Page:Celtic migrations (Heron, 1853).pdf/3



that remote age of which no personal records remain, but whose history may be derived from the known dispersion of races and languages—as the geologist, from fragments of rock, traces the events of the primeval world—we find that the Celtic race, first of the Indo-European nations, fled from their primitive homes in Central Asia, and, by the succeeding waves of emigration, were forced further and further to the West. It does not necessarily follow that their migrations, in the ante-historical period, were caused by war; although, amongst the races of men, whilst in an imperfect state of development, the tie of country is so strong that nothing but the most positive evils of war, pestilence, and famine will compel them to abandon their native land. But the early migrations of the Celts may have been also caused by the pressure of the new Eastern populations forcing the tribes least willing or able to labor into new and virgin soils, producing a greater return in proportion to the farmer's toil. It has been conclusively established by Pritchard and Donaldson, following in the track of many continental ethnologists and philologists, that the Celtic and German languges [sic], with their derivatives, as well as the ancient Greek and Latin, all belong to the same family with the Sanscrit, and are in fact different modifications of the same language. From this, coupled with the slender traditions of the ante-historical period, it is concluded that the Celtic people of are Eastern origin—a kindred tribe with the nations who have settled on the Indus, as well as on the shores of the Mediterranean and Baltic.

In the most ancient times, they possessed the greater part of Europe. In Spain, at the Roman conquest, the population was almost wholly Celtic. To the north of Italy, they gave the name of Cisalpine Gaul. Modern Germany was long the seat of powerful Celtic communities Thrace was in their possession, and, under another Brennus, they plundered Greece. Asia Minor they long possessed, and left there the name of Galatia. When the Romans were engaged in their great conquests, the Celtic power was already on the decline. Cæsar notices the fact thus:—"There was formerly," he says, "a time when the Gauls surpassed the Germans in bravery, and made war upon them, and, on account of the multitude of their own people and the scarcity of land, sent colonies beyond the Rhine."