Hercynian
Forest, anefthere repulsed the invasion of the, Cimbri.f
Ancient as well as modern writers differ as to.the early.seats
o f these peopleH3trabo was of opinion that the Boii of Germany
were emigrants from Italyiatlfät they had ibeen a fugitive
part of. the Boii who-,had b e e r i^ g , settled to the .southward
of the- Po, in the Cisalpine; but the account which Jie
/'gives* of this passage in them history has been shown to be
erroneous by M. Zeuss. % Strabo says “ the greatest of the
Celtic nations, viz, in Cisalpine Qatil$ jwere; the Boii^sthe In-
f|&bri, and the Seltenes, who, together with the G®sat®, made
an incursion on Rome and gained possession of the city.
These? last, the Senones, were afterwards entirelyjj destroyed
by the Romans ; but the Boii were driven out of their Country,
and' passing lover to the neighbourhood ffä the D&nube^to’ok
up their abode with the Taurisci, and fought .with them
against the Dacians till th ey were- completely Extirpated, and
H Csesar de B. G. 6? 'c. 24. 25. “ Oritur ab Helvetiorum et Nemetum et'Bau-
racorum finibus, reetäque fluminis Danubii reglone pertinet ad fiuus Dacorum et
: Auartium : like se — » 1 According, to ^ te p r e s e n ta tw Hercynian
Forest must have occupied Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, and .part of Hungary
to the river Theiss, and in the neighbourhood of the Theiss have reached northward
towards Silesia and Bohemia.-1. ,
+ 293. ed. M H B B H w I M I R
t Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme, yon Kaspar Zeuss, München, 1837.